What It’s Like to Work With a Dental Practice Broker
There are countless reasons why you should work with a dental practice broker when transitioning ownership of your business, but what steps go into working with a dental practice broker once you’ve decided with whom you trust your life’s work? Professional Transition Strategies Founder and President Kyle Francis recently sat down with Dr. Paul Goodman of the “Dental Nachos” podcast to talk about all the things that go into buying and selling dental practices. Here are the key takeaways from their conversation.
Understanding the goals
Back in the day, if you had a dental practice that you built up over time with a strong cash flow, your only exit strategies were to bring on a partner to eventually sell 100% of the practice to or sell to an individual. But not every dentist dreams of being a business owner, as well, and respectfully only has an associateship mindset. That’s where private equity comes into play, leveraging the market to work in such capacities, and the goal of any good dental practice broker should be to help a doctor understand the equity they have in their business and how to leverage it.
Laying out options
It’s perfectly acceptable and understandable for a dentist working toward retirement age to begin the process without knowing all the ins and outs of what goes into a practice transition. It’s the job of the dental practice broker to explain everything from the difference between EBITDA and SDE to all the data that goes into calculating the true market value of your business. “It’s like a choose-your-own-adventure book with no one-size-fits-all solution,” Francis describes.
Finding a good fit
The buyer for your dental practice has to be a good fit on more levels than just the obvious bottom line. Above all, they should be someone with whom you want to do business and trust to carry on your business goals with your patients’ and staff’s best interests in mind. However, that doesn’t always mean selling to an individual. Sometimes, that means affiliating with a dental service organization (DSO), which comes in many forms such as a joint venture or an equity roll-up. “Just like a dentist offers the right treatment plan for the right person at the right time, there’s the right decision for the right [dentist] at the right time,” Dr. Goodman explains.
Finding another good fit
Just like you’ll want to find the right person or dentist to take over your practice, you’ll first want to work with a dental practice broker who has your best interest in mind. A good dental practice broker will present all the options to you and connect you with a team of advisors to get you over the finish line. “It’s like having a caddie in golf, someone to lean on and get advice from along the way to the biggest decision of your life,” Dr. Goodman explains.
What’s next?
The experts at Professional Transition Strategies perform more than 700 prospectuses a year and have helped more than 500 dentists transition ownership of their dental practices. Contact them today to get the process started.
May 26, 2022
What to Consider Before Selling Your Dental Practice
Deciding to sell your dental practice can arguably be the most challenging step in the transition process. With the right team of advisors in place, it can be a financially and emotionally fulfilling experience. But where do you start, and how is the value of your dental practice determined? Whether you’re ready to begin planning your transition strategy or you want to learn more about your options, it’s important to understand what impacts the sale of your dental practice. Here are the top five considerations before selling your dental practice.
Know the facts
It’s easy to talk in hypotheticals when thinking of selling your dental practice, but there are a lot of considerations to get on your radar sooner rather than later. You’ll want all the information available to make the best decision for your dental practice.
Before entertaining offers, you’ll need to have a prospectus in place for both an individual buyer and a group to assess the fair market value of your dental practice as this can vary based on a range of factors. A prospectus includes practice and patient demographics, practice location, staff, insurance, facility, equipment, production summary by category, financial analysis, practice valuation and return on investment.
This will help determine if your practice is healthy enough to bring on a partner, whether you should consider affiliating with a dental service organization (DSO), or if you need to make some drastic changes so your practice is more appealing to potential buyers. The most common transitions include:
Buy-out: Purchasers buy a practice within a relatively short time period. On average, this takes about three to six months and is the quickest transition route.
Buy-in: A specific buyer purchases a defined portion of the dental practice. This is a longer-term approach that can expand the value of your practice over time.
Affiliation: You sell a percentage of your business to another entity, typically a DSO, with the intent to slowly transition out of the practice and give up clinical control to the group. This is an excellent way to maximize the practice’s value.
Associate to buy-in: A group of associates will court a potential buyer to purchase over a period of time. This process ensures compatibility and a smooth transition to map out the future of the practice. Division of power is the biggest decision that needs to be made with this method. While this is the longest approach — taking at least five years — it’s also the most flexible.
