Articles

Due Diligence

Visiting a Practice For Sale—How to Do It Right

Posted on by Brian Hanks
24
May

Seeing a practice in person is a must before buying it. When you’re looking for a practice to buy, the top-level numbers and location may catch your eye—but before you put in an offer, and certainly before you sign on the line, make sure you’ve looked over the practice thoroughly yourself.

After you’ve talked to the selling dentist and their broker about your interest, you’ll schedule a visit to the premises. Here’s what you can expect as a buyer when it comes to in-person visits of a dental practice.

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Due Diligence

2 Ways to Evaluate a Selling Dentist—and When to Do Them

Posted on by Brian Hanks
10
May

Buying a dental practice is NOT like buying a home. In a home sale, realtors and agents often love to keep the buyer and seller apart. But if you’re buying a dental practice, you need to get to know the seller, and you need to do it right.

You and the seller should be a reasonably good fit for each other, both in clinical and business terms. We’re not talking about an exact carbon copy here, but the Venn diagram should have some significant overlap.

So how do you figure that out? In this post I’ll tell you not only what you’re looking for, but also when you should look for it.

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Before You Buy

7 Questions that Tell You If It’s a Good Practice For You

Posted on by Brian Hanks
03
May

I’m a numbers guy. I love spreadsheets, statistics, and the quantitative side of analyzing a practice. But just as important is the qualitative part of the analysis. Sure, it might be a great practice on paper. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good for you.

Here are the top 7 questions I tell dentists to ask themselves about a potential practice to buy.

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Before You Buy

Here’s How to Get Rid of Student Debt FAST

Posted on by Brian Hanks
26
Apr

If you’re a dental associate, your student loans probably look like Mount Kilimanjaro. Yeah, you’ll conquer it eventually, but that’s a heck of a climb to get there. And if you stay in an associate or employee role, that will be one tough summit.

The average dental school grad in 2022 came out of school with just shy of $294,000 in student loan debt. To put it mildly: yikes. And that’s just the average! While some have a bit less, some have twice that amount. Maybe you’re in that boat—if so you’re not alone. A quick google search shows that there are a ton of current and former students worried about how to pay all of that off.

So, how do you do it? How do you pay down those student loans as fast as possible?

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Ownership

Shifting to the Ownership Mindset

Posted on by Brian Hanks
19
Apr

Remember in dental school, all those classes you took on how to run the practice you’d one day own? No? Of course not. And that’s okay! Your dental school did a great job making you into an amazing dentist. Now it’s time to prepare to be a practice owner, and that will take a real mindset shift from associate or employee to that of a leader. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you prepare for that next stage of your career.

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General

Your BIG Advantage Over DSOs

Posted on by Brian Hanks
29
Mar

DSOs seem to be on the rise these days. These investor-owned, multi-practice corporations have deep pockets and lots of bargaining chips when it comes to buying up private practices.

So what do you, the small, private buyer, have to offer a seller? Why would they choose you? Let’s take on a few truths and misconceptions about DSO offers, and why you’re still extremely competitive as a private buyer.

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Finding a Practice

How to Use BROKERS to Find a Dental Practice to Buy

Posted on by Brian Hanks
22
Mar

If you’re looking for a dental practice to buy, follow my 80/20 rule. It’s pretty simple: When you’re looking for a practice, you should spend 80% of your time networking with other dentists, especially grey-haired ones. That’s where most of my clients find their eventual practices, and it’s usually how you’ll find the best ones (the ones that never even hit the other market.

The other 20% should be spent with brokers, also an excellent resource. You can do that passively, just by checking their websites, or proactively, by connecting with them personally. Connecting with brokers is both easier and trickier than working with other dentists.

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