6 More Questions to Ask a DSO

You likely have many questions if you’re debating selling your dental practice to a dental support organization or DSO. Choosing a dental support organization is a big decision that will significantly impact your career and the future of your dental practice. You need to make sure you’re selecting the right DSO for your specific needs and your practice’s unique situation. 

However, every dental support organization is different, and what might be true for most might not be true for all. Developing a list of questions to ask potential DSOs is imperative. Luckily, Triumphant Transition Partners has years of industry experience to provide. We recommend consulting the questions contained below. If you do your job right, you can successfully screen potential DSOs using these questions to ensure you only entertain the best dental practice offers. Read on to learn more! 

What Are the Terms of Staying On?

Each DSO will have specific requirements for your role after the sale of your practice. Some might allow for a quick exit from the practice. Others might mandate the dentist selling the practice stay on for a set amount of time. Be sure to consider your specific goals when having this discussion with a DSO. If you want to sell your practice and leave quickly, you’ll need to make sure that the potential DSO is ok with this option. The finer details will need to be ironed out at closing. Still, getting a high-level view of the DSO’s standard operating procedure can be incredibly helpful when beginning initial conversations. 

Who Makes Business Decisions?

If you plan on staying on as a practicing dentist, you must know your role. Many dentists stay on with a DSO with the expectation that they will retain control of the practice’s business decisions. Some transition agreements are structured this way, but it isn’t uncommon for the DSO to control many elements of practice operations. Depending on the DSO and their desired terms, several key business decisions could be out of your hands. 

What Does Compensation Look Like?

There are a host of different ways to structure a dental practice transition agreement, and the specific terms could drastically impact your compensation. Sign-on bonuses, profit sharing, and a percentage of collections are all possible elements of your earnings, and slightly different compensation terms could lead to drastically different compensation. Ask the dental support organization for a walk-through of these terms to better understand your total compensation. 

What Changes Will I See? 

Each DSO is a little different. There will always be some degree of change when selling and transitioning a dental practice, but the changes you can expect will vary from DSO to DSO. A thorough walk-through of 30, 60, 90, and 180 days into the transition is a great way to gauge future changes. It also allows you to prep your staff and patients as needed to ensure that no one is surprised by the transition. 

What Do Other Dentists Think about Your Organization? 

See if the DSO can put you in touch with another dentist for a consultation. Your professional network could have impressions of or direct experience with the DSO in question. Don’t be afraid to leverage your professional connections to acquire an objective look behind the curtain. You likely know dentists, whether from your local market, school, or professional organizations, who are affiliated with the relevant DSOs. Talk to them and pick their brains for their thoughts as you continue conversations with DSOs. 

What Can You Provide?

Many DSOs offer their dentists access and support outside of day-to-day business operations and execution. This can include everything from continuing education, professional development conferences, proprietary operational processes, and practice technology enhancements. Ask your potential DSO what else they can provide your practice. There are many benefits of signing with a DSO outside of the offer dollar figure and terms. 

Navigating the Sale Process

Comparing all the different DSOs can take a lot of time and effort. If you’re busy maintaining your practice and tending to your patients, this can feel like an overwhelming task. If you’re hoping to sell your dental practice to a DSO on your terms, it can be advantageous to have outside help.

If you need a seasoned industry expert in your corner, call Triumphant Transition Partners today! Selling and transitioning your dental practice is challenging; a trusted advocate with years of experience transitioning dental practices can help you sell your practice at your terms and on your timetable. Our team can offer the following: 

  • Insight into Your Practice’s Unique Value
  • Access to Our Private Buyer Network
  • Help with Vetting & Letters of Intent
  • Relevant Financial Documents for Your Attorneys at Close

Call your trusted Triumphant advisor for your courtesy consultation today and begin the process of transitioning your dental practice!

Mistakes to Avoid When Transitioning a Dental Practice

Congratulations, you’ve sold – or are planning to sell – your dental practice! This is an exciting time in your professional career, and there’s much to consider. However, your work doesn’t end at close. Rather, it’s just beginning. 

Transitioning a dental practice successfully requires deep knowledge of the industry, input from a number of professionals, and quite a bit of management on your side. If you’re not prepared, it can be easy to make common mistakes that will impact you and your business deeply. Triumphant Transition Partners has overseen countless dental transitions and has noticed a few trends regarding less-than-optimal transitions. 

If you want to transition your dental practice, pay attention to these common mistakes. Your career will thank you for it. 

Mistake 1: Not Enough Time Planned

It takes time to transition the ownership of a dental practice. There might be situations where a selling dentist could conceivably leave their practice shortly after closing, but they’re usually few and far between. It’s much more common for dentists to stay on for a period of time. Your timeline from the decision to sell to close could be well over a year. Make sure you thoroughly plan and give yourself enough time. 

Trying to sell without enough time could lead to accepting offers you normally wouldn’t. It will take time to find the right buyer, vet them, negotiate, close, and transition, and you might be contractually required to stick around after the sale. Typically, we recommend planning on the sale and transition process taking a year or more. Keep this in mind as you plan your transition. The more time, the better. 

Mistake 2: Accepting an Unfair Offer

Business valuations are part-art, part-science. You might think you understand your practice’s worth, but don’t entertain any offers from DSOs without undergoing a professional practice valuation. You could easily accept a low-ball DSO offer for your practice and potentially leave hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table. 

