What is a practice transition? What is a transition consultant?

These are questions I frequently get from people outside of the dental and veterinary communities. However, even those in the industry wonder what it is that I do and why anyone would want to hire me.

The simplest explanation of a practice transition is the movement of ownership of a practice through a practice sale, merger, or partnership. This transition can be immediate, deferred, or incremental. Transitions can take many forms and be done many ways. The most common is a version of what’s called a “walk-away” sale in which the seller walks away after closing and the buyer takes over running the business and delivering the services to patients. There are times where the seller may stay on for a little while (3 months to 1 year) to help “transition” the practice to the buyer by slowly cutting down their schedule until they phase themselves out completely into retirement (think of a sunset).

While there are many ways to “transition” a practice to new ownership, you need to find the way that best fits your situation as well as the situation of the buyer.

Things to consider before making a decision are: Are you physically, emotionally, and financially ready to step back or retire? Do you still enjoy practicing? Are you mentally prepared to work for the buyer as an associate and give up control of the office? Can your practice handle having an additional provider?

The process of a practice transition is straightforward. However, a transition consultant or practice broker (the two terms are synonymous) is someone who helps walk you through the questions above (and more) and will guide you to the best option for your situation. They will analyze the practice and come up with a value. Then, they’ll sit down with you and help evaluate the type of transition you’d like to have as well as find the best timing for your transition.

Once you have a plan, your transition consultant will market the practice, screen potential buyers, coordinate initial meetings, help put together offers, guide both the buyer and seller through the due diligence, make introductions to the right professional support team members, and help negotiate the business details so that your attorney can focus on the legal language for the contracts.

Having an experienced and knowledgeable expert navigate the process with you will not only save you time and energy (plus the headaches), but a good one will absolutely be worth their commissions because you get to stay focused on continuing with the best patient care and the practice is not interrupted so it maintains its highest value.

Posted in Transitions