While in dental school at the University of Southern California, founder and CEO of Lollipop Dental Pediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics, Dr. Mary Pham realized that pediatric dentistry was her passion. Since then, Mary has dedicated herself to making sure that children are able to receive specialized pediatric dentistry treatment in an enjoyable and educational way.

Mary wanted to provide specialty care to underserved children in Southern California, leading her to start Lollipop Dental in 2012. Her goal was to provide care to those who need it the most, while still maintaining a profitable and sustainable business. Many dentists have children as patients, but not all are board-certified pediatric dentists with the training to provide care for complex pediatric medical conditions — which is how Mary has built her practice. Mary needed an easy way to manage payroll for her specialized team, and she turned to Gusto.

• "We just started using Gusto for payroll initially because it was just fun, affordable, and it was really super easy to use."

As Mary built her business, she realized she needed a new strategy to attract and retain talent. After an employee let her know she was going to leave the company because she needed health insurance, Mary knew it was the right time to offer health insurance benefits to her team. While it was less common for dental practices the size of Lollipop Dental to offer health insurance to employees, Mary wanted to be able to give her team what they needed.

• “I know [my team] appreciates having health insurance. It also really does attract and retain good high-quality employees when you give them good benefits.”

There’s also tax benefits for organizations that provide employee health insurance, which has helped Lollipop Dental keep costs low while still meeting employee needs. Using Gusto for health insurance also helped the dental practice save money since it was cheaper for Mary to get benefits through Gusto instead of paying a separate health insurance broker.

• "I didn’t want to add another layer of complexity by going through a broker. Gusto’s all-in-one platform could handle everything from payroll to health insurance—so why not use it?"

• “Gusto is affordable and makes it easy to provide a variety of benefits to your team — they have everything from Health Insurance to Dependent Care FSAs. We use a quite a few of their services”

When it came time to choose a health insurance plan, Mary was impressed by the way the platform quickly surfaced health insurance plans that would be a great fit for her business based on her specifications. She’s also been pleased by just how easy renewals are — the platform is so easy to use, she doesn’t even need to call an advisor.

• "I love that with Gusto, health insurance renews automatically. It’s super easy—just a few clicks to approve or adjust last year’s plan.”

• “It's so convenient to manage benefits and renewals on your own without having to make an appointment or talk to a broker. With easy-to-understand plan comparisons, Gusto is simple to use.”

Lollipop Dental uses Gusto for payroll, health benefits administration, and employee management tasks like new hire onboarding.

• “I made the decision to utilize Gusto because of how seamless the platform is. Gusto has such a fun user interface, is super easy to use, with everything all in one platform. It’s easy to add on more services as we need them like we did with health benefits.”

Between running seven offices and seeing patients, Mary doesn’t have the time to meet with brokers and sift through all the different healthcare options.

• “Efficiency is really important to me. Gusto is convenient and easy for payroll and benefits. You’re able to choose the best healthcare options for your team on your own.”

Mary appreciated the advice she got from expert health benefits advisors when she chose to offer benefits through Gusto. The platform is so easy to use, she feels confident on navigating benefits at her own convenience. The tailored insurance plans make it easy to find the right fit for her and her team in just a few clicks.

• “I love that it's super easy and so automated. With a few clicks and a couple of signatures, I’m done.”