The best way to combat this is to have an intensive valuation of your practice. Any seasoned practice valuator will take the time to review your financials and help you understand what your practice is worth. There are several ways to value a dental practice, but it’s best to focus on your EBITDA. Understanding your Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization will give you a quick view of your business’s value versus its obligation. 

Mistake 3: Failing to Communicate

The sale of your practice will be big news for your staff, business partners, vendors, and patient base. Direct and honest communication with all parties is critical for the success of your transition. Exercise discretion when divulging information, but no one should be in the dark about your expected timeline and goals.  

Mistake 4: Failing to Plan the Details

There are many details within a transition agreement that all have a significant impact on your practice. Timelines, hiring decisions, and operational planning must be detailed within your contract. Failing to pay attention to these details can greatly impact your satisfaction with your agreement.  Nothing is worse than signing on with a DSO without fully understanding your agreement, as this can break your business relationship. 

To avoid this, be upfront with your potential DSOs about terms when considering an offer. The more visibility you have into what you can expect post-sale, the better. Having a trusted and experienced attorney in your corner is also a must for this stage. 

Mistake 5: Going It Alone

So many details go into transitioning the ownership of a dental practice. You likely are still trying to take care of your patient base and prepare for the next stage of your career. Tackling this project without seasoned, industry-experienced support is a recipe for disaster. The right advisor can help you sell your practice quicker, above the asking price, and on your terms, all while saving you time, stress, and energy. 

If you’re looking for help selling and transitioning your dental practice, look no further than Triumphant Transition Partners! We are your dedicated partner in helping you through the dental practice transition process! You’ve put a lot of time and effort into your practice. Make sure that you have a partner who recognizes that work and can help you smoothly transition your dental practice. 

As your dental transition advisor, Triumphant Transition Partners is here to assist with the following:

  • Evaluations
  • Finding & Vetting Potential Buyers
  • Equipping Your Attorneys with Pertinent Data through Close
  • & More!

Call your trusted Triumphant advisor today for a courtesy consultation!

Dental Industry 2024 Forecast

Any industry can change on a dime, and the dental space is no exception. 

A slew of new factors are upending the dental industry in 2024, and there looks to be no end in sight. If you own a dental practice, these tailwinds are just facts of life and ones that you can’t ignore. 

Luckily, the team here at Triumphant Transition Advisors has identified the trends they see on the horizon for 2024. What’s more, we’ve also included some options for capitalizing on these phenomena and taking your dental practice to new heights. Read on to learn more! 

Health Tech Software

New and innovative apps are hitting the market and changing the game. These apps could be used for many things, and more and more dental practices are utilizing software to make their practices run more efficiently. 

The use cases for health tech apps in your dental practice are almost endless. Everything from patient reminders to paperwork management to payment processing could be handled via these apps. Patients are obviously thrilled with these new apps, but they also pose a considerable benefit to your practice’s operational efficiency as well. If done right, these apps can make your practice run much smoother. 

Non-Invasive Treatments 

For many, the term “dentist’s office” conjures up feelings of abject terror. No one wants to have someone else’s hands in their mouth, let alone endure surgery or tooth removal. The cool thing is that dentistry has come a long way in recent years, and innovative and inventive treatment procedures are now hitting the market. 

Previously unimaginable treatments now require hardly any downtown or incision. This revolution in non-invasive treatments is leading more and more dentists to look into securing new equipment and offering new treatments for their patients. While this equipment comes at a price, it greatly benefits the practices. If you want a steady flow of patients, put in the upfront investment to ensure you have the most up-to-date equipment, guaranteeing the best patient experience possible. 

Staffing Shortages 

Finding, hiring, training, and retaining the best has always been challenging, but it is getting increasingly demanding in the dental world. Unfortunately, dentists are finding it difficult to find and hire the right people in 2024. Moreover, retaining the right people can often take time, even if you make suitable hires.

These staffing problems can eat away at the efficiency of your practice and stop you from reaching your peak functionality as a practice. Additionally, staffing problems can lead to you working more hours than you’d prefer. After all, you’re a dentist and want to spend your time taking care of patients, not answering phones and dealing with routine paperwork problems. Finding quality help is critical for you, your patients, and your dental practice if you want to reclaim your nights and weekends. 

Rising Overhead

It’s no secret that inflation has been the center of economic news over the course of the last few years. Dental supplies have not been exempt from this, and monthly economic numbers in June of 2022 showed the highest monthly rise in dental services ever recorded. 

These rising costs may result in more time spent on procurement and accounting, a specialty in which you likely are not proficient. For many dentists, the cost of inflation can be too high, and many decide to leave dentistry altogether. 

Partner With Triumphant Transition Partners

Are you a dentist working sun-up to sun-down to run your practice? Are you considering leaving dentistry or, at the very least, changing how you run your practice? Partner with Triumphant Transition Partners today!

Selling your dental practice to a dental support organization or dental partnership organization is a great way to find a viable partner, one with deep pockets and industry expertise. If you’re looking to exit dentistry, selling your practice is a great way to exit the scene, but DSOs and DPOs can also be great options for dentists who want to continue practicing.

 If you love dentistry but need some support with marketing, hiring, and procurement, an additional partner’s processes, resources, and expertise could make all the difference in the world.

