You won’t practice dentistry forever. And, the decisions you make, or fail to make, today, will have a HUGE impact on your future.
Did you know your patients benefit by you belonging to a DSO
Easier access to care
DSOs have much higher purchasing power that enables dentists to accept more types of insurance plans and provide a higher caliber of services that patients appreciate and can afford.
They get to see your smiling face more often
You may think, “I am doing well. I make a lot of money. I love what I do. Why would I join a DSO?”
The first reason would be; you trained to be a dentist, not an administrator. You received little, if any training on running the management side.
Other benefits to consider joining the right DSO may include;
The travel agency model has been slammed as consumers flock to websites like Expedia, Hotels.com and Trivago. And it's logical to wonder if dental offices will suffer the same fate.
Obviously, there are still travel agents and for the most part, they still serve customers that want the reassurance of going to an agent that has actually visited a particular area or resort. And also obviously, there are going to be procedures that must be performed by a dental specialist in an operator. But perhaps now is the time to have a fresh set of eyes look at your practice and evaluate the threats that you may not see. Specifically:
Over the long term, profitability is essential to practice and is the first metric that prospective buyers will look at when assessing their level of interest in buying a particular business. But savvy buyers also look at cash flow because it is the metric that tells them if the practice can pay its bills on a month-to-month basis.
When working on behalf of a dentist that is selling their practice, it’s not unusual to find several buyers expressing interest in the practice. And like homes listed for sale in the real estate office, the dentist will often receive multiple offers.
The dentist partners at Sunshine Dental (not the practice’s real name) knew the senior partner wanted to retire in the next few years. The practice was thriving, but the junior partner didn’t want to assume the senior partner’s role in running and managing the practice. Her preference was to spend the majority of her time face-to-face with patients and not at a desk, looking at financials, dealing with staffing, and figuring out marketing.
In the last blog, we discussed the need to identify your most profitable niche as a means of maximizing the sale value of your practice.
Once identifying the niche is done, the next step is to focus on the best means of attracting the person who is that ideal, specific patient.
Consider the orthodontic practice of Dr. Q. For years, Dr. Q. has used traditional marketing to attract patients to his practice. The primary source has been referrals from general dental offices but as more and more general
A few years back I was speaking with a practice owner about her options for selling the practice and retiring. Her timing was excellent as she still planned to practice for at least 5 more years. This is an ideal situation for most buyers as it gives sufficient time for the purchaser to smoothly transition the practice’s staff and patients so there’s no disruption in the business.
