10 tips for buying a dental practice
Understand your reasons for
buying.
To
a greater or lesser extent most associates buy a practice because they think
they can run a practice better than their principal, for some it its about
clinical freedom and providing a superior quality of work and having a deciding
choice over the materials you use. There are a few for who it is just about the
money and I recently heard about one person whose parent thought he would be
more marriageable.
Owning
a practice is hard work, long hours, difficult decisions and generally not as
lucrative as being an associate. Think long and hard about your WHY and are you
doing it for the right reasons?
Be clear about your dental philosophy
What
is your philosophy for treatment, prevention, minimal intervention, high end cosmetics,
restoration of failed dentitions, orthodontics etc.
Who
is your ideal demographic, families, children, professionals, retirees?
When
considering buying a practice, consider the philosophy and demographics of the practices
and make sure that there is alignment. If not are you prepared to completely reconfigure
the patient base and reputation?
Make sure you have created a
living business plan.
Experience
shows, that buying a dental practice is always more expensive than you anticipated.
Make sure you have created a workable business plan, with best case and worst
case scenarios. Refer to your business plan frequently and regularly If you
would like a business plan template tool, e mail Jane@IODB.co.uk for a copy of our targeted business
plan.
Make sure you are adequately
financed.
As
you have realised already, buying a practice is always more expensive than you
initially anticipated, many first time buyers make life more difficult than it
need be because they have not made adequate financial provision for the support
of a business coach, marketing budget, training and development, refurbishment costs
and they extra time they need to spend building rapport and trust with their patients
and team.
Know yourself
Until
now you have been working entirely as a clinician and you will have excellent clinical
skills. As soon as you become a practice owner you will take on two more full
time roles, Practice manager (even if you have one) and Business Entrepreneur.
These two roles require you to have a totally different skill sets to those you
have been using until now. Work with a dental Business coach who has experience
of owning a practice, recognise your strengths and weaknesses and develop your
new skill sets.
Make sure you have business
management skills and training.
There
are 12 keys to running a great dental practice, fabulous clinical skills are just
one of them. Without mastering the others, you and your practice will suffer. Your
bank may not loan you funds and CQC may not approve your practice without you having
some rudimentary Principal
Business Proficiency
Once
you have learnt the basics spend the rest of your career spending as much time
honing your business skills as you do your clinical skills.
Do your due diligence
You
will have heard the horror stories about dentists who thought they had bought a
great practice only to discover that they had been sold a pig in a poke. If there is a big capitation list, make sure
you do a random check of notes and clinical examinations to ensure you are not
buying supervised neglect. If there is a large patient list registered
ascertain how frequently the patients are returning and if the list is an active
list. What sort of treatments does the out-going principal do, can you provide
the same level of clinical expertise as they do, or do you need to enhance your
clinical skills?
Make sure you are working with experts.
You
will recognise that as a GDP, that specialist clinicians have a level of
expertise that you don’t and it serves your patients to see an oral surgeon,
orthodontist, endodontist, periodontist when required.
There
are many professionals who are peripatetic to dentistry, accountants, lawyers,
business coaches, trainers, marketing agent, practice brokers etc. These
experts know more about their field of business than you do and will prevent
you making costly mistakes, save yourself, time, energy and heartache, use the
experts.
Build a support team
Running
a practice is hard work, you only have 24 hours in one day and now you will be clinician
manager and entrepreneur Build a support team of experts around you, business
coach, trainer, marketers, bookkeeper, accountant, HR consultant and within the
team your Practice manager, lead nurse, receptionist, patient co-ordinator etc.
learn to run and schedule frequent effective meetings, Learn the difference
between delegation and abdication and become an effective communicator and
delegator.
Ask questions
There
is a commonly used expression “the only stupid question is the one you didn’t
ask” and yet I so often hear, I wish I had asked that before.” When you are
looking at the catalogue or accounts for a practice that you are thinking about
buying and there is something you don’t understand, ask. Show the documents to
your specialist accountant, lawyer and business coach, they have seen the
details from lots of practices and will be able to notice mistakes and areas to
be wary of and where to ask for more information.
If
you would like more information about how business coaching and training will
help you make a success of your practice call us on 07989 757 884 or e mail
Jane@lelean.com
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