However, selling and transitioning a dental practice is a challenging feat. You need qualified and rigorous industry experts in your corner when selling to ensure you don’t end up with the wrong organization. Few things can ruin your working life as much as a bad business partnership.

That’s why you must lean on the Triumphant Transitions team and guarantee that you sell your dental practice on your terms and timeline. Reach out to your friendly Triumphant advisor for a courtesy consultation on:

  • Your Practice Value
  • Our Private Buyer Network
  • Our Process
  • & More!

What Financial Documents Do I Need To Sell My Dental Practice?

The daily life of a dentist can be hectic. Many dentists find their workdays filled with patient care, continuing education, and practice administration. Against this backdrop, dentists can struggle to make time for their personal lives. The difficulty of running a practice and providing excellent clinical care simultaneously often leads to many dentists looking to sell their practice to a dental support organization or dental partner organization. This can be a great move for many dentists. 

However, if you’re already busy as a dentist, you likely don’t know the ins and outs of selling a dental practice. That’s understandable. You’re trying to take care of your patients and run a business. You don’t know the finer points of dental practice sales. The financial statements you need to sell your practice successfully are one such finer point. 

Triumphant Transition Partners has facilitated many dental practice transitions over the years, and trust us when we say that getting your financial statements in order is of the utmost importance.  This will help your broker at the negotiating table. Why? The value of your practice and its projected future earnings are integral bargaining chips when you’re negotiating with a DSO or DPO. Correctly supplying financial statements is the easiest way to increase the value of the final offer you receive from a DSO. Pay attention to the financial statements below as you consider selling your dental practice. 

Good Financial Hygiene Helps The Sale

Before we run through the specific financial statements needed to sell, it is worth pointing out that good record-keeping is crucial to selling your practice. The better you keep up with the financial management of your practice, the easier it is to get your practice in order when you decide to sell. Clean records, good notes, up-to-date balance sheets, well-maintained payroll, detailed profit and loss statements for the past couple of years, and up-to-date dental practice management tools will help you in your quest to sell.  

Relevant Contracts & Paperwork

Every practice’s specific situation is different, so your needs here may differ vastly from those of another dentist. If you want to sell your dental practice, know that the interested partner will want to see relevant contracts. Everything from staff contracts and procurement orders to real estate documents could be applicable. 

While you work to gather this relevant information, pay close attention to all HR information about your employees as you sell to a dental support organization. While you’re passing over employment contracts and hiring information, remember to clarify the details of each employee’s employment.  DSOs will want to know the start date, pay rate, role, benefits, and last raise date of every employee at the practice. This information will expedite and simplify the process for all parties. 

EBITDA

The process of valuing a dental practice can be unwieldy. Different practices exist in various markets, each with unique business situations, patient bases, and company sizes. Measuring practices by collections or cash flow can be useful, but these methods smooth over many important contexts. For instance, a large practice might collect more than a smaller practice but have much higher operating costs. How, then, can dental practices be valued? 

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization – or EBITDA for short – is the simplest yet most accurate yardstick to judge dental practices. This approach lets you compare different practices across a single metric. Be sure to accurately assess your practice’s EBITDA before you sell. If you don’t know this information, consider a specific EBITDA evaluation to ensure you have the most accurate assessment possible as you sell. 

Partner With Triumphant Transition Partners

Are you a dentist looking to retire or transition out of dentistry? Selling your dental practice to a dental support organization or another doctor may be your best decision, but you don’t need to go it alone. Selling a dental practice can be complicated, technical, and intensive – partner with a dental broker and dental advisor to represent your interests and receive the best possible terms. 

By partnering with Triumphant Transition Partners, you’ll receive:

  • A Dedicated & Trusted Advisor Who Only Represents Your Interests
  • Access to Our National Private and Group Buyer’s Network for Quick Access to Interested Buyers
  • Assistance with Qualifying & Screening Prospective Buyers
  • Access To Our Dental-Specific CPAs For The Best Dental Accounting Expertise
  • A Review Of Your Dental Ledger For The Past 3 Years To Ensure Accurate & Informative Information and the most value. Every dollar we uncover for you is worth $5-$15.00 dollars on the market
  • A Custom and Tailor-Made Practice Evaluation
  • Relevant Financial Information to Equip Your Advisor and Broker with Triumphant Transition Partners at the negotiating table

Contact your trusted Triumphant Advisor for a courtesy consultation today! (Please add info@triumphanttransition.com and our web address)

How to Tell if a Dental Practice Offer Is Fair

If you’re trying to sell your dental practice, you may have been fortunate enough to receive an offer. That’s a good sign! It shows that you’ve built a solid and resilient dental practice. Not only that, but it’s also a sign that a dental support organization thinks the same way and is willing to buy your practice from you. 

However, receiving an offer on a dental practice is just that – an offer. You still need to ascertain if the offer is fair and if the dental support organization aligns with your goals and long-term needs. Think of this as a “marriage” and talking with DSOs and DPOs as the “dating” phase. If you’re a dentist, you might not have sold many small businesses and can thus be forgiven if you feel overwhelmed by the process. Also, note that each DSO spends roughly $250,000 on direct marketing and mailers to dentists and practitioners because, as the old adage goes, buy low and sell high.

How can you tell if a dental practice offer is fair? Try using the methods below to get a feel for the offer. If one or more of the below is true, you can rest assured that your dental practice offer is fair. 