Associateship: Yes, you can sell to associates while maintaining full control, but in this method, not everything is agreed upon upfront, leading to a mere 20% success rate.
Merger: Two existing dental practices combine into one entity, and owners often stay on as equal partners after merging. Mergers offer great benefits, like the net income remaining constant or even increasing because there is no loss of business.
Roll-up: You purchase multiple dental practices and combine them under one entity to maximize economies of scale. This can boost the value of your practice when it’s time to sell. A roll-up transition is the most lucrative if you have the time and capital to dedicate to this plan.
Make a plan
No matter the reason for your transition, starting the process as early as five years out will give you ample time to identify and make changes to your dental practice to improve the valuation. A good broker will make suggestions on how to amplify your marketing efforts, increase production, and streamline costs and efficiency, including dental supplies, lab costs and even payroll in an effort to increase profitability.
Starting the transition process early also gives you the flexibility to be more discerning with the offers you receive. If you’re in a pinch to sell your practice, you may be forced to take one of the first offers and leave money on the table. Being in the driver’s seat of the sale affords you the time to evaluate offers and choose the best one for you, your staff, and your practice, as well as making your practice more attractive to DSOs looking for an affiliation.
Stay the course
Maintaining your production is one of the best things you can do to obtain the highest valuation possible for your practice because the financials from the most recent years will weigh the heaviest when determining the practice’s value. Slowing down your production can have a massive impact on the price you can get for the practice.
The same holds true for your practice’s specialty. Gearing up for a transition is not the time to focus on a new niche specialty or even make the move toward a multispecialty practice. By opening the practice up to a new specialty — like going from a general practice to a periodontics practice — you decrease the potential buyer pool, which can negatively impact your sale options.
Keep an open mind
Thirty years ago, one of the only transition options was taking on an associate who would hopefully buy your dental practice one day, but today, there are so many more possibilities. Working with a qualified broker will only open your eyes to a dental practice transition you might not have otherwise considered.
Your options are really only limited by your imagination. Do you want to start the process early so you can affiliate with a DSO before you retire? Or are you ready to get out of the business with a buy-out option so you can move into the next phase of your life? Asking yourself these questions and more will help you narrow down your choices so you can better prepare for the next steps.
What’s next?
Contact the experts at Professional Transition Strategies to get the ball rolling on the sale of your dental practice.
January 28, 2021
5 Steps to Selling a Dental Practice
Are you thinking of selling a dental practice? If so, you’re likely wondering how long it will take. You have put a lot of time, sweat and tears into building a successful practice. The fact that you are considering selling it can take a mental and physical toll. To prepare for your upcoming transition, here are five things you should know.
Start planning your dental practice transition early
One of the best pieces of advice is to start planning early. Planning early allows you more options than if you wait until the year you are ready to move on. These options are not only the type of transition you go with, but also which offers you consider. If you wait until the last minute to transition out of your practice, you may be stuck taking the first offer you receive. By starting early, you can be more discerning about offers that come in and move forward with the one with which you feel most comfortable.
Starting early gives you time to consider different transition styles. If your practice is large enough, you can sell half of your practice to a partner and continue to work for a few more years. When you determine the time is right, you can then sell the other half to either your current partner or someone else.
Getting a head start also allows you to consider affiliating with a dental service organization (DSO), which you most likely wouldn’t be able to if you needed to get out immediately. The reason for this is that DSOs tend to request the current doctor stay on for about two years.
By starting early, you can determine if you are happy with the value of the practice or if you need to get more out of it to clear any debts. This knowledge can help guide you when determining if you need a few more years to build up the value of your practice before taking that next step.
A transition period is a period between two transition periods. – George Stigler
Know the facts
Instead of living in the hypothetical, know your reality. Too many times, one can plan for a transition without knowing the facts. “Ignoring facts does not make them go away,” as businessman and Hall of Fame quarterback Fran Tarkenton once said. (1) It’s important to have a prospectus in place when determining the right transition type for you and your practice. By understanding the fair market value of your practice, you will know if your practice is healthy enough to bring on a partner, whether you should consider affiliating with a DSO or if you need to make some drastic changes so your practice is more appealing to a potential buyer.
