5 Things to Consider in your Dental Transition

Dental practice transitions can be challenging. Each transition is as unique as your dental practice. Meticulous planning is required to complete the transition successfully. Below is a list of 5 things you should assess in your practice before putting your unique transition plan in place.

1. Financial advice
   Seek advice from your financial advisors to see if you can afford to sell your dental practice. It’s important to analyze the numbers to see if you can make the transition without having to depend solely on the sale of the practice to make it.
    
2. Upgrades may not pay off
   Doctors looking to buy a dental practice are looking primarily at net cash flow. Pay off any outstanding debt, or do not incur any additional practice-related debt. Your practice value consists primarily of your cash flow and relationship with patients, not your equipment. Resist the temptation to go out and purchase a lot of new equipment with the false expectation that it will enhance your practice value dollar for dollar.
    
3. Staff evaluation
   A successful dental business for sale involves the cooperation of staff. You may want to conduct a staff performance analysis to see what can be done to make the practice run more effectively. A truly excellent staff will make the practice more valuable and attractive to a buyer.
    
4. Improve patient flow & collections
   Take positive yet conservative steps to increase practice collections and improve new patient flow. Generally speaking, practices with greater collections from fee-for-service patients will sell for more; however, canceling your participation in PPO type insurance programs shortly before a sale will result in a greater risk of patient attrition and, subsequently, a lower perceived value by the buyer. Practices with a healthy new patient flow and high patient retention represent greater value to buyers when they purchase a dental practice.
    
5. Marketable touch-ups
   Consider if the practice facility needs a face-lift. This may include items such as painting the walls, re-carpeting, and re-upholstering dental chairs. For only a few thousand dollars, a dental business for sale with such improvements will pay dividends in marketability when it comes time to sell.

Although dental practice transitions can be complicated and messy, we’ve seen it all and know how to help you through the process of selling your dental practice. For more information on dental practice transitions, get in touch with CTC Associates today.