You’ve Received Multiple Assessments

Valuing a practice can be difficult. The best way to ensure that your dental practice offer is fair is to receive multiple assessments. It’s quite easy for two assessors to have slightly different takes on the cost of a dental practice. Multiple assessments reduce the odds of one assessment being taken as gospel truth. 

This is especially worth remembering if you’re receiving an offer directly from a DSO. These DSO offers are typically lower than the market at large and should never be taken at face value. Additional assessments should be used to counter low-ball offers and give the selling dentist leverage at the negotiation table. If you have met one DSO, you have met only one DSO. 

A savvy assessor will also use multiple assessment methods. If various methods show comparable asking prices, you can rest assured that you have a good gauge of the practice’s value.

A qualified assessor will consider your practice’s:

  • Cash-Flow
  • Future Earnings
  • EBITDA
  • Value of Current Assets
  • Active and New Patient Base
  • Payor Mix
  • Competition 
  • Marketing spend and branding
  • Practice turnover

A custom valuation of the practice is always recommended. A rule-of-thumb valuation might give you a ballpark estimate, but that’s not good enough to sell your practice, which is likely the biggest deal of your life and will directly impact your future and indirectly your team’s future. Trust us; get your practice assessed so you are better positioned to resist unfair offers to buy. 

You Know the Market

A way to tell if an offer is fair is to be aware of trends within the market. If you know what comparable dental practices are going for, you’re well-positioned to push back against unfair offers from DSOs. 

It is worth remembering that this is more complex than knowing what a dental practice in your market sold for. A multi-associate dental practice that owns multiple pieces of real estate will go for a much higher price than a solo practitioner’s dental office. Inversely, a practice with cutting-edge, high-grade medical equipment might be worth more than a practice of the same size with older tech. You must have a trusted advisor to help you through the process and advise on what is and isn’t fair for your practice firmographics. There are many metrics outside of % of collections or EBITDA to determine the true value of your practice. As a sell-side advisory with buy-side experience, we know the trends and metrics that matter for you. 

You’ve Reviewed the Fine Print

It’s easy to get focused on the asking price when reviewing the offer. You should stay focused on this figure, as it’s an important part of any deal. However, the fine print is an often-neglected piece of the puzzle that can make or break your satisfaction with the deal. The deal terms, culture and partner are just as, if not more important for you as a seller. The value will be there if you have the right partners, but anyone can offer a high valuation, but not everyone can get you the high valuation. 

Consider key decisions like hiring, firing, buying power, marketing, the experience of the DSO, who is their sponsor, have they recapitalized healthcare or any platform before. You will be asked to stay on as a dentist with a dental support organization after closing; you might expect to retain control over these decisions and will have full autonomy with the right DSO. If the fine print of your deal specifies that the DSO can hire and fire, you might be in for a rude awakening. 

Few things can sour a business partnership as quickly as differences over business decisions. If your deal contractually obligates you to stay on despite these differences, you may be stuck in an unhappy business partnership. Reviewing the fine print of any terms is necessary to ensure you aren’t stuck in an unfair deal and having a qualified representation that knows the market and timing matters. 

The DSO Aligns to Your Goals

It can be challenging to gauge, but not all DSOs fit all dentists well. Each has its own specific policies, paradigms, and standard operating procedures. A DSO might offer favorable terms and a fair price and still not fit your particular needs well.

You must understand exactly why you’re selling your dental practice and what you want out of the sale. Once you understand this, you’re well-positioned to review offers from DSOs and compare these offers against your unique goals. 

If all of this is overwhelming, know that help from a qualified dental broker is available. Selling and transitioning a dental practice is difficult, tedious, and you don’t know what you don’t know. A trusted partner in the process can help you from listing to closing and everywhere in between. Moreover, they can even help you sell your practice above the asking price and the terms you deserve while impacting your legacy, team, and family in a positive matter. 

An excellent dental broker will:

  • Help you screen buyers and vet them thoroughly 
  • Assess your practice to help you understand its value
  • Have experienced healthcare CPAs and underwriters
  • Experience on both the sell-side and buy-side
  • Know what metrics matter to a DSO and which ones do not 
  • Can handle the lease terms as well as practice terms
  • Experienced and have a strong network and relationships with the buyers
  • Equip your attorneys with relevant documents
  • Serve as a strategic consultant throughout the process
  • Offer unique insight into the market as a whole
  • Have experience in selling and buying dental practices
  • Know the timing of an exit of a DSO and their Sponsorship
  • Know the DSO agreements, deal structures, and C-suite level team members

Are you ready to sell your dental practice? Your trusted Triumphant Transition Partners advisor is available for a free courtesy consultation to discuss your unique needs. Call Now!

3 Ways to Increase Your Dental Practice Value

If you’re a dentist contemplating selling your dental practice, few things are as important as your practice’s value. The dollar value assigned to your practice is not only a foundational element for your financial health but also has a massive impact on the deal.

 A high-dollar figure practice gives you an essential chip at the bargaining table when negotiating with a dental support organization or dental partnership organization. If you plan on selling your practice and staying on board in a dental partnership agreement, you are also incentivized to see the practice’s value rise even after the sale. Regardless of which camp you fall into, a rise in your practice’s value is always good.

