Reasons to List Your Dental Practices for Sale with OMNI Dental Practice Group
Whether you are planning for retirement, looking to relocate, or taking your dental career in a new direction, placing your dental practice up for sale is a huge endeavor, one that you should not be do alone. The experts at OMNI Dental Practice Group are dedicated to providing their clients with the best possible services to meet their needs, while building a trusting relationship. Here is why you should trust OMNI Dental Practice Group when listing dental practices for sale.
Confidentiality is Paramount
At OMNI Dental Practice Group, maintaining seller confidentiality is one of their highest priorities. Deciding to list a dental practice for sale is a major career move, regardless of the reasons behind it. When confidentiality is breached, the practice risks losing valuable patients and employees who would otherwise have remained during and after the sale, which reduces the overall value of the practice. For this reason, the professional team at OMNI Dental Practice Group have dedicated themselves to becoming experts at maintaining complete confidentiality throughout the process, while ensuring high listing exposure.
Marketing Experts
Even the most profitable dental practices for sale can sit on the listing pages indefinitely when marketing efforts are lacking. At OMNI Dental Practice Group, this is not an option. The OMNI team of professionals have extensive experience and formal training as marketing experts to ensure the highest exposure for the listing as possible without risking the seller’s confidentiality. Each practice is listed across the nation in over 30 locations, including:
- Universities
- Associations
- Programs
- Social Media Platforms
- Online Marketing Efforts
- Mailers
- And More
To better expose dental practices for sale, OMNI Dental Practice Group has built strong lasting relationships within the field. These relationships, which also help in speeding up dental practice transitions, include:
- Vendors
- Bankers
- Attorneys
When you are ready for a career move involving the selling of your current practice, you can trust the experts at OMNI Dental Practice Group to maintain your confidentiality, while marketing your practice to a large group of potential buyers. To better assist you in the transition, OMNI Dental Practice Group is a leading provider of a wide range of services to dental professionals, which include:
- Practice Sales or Transitions
- Valuations
- Consulting
- Real Estate Service
- Buyer Representation
To learn more about listing your dental practice in the Washington, Oregon, or California areas, please contact the expert team at OMNI Dental Practice Group. OMNI specializes in dental practice sales, and are dedicated to ensuring your success throughout the entire process.
The Importance of Dental Practice Valuations
Common Reasons for Dental Practice Valuations
There are several reasons doctors need to know the value of their dental practice. The most common reason is for dental practice transitions or sales. Valuations help to determine if the asking price is reasonable, to figure out a reasonable asking price to begin with, and to ensure the practice is profitable enough to invest in; this is also important to know when considering a merger. Doctors should also get their practice valuated within ten years of retirement and every two years after for estate planning purposes. Therefore, it is important to make sure the valuation is not a cookie cutter process.
Rule of Thumb Should Not Apply
No two dental practices are the same, so no two valuations should be the same. Often dental practice valuations are conducted using a rule of thumb method. The method does a major disservice to both the seller and the buyer, as it often does not highlight the practice’s uniqueness and how that influences the actual value of the practice in question. For a true valuation, many aspects of the practice must be taken into account and evaluated by experts with extensive formal training and resulting certifications, such as the experts at OMNI Dental Practice Group.
Experience Matters
When looking into dental practice valuations, it is important to make sure the professionals have extensive experience performing said valuations. The team at OMNI Dental Practice Group; for example, have helped hundreds of doctors buy and sell their practices using accurate valuations based on the practice itself and are considered dental industry experts in practice valuations. As members of the Institute of Business Appraisers and the Practice Valuation Study Club, OMNI Dental Practice Group offers accurate and individualized valuations for dental practices in Washington, Oregon, and California.
To learn more about why and how dental practice valuations are conducted, or to request a free consultation in the Washington, Oregon, or California areas, please contact the expert staff at OMNI Dental Practice Group. OMNI’s team of experts are dedicated to ensuring each client’s success through transitions, valuations, consulting and other real estate services in the dental field.
OMNI Practice Group Explains the Many Different Types of Dental Practice Transitions
By planning their transition carefully and working with a trusted broker in the dental practice marketplace, practice sellers can ensure each element of the process is completed smoothly. But first it’s important to learn more on the types of dental practice transitions available for those considering a sale. In this article, the team at OMNI Practice Group explains the processes involved in several types of dental practice transition.
Partnership
Selling a portion of your practice via a partnership has its own pros and cons. One of the pros is that if you can find a partner with similar interests and philosophies as well as a set of skills that enhances your practice and you get along well, you’ve found a winner. The cons are that those types are difficult to find. The ADA states that 70% of partnerships fail. However, if done right using experts in partnerships, you can have a successful and happy partnership transition.
Walk Away Sale
A walk away sale involves the seller removing themselves and their business interests from the practice the moment the sale is completed. This could be ideal for those in the process of retiring or relocating to a new area across the country. But sellers must analyze whether they truly want to walk away from the business they helped create. To complete a walk away sale effectively, sellers must tie up all loose ends many weeks before the buyer completes their transaction. This ensures a seamless handover process and allows the buyer to immediately enter the business with a fresh start.
Sell and Work Back
This can often be very gratifying. The seller sells 100% of the practice, but stays to work as an employee in the practice. The seller may cut back their hours, or may keep up the pace. The seller and buyer work together and the seller may even mentor the buyer. The seller no longer has any management responsibility or ownership. He simply does clinical dentistry. As long as the two get along, this can work wonderfully.
