Articles
The Professional Advisory
- Is it Time to Move?
- Staging A Dental Practice
- The High Cost of Dying
- Deal-Busters
- Patients - Attract and Retain
- Should I Stay or Should I Go?
- Is There a Buyer for Every Practice?
- Good, Better, Best - The Market has Spoken
- Smooth-Sale-ing
- Buying Time
- Patients, Patience, Patients
- A Real Patient
- Why Do a Practice Valuation? I'm not Selling
- Irrational Exuberance or The New Normal?
- Do dental equipment and dental technology affect a practice value?
- Finding and Being a Mentor
- Bigger is Better
- Dave's Top Ten List for Buyers (Vendors should read this too!)
- How Well Do You Know Your Practice?
- Dave's Top Ten List for Vendors
- What will happen to dental practice Values in the next 10 years?
- Your Premises Lease is an Important Asset
- What are Associates Thinking?
- There is Life Outside the GTA
- When Is the Right Time to Sell My Dental Practice?
- Mergers are a Viable Option
- Is Your Associate an Asset or a Liability?
- Has your Practice Facility Kept Up With Your Billings?
- The 100 per cent of Gross Myth
- The Past, The Present and The Future
- Caveat Emptor
- Overpaid Long Term Staff
- Selling your Practice in Stages
- A Potential Pitfall of Selling Shares
- Value in Your Practice Through Balance
- Only Trusted Staff Can Defraud You
- To Own or Not to Own Practice Real Estate? That is the Question.
- Coping With A Large Patient Base
- Successful Dental Practice Transitions
- Taking Care of Business
- The Investing Dentist Phenomenon
- Two areas to focus upon that could negatively impact the value of your practice
- Organize your Debt in Order to Sell your Practice
- Having a Better Team
- How Do I Prepare My Practice For Sale
- How Do I Prepare My Practice For Sale? Part 3
- How Do I Prepare My Practice For Sale? Part 2
- How Do I Prepare My Practice For Sale? Part 1
- Advice to My Son or Daughter Graduating from Dental School
- Transition - What to Expect
- Discussion on Digital X-Rays
- Partnerships and Shotguns
- Strategic Planning - How to Get Started
- Calling All Vendors - Practices have Gone Up in Value
- Purchasers: Expect to Pay More for a Practice because of Lower Professional Corporation Tax Rates
- Matrimonial Practice Valuations
- Purchaser's Guide to Affording a Practice
- Location Improvements Throughout Your Career
- Small Practice Valuations
- Partnerships – The Best and The Worst
- Changing Location When the Opportunity Comes Along
- Visual Presentation of Your Practice
- Presentation of Charts
- Your Premises Lease Can Be Your Worst Enemy
- How to Select an Appraiser for Your Practice
- How Are Your Billing Ratios?
- It Pays to Invest in Your Tangible Assets
- The Importance of Separate Financial Statements
- Five Time Frame Levels to Sell a Practice
- 12 Suggestions to Safeguard Computer Data
- How to Buy a Visible Practice
- Why is there a shortage of good practices today?
- The Importance of Equipment in the Purchase of a Practice
- The Balanced Practice
- Will My Practice Be Saleable in The Future?
- Buyer Be Aware
- Excess Profit - The Second Key
- Patients and Profits are the Keys
- Plan Ahead
Volume 11: Five Time Frame Levels to Sell a Practice
Selling a dental practice takes time. There are several things to consider, including location, patient base and the age of equipment that are key to the length of time it takes to sell a practice. Here are five levels of demand to consider when considering the time frame to sell your practice.
- Proximity to Toronto. The closer you are to Toronto the higher the demand. That is, there are more purchasers looking to buy a practice in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) than everywhere else in the province combined.If you have a practice in a high demand area with contemporary assets and a good size patient base, one should anticipate a shorter time frame to sell the practice and it should have a substantial value. But if you have excellent equipment and leaseholds with only a limited patient base, this is not a good situation as the purchaser is probably looking for a good patient base.
- Cities with universities. The second most sought-after locations are midsized cities in southern and eastern Ontario that have universities. These include Ottawa, Kingston, Hamilton, St. Catharines, Kitchener/Waterloo, London, and Windsor. A practice in one of these areas that has relatively new equipment (8 to 12 years old) and a good patient base should sell within a period of two to four months.
- Commuting distance to university centres. The third most sought-after locations are the communities within easy commuting distance of the midsized university cities. Again, a practice in one of these areas that has reasonably new equipment and at least 1,500 patients should sell within two to four months. If the practice has older equipment, expect it to sell within four to six months.
- Centres away from university communities. Less desirable areas include cities and towns that don’t have universities. In these areas, a practice with relatively new equipment and a good patient base could sell within four months to one year. If the practice has older equipment and a limited patient base, it may need to be sold to another dentist in the area who would merge it with his or her current practice. We have just sold a good practice in level 4 in six months.
- Northern Ontario. The least sought-after practices are in this area of the province. For a buyer, Northern Ontario is the best place to find an inexpensive practice. The cost of rent and staff is lower than in other centres. The lifestyle is more relaxed but the demand for practices is the lowest.It’s difficult to predict how long it would take to sell a practice in this part of the province because factors such as airport accessibility and who the major employers are in the community come into play
General Rules
As a general guideline, patients in the GTA are very valuable because competition is so great. As a result, the equipment and leasehold improvements in the practice have less importance. In lower demand areas, meanwhile, the equipment and leaseholds tend to be a determining factor in the salability of the practice because there is seldom a competitive situation for patients.
If the practice is properly valued, the above time frames are reasonable in most situations but there are no guarantees.