However, increasing the value of your practice, whether you intend to sell or stay on as a partner, is challenging.  You may already be up to your neck in clinical care, administrative duties, and operational tasks. Finding the time to increase the value of your practice is a challenge. Luckily, there are proven ways you can increase value and plan for your financial future while still tending to your dental patients. 

Get an Accurate Assessment 

The first and easiest way to increase your dental practice value is to ensure you have the most accurate assessment! Too many dentists get caught up in the hustle and bustle of maintaining a dental practice and never get around to assessing their practice’s value. 

Even if you’ve had a valuation done in the past, you must understand whether or not it was accurate. Staying current with your practice’s value and getting a second opinion practice evaluation is the quickest way to ensure you know your practice’s true value. 

It can also be helpful to have multiple assessments done using various methods. Market-based, cash-based, and asset-based evaluations all have their time and place, and utilizing a variety of ways to appraise a practice offers a more complete picture. 

Invest In Tech

New tech is a crucial piece of growing the value of a practice. New and intricate medical technology can improve your practice’s operational and clinical efficiency, but investing in new tech can also increase the value of your practice. High-end medical equipment offers so many benefits for patient care that its presence can help improve a practice’s overall dollar value. 

Work on Improving Cash Flow

Improving your practice’s financial health can undoubtedly be difficult, but it will certainly increase the value of the practice. To begin, work on accurately measuring your EBITDA – or Earnings Before Interest, Depreciation, and Amortization. This financial score will accurately show how financially viable your practice is. 

From there, you can work on improving your overall financial health. Typically, additional cash flow or surplus revenue is one of the easiest ways to enhance the financial health of your dental practice. Additional customers, increasing collections per customer, or revamping your marketing are all great ways to do this. 

Partner With a DSO to Achieve Value

The aforementioned tactics for increasing your practice’s value are helpful to keep in mind, but they can be easier to set as goals than implement. If you’re struggling to keep the lights on, pay bills on time, and care for your patients, finding the time to improve cash flow, revitalize marketing, and invest in new technology is short of impossible. 

For dentists, partnering with a dental support organization is a great way to improve their practice’s value and operational efficiency, provide better patient care, and maintain a work-life balance. 

Partnering with a dental support organization can help with:

  • Operational Excellence
  • IT & Tech
  • Hiring & Training
  • Procurement & Purchasing
  • Marketing & Advertising
  • Continued Networking & Ongoing Education

If you’re looking to increase the value of your practice as an exit-strategy sale, a dental support organization or dental partnership organization could be helpful. These organizations will pay top dollar for lucrative and well-maintained practices, but a trusted advisor is imperative for your sales success. 

Selling a dental practice can take quite a bit of time, and there are many potentials for a deal to fall through. Everything from a lack of buyers to unqualified prospects to disagreement about terms and price can derail the sale of your practice. When you’re also attempting to keep the practice afloat and provide high-quality care, this can be too much for many dentists.

Partner with a dental broker for optimal outcomes! Triumphant Transition Partners is waiting in the wings to help you sell your practice on your terms and at your price! As dental brokers, we represent your interests and your interests only. We have years of experience on both sides of the deal and leverage that experience to ensure you get what you need from your sale!

Partner with Triumphant Transition Partners for:

  • Access to Our Buyer’s Network
  • Help Qualifying and Pre-Screening Buyers
  • Practice Evaluation
  • Help Through the Negotiation Process to Close.

Contact Your Trusted Triumphant Advisor for a Courtesy Consultation Today!

Should I Sell My Dental Practice?

Knowing if it’s time to sell your dental practice is tricky. Your practice has likely been a massive part of your life, and you’ve poured a lot of sweat equity into it. Deciding to sell your practice is no small task, and you can be forgiven for wondering if this is the right move for this particular stage in your career.  However, while it may be a difficult decision, that doesn’t mean there are no considerable benefits to selling. Selling your dental practice can:

  • Fund Your Retirement
  • Build Generational Wealth
  • Get Your Nights & Weekends Back
  • Improve Management of the Practice
  • Improve Patient Outcomes 

There are many reasons to sell, whether you intend to stay on as a dentist or leave the practice of dentistry, and it can be lucrative if done right. However, selling your dental practice can decrease your job satisfaction and leave money on the table if done poorly. 

 Consider these questions as you weigh the decision to sell! Knowing is half of the battle when it comes to selling your practice. Consider the questions below to maximize your dental practice sale.

Do You Want to Stay in Dentistry?

When considering selling your dental practice, you must consider your long-term goals. Many dentists look to sell their practice without fully understanding their long-term goals. The decision to stay in dentistry is one of the most vital – the reason why is relatively simple. 

If you are looking to sell, knowing what the buyer needs from you is critical. Some dental support organizations specialize in long-term transitions and will want to keep a seasoned dentist around for some time while they assume responsibility for the practice. Others are fine with cutting the selling dentist loose and assuming control of the practice almost immediately. 

Knowing if you would be amenable to continuing to practice dentistry is a vital part of this process. If you aren’t ready to stay in dentistry, selling your practice to a dental support organization that wants you to stay on isn’t a good call. 

Are You Ready to Retire?

Knowing if you’re ready to retire is key to understanding if you’re prepared to sell. Many dentists use the sale of their practice as a springboard into retirement. If you are nearing that stage of life and are seriously considering retirement, then the sale of your practice is a great tactic to enter your golden years on your terms. 

