Are you a dentist or do you work with dentists? If so, welcome to the first in a limited series I’m calling “Mike’s Molars of Information: General thoughts pertaining to the dental professional practice owner or aspiring dental professional practice owner“. I’ve always thought of information best served through “nuggets” (i.e. bite sized, digestible chunks of information). This is geared toward the “dental” space and, I imagine the molar to be the most “nugget-like” tooth we have! I’m Mike and I love alliteration, so “Mike’s Molars of Information” seemed like a title that fits what I’m going for here and I’ll probably shorten this title going forward to “Mike’s Molars” or “Mike’s Molars of Info”.
I hope you find value in these thoughts. Thanks for tuning in!
Intro to Dental Practice Succession Planning
Dentists who have built a practice to serve their patient community and employ their team often stress about “what happens to my patients and staff when I’m ready to retire”. The good news is that your patients and staff can be well taken care of through thoughtful succession and practice transition planning.
It all starts with a conversation, learning, and understanding that your practice has a value that is transferrable, and the transition of that value can occur through efficiently and appropriately engaging in a search for the successor and proceeding to transition the practice to the next generation of the owner(s).
Two key takeaways here:
(1) Value is typically derived from much more than just the furniture, fixtures and equipment in your dental office–in fact, that probably only makes up a relatively small percentage of the overall value of a dental practice. Like most things in business, there are typically key indicators that point to value, but most everything is usually negotiable;
(2) There is no “one size fits all” approach to finding your successor(s). Maybe you have a current associate who is a fit to take over the practice when you retire; Maybe there is a yet-to-be found associate whom you can “pass the baton” to; Maybe there is a third-party buyer looking to start or expand their already existing practice (note 3rd parties come in various “shapes and sizes” from solo dentists, to groups, to large corporations–and each one is different in their approach!)
In short, there are many options but one thing remains consistent in my experience and that is, often, the most successful dental practice transitions are a result from thoughtful succession planning amongst the exiting dentist and their team of advisors.