To take this deep dive into your practice, look to a professional to create a prospectus. The knowledgeable experts at Professional Transition Strategies (PTS) will create a prospectus for you at no cost or obligation to work with us. We do this because we believe it is important to practice what we preach: Know the facts before you make any decisions.
A common mistake made by dentists and dental specialists throughout the country is to let the value of their practice drop leading up to a transition. This honest mistake happens when doctors decide they are ready to scale back but they aren’t ready to “hang up their hat” just yet. By cutting back their schedules, only taking certain cases, reducing their hygienists’ hours, etc., they inevitably see their production and collections decrease.
Considering a practice’s value heavily depends on the average of the last three years. With the most recent year receiving the most weight, this reduction will result in a significant drop in value. As investor Warren Buffett once said, “Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.” (2) As much as one would like the practice’s value to be based on the “potential,” the truth is that a bank won’t lend on the hypothetical. Therefore, it is imperative to consider your plans before cutting back, because “cutting back” can dramatically cut the value of your practice.
Know your transition options
Without knowing all your options, how can you possibly choose the right one? One size does not fit all when you’re selling a dental practice. You cannot know you made the right decision without knowing the available options. Once upon a time, a dentist’s only options when transitioning a practice was to either sell to another doctor or close the doors. Times have changed. A dentist or dental specialist now has several options.
Speak with a dental transition expert to determine the best plan for you and your practice.
How long will it take to sell my dental practice?
The most common question leading up to a transition is, “How long will it take to sell my dental practice?” Many factors can help gauge how long your practice will be on the market. One that will play a major role is the location of your practice. Is your practice in a metropolitan area? Is it in a rural community? Is your practice in a desirable area of the city? While it can’t be said for all practices, the offices positioned in “hot spots” of the country — such as Austin, San Diego or Denver — will move faster than those based in a smaller, more rural area. Sales can be as short as 22 days from the day your practice goes on the market to the day it closes or as long as two to five years.
Another variable that will play a part in how long it takes to sell your practice is your practice size. Practices valued between $750,000 and $1.2 million tend to be a sweet spot for most buyers. Practices collecting less tend to sit on the market longer. The reason is that smaller practices mean less revenue for the incoming doctor. This is especially true if the buyer is still paying off student debt.
What is a dental practice broker?
A dental practice broker has undergone training that makes them an expert in taking you through a dental practice transition. A factor in how long a practice takes to sell is the experience and knowledge of your broker. To ensure you are in the best hands, you should hire a broker who is familiar with practices like yours. This does not mean practices in your city, town or even state. It is more important that your broker has worked with practices of your size and in the transition capacity you are looking for — affiliating with a DSO, partnerships, straight buy-outs or even partnering with a private equity firm.
It’s also important to make sure your broker “pounds the pavement” on your behalf and be active when it comes to finding the right buyer. All too often, practice transition brokers post a marketing description on a few websites, sit back and wait for calls to come in. Work with someone like PTS that takes a proactive approach to finding the right fit for your practice.
What’s next?
If you are considering the possibility of selling a dental practice, contact the team at PTS. We will answer any questions and help prepare you in this exciting new stage of your life.
When it comes to dental practice transitions, the end game should always be the most lucrative option your timeframe allows. In a roll-up, multiple dental practices are combined under one entity in a group to maximize the economies of scale. A well-laid roll-up plan will then receive a higher valuation when the practice is purchased. Here’s how to start a dental practice roll-up plan.
Determine size
Dental practices can be combined by a central group taking over all the business processes while the practices have a management service contract back in the case of a dental service organization (DSO). But smaller roll-ups can also occur by taking underperforming practices, purchasing them at a lower price and putting in best practices. Those practices may then remain in their current location or move to a central location, depending on the owner’s strategy.
Take your time
With a roll-up, it typically takes more than five years for the transition period to occur, including time to centralize services, move practices to a central location, and/or optimize the operations of the practice, as well as find enough practices that fit the roll-up. With enough time and capital, the owner can optimize nearly every expense line item that a dental practice spends money on.
