You’ve decided to purchase a dental practice. Your adrenaline kicks in as you embark on one of the greatest financial journeys of your life. It can be easy to want to jump right in and get things started. But that’s no way to set yourself up for success. To get the most out of your future dental practice, you’ll first want to take these common mistakes into consideration.
Don’t purchase the first available dental practice
The excitement of purchasing a dental practice can sometimes lead to buying the first one you lay eyes on. However, with so many dental practices on the market, you don’t want decision fatigue to get the best of you. Setting up a buyer profile with Professional Transition Strategies (PTS) will put you ahead of the game by notifying you of new practices on the market up to five days before everyone else, as well as helping to find the best fit in terms of size, location and demographics.
Don’t enter a new partnership
Partnerships can be a profitable way to share the workload, especially when working with another specialist, but it can be risky to enter an agreement with someone with whom you’ve never worked before. It’s important for a potential partner to match your practice philosophy and goals to ensure you don’t burn out. Test the waters ahead of time by sharing an office space, then enlist a dental practice broker to draw up the agreements.
Don’t go it alone
You’ve been envisioning the dental practice of your dreams since graduation. That doesn’t mean you should take the purchase of a business into your own hands. There are lots of moving parts you may not have considered upfront, and your time is better spent on staff and patient attrition rates. Your dental practice broker will coordinate the rest of the details with your team of advisors.
Don’t make too many changes in the beginning
Change can be hard for staff and patients when facing a transition of ownership. Reassure staff their pay, benefits and position will not change, at least for the first six months, and keep patients in the loop about any changes to the office or insurance. Any change made after the initial grace period should be clearly communicated to staff and patients.
Don’t get set on a plan
Once you begin the buying process, you’ll realize how many transition options are available for dental practices. Even if you always envisioned sole proprietorship, maybe once you start looking at the market and your dream is becoming a reality, you realize you don’t want to deal with the managerial aspects of owning your own business and want to focus exclusively on clinical care. A dental practice broker could discuss the pros and cons of dental service organizations (DSOs). There’s a practice for every buyer on the market, if they so choose.
Bottom line
With so many steps to buying a dental practice, you’ll want to be sure to have a proper checklist in place. Contact the experts at PTS to walk you through the process.