Hello.  I am following up on our previous discussions. I spoke to you about 2 months ago and I decided that the next best step was to have a valuation of the practice. After receiving the paperwork from Choice, you and I spoke on two occasions for clarification on some of the documents needed. You were very helpful. Of course, just before I was to send the packet to have the valuation done by you, Covid-19 hit. I am still interested in the valuation but have some concerns of it's value at this point in time. I would be interested in any feedback you may have.

If you’re interested in selling your dental practice, my best advice is to start early. When you give yourself the gift of time, you’re really giving yourself the gift of choice. By conducting your due diligence, you can choose exactly when and how to transition your practice to the right dentist who will take care of your staff, patients, and the legacy you’ve built. The expert team at Choice Transitions can help because we know from personal experience that transitioning out of your practice isn’t a snap decision.

If you’ve purchased a house, then you know that choosing your new home is every bit an emotional decision as it is a financial one. The same is true for when you sell a home. There are many emotions tied up in the memories made there, or in the sweat equity you’ve invested to make improvements.

Several years ago the Principals of Choice, while spending long hours exhibiting at a dental trade show, kept hearing similar questions from dentists who were 2-5 years away from selling their practices. These questions were “I am not quite ready to sell but what should I be doing now” or “if I knew the current value of my practice that would be useful information to determine my selling date”. We saw the problem and put our heads together and came up with a very helpful and viable new offering for our clients, being the “Consulting and Future Listing Agreement”.

The BIGGEST decision most dentists make in their career is Buying or Selling their practice, and very little is taught in Dental School on the subject. In late fall 2018, I had an older 2017 graduate with 4 kids, contact me in need of advise. A real estate developer had offer him a " great deal " to build a START-UP practice in a local shopping center. He was approved for a 1.2m loan. I told him that I had a couple practices for sale in his area where the dentists wanted to retire after long successful careers, and this would be a much better, safer decision.

As an Owner of a dental practice transition company, we often field calls from dentists interested in selling their patient records. Typically, the owners are at the end of their professional careers, they have no on-going lease obligations, older equipment, and very lean, if any support staff.

Owning a dental practice may seem very intimidating for many young dentists,  but for the majority of dentists this is the primary goal of their career.  Some will choose to enter into practice ownership quickly, while others prefer to continue their education or work as an associate dentist before owning their own practice.  Gaining clinical skills, speed, and confidence is important, but learning people skills, management of staff, and overall business acumen is essential as well.  There are pros and cons to each path….

So, your broker has found you an awesome Buyer for your practice, you’ve received and accepted the Letter of Intent, the attorneys are working on the Asset Purchase Agreement, and all systems are Go!  What are some of the important details that you or your Buyer can do just before and just after the closing to ensure a smooth transition.

What is my Exit Strategy?
This question should be addressed from the following 3 perspectives a) Estate Planning b) Transition Planning c) Practice Valuation Planning. Every Practioner should have an updated practice valuation to protect their loved ones from an unexpected emergency.

Planning is key when it comes to brainstorming and developing a successful exit strategy for your dental practice, then putting a plan in motion. Here are few points that should be considered in order to make this as effective and smooth of a transition as possible.

Most of us know a colleague or friend who was taken away from us too soon and unexpectedly, or was seriously disabled from an accident, stroke, or unforeseen occurrence. Most of us also make the same mistake of thinking that will never happen to us.

Many of our clients do not fit into the cookie cutter mold of what is traditionally thought of in our industry as a “seller”.  What I mean by this is many of our most successful sales have been for clients who are well under the “traditional” or “normal” age of retirement.  In fact, some of these clients happen to be not only excellent dental practitioners but extremely savvy businesspeople also.

One of the least thought about but most often negotiated issues in selling a dental practice is the allocation of the purchase price and the associated tax consequences. A “satisfactory” offer prior to receiving and reviewing the proposed tax allocation could quickly become “unsatisfactory” thereby forcing the parties to renegotiate resulting in animosity, ill will, and in some cases, the transaction to fall apart. It is important to understand the tax implications of a sale prior to making and/or accepting an offer. 

There is no correct way to transition a dental practice from seller to buyer. Every buyer and seller comes to the negotiating table with different ideas and expectations. However, the goals of each can be quite different. The usual goal of every buyer is to retain the greatest percentage of the existing patient base as possible. Since the intangible value (i.e. goodwill) of the total practice valuation is usually far greater than the tangible assets (i.e. equipment) this goal is well founded.

One of the most frequently asked questions I receive from dentists selling their practice is, “when should I tell my staff?” Many feel like they’re betraying their staff by keeping the sale a secret. But telling them prematurely can damage morale and practice value. When staff members hear the news, they may worry about job security, changes to their compensation and/or benefits, and several other unknowns and could begin interviewing with other dentists. Because of their relationships with patients, your staff is one of the buyer’s biggest assets to ensure a smooth transition, so it’s important to retain them throughout the transition.

In most if not all dental practices we transition, whether representing a seller or a buyer, the space in which the practice is currently located must be either sold/purchased, leased, or a combination of both.  An outright sale/purchase of the real estate is fairly self-explanatory.  However, when a lease is provided with future potential ownership, or an existing lease is being assumed or sublet, we often witness confusion or misunderstanding as to terminology and the meaning of such as to the many options that arise.

We cannot look at a dental journal or attend a meeting without someone stating you have to go “high tech”. What exactly does this mean? Do we have to run out and borrow a quarter million dollars to get there? Will there be a return on this investment by increasing the value of the practice by that amount? What if you are getting ready for retirement or transitioning your practice- is it worth it? The answer is yes with reservations. You don’t have to dive in and get every whiz-bang product out there, but should have some basics.

Throughout our 16 years of meeting with practice owners, one question that comes up often is “ARE YOU A DUAL REP FIRM”?  Our rapid response is always an emphatic “NO”. Not only do we find the concept to be unethical, we feel it should be prohibited as currently constructed.