Planning for Your Practice Exit – What You Need to Know

As a practicing dentist you should always be thinking about your career’s end. Sounds a little crazy in the world of “be in the present” that we live in, but trust me, you’ll thank us later! By planning for your practice exit, AKA retirement, you can ensure that you and your family (and even team) are set for a life you all want. By not planning, you may end up feeling “stuck”, practicing dentistry for far longer than you want to.

I’ve known many dentists who only think of retirement when they’re nearing the end of their career, or what they’d like to call the end of their career. Without the planning ahead, many of them have ended up practicing far later than they really wanted to.  Another aspect is to consider the “unexpected" pieces of life. You truly just don’t know, so planning for your exit now allows you to adjust your timeline as needed.

Let’s talk about your Practice Exit Strategy:

• Retirement planning - how much will you need to have in investments and other retirement plans like 401k’s, in order to maintain the lifestyle you have and/or want?
  • Contacting a financial advisor early on in your career will allow you start investing “small” amounts of money over time and invest well, in order to be fully prepared 
  • Investing later in life is also possible. You will only need to adjust the amount of contributions necessary in order to get to your goals
• Business Profitability - focusing on your production only will help fuel profitability ultimately, but only focusing on production can cause issues; what you pay attention to grows and if you’re missing the mark on paying attention to your collections and profitability, it’s likely to stay stagnant.
  • Profitability directly relies on in office collections and spending. Your outgoing money (overhead) comes out of your collections. If your team doesn’t have the systems and goals in place for proper collections, your money is limited. I know this sounds simple, but this is truly a mark that’s missed by a lot of business owners! 
  • Having systems in place that monitor your spending (overhead) and allow your team to help control some of the management helps set you up for your exit strategy. A profitable business is a sellable business! 
  • Any debt you have when you sell your business stays with you. Make sure that it doesn’t follow you into your retirement! 

Your practice needs to:

• Be profitable
• Be sellable
• Have equity 
• Be systematized

How are you working towards those items now? What systems are working well for you and what systems do you need to work on? Schedule A Free Practice Assessment Call with us to ensure you’re on track to developing your future today! 

For more tips, check out our latest episode!