Customized Transition
Working with a dental practice transaction broker can help sellers customize the sale according to their unique requirements. Brokers are experts in managing the transition process, from organizing the timing of asset sales to implementing buy back procedures once the sale has been completed. It’s important the company the seller works with has a full understanding of their business plans before they begin the transition process, as this will help reduce potential issues as the transaction is completed.
By having a clear understanding on the available dental practice transition options, owners can ensure the right model is found for their sale process. To learn more, speak with the trusted team at OMNI Practice Group at 877.866.6053 or visit their business website at omni-pg.com.
Top 5 Dental Practice Transitions Strategies
Until, one day, your back blows out, your spouse tells you to retire, or you just plain get tired of managing staff and dealing with insurance companies, cutting reimbursements, and health departments or state taxing authorities coming by for a “little visit”. You decide, it’s time! Maybe you want to continue doing dentistry at some level, either part-time, or full-time. How about selling a partnership? Maybe you want to be completely done. Here are the top five strategies you can think about before that time happens and where we have expertise in making it happen.
SELL AND DON’T LOOK BACK – This is the option for those who are completely done and ready to either find another career, a good fishing hole, or a favorite golf course. You can either attempt to do it yourself or hire a broker to help you out. The pros of this are you are done, you get your equity out of the practice and you do not have to worry about staff, insurance companies or other problems again. The cons are that you do not know how your patients and staff will be cared for by the buying doctor. There may be an occasional re-do, but typically not too many. A favorite strategy for the retiring dentist moving far away.
SELL AND TRANSITION – This approach allows you to sell your practice and stay on for a short or long-term practice. The “staying on” part can be a two-hour drop-in once per week for a couple of months, working back one or two days per week, or a more extensive two to four days per week for a year. It’s all negotiable and depends on the amount of production in your practice. This strategy is great for those who are closely tied to their patients and staff and want to see them well cared for after the sale. It also ensures the patients will stay with the buying doctor if the seller is there for a bit after the sale. The pros are that it allows for a very smooth transition. The cons can be that the staff is still allegiant to you and the patients still want to see you. You need to be an impartial observer more than anything at this point and let the buyer be the owner and do his/her work.
SELL AND WORK BACK – If you decide that you still enjoy dentistry, but just do not want to manage the practice anymore, then this is the strategy for you. In certain cases, you can sell your practice and work back. Oftentimes, this scenario allows you to make more money. This can be done at an early age and does not mean you are retiring. I have several case studies where a 50-year-old dentist was tired of managing his staff and getting his reimbursements cut. We sold his practice to someone that wanted a satellite practice. He is working back full time making more money than he ever made. The buyer implemented marketing and other services to increase production. Pros are that you no longer manage your practice and you may make more money. Cons are that you may be selling to a small group or a large group that may require you to implement systems and procedures that are not what you may like. Be selective in who you sell to. I have found that smaller groups allow you more freedom.
PARTIAL SALE – PARTNERSHIP – If your practice has enough production, you can sell a partnership in your practice and continue to work. There are numerous ways of structuring these deals. And, anytime you enter a partnership, I advise you strongly to put everything in writing and have an attorney do their magic to make it legal and foolproof. You sell a portion of your practice, say 1/3, to a buyer. You continue to work and grow the practice. You can then either sell another 1/3 to another buyer or continue to grow, or sell out completely. The pros of this are that you harvest some of your equity while continuing to grow your practice. You then grow the practice some more and then you sell another portion. The cons are that it is like a marriage. You will probably have disagreements with your partner. Be sure and structure it right up front to reduce disagreements and remedy them if there are.
DEFERRED SALE – Also called an associate to own sale. This is where you bring on an associate who works in the practice. The associate may work one or two days to start. You can then sell the practice to the associate at an agreed-upon time. The price can either be determined upfront or at the time of the sale. The way we typically do a deferred sale is to do a valuation in the beginning and agree upon the price. We then do a valuation in the end and the buyer and seller split the equity to determine the final price. This can be a good way to transition as the staff and patients get to know the new doctor. It can go very smoothly. According to the ADA, these fail about 50% of the time. I typically see them fail when either party changes the deal in the middle of the process, one party gets jealous of the other, or personalities conflict. We structure these so there’s a “dating” period and then we lock in the associate with a deposit.
EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN – Now you know the top five strategies for transitioning out of your practice. We often get asked about how creative a transition can be. You can really be as creative as you want to be. The only challenge is finding a buyer who will be creative with you.
So, think about where you are today and what your end goals are. We offer a free consultation to help you determine which strategy is best for you. You can trust that we will come up with a plan that will work for both you and a prospective buyer to make your transition as smooth for everyone as possible.
Dental Transition Planning
Many dentists spend their entire careers working towards the dream of retirement. They have great aspirations of spending more time with their family, traveling, doing dentistry for mission work, or teaching dentistry. Yet, when I ask dentists when they “plan” on retiring, the majority of the time they give me answers like “when it feels right”, “when I think I have enough money”, or “when my wife says it’s okay to come home”. What it amounts to is that they really do not have a plan.
Winston Churchill, who paraphrased Benjamin Franklin, said “he who fails to plan is planning to fail”. As your career advances, it makes sense to have a plan in place that will allow you to transition based on your terms and your plan. You don’t want to be near the end of your career and have a transition forced upon you, or not done the way you want. You want to maximize the return on your practice, bring on a buyer who will closely mirror your dentistry and your personality, and have your staff and patients treated as well as you have treated them.
If you are within 5 to 7 years, or over the age of 55, it is in your families, patients, staff, and your best interest to have a transition plan. Since July is normally a slow dental month, we are offering a free consultation along with a free Emergency Transition contact sheet for the month of July. Call us and we will set up a confidential, no-cost meeting to discuss putting a transition plan in place.