By DR SIMON HOCKEN
We get involved with many clients who want a practice of their own and many of them are debating whether to buy expensive goodwill or start their own squat practice.
Clearly if these clients have very modest living expenses or a Fairy Godmother to help pay their bills they might be able to spend two years earning little or nothing.
You’re better off paying a premium for an active patient list
For everyone else the choice is to either work another job while your own practice is growing or to borrow money to pay yourself from the beginning from a generous lender (less popular with the lenders since the recession and unfortunately, they will want the money back!).
I’ve just run the numbers for a new Breathe client and it soon became clear that buying a practice which is either passed its best or never really achieved it works better for him.
On day one he will be able to use the residual goodwill to make a profit and buy time for some clever proposition re-engineering – that is, get the practice on a successful growth path.
It’s important that such a practice has plenty of headroom for growth (room for four surgeries) so the growth can hit turnover somewhere around £1 to £1.5m before running out of space.
It seemed to both of us that even expensive goodwill is better than sitting it out waiting for the phone to ring.
Buying a practice to develop it requires many of the same tactics as starting a squat practice (marketing, sales, business process, performance reporting) but you don’t have to worry about working somewhere else or paying the rent while you’re at it…
If you want to buy a dental practice and would like to discuss your options, give me a ring on 07770 430576.
Merry Christmas and a happy new year
Simon
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