Selling a dental practice as a transition into retirement comes with its own considerations. If you hope to retire soon, you likely cannot agree to any deals that will keep you on board as a practicing dentist for a substantial time. 

Are You a Solo Decision Maker?

The sale of a dental practice can look very different from one practice to another. A solo practitioner will be able to decide on their own. A more extensive practice with several dental associates may see a different sales process. 

If you are a dentist looking to retire, selling to your younger associates is often a more straightforward and quicker process. If your associates cannot commit to buying your equity or are interested in bringing on external support, then an external buyer might be a good call. Consider your unique situation when deciding if you want to sell or not. You can sell as either a solo practitioner or a larger, multi-associate practice; the specifics will look slightly different from one instance to another. 

If You Want to Stay in Dentistry – On What Terms? 

If you want to stay in dentistry, it is essential to consider all of the factors. Do you like to pass most of the administrative maintenance of the practice to a DSO but stay on as a provider of clinical care? Do you want to stay on as a dentist with the DSO for a set amount of time and then transition to something else? Do you want to work with a DSO but need to retain control of key decisions like hiring, firing, and marketing? Knowing your desired terms is vital to determining if you are ready to sell. 

Sell Your Dental Practice with Triumphant Transition Partners

Selling a dental practice is challenging work. Streamline and expedite the process with Triumphant Transition Partners! Partnering with a dental broker with experience on all sides of the deal process can help you sell your practice on your terms and at your price to a buyer that meets your needs. 

Call your Triumphant Transition advisor for a courtesy consultation to discuss your options! We can help you:

  • Come Up with a Go-To-Market Strategy
  • List Your Practice
  • Screen and Qualify Buyers From Our Private Buyers Network
  • Draft Letters of Intent
  • Negotiate Through the Close Process

Call Now!

How to Find the Right Dental Practice Buyer

If you’re a dentist looking to sell your practice, you might be wondering how to find the right dental practice buyer. Selling a dental practice is a complex, multi-faceted process. It will require special professional attention to many technical focal areas, like terms, market evaluation, and the specific language of the deal. 

Finding the right buyer, a candidate perfectly well-suited for your practice, is imperative. Finding the right buyer increases the odds that the complex dental practice transition process is as stress-free as possible. The wrong buyer increases the odds that the deal falls through or takes longer than you’d like.

The Triumphant Transition Partners team has put together their thoughts to guide you through the process of finding the right dental practice buyer. Read on to learn more!

Ways Practices Find Buyers

1. Use Your Connections

If you’re looking to sell your dental practice, using whatever connections you have might be one fruitful option. You likely know plenty of dentists and those in the industry from dental school, alumni associations, and medical conferences.  

Leveraging these options can work for some dentists. This approach does tend to work best if selling to another dentist. Most dentists won’t have extensive connections to dental support organizations, so finding a buyer through your own network is best for dentist-to-dentist sales. 

2. Contact a DSO Directly

Dental support organizations will field offers and inquiries around the sale of a dental practice and may even reach out directly to begin conversations with dentists. It is worth bearing in mind, however, that DSOs are incentivized to make low offers when propositioning a dentist. You likely will not get the best possible deal when contacting a dental support organization directly. 

The DSO is banking on your unfamiliarity with your practice’s value and what is and isn’t a fair price. This isn’t, of course, a point of the process that you should be an expert on. You’re a dentist, after all, not an expert in business evaluation. Still, your lack of expertise in the process and lack of a clear benchmark to compare to an offer might result in a low-ball offer. Selling directly to a dental support organization without a trusted advisor to guide you through the process and transition doesn’t work well for many dentists.

Another often neglected piece of the process is finding the RIGHT DSO, not merely one that is offering the right price. Suppose you’re fielding offers from a DSO or opening conversations up directly. In that case, you could forget to carefully evaluate each buyer against what you want from the sale of your dental practice. 

3. List the Practice Yourself

Listing the practice directly is undoubtedly one of the most direct ways to garner interest in your practice. However, it may not always be a suitable method for all dentists. When you list your practice yourself, the result is often a deluge of DSOs and other dentists looking to buy. 

You’re likely to spend most of your time fielding these calls and offers, many of which might not align with your needs and criteria for a buyer. Listing a practice yourself might work if you’re adamant about selling that practice as quickly as possible and don’t need to maximize the deal’s value. It likely won’t be a good call for a dentist looking to find a highly-qualified buyer. 

Knowing You Have the Right Buyer

Knowing that you have the right buyer is a challenging task. Unfortunately, if you don’t handle it properly, you could end up in a disadvantageous business partnership. There are many potential downsides if you sell to the wrong buyer:

1. You Might Sell at the Wrong Terms 

Many dentists want to stay on and practice within their practice post-sale to a DSO. However, if you sell to the wrong dental support organization, the terms of your time post-sale may not align well with your goals. Pay specific attention to the deal terms offered, such as ownership of certain decisions, profit-sharing, and contracted time. If you don’t fully understand the terms of the transition process, you could end up with the wrong buyer.

2. You Might Sell at the Wrong Price

Without a clear understanding of your dental practice’s value, you might sell the practice for less than it’s worth. If you hope to retire, build generational wealth, or jumpstart a new business by selling your practice, anything less than the best possible deal is unacceptable. 

