I am often asked by dental students, “What factors should I focus on when buying a practice?” My answer is very simple: buy a dental practice that is recession-proof. In other words, purchase a practice with lots of patients. I was recently in Columbus having dinner with a Wall Street banker from New York, and during our conversation, he reminded me that the economic cycle runs into a recession nearly every seven years. We are
True Story There is a dentist in my hometown working out of a smaller, one-story brick building. Inside the plain brick building is a comfortable office, but no state-of-the-art fancy equipment. There are no digital pans, no granite countertops, no Cerac machines, and no warm oven baking cookies for the customer. The only fancy decorations are the pictures of this dentist fly fishing in Montana. That. Is. It. You would think this dentist would be
What is the big gamble? What could go wrong if I wait one more year? Higher Taxes Most of the dentists and professionals I talk to agree that taxes will likely increase over and over again for many years to come in order to pay for our current administration’s excessive spending. Regardless of your political affiliation, government spending is not going down anytime soon. Neither is our national debt. Therefore, in a higher tax environment,
Many of the dentists who call to discuss the sale of their dental practice realize later in their career they are trading quality of life for income received. Make no mistake. There is a trade off between the more the dentist works and the more their quality of life suffers. This burn out syndrome will affect every dentist at some point in their career. At this point, you might want to add an associate. Some of
In our experience, when a buyer understands the critical components of the dental practice they wish to purchase, making the right decision about the purchase becomes logical and less emotional. Even though the due diligence process can be daunting at times to a buyer, the payoff of asking the right questions for the new dentist is tremendous. The following are important steps for buyers to think about. Understand the health of the practice. To evaluate the health of
When you decide to own your own dental practice, it is a tough decision: purchasing or starting? Each option has its pros and cons. But purchasing a dental practice is definitely a more stable and lucrative road to practice ownership. Purchasing an existing dental practice gives you an established patient base and existing cash flow. This allows you to realize profits on day one. Sure you inherit problems with existing practice. You may have employees who require
We believe determining the value of practice during a sale is very important. Because of this, we provide a free appraisal valuing a dental practice for both parties. So what’s your practice worth? If you were to sell your dental practice today, what would you get? That is a complex question, and it must be carefully evaluated. Every practice is unique. Using one outdated formula or rule to determine the practice value can set you up
