With changes to the Affordable Healthcare Act, the market for brokering a medical practice is a bit tumultuous. But that doesn’t mean no medical practices are selling. Healthcare practice brokers need to make sure that the medical business they want to sell is in shape to actually be sold for a number of reasons. If you want to sell a medical practice, the top dental office brokers in the industry recommend you do these things for less stressful practice transitions.
Make sure the practice you are selling is sellable:
What we mean by being in the right shape to be sold concerns legality. Some medical practitioners may become frustrated and abandon their practice or sell their practice for the cost of the physical items and location. Unfortunately, they will neglect their patients’ records. As a medical practitioner, whether you’re selling your practice or not, protecting patient records should be high on your list of priorities. Neglecting patient records can end up costing the seller or the buyer thousands of dollars. If your patient records are not protected, your practice is not in shape to be sold.
Plan one to four years ahead:
Trying to sell your medical practice immediately will usually lead to losing a lot of money and/or selling your practice for less than what it’s worth. Plan out as far ahead as possible so that the right buyer will find you.
Make sure you know your state’s laws:
When it comes to retaining medical records, data, and other vital information, the laws vary from state to state. Make sure you understand the laws of your state before trying to broker the sale of your practice. Breaking these laws can cost you and your buyer thousands of dollars.
Look to sell your practice locally, first:
It’s possible someone in your local community is in the market to buy or expand their medical practice. It could be another practice looking or a local hospital looking to expand.
Set up a promotional package:
You will need to convince potential buyers to, well, buy. Create both a physical and a digital promotional package. You want to make sure your digital package is optimized for search engines, contains all of the relevant data, including profit and loss, final numbers after paying treatment providers. But don’t overlook promoting the community that your practice is based in. You will likely have to convince a potential buyer from out of town why they should move to your community. Prospective buyers from out of town looking for an established dental practice for sale will likely be bringing their family with them. Convince them why they should.
Consider offering the buyer a chance to work with you, if they don’t already:
One great way to make a sale go smoothly is to offer the buyer the chance to work with you at a reduced wage for 1-3 years, then buy the practice for the cost of assets. This usually leads to much less stressful practice transitions for patients and staff.
Arrange for bank financing in advance:
Major banks like Wells Fargo will have medical specialty divisions that focus on trying to finance medical practices. If you can prove the value of your business, you will likely be able to secure financing. All the buyer will need to do is prove they are qualified to step in. After that, it’s smooth sailing.
If this seems like too much for you, then consider letting healthcare practice brokers walk you through.
