As a practice appraiser and broker, I frequently hear the following questions when dentists begin considering retirement and the sale of their practice. When is the right time to sell my practice and how long will it take to sell it? When you are financially and emotionally ready to retire. The sale of your practice should not be the cornerstone of retirement financial planning. And if you are still enjoying the practice and are still physically able to perform competently, there is no rush to sell your practice. It is best to sell your practice while it is still showing…

The American Dental Association estimates that over 1,300 dentists die each year, and an additional 1,000 retire each year, with a significant number due to disability. Although we all think it won’t happen to us and it’s a topic that we would rather ignore, it is important to have plans for the possibility of untimely death or disability. Your practice is much too valuable an asset to just let whither aware because of lack of planning. A general practice will usually lose 100% of its value within the first six months of inactivity after a death or permanent disability, and…

When we graduate from dental school we are truly altruistic. We have been schooled in the art and science of dentistry and our only concern is to provide our patients with the best dental care. We soon learn in private practice, though, that we must come to grips with the reality that a dental practice is actually a small business. If we aren’t astute at running our dental practices as small businesses, we soon find that we may not get the opportunity to perform or provide the art and science, no matter how altruistic we are. In order to effectively…

In these difficult economic times one of the best ways to grow your practice is “growth by acquisition.” Simply put, acquisition is a strategy to increase your patient base by acquiring another practice and merging it with yours. The best candidates for this are practices that are small enough that you can comfortably accommodate the additional patients and that do not have a lot of value in the equipment. Additionally, the practice needs to be close enough to your existing practice so that distance is not a barrier for the new patients to transfer. In a metropolitan area, the rule…