INFLUX OF SELLERS HITTING THE MARKET
1.Interest rates are rising. Buyers have had the luxury of living through ultra-low interest rates over the past five years. Historically, interest rates on practice acquisitions have been around 7% to 8%. The last five years, we’ve seen them dip down to an average of 3.8% and one bank offering loans at 1.89%! Crazy rates! Buyers are now seeing the rates creep back up. Current rates are around 5% to 5.5%. This is scaring some buyers into acting on their desire to own a practice. They feel if they wait, interest rates will be back to the 7 to 8% rate soon.
2. Baby boomers are reaching their peak. Baby boomers doctors make up the largest portion of the veterinarian population. Approximately 50% of veterinarians are now over the age of 55. The largest portion of the baby boomer population is now hitting their mid-60’s. These doctors are now selling and retiring. Along with this, as we age life events, such as health issues, or even death happens. We are seeing sellers with health challenges where they cannot work at the same pace as they were before, or they cannot work at all.
3. Veterinarians tired of being practice owners. Several of our current listings are from doctors in their 40’s or 50’s who are just tired of being owners. Managing staff and managing expenses such as rent, employee benefits,
etc., have caused owners to rethink their dream of owning a practice.4. Equity harvesting. Veterinarians at the peak of their production in their practice are deciding to sell their practices and get the equity out before production goes down. Many are selling to either small groups or investor veterinarians who allow the seller to not only harvest their equity but also to work back in the practice. A perfect storm in most situations.
Whether you fit into any of these categories or even if you are in the middle of your career, you owe it to yourself and your family to have a transition plan in place. Life events happen. We meet with veterinarians of all ages to discuss their career plan and look at different options of how to sail into retirement, or even sell and work back. We put customized plans in place and offer solutions in the event the doctor needs to sell quickly. If you would like to meet for a free consultation and a free cup of coffee, feel free to give us a call. We’ll even throw in a doughnut!
Economy Helping to Ramp Up Practice Sales
The strong numbers have played a part in the increase in practice sales. Practice owners who are over 55, are seeing the strong numbers and returns in their portfolios and deciding now is the time to retire. Buyers are also watching the economy and realizing it’s a good time to buy a practice. Interest rates are still good at between 5.25% and 5.5%. Consumer’s discretionary income is up freeing funds for consumers to do elective and cosmetic dentistry. (I know you shouldn’t base your dentistry on discretionary income, but many do).
The result of all of this is that practice listings and sales are up. We typically carry an inventory of 10 to 15 practices and we’re now up to approximately 25 practices. We have spoken to other brokers and most are experiencing a similar increase in business. The interesting thing is that valuations are still staying true to normal formulas and historical numbers.
What this means to you is you can either be a participant in this booming market, or you can be a bystander and watch opportunity pass you by. If you would like to get any information on any of our practices, let us know. Consultations and phone calls are always free!
Should you Consider a Low Production Practice to Purchase?
We attempt to coach sellers to sell their practices when they are at their peak productivity and profitability. However, there are a number of doctors, over half, who decide to hold onto their practices while they slow down. They start getting tired, they refer out more procedures, stop marketing and refer more work out to specialists. I have seen practices collecting $350,000 with 600 to 700 active patients and hygiene production at 40% of total production. Analyzing these types of practices to see if they are worthwhile acquisitions or merger prospects requires looking at their procedures report, their production by provider report and profit and loss statement. Turning these practices around and making them more productive may be as simple as stop referring out endo and other procedures that you may be able to do, start marketing and start diagnosing treatment. If the location is good and the numbers look like they can be turned around, you should not disregard these practices for an acquisition or a merger.
Patients
When you are evaluating a practice, you may be told that there are a certain number of “active” patients in the practice. That term “active” is one of my least favorite terms when trying to evaluate or sell a practice. One person may define “active” as having been in the office once within the past 24 months. Another person may define it as the patient having been in the practice once in the last 12 months. And yet a third may say the patient is “active” because they came into the office at one point or another while the doctor was practicing. It doesn’t even matter to them how long ago it was, or if the patient is even alive. If I were in your shoes, I would throw out what anyone says and count the charts myself. If the practice is digital, I would look at the number of hygiene appointments seen in the past 12 months and divide by two to get the number of active patients seen that year. You can gross it up by 50% to account for walk-ins and other types of procedures, but that should give you a ballpark of the number of active patients. Another quick rule of thumb is to divide the annual collections by $1,000. A practice producing $500,000 per year, should have in the neighborhood of 500 patients ($500,000 divided by $1,000 per patient)Patient demographics is another thing to be aware of. Buyers often blow off a practice that has an aged patient demographic. Little do they know that a lot of elderly patients pay cash for their treatment and they still want their treatment. They also have more required work than patients that are in their 20’s, 30’s and 40’s. These patients are very profitable patients.
Hopefully looking at these two areas of patient demographics will help you make the right decision when evaluating a practice.
Why Buying and Merging Another Practice into an Existing Practice Makes Sense
Owning and growing a dental practice can be one of the most challenging things in dentistry. Advertising for new patients can be hit and miss and expensive. That’s why one of our favorite strategies is to purchase another practice and merge it into your existing practice.
The reason you would consider doing a merger is because you get all of the revenue and current patients from the new practice, but you don’t get all of the expenses. You don’t bring over the fixed expenses like rent, telephone, electricity, etc., You already have those in your practice and don’t need to incur them again when you bring over the practice you just acquired.
As an example, say you own a practice that collects $600,000 per year. You have overhead of $390,000 with 30% of the overhead in fixed expenses – rent, utilities, insurance, etc., Another practice comes on the market that collecting $500,000 with overhead of $325,000 with fixed expenses again at 30% or $150,000. You purchase the practice for $350,000 giving you a debt service payment of $3,500 per month. You work closely with the broker to ensure 100% of the patients transfer to your practice. Your practice now goes from $600,000 up to $1.1 million in revenue. You incur the variable expenses of the second practice, but you do not incur the 30% fixed expenses of $150,000 because you already have rent, utilities, insurance etc., at your current office. In essence, you just gave yourself a $150,000 raise, less $42,000 in debt service and dropped your overhead to the neighborhood of 55%. It would take you much longer to do this if you just did marketing and advertising. By consolidating practices, you get instant growth and income. If you have a practice for sale near you, you should consider merging it into your practice in order to achieve quick growth.