Small + Mighty: Bitehaus, taking things one smile at a time

This feature is brought to you in partnership with Moneris.

Canadian small businesses have met with extraordinary adversity this past year, with many being forced to accept challenging new realities and devise even newer approaches to thrive within them. We sat down with small businesses from across Canada to see how they have adapted, what they have overcome, and why they are optimistic of the future. Every week we will be bringing you another one of their unique stories.

For this week’s edition, we sat down with Aisling Whitaker, owner and principle dentist of Bitehaus Dental on St. Clair avenue West in Toronto. Bitehaus is a general dental clinic that also offers Invisalign cosmetic dentistry and also dental surgery. Below Aisling takes us through what’s been quite a year for her small business.
 

What are some of the issues you’ve been able to overcome during Covid?
“The obvious one was how are we going to be able to practice safely during Covid. So, we had to introduce a lot of new protocols and structural changes like room enclosures, air filtration, and staggering appointments as well. The undertaking was huge, but with that in mind, our safety standards are now pretty much unrivaled. We have had zero transmissions and it’s an extremely safe place to be.”

What are some the things a small business can do to stay ahead?
“The struggles have been many. For everybody. Financial, emotional, psychological – and I’m seeing that in some of my patients and staff. So the obvious one for me especially on a personal level, was support. Supporting each other, even supporting and shopping other local businesses. It’s been about staying connected and staying in touch with ourselves, our employees and neighbourhood businesses. We are all in this together and it’s important to remember that.”

How are small businesses in your neighbourhood helping each other out?
“The community on St. Clair West is just incredible. You know being from Ireland, they’ve really made an effort to make myself and Bitehaus part of the community. We all support local restaurants, you know, we use gift cards for them, we do take out when we can. The community itself is huge on support. And I’d also like to mention the online community of Dentists has been incredible. So much support and education has been made available, so it’s been very nice to watch everyone just come together.”

Have you had to pivot to e-commerce?
“We are still in the office, but we have also been doing a lot of tele-dentistry and virtual consultations with patients if they’re not comfortable coming in. So, with the increase of online business we’ve had to pivot in that respect. We’ve been using Moneris Gateway which has allowed us to operate in a very secure way and has really benefitted a lot of our patients, especially with the increase of online payment and commerce. It’s really been great piece of mind.”

A year from now, where do you see your business?
“We are really hopeful for growth. We re gaining new patients, and we are really hoping that our team is going to grow, and to be completely transparent we are in the planning stages of opening a second clinic in Toronto, which for obvious reasons has been delayed. But to be really honest, I just can’t wait to see people again. Faces, smiles, all of it. Getting together and finding some sense of normalcy again!”
 
‘Small + Mighty: A weekly look at how Canadian small businesses are adapting’.