3. You Might Surrender Key Responsibilities

The right DSO will tell you precisely what is and isn’t your responsibility through the transition process. The wrong DSO might leave you surprised. Unfortunately, the duties you might give up or assume ownership of are too important. Hiring, firing, marketing, and training are all responsibilities for which a DSO might have a set process. If it’s imperative that you retain as much ownership in critical decisions involving the practice as possible, then the wrong DSO could break your satisfaction with the transition process. 

If you’re considering selling your dental practice, contact Triumphant Transition Partners for aid. By doing so, you’ll receive:

  • Access to Our Private Buyer’s Network
  • A Free Practice Evaluation 
  • Help with Screening Buyers and Navigating Letters of Intent
  • Financial Documents to Aid Your Attorneys Through Negotiation 

Reach Out to Your Trusted Triumphant Advisor for a Free Courtesy Consultation Today!

3 Reasons Your Dental Practice Might Be Undervalued

When you want to sell your dental practice to a dental support organization, few things are as important as knowing what your practice is worth. If your dental practice is undervalued, you can easily end up selling your dental practice to a dental support organization at less-than-ideal terms. 

Your practice must be adequately assessed and valued for optimal outcomes. However, too many dentists don’t fully understand the value of their practice. This can lead to their acceptance of offers they otherwise wouldn’t entertain. 

To combat this, we put together a few reasons why practices are undervalued when appraised. Knowledge is power; the more you understand the dollar value of your dental practice, the better equipped you are to sell at a fair price! 

1. The Assessor Is Motivated

Many practices receive offers from dental support organizations directly. If you’re a busy dentist trying to tackle all of the operational and administrative tasks in your day, you might be tempted by these offers. You might even look at the quoted dollar figure and think the offer in question might be worthwhile. This might be a good option if you’re looking to sell and are struggling to fit everything you need into your workweek.

However, it is worth remembering that many dental support organizations are motivated when they make an offer. If you are receiving a quote directly from a DSO or DPO, you likely are not receiving the best offer. And why would you? The DSO or DPO in question wants to offer you an offer that will entice you to commit, not the best possible offer. They’re representing their interests, not your own. If you are a dentist receiving an offer from a DSO or DPO, obtain a second appraisal for the best results. 

2. An Outdated or Irrelevant Assessment Was Used

You may have done your homework and received a second practice evaluation. That’s a good step and a great tactic to ensure you’re getting the best possible terms. However, knowing what method was used when your practice was evaluated is essential. You might not be familiar with the standard methods for evaluating a dental practice, but a cursory knowledge of common dental practice evaluation paradigms will take you far. 

Different practice evaluation methods can influence the total dollar value associated with your practice. Let’s say your practice is evaluated head to head versus others in your market. This look, which compares your value to the value of similar companies in your geographic area, could be helpful in understanding your practice’s value. 

However, let’s say you have a better online reputation, patient base or some external factor that makes you a stronger practice than a direct competitor. This market-based evaluation might not accurately assess your business. A custom practice evaluation is in order to make sure that your practice is properly measured. 

Inversely, focusing on past collections may not let you understand the actual financial health of your practice. If your assessor uses the wrong practice evaluation method, you might not have a truly accurate picture of your practice’s value. This could result in your acceptance of a less-than-ideal offer from a dental support organization. Be sure you understand the methods used when an outside party evaluates your practice’s value. 

3. You Never Were Given Your EBITDA 

If you want to sell your dental practice to a dental support organization, you must fully understand your practice’s EBITDA. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) is a tried-and-true method for evaluating the profitability of a business. Comparing businesses head-to-head is difficult. This is especially true with dental practices. 

Any two practices could have completely different client bases, cash flows, future earnings, markets, and asset portfolios. EBITDA helps strip away all of the external noise and focus on the core profitability of a dental practice. If you have not received an EBITDA quote, request one ASAP. Selling to a quality DSO without understanding your practice EBITDA will be tough. Get ahead of this and get a fully comprehensive practice evaluation. 

It is worth noting that many DSOs and DPOs will offer an EBITDA assessment, but they are usually motivated to underquote. Accepting their valuation of your practice at face value is bringing a knife to a gunfight; you’re just out of your element and you’re likely to accept a lower offer than you would normally. A dental broker can help you work alongside a specifically trained CPA to get an accurate EBITDA to help counteract lowball DSO and DPO offers. 

Call Triumphant Transition Partners Today! 

Are you a dentist looking to sell your practice to a dental support organization? Contact Triumphant Transition Partners today! Selling a dental practice is challenging, and many dentists can be overwhelmed by the process. If this is you, partner with a qualified dental broker to represent your interests in the practice sale process.

Partnering with Triumphant Transition Partners will:

  • Equip Your Attorneys with Relevant Data
  • Grant You Access to Our Qualified Buyers Network
  • Give You Consultative Insight Through the Process
  • Help You Understand Your Practice’s Value for Optimal Offer Values

Contact Your Friendly Triumphant Advisor for a Courtesy Consultation Today!

5 Signs You Need a Dental Broker

If you’re considering selling your dental practice, the process may seem overwhelming. You’re already struggling to maintain your practice and take care of your patients. Selling the practice on top of all of that might sound impossible. That’s why many dentists turn to a dental broker to help them through the sale and practice transition process. If the five situations listed below apply to you, it might be time to consider partnering with a dental broker. 

