Transitioning Your Relationship-Based Practice: Part 2

April 28, 2018 Lynne Gerlach DDS

Buyers are actively seeking dental practice opportunities all over the country. With the influx of doctors to desirable areas, sellers must have a strategy for how to identify the right buyer for their legacy practice.

Navigating the Best Transition For Your Dental Practice Legacy

Complementary technical skills to properly care for a patient base are essential. Behavioral considerations like interpersonal skills and communication are part of the success of a relationship-based practice. Timing and financial considerations play a large role in buyers identifying their opportunity as well. Working with a seasoned transition consultant allows for the vetting of these necessary components.

Some practice brokers seek a transactional experience for a changing of the guard with a processing of documents and a single strategy for its completion. This is driven strictly by financial and legal considerations. That transactional mindset is what you have been working to avoid in your practice for a career. So why would you consider growing your practice or ending your career with a philosophy that goes against the grain of what your practice has become?

Curiosity Driven Dental Practice Transition Strategies

Why not become curious about practice transition strategies? You could explore a co-discovery experience of what best fits your practice model and philosophy. Asking more questions and learning more about what makes your practice a successful legacy is the first step.

Transition consultants offer a complete approach to evaluate your relationship-based practice. The approach seeks all the financial and legal considerations plus works to transfer the technical, behavioral, and business culture. The purpose of this is for continuity in your practice and security for your future built on strategic solutions. Finding a transition consultant with successful business experiences helps make them uniquely qualified to collaborate with you to develop your strategic transition or expansion solution.

Whether you are a specialist or a general dentist, seek a consultant that will perform a comprehensive exam on your practice. They should report their findings with a thorough and professional strategy to meet your wants and needs. Developing a legacy plan for your relationship-based practice model that creates opportunity and security for your next phase must be intentional.

Are you ready to discover the best strategies for you and your practice future?

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Lynne Gerlach DDS

Dr. Lynne Spencer Gerlach earned her status as a successful restorative dentist and businesswoman in her 26+ year career practicing in various practice models. From startups to partnerships and solo private practices, her experience in transforming businesses is a passion. Practice systems and management are as much a piece of her puzzle as patient care and continuing education. Dr. Gerlach’s LD Pankey Dental Foundation experience began in 2001. She has served as visiting faculty, a Pankey Advisor since 2008 and has served as secretary for the Pankey Foundation Board of Directors. She served the Dallas County Dental Society Board of Directors as editor and previously served the Texas Dental Association as part of the Membership Council. She currently serves the Texas DENPAC Board and remains active in organized dentistry. She has been a delegate to the TDA since 2005 and is a fellow in the American College of Dentists, International College of Dentists and a member of ADA, TDA, DCDS, and ADI. Dr. Gerlach completed her Certification in the ADA Kellogg Executive Management Program in Chicago in 2014. She and her husband, Dr. Bill Gerlach have two grown children, Meredith and Creighton. Her hobbies include sports, music, travel, bridge, and cooking.

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Transitioning Your Relationship-Based Practice: Part 1

April 26, 2018 Lynne Gerlach DDS

As dental practices grow and change, new seasons bring opportunity and security for both sides of a transaction. Charting a new path can be stressful and uncertain as many practitioners have not weathered a transition in years.

Considering a Transition Change In Your Relationship-Based Practice?

Young dentists are often seeking that opportunity for the first time. Experienced doctors often bought a practice many years ago or started their practice from scratch as a young doctor themselves.

The practice climate is changing! It is a competitive market with educated young professionals seeking the right opportunity and practice owners wanting to finish well while leaving a legacy with their practices better than they found them.

Organizational changes in practices can take many paths. Growing a practice through a merger or partnership brings its own set of challenges and opportunities. However, a practice based on relationships with patients, teams, referral bases, and communities requires special care.

Evaluating Your Practice Philosophy During a Transition

This process can be a stressful distraction to owner dentists. Those dentists that have committed their professional growth to technical excellence and relationship-based practice culture may need strategic help in navigating the right practice transition.

Dental practice transitions have been around for decades. Selling a practice to a young colleague and walking away has been the standard solution. Today, there are many different solutions that reach the goals of the seller and the buyer. Many relationship-based dental practices are seeking a like-minded professional to carry the torch and move the practice legacy forward. This goal requires intentional planning and careful follow through.

The time to evaluate practice philosophies is BEFORE a transition occurs. Examining wants, needs, timelines, and the type of transition that best suits those needs develops during the pre-sale process. You likely didn’t build your relationship-based, highly technical practice by doing what everyone else has done.

Becoming an expert in your field has been intentional and constructed with the concept of excellence and communication as a basis for that success. When it’s time to expand your dental practice or find your successor those same themes should continue.

To be continued…

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About Author

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Lynne Gerlach DDS

Dr. Lynne Spencer Gerlach earned her status as a successful restorative dentist and businesswoman in her 26+ year career practicing in various practice models. From startups to partnerships and solo private practices, her experience in transforming businesses is a passion. Practice systems and management are as much a piece of her puzzle as patient care and continuing education. Dr. Gerlach’s LD Pankey Dental Foundation experience began in 2001. She has served as visiting faculty, a Pankey Advisor since 2008 and has served as secretary for the Pankey Foundation Board of Directors. She served the Dallas County Dental Society Board of Directors as editor and previously served the Texas Dental Association as part of the Membership Council. She currently serves the Texas DENPAC Board and remains active in organized dentistry. She has been a delegate to the TDA since 2005 and is a fellow in the American College of Dentists, International College of Dentists and a member of ADA, TDA, DCDS, and ADI. Dr. Gerlach completed her Certification in the ADA Kellogg Executive Management Program in Chicago in 2014. She and her husband, Dr. Bill Gerlach have two grown children, Meredith and Creighton. Her hobbies include sports, music, travel, bridge, and cooking.

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