Considering Selling Your Practice?

What you should do first: Talk to me* or someone like me. Why?

Because if you don’t:

• You will leave money on the table. Guaranteed. (I used to be paid quite well by Buyers to make this happen.)
• You will increase your stress during the sale process.
• Your sale will take longer to close with a greater risk of possibly not closing.
• You will sign something you shouldn’t.

Do not sign anything unless the right legal pro reviews it first.

• Broker Agreement – Will he earn his Commish? Is it worth it? What are you paying for that you shouldn’t?
• Confidentiality Agreement/NDA – What should you disclose? When? How? To Whom?
• Term Sheet or LOI – What dollars are you leaving on the table?
• Sale Transaction Documents – The need for a professional review goes for without saying.

Who should review these documents? Not your Broker. Not your CPA. Especially not your brother-in-law, the probate attorney. This must be an experienced Deal Lawyer. An attorney who represents you, not the broker. An attorney you screen, not an attorney recommended by your Buyer.

You need to talk to someone who understands:

• The Deal Process – How to best market and sell your practice and increase the price for it. What it takes to close: Directly, efficiently, and most importantly – Cleanly. Meaning no issues post-close to ruin your transition, your retirement or both and your peace of mind.
• Tax – your most efficient structure: right now, at Closing to maximize the after-tax amount in your pocket, and post-closing as you move on. This is typically not the folks filling out your tax returns.
• Accounting – How do your financials impact your sale price? How do you best present your numbers?
• Finance/Investments – Will your sale price meet your retirement needs/dreams/goals? Do you know exactly what to do with your sale proceeds? And why?

Note: an advisor who understands these things doesn’t mean that person is going to do all of them. It means understanding how each of these topics impacts a sale, who to recommend, and how to lead your team.

Are You Ready to Sell Your Dental Practice Or Buy one?

Take this Basic Quiz to find out.

Don’t want to leave a bunch of money on the table when selling or create a mess and failure of your purchase when buying? See if you can answer “Yes” to at least 6 of these 7 questions. And I don’t know would be considered a “No.”

1. Does your Tax Return match your Financial Statements? 
2. Do you have negative retained earnings on your balance sheet?
3. Is your Practice structured to pay the lowest legal amount of taxes?
4. Can you produce a “clean” (meaning error-free, accurate) P&L within 5 days of the end of the month?
5. Are you comparing your monthly P&L to a monthly budget every month?
6. Do you use a rolling, forward 12-month cash flow report to project your cash needs against your cash coming in?
7. Most importantly, can your EMR system produce accurate reports detailing individual revenue billed (not collected) by dentists and hygienists by procedure code by month?

Note: This last one is so important for Selling or Buying a Dental Practice that if this one isn’t a “Yes”, you should immediately call our firm. 

What’s your score? How many yes’s do you have? If it’s not at least 6, you are facing a big discount when you sell your practice. Or a potentially expensive mess or catastrophe when you buy.