When you first decide it’s time to put your dental practice up for sale by owner, you should immediately seek help and guidance. One of the first areas of focus should be gathering all of your financial data and dental statistical reports. These are the first documents the buyer will analyze before visiting the office. A dental practice sales broker can assist you in collecting this information as they are experienced in doing so.
Putting a dental practice for sale by owner can be very challenging. More often than not, the owner does not have experience selling practices before. Practice owners can significantly make the processes easier by allowing a dental practice sales broker to assist them. They have the experience, knowledge and an active pool of prescreened buyers.
What Goes Into Selling A Dental Practice By Owner?
When you decide to put your dental practice for sale by owner, you must reserve a significant amount of time to manage the process of a dental office sale. The process is extremely time consuming and at times sellers often feel as though the time they spent over the process could have been better allocated treating patients. Sellers have to be available to respond to questions from their dental attorney and dental accountant while supplying the financial records and dental statistical reports.
There are 10 players in every dental practice sales transaction: buyer, seller, buyers’ attorney, sellers’ attorney, buyers’ accountant, sellers’ accountant, the bank, bank attorney, landlord, and landlord attorney.
Buyers and banks are extremely focused on the trend of revenue earnings. If the dental practice has declining revenues, it can cause issues. This is because the banks will extrapolate revenues at the same trajectory going forward one year and reduce the valuation.
How Can A Dental Practice Broker Assist In The Process?
Conflicts often develop and tensions rise between the seller and buyer during the sale of a dental practice. This is where we come in. We have helped countless sellers and buyers navigate through rough roads, ending in a successful sale. When a dental practice broker is a part of the sale process, we directly handle the negotiation and other communications with the sellers’ most trusted advisors. Having us acting as a middle man allows tensions to be alleviated and transactions to happen smoothly.
A common question in this process is “When is the best time to seek help when selling a dental practice?” The answer is one to two years before the sale. Before putting your dental practice for sale, you should already have sought out a dental practice broker, dental attorney, and a dental CPA accountant. Assembling this team of experts in advance will allow you to smoothly overcome obstacles as they arise.
It is important that your dental accountant reviews all financial reports and has intimate knowledge of your practice’s numbers. At Healthcare Practice Sales LLC, we have in-house CPA accountants to vet and sort through all the information to assure you that the financial information presented to third parties is presented in a way that is comparable to similar practices that we have been successful with in the past.
We use our experience to present gross margins and categories of expenses (including discretionary expenses and unusual fluctuations) to third parties in the most favorable means possible. When amounts stated in financial data are not within normal values, that can easily raise questions. This is why it is beneficial to have a professional handle these important steps.
When it comes to your staff, within two years of selling, you should attempt to retain all of the original employees. Maintaining your staff is important because it fosters a sense of continuity in the practice, despite the seller leaving.
Healthcare Practice Sales Is In Your Corner
We at Healthcare Practice Sales LLC have over 10 years of experience as a dental practice broker and 25 years as a practicing dentist. Using our years of hands-on experience, our team is here to guide you through the difficulties that may arise when you sell your practice.
With proper long-term planning, you could have a very successful sale of your dental office and attain the highest value. On behalf of the entire team at Healthcare Practice Sales LLC, we are here to assist you 24/7, 363 days a year. Please contact us today to start the process of selling your dental practice.
