How To Sell Your Dental Practice: A Step by Step Guide

How To Sell Your Dental Practice: A Step by Step Guide

Are you looking to sell your dental practice, but don’t quite know how to go about it? 

A dental practice is a complex, multifaceted business, and successfully selling such an organization requires a deep understanding of the legal, financial, and organizational implications of the sale. If you’re working nights and weekends just to keep your busy practice afloat, successfully selling your practice might sound like an impossible task. 

If you’re looking to sell your dental practice, but don’t know where to start, then you’ve come to the right place. The experts at Triumphant Partners have decades of industry expertise in dental practice valuation, finance, and operations. To help you start the process of selling your dental practice, they’ve assembled this step-by-step guide to selling your dental practice. Read on to learn more! 

Know Your Goals

Obviously, you want to sell your dental practice, but the driving impetus behind that goal is worth discussing, as this impacts your overall go-to-market approach. Do you want to sell ASAP and transition out quickly for a new and exciting business opportunity? Are you nearing retirement and willing to spend some time transitioning? Are you ready to leave behind working nights and weekends and reclaim your life while continuing to practice as a dentist? 

These are all valid goals, but the strategy for selling will be different for each. A dentist looking to leave as soon as possible may be willing to accept a slightly smaller offer to close the deal quickly and ensure a smooth transition of the practice. 

A dentist hoping to stay on and practice, however, will want to carefully review the terms and operating models of the dental support organizations they entertain. After all, they’ll be staying on with this business for some time, so they must understand exactly what they’re signing on for. 

Regardless of what your life holds after the sale of your dental practice, take the time to think through exactly what you want from this sale. This is the cornerstone on which the rest of the process is built. 

Find Your Value

Have you ever tried to sell something without a good understanding of what it should cost? The process was likely frustrating, cumbersome, and inefficient, solely because you didn’t know what to expect and were likely shortchanged by potential buyers. 

The same applies to your dental practice. Without a clear understanding of your dental practice’s value, you could leave tens of thousands of dollars on the table. If you don’t know the value of your dental practice, start here and the rest will follow. 

Prepare Financials

You’ll need a large amount of financial data on hand to sell your dental practice. Once you have a good idea of your value, you can then move on to documenting and preparing financial data for potential buyers. This can be a bit daunting for many dentists, as the necessary information is technical and requires some time to correctly assemble, vet, and collect. Generally, you should be prepared to have the following handy when preparing to sell your dental practice: 

  • Collections Documents
  • Profit-and-loss Statements 
  • Tax Returns
  • Pertinent Licenses and Certifications
  • Expense Reports, Including Staff Salaries
  • & More

Identify A Buyer

Now, you’re at the stage where it’s time to identify some potential buyers. This is where your goals will be incredibly pertinent. If you’re hoping to transition your practice quickly, you’ll likely need to spend more time reviewing each potential buyer and determining if they’d be a good fit for you as a business partner. If you’re looking to leave dentistry altogether, you might not need to spend as much time thinking through each potential buyer as a business partner, although you will still need to spend a great deal of time identifying fit. 

Screening potential buyers is a critical piece of the process and one that you cannot afford to overlook. Your dental practice is a valuable asset and will attract interest, but not all of it will align well with your needs and goals. Moreover, any time spent with a potential buyer who is not vetted correctly can be a waste of your precious time, a resource you cannot afford to lose. 

To mitigate the risk of wasted time, we recommend screening each potential buyer to the best of your ability, ensuring that you’re only chatting with the most qualified. This approach will maximize your process and make selling your dental practice on your timetable and terms that much easier. 

Your Dental Practice Sale Partner

Does this all sound overwhelming? Then turn to a trusted industry partner. Valuing the worth of a dental practice, screening buyers, and packaging financial information are all art forms that most dentists will not be able to execute effectively while running a practice and caring for their patients. 

That’s why a dental transition expert like Triumphant Partners is such a boon! We bring decades of experience in complex practice sales and transitions to your sale, utilizing that expertise to help you achieve your stated outcome. We only represent your interests; when you successfully sell, we succeed with you. 
Are you preparing to sell your dental practice? Contact Triumphant today for your free courtesy consultation!