You Don’t Know Your Value

Have you ever tried to sell something without an idea of what it’s worth? It can be a frustrating process. Without a benchmark of what it’s worth and what others are selling for, it’s impossible to know if you’re receiving a fair offer or not. This doesn’t usually happen with simple transactions like groceries or reselling furniture. However, when it comes to a sale as complicated and multi-faceted as selling a dental practice, understanding the value of your dental practice is paramount. Undervaluing your practice by as little as 5% could be tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars lost. What’s more, if you don’t understand what your practice is worth, you could agree to a low-ball offer without understanding that you left a considerable amount of money on the table. 

A good dental broker is a great way to prevent that from happening. A detailed practice evaluation is usually the first step for any dental broker worth their salt. The dental broker will then sit down with you and review the findings of that valuation. What’s your EBITDA? Do you own your real estate? What are comparable practices in your region selling for? Without the right dental broker, you’re going to miss out on vital information that will help you through the sales process. 

It’s important to remember that buyers will only represent their interests. They might make promises, offer exciting numbers, and say the right things when proposing or finalizing a deal, but they represent their own interests at the end of the day. Dental brokers represent your interests and fight to ensure you get the best terms and dollar value possible. Partnering with a dental broker can help you both understand what your practice is worth and how to get the best possible terms. 

You Don’t Know The Industry

As a dentist, you know the dental industry forward and backward. However, the practice transitions industry is a slightly different beast. The dental support organizations and dental brokers involved are likely not familiar names to you. What’s more, these organizations are merely the surface of the industry. Details like financing, the practice transitions process, and how to find the right attorney are also central to a successful sale. And we haven’t even started discussing the terminology and specific financial, business, and legal terms you’ll need to know to navigate the process successfully.

Most dentists will only sell one practice in their career, so it stands to reason that the process can be overwhelming and complicated. A good dental broker will simplify the practice transition process for you and give you helpful advice and recommendations. 

Don’t conflate the conversation you have with any one dental support organization with the industry at large. There are countless DSOs out there, so if you have a conversation with one DSO, you have only had one conversation with a DSO. There are countless options out there. A good dental broker will also have industry connections in their pocket that they’ve developed and cultivated over the years that you’ll have access to. Use these dental connections to streamline the process and find the right fit for you and your needs.  By partnering with a dental broker, you’re tapping into their connections and expertise to make your life easier. 

You Don’t Know Your Goals

If you’re contemplating selling, you probably are visualizing the sale of the practice as the ultimate goal. That is sometimes the case, but we encourage you to consider WHY you want to bring a dental support organization on board. Are you selling your dental practice to retire? Are you looking for support on the administrative side of your practice but want to retain decision-making rights on certain key business calls like staffing? Do you want to only practice dentistry and don’t need to retain decision-making powers in the practice? Are you trying to leave dentistry entirely and need a large nest egg to finance your next endeavors?

These are all valid goals, but too many dentists try to sell their practice without understanding why they’re selling. Partnering with a dental broker gives you a trusted advisor who can help you think through your goals and then offer tailored recommendations accordingly. 

You’re Having A Hard Time With The Details

There are countless industry-specific facets when it comes to selling a dental practice. Everything from letters of intent to qualifying prospective buyers is a specific part of this process and one that you’re likely not very familiar with. Other documents, like asset purchase agreements, practice assessments, and draft contracts, also might be outside of the scope of your knowledge. A good dental broker will help you with these details and prepare you accordingly. 

You Don’t Have The Time

If you had the time to immerse yourself in the practice transition process, you might be able to learn some of the nuances of how to sell a dental practice. However, this will require a lot of time, and it’s likely time you cannot spare if you’re trying to run a dental practice. The last thing you want is for your sale process to take longer than necessary because you don’t have the time to deal with potential buyers. 

The simple fact of the matter is that correspondence with potential buyers, submitting paperwork, and sales strategy takes time. Many dentists just don’t have the time to dedicate to the sale process, and outsourcing to a dental broker might then make more sense. When you choose a dental broker, they are able to assume responsibility for the process. This dedicated expertise means that no balls are dropped and that your practice transition is prioritized without taking time and energy from your priorities. 

You’re Building Generational Wealth

The sale of your practice is likely the biggest deal you’ll ever be involved in. If done correctly, you can leverage the sale of your practice to build a nest egg for your future and the future of your family. It’s imperative to have great representation at the table, however, if you’re trying to build generational wealth for your family. Securing 20-40% more on a practice deal could add a pretty penny to your nest egg and be that much more to pass on to your family. The right dental broker will help you secure the best deal possible. 

Contact Triumphant Transition Advisors

Selling a dental practice is complex, but it doesn’t need to be difficult. The right dental broker will help you sell your practice on your terms, above asking price, and fast! If you’re interested in achieving your career goals, contact Triumphant Transition Advisors today!

We’re here to help you…

  • Evaluate Your Practice
  • Discuss Your Goals
  • Present Your Practice To Our Private Buyers Network
  • Qualify Buyers
  • Equip Your Attorneys With Pertinent Documentation & Data
  • Negotiate Final Sale On Your Terms & Price

Contact Triumphant Transition Advisors For Your Courtesy Consultation!