Seller Articles

Veterinarians typically sell their practice when a life event happens.  That life event may be health related, financial reason, or you have just reached the age where it’s time to retire and spend some quality time enjoying your family and life.  Whatever the reason may be there are several things you can work on that will make your practice more appealing and will help you and your family prepare for a practice sale.  Here are a few items to focus on:

Freshen up your practice – Buyers like to see a fresh, clean and somewhat updated practice.  That does not mean you need to do a complete remodel and spend a $100,000.  It does mean you need to take a look at your flooring and your walls.  If you have large holes in your wall or your flooring was leftover linoleum from World War II, you should fix the holes and put in new flooring.  Talk to your landlord, sometimes they will help with the cost.  If you have equipment that is held together by the “fix everything” duct tape, contact your local equipment rep and have it fixed.

Update your technology – We run into an occasional practice owner that considers indoor plumbing as new technology.  If you are in that category, or if you have not done any technology updates since Richard Nixon was president, you should look into digital x-rays and other technology that will not only appeal to buyers but will help you increase your production in the practice.  Contact your equipment rep for the latest and great technology.

Financial Review – Have a meeting with your financial planner or advisor to see where you currently stand with your retirement portfolio.  This will help determine how soon you can possibly retire, how much more you may need to put away to retire and/or how much you need to get out of your practice sale in order to retire. 

Practice Valuation – You should get a valuation done on your practice.  This will help your financial planner and you see where you stand with your entire portfolio.  Some doctors rely heavily on their practice sale to be a piece of their retirement nest-egg, so if you don’t know what your practice may be worth, you don’t know what size of nest-egg you have.  Call Omni for a free snapshot valuation. 

Clean up your books – If you have been aggressive in running expenses and other items through payroll, you should work on making sure the books are clean.   If you have multiple practices, but run all of your income and expenses through one tax id number, you should ensure you can separate the income and expenses of both practices.   Meet with your CPA to analyze your numbers and see if you are in line with industry averages.

Grow your practice – One of the worst things you can do is take your foot off of the gas pedal.  If you want to maximize the value of your practice, keep production at least level with prior years.  A growing practice sells quicker and easier than a dying practice.   If you don’t know how to grow your practice and make it more sellable, contact a consultant, or have a practice assessment done.

These are just a few items that you can do to help prepare your practice for a sale.  If you work on these items now and over the next 3 years, you will maximize your practice value, enlarge your pool of potential buyers and be able to sell your practice quicker.  ​

Whether you are approaching retirement age or just thinking about a transition, there are several things you can do to prepare your veterinary practice for sale.  Doing these things may help eliminate headaches, increase your sales price, or reduce your costs.  Here are a few tips:

1.  Assess your equipment.  Upgraded practices sell faster.  If you are more than five years away from retirement, I recommend a few upgrades such as recover your chairs if needed and freshen up the paint.  If you want to sell in less than five years, stick to the paint and carpet because you will not get the tax benefit of major upgrades.
2. Clean up your accounts receivable.  Reimburse patient credits, collect old accounts and keep the A/R current.
3. If you have an associate, make sure you have an associate agreement with a non-compete.
4. If you have an employment agreement with your corporation and you are a C-Corporation, you may need to terminate yourself a few years before retiring.  Consult your tax accountant.
5. Consult your financial advisor and tax accountant.  How much do you need to retire?  How much do you have?  What are the tax consequences?
6. Get a practice valuation to see what proceeds you will get from the sale.
7. Be realistic in the time it takes to sell.  In remote areas, it can take a year or two.  Metro areas, much less.
8. Keep your production up as you near retirement.  I see veterinarians slow down all the time in their last few years.  Work the same number of days.
9. Assess your staff.  Do you have too many staff?  Do you have one that should have been let go seven years ago?
10. Have a practice assessment performed by a qualified consultant.  Many will do it for free or a small fee.  This may help show you some areas to improve over the next few years.

By focusing on these items in the coming years as you near retirement, you will avoid having your practice production and the price of your practice go down in your later years.  Call me for a free consultation.  I would be happy to take a look at your practice and give you my thoughts.  Or, if you are thinking about transition right now, I have a database of buyers looking in your area. 877-866-6053 ext. 2.

For those of you that have been around for a few years, you have probably noticed that the economy is cyclical.  Factors such as interest rates, employment levels, consumer spending and even retirement rates ebb and flow.  This flux creates optimal opportunities to buy and optimal opportunities to sell.
Currently, the market for a practice transition is a seller’s market.   This means there are more buyers looking to acquire a practice than there are sellers looking to sell a practice.  It has been this way for a number of years.  But there are a number of factors that make the current market a perfect storm.  These factors are as follows:

1. There are not a lot of practices on the market.  Low supply and high demand equate to higher practice values.
2. Interest rates are still relatively low.  This makes note payments more affordable, so buyers are looking to take advantage of lower rates by purchasing a practice.
3. The economy is strong.  Patients are getting their dentistry done.  They are employed and have insurance, or can afford to pay cash and get work done.
4. There are more buyers than sellers. Doctors have been holding on to their practices and delaying the sale of their practice in part because of the down market in 2008 to 2010.  The average retirement age for dentists was 62 in 2000 – it’s now closer to 67.

Just as perfect storms at some point break, so will the perfect storm for a transition.  Interest rates are already starting to increase.  Over 50% of doctors are now over the age of 55 and getting older.  They are beginning to sell either to retire or, unfortunately, because of health reasons.  Seller’s markets are flipping to buyers markets in other parts of the country with older populations.  It will eventually happen where you are as well.  If you are thinking about a transition within the next few years, we would be happy to meet with you and answer your questions and put help formulate your transition plan.  Just give us a call at 877.866.6053 or send us an email at info@omni-pg.com.

