Tips for Buying or Selling Your Practice Following the Pandemic

For both buyers and sellers, Christy shares four tips to find success in any dental practice transition, especially today and preparation for tomorrow:

1. Understand the ups and downs of ownership

The reality is that small business owners are often so singularly focused on day-to-day operations that they lose sight of the big ‘what-if’ scenarios. While a global pandemic is hard to predict and is unique as it has impacted everyone at once, Christy notes that this time allows owners to identify the strengths and weaknesses of their practice and plan accordingly in the event of another emergency scenario.

“Whether it’s more personal or centralized to your area geographically, like say, a hurricane in Houston, or a health issue, a preparedness plan will take you a long way,” says Christy. “We clearly can’t avoid risk altogether, but you can take the time to understand your risk tolerance and have a plan for how to mitigate it.”

The good news about preparing for scenarios like these is, it will allow you to be in a better position in a transition scenario and may make your practice more attractive to buyers. On the other side of the coin, if you’re a buyer, you’ll be better prepared to make a deal that matches your risk tolerance if you are prepared individually for unexpected events.

2. Consider the history and new trends

While it may be tempting to only look at or reply on the most recent months for performance indicators for a valuation or offer, it’s important to look at a variety of historical data to understand how a practice performed pre-COVID-19 and what the practice looks like as it opens back up. That’s important because it indicates overall health of a practice and in these times, the most recent months are likely not indicative of the future.

Sellers looking to transition during this time are in a unique position and while some see it as a negative, Christy says buyers are out there. “Every practice is going to have its own set of factors that mitigate or create risks. And, every buyer is going to have an internal level of risk tolerance,” says Christy. “Clearly all the things you do to manage your profitability during this time when cash flow is tight should be continued if you can once you reopen. That’s only going to increase your profitability and increase the opportunity to a buyer.”

Buyers and sellers will need to take a hard look at expenses and cash flow for any dental practice transition, even more so in these times. Buyers will want to ensure the practice is doing what it can to get patients back in the door and will want to see an upward trend in scheduling and production towards pre-COVID levels.  With the right diligence and with the right practice, buyers who are forward thinking could have a big advantage by becoming owners sooner rather than later.

3. Understand total value

For sellers, it may seem to be an easy move to simply sell patient records. However, don’t discount the value of other portions of your dental practice: everything has value.

“Most of the value in your practice is outside of the patient records. And, there’s a lot of people who want to buy practices,” suggests Christy. “We’ve helped people sell their practice when it was supposed to only be patient records, allowing them to reap additional, unexpected benefit from their lifelong work”

For example, your staff is highly trained and has excellent relationships with patients. They provide significant value to any buyer looking to retain patients and reduce costs in training new staff. For those considering a startup business, this kind of asset is valuable runway, allowing the practice to hit the ground running with little disruption to patients or profitability.

Regardless of additional value, there will be some practices who choose to sell their patient records and shut their doors. For existing owners, purchasing another practice’s patient records could be an incredible opportunity to expand your reach and grow your practice.

4. Be open to creative solutions

She encourages creativity for transitions during this time: “From a standpoint of a seller, it’s a moment where you also have to understand that there’s likely no rule of transition that’s applicable to everyone. So, let’s think outside the box here.”

NDP clients are becoming more adaptable with deals so that both buyers and sellers are comfortable with terms. For some it’s as simple as pushing back closing; however, others are re-evaluating workback agreements, so that the buyer has additional support.

Others are re-evaluating whether the traditional 100% upfront payment is appropriate or if more seller involvement or holdbacks can be agreed to. The appropriateness of these “outside of the box” solutions is wholly dependent on the practice and transition specifics, but creative solutions can enable both the buyer and seller to prove out the long-term value of the practice, mitigate risk, and build cash reserves.

“Lenders are also doing some great things for buyers right now,” notes Christy. “Some are giving six months of no payments and interest only to allow buyers to build up the cash that they need to weather the storm again, whether COVID-19 or something else.”

Opportunities for success

Even in times of unexpected turmoil, the good news is that your dreams do not have to be put on the backburner. This year can still be the one you purchased your first practice, or you lightened your load to prepare for retirement. New challenges can pave the way for new opportunities.

Whether you’re a dentist in your early career with a passion to become an owner or simply looking toward retirement, Cain Watters and NDP have a number of resources to guide your diligence process and help you navigate the way. Together we can take a look at your practice and forge a clear path forward to achieve your personal and professional goals.

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