Grow accordingly
As the practice grows, it’s important to keep tabs on growth from all aspects. Can the practice operate in the original space if large enough, will additional offices need to remain in place or will all practices move to a larger space? What’s more, will the combined practice require additional staff? If so, all can either be fulfilled by normal hiring practices or from the acquired practices, such as associates, partners and/or hygienists.
Consider investments
The most in-vogue way of starting a roll-up is to set up a DSO that will allow for outside investments beyond what a bank can provide. However, a roll-up can be accomplished without a DSO and just be a group practice. This will just limit growth potential, so it’s worth considering both options before starting the dental practice transition process.
What’s next?
Read more about the roll-up dental practice transition process in the e-book “Strategies for Transition,” then contact the experts at Professional Transition Strategies to put your steps in place.
April 6, 2018
7 Types of Dental Practice Transitions
By now, you’ve probably already decided that selling your practice is the best option, whether it’s for retirement or managerial purposes. But maybe you don’t know or haven’t started exploring all your options yet. Here, we break down the types of dental practice transitions in an effort to help you figure out which is best for you and your business.
Buy-out
A buy-out is exactly what it sounds like: when a purchaser buys your practice for a negotiated price. A relatively short transition period that typically only lasts three months is ideal for a prospective retiree. The seller may agree to stay on part-time to help ease the transition for the buyer, employees and patients.
Buy-in
A buy-in is the opposite of a buy-out in which a specific buyer purchases a defined portion of the practice for a negotiated amount determined at the outset. In this case, a professional dental practice broker will also perform a personality profile to ensure compatibility, in addition to a practice analysis.
Associate to buy-in
Here, a potential buyer is courted by a group of associates to buy-in over a defined period of time, road-mapping the ease of transition. Rather than making decisions about the future of the practice upfront, this allows time to assess compatibility; however, the division of power is the biggest consideration to make.
Associateship
A good idea in theory because associates are easy to find, and this route allows you to maintain full control over the transition; however, associateships are typically only 20% effective due to not everything being agreed upon from the outset and different expectations not being met by both parties.
Merger
Combining two dental practices to become one entity with equal partnership remains a tried-and-true method as long as compatibility is established upfront and responsibilities and income are equally divided and agreed upon.
Roll-up
This option is one that pays off in the future under the economies-of-scale principle: Multiple dental practices are purchased over a period of time to combine into one entity, which will then sell for a higher value at a later date.
Affiliation
The slowest of the transition options, this option hands over the majority of the practice to a larger entity, typically a dental service organization (DSO) or a group, with the purpose of slowly transitioning out of your practice to and giving up clinical control to the buyer.
What’s next?
Read more about your options in our e-book “Strategies for Transition,” then reach out to the experts at Professional Transition Strategies to figure out which makes the most sense for you and the future of your practice.
July 10, 2017
Should I Sell My Dental Practice?
“Should I sell my dental practice?” This is a question most practice owners come across at some point in their careers. Considering selling your practice can be stressful, especially if you don’t have all of the information you need. At Professional Transition Strategies (PTS), we are here to provide you with that information and guide you through your transition. Here are some common questions asked and answered.Continue reading “Should I Sell My Dental Practice?”
June 20, 2017
7 Types of Dental Practice Transitions
If you’ve decided you are ready for the next step of your life and dental practice, it may be time to consider retirement. There are many different kinds of transitions, so regardless of whether you are ready to completely stop working, we can help you find a transition that works best for you and your dental practice. Here are a few different transition options. Continue reading “7 Types of Dental Practice Transitions”
June 20, 2017
What You Need to Know About Dental Practice Transitions
Transitioning a dental practice is an intricate process and can seem overwhelming if you are approaching or going through the process. Not only does transitioning a dental practice include financial challenges, but emotional and relational ones, as well. We at Professional Transition Strategies (PTS) can help you navigate this process because we have been through it before. We realize every situation is unique, but we also recognize there are many steps to go through to successfully transition a practice. Here’s an outline to get you started.Continue reading “What You Need to Know About Dental Practice Transitions”