It’s probably been a while since you bought or started your practice.  You may have just found a location and put up a sign, or bought the practice that you went to as a kid.  You did not have a plethora of practices to look at, different practice management systems, new technology, or even a wide variety of practices or procedures to choose from the way graduates do today.  Dentists who are shopping for practices now days have all those things to think about in addition to financing, websites, marketing, and more.  So, what are the hot spots a buyer wants to see in a practice?  Here are a few of those items:
 

1. Collections – Most buyers want a good base amount of collections.  The average practice produces around $500,000 per year.  If you’re below this amount, expect your practice to take longer to sell as there are few dentists who want a small practice that they can grow.  Most want to buy it, move in and get cash flow from the very start.
2. Cash Flow – Buyers want to be able to pay the debt service on the practice and also pay themselves a decent paycheck.  If you have an average size practice, your overhead should be at or below the national average of 65%.  This is after the “add-backs” that are done on your tax returns which “add-back” those expenses you are running through your practice which are really not operational to the practice.
3. Hygiene Recall – A solid recall program should be in place.  Approximately 30% of the collections in the practice should be from hygiene for a stable practice.  A little less is okay, but the lower you get, the closer you are to running an emergency clinic than a stable dental practice.  Not that there is anything wrong with that, you just reduce your pool of buyers if you have lower hygiene production.  At the same time, if you have really high hygiene – 40% or higher, that either means your hygienists are awesome and so is your patient retention, or, you’re not doing much in the way of procedures and doing a lot of “watches”, fillings instead of crowns, etc.,
4. Digital Technology – While this isn’t a must, most buyers want to see digital x-rays at a minimum.  You can still sell your practice without digital x-rays, but expect the price to be slightly lower.  Panoramic x-rays are great as the machines are less and less expensive.  Digital charts are also nice to have.
5. Decent Lease – With the commercial real estate market going crazy, you never know what you’re going to get.  It’s good to have a lease term of at least 5 years out with a 3-year option on top.  Problematic leases with tear down clauses, little parking, or those with short-term leases and the landlord not willing to extend the lease will cause a formidable problem in the sale of the practice.
6. Updated equipment and décor – If you have older chairs, be sure and at least have the coverings in good shape.   Older chairs are fine, but torn dental chair covers are not.  Dental chair covers are inexpensive.  Get new ones if yours are not in good shape.  Old carpet, paint and outdated countertops are also a turn-off.  A bit of new carpet, paint, and countertops go a long way in making a practice feel fresh and new for not very much money.
7. Poor Bookkeeping and Accounting – Have I got stories in this area!  However, I’ve been sworn to secrecy.  If you’re running your Porsche lease, spouses’ dermatologist appointments, vacations to Italy, or doing anything remotely grey in the accounting world through your practice, STOP!  We have had practices we could not sell due to too much funny business going on in the books.  Bank credit departments look at the numbers and ask a lot of questions which leads to buyers getting very scared and running away.  I’m sure if you have a good accountant, they are following generally accepted accounting principles for your practice and there will not be a problem.

These are just some of the hot items that can quickly turn off a buyer and will give you the best chance of selling your practice.  Not being able to check off the box for each of these items does not mean you cannot sell your practice, it just means your buyer pool will be smaller and it will take longer to sell.  If you’re two to three years away from selling you can use this as a guideline to prepare your practice to sell over the next couple of years.

The holidays are an interesting time of year.  Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanzaa, Rohatsu (look it up) or another holiday, we all are wrapping up the current year and beginning to think about the new year on or before January 1.  You may have a process or a traditional way of doing this.  Reviewing your 2017 goals versus what you actually accomplished and then setting new goals for 2018 is a typical way of viewing things.
As I look back at 2017, I go through the names of the doctors whose practices I sold and understand a bit more about them.  I look at the doctors’ names of the practices and, amongst other things, I think about why they sold their practices.  I see names of doctors who sold their practice because they are ready to retire – this is the typical reason for selling.  But I also see the names of doctors who sold their practice because they were diagnosed with cancer and could no longer practice.  I sold four such doctors’ practices this past year.  I also see the names of two doctors, both under the age of 42 who were planning to practice dentistry into retirement, whose practices I sold because they got nerve damage in their hands and wrists.  There are also several doctors who sold because they were tired of managing a practice – dealing with insurance companies, staff management and managing their landlords.
Not long ago, I had a conversation with two doctors in their late fifties who both had recent health scares and had family members and friends who passed away from cancer at early ages.  This hit home as my Dad passed away in July of 2017 from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and my brother was just diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  And as these doctors ask me questions about selling their practices, I remind them that just because you sell does not mean you’re done with dentistry.  You can still work as an associate dentist in another practice, teach at the dental school, or volunteer at a clinic.  I let them know that I’ve never had a dentist tell me that they sold too early.  In fact, many have come back and said I wish I would have sold several years ago because they are loving their freedom of being able to come and go as they please, fill in for vacationing friends, or work in a clinic when they get the itch to do dentistry.
As you celebrate your holidays, try not to think too much about work.  Also, as you set your goals for 2018 and do an assessment of your career and life, don’t forget to think about what’s important to you.  For some, it may be that dentistry takes priority over everything and it’s your passion.   For others, maybe it’s time to turn to the next chapter and enjoy what you have – family, friends, time, giving back, etc. Whatever direction you go, know that we are here for you and happy to provide a free consultation anytime you would like.  We’ll even buy the coffee!
OMNI would like to wish you and your family Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Kwanza yen iwe ha heri, Happy Rohatsu, and CHEERS to the New Year and best wishes for everything you desire in 2018!