Decisions That You Need To Make Before Buying A Practice
How to Find a Dental Practice That Matches Your Values and Goals
Choosing the Right Dental Practice: Key Considerations for Future Owners
When buying a dental practice, one of the most important early steps is deciding what type of practice you want to own. Not all dental practices are the same, and finding the right one means aligning it with your personality, preferences, and values. Today, we’ll explore some key considerations you should make before becoming a practice owner.
1. Understand Your Why
Before anything else, it’s important to understand why you want to become a practice owner. Common reasons include:
Setting your own hours: You’ll have control over your schedule, allowing you to work when it suits you.
Earning potential: As an owner, you can earn significantly more than as an employee, helping you achieve financial goals like buying a house or paying off student loans.
Being your own boss: You make the decisions and no longer answer to anyone else.
Expressing creativity: You’ll have the freedom to design, manage, and grow the practice your way.
Autonomy: You choose who you work with and what procedures to focus on.
Write down your reasons and keep them in mind as you go through the process.
2. Decide on a Location
Location is key. Initially, I made the mistake of searching too narrowly, focusing on a single area. But when I broadened my search, I discovered many more opportunities. Consider both city and rural practices:
City practices: Higher overhead, more competition, but access to more specialists and potentially better insurance reimbursement rates.
Rural practices: Lower overhead, less competition, and a loyal patient base.
It’s essential to reflect on where you’d prefer to live and practice.
3. Consider Practice Size
Do you want a large or small practice? Smaller practices often mean more time with patients, less management, and a smaller team. Larger practices come with more patients, a bigger team, and higher management responsibility, but also greater potential returns. Consider your leadership style and work environment preference.
4. Know Your Patient Base
What kind of patients do you want to see? Your insurance strategy will shape your patient base. For example:
Medicaid-focused practices will see different types of patients than PPO-based practices.
If you prefer fewer but higher-paying patients, focusing on cash-paying patients might be the way to go.
5. Plan for Growth
What’s your vision for growth? There are two main paths:
Value practice: Your goal is to grow the business as large as possible, bringing in hundreds of new patients each month, and hiring additional dentists to help handle the load. The end goal is to sell the practice for a high value.
Lifestyle practice: You focus on a smaller, more efficient team, and only see the patients and perform the procedures you enjoy, often higher-budget services not covered by insurance. This model allows for a more relaxed work schedule with fewer hours but maximized earnings per patient.
Both approaches are valid, but it’s crucial to decide which one aligns with your goals and values.
Final Thoughts
Careful planning and reflection are essential steps before buying a dental practice. Knowing your "why," where you want to live, and what type of practice you want to run will set you up for long-term success.
