Cliff's Notes

Buying/Selling a Dental Practice & Who Said “Visit the Dentist Twice a Year?”

Cliff’s Notes for December 12, 2010

….. E-Blast…..

 

Cliff Marsh, Henry Schein ……Cell: 201-321-7494……Fax: 201-262-2210…..E-mail: cliff.marsh@henryschein.com

http://www.cliffsnotesblog.wordpress.com

  

“If you want to sell a car and you spend five dollars to wash and polish it and then apply a little extra elbow grease, suddenly you find you can charge and extra four hundred dollars.”  

“I can always tell a loser when I see someone with a car for sale that is filthy dirty. It’s so easy to make it look better.”

Both Quotes by Donald Trump

 

 

In This Week’s Issue

• Buying & Selling a Dental Practice!
• Packaging is 95% of the Sale!
• Product Review – Vidar Dental Film Digitizer!
• Visit Your Dentist Twice a Year, Why?

 

 

Buying & Selling a Business, The Right Way!…..

When it comes time to “walk off the field, hang up the gloves, cash out” or any cliché that fits, you are most likely doing it only once, so do it right. Selling a business is more complicated and just as emotional as selling your house. When you sell your house, you use a broker. When you sell your business, use a broker! However, there is a difference in the quality of brokers.

The object of selling your dental practice is to retain as much financial equity as possible. The object in buying a business is to obtain the most favorable financial arrangements as possible. A quality broker understands both sides of the table. A quality broker has qualified financial & legal resources to assist in negotiating an equitable position for the buyer & seller. You also need to remember that there will be a transition period, during which buyer and seller will be working together. You should never directly negotiate with someone you will be working with. Negotiations have a tendency to create animosity. Let the brokers, lawyers and accountants be the bad guys.

Let’s talk about the Lawyers and accountants. They are professionals at what they do. Don’t let the professionals take over the deal. You are the one to decide. Listen to opinions but it is your future and your call. Ask the Lawyer to make sure you are protected and ask the accountant to position you financially. There is always risk when buying or selling anything. Your professional team’s job is to limit your exposure. The professional process can get hung up on the risk factor and spend a lot of hours making arguments. I have seen that kill deals. You need to decide how much risk you are willing to take. A wise man once told me, when both sides walk away just a little un-happy, it’s a good deal!

Start planning your transition as soon as possible. If you think you want to start slowing down in 5 years, we need to sit down and talk in the very near future. If you plan on selling in less than 3 years, we need to talk today. I work with a network of professionals that have over 100 years of combined knowledge and experience. Interview the professionals just as you would interview a real-estate broker. Interviews and initial consultations should always be at no charge and professional fees are usually negotiable.

Please feel free to contact me at any time if you have any questions or concerns. cliff.marsh@henryschein.com

The following article was written by Tiare Rath:

You’ve put your blood, sweat and tears into building your business, and now it’s time to sell a business. But potential buyers won’t flock to your business if you simply put up a for sale sign, says Jim Chamberlain, a management counselor and financial expert with SCORE, a nonprofit organization that serves small businesses.

Selling a business requires a fair amount of legwork, including financial analysis, market research and sales savvy. The good news is that you probably have already developed these skills as a small-business owner.

Start Early: Selling a business takes at minimum several months – and that’s if everything is already in order. Significant planning is involved: You will need to get your financials in order, figure out what your business is worth, evaluate the selling market, decide whether to use a broker, determine tax liabilities and work with potential buyers.

Have a Clear Reason to Sell A Business: If you’ve spent years building your business, made millions of dollars and want to enjoy retirement, you’re probably in a good position to sell. However, if you’re burned out, running low on cash or simply bored, keep in mind that selling is not your only option. The Small Business Administration encourages business owners who want out to also consider the following alternatives: franchising, developing a partnership, merging with a similar company, going public, and absentee ownership or partial retirement.

Get Your Financials in Order: “I tell the owners, ‘Clean it up’,” Chamberlain says. “Restructure your financial statements so they’re easy to read.” You should have the past three years of financial statements and tax returns available for the buyer. Take care of any outstanding issues with the Internal Revenue Service or lenders, as these could diminish the trust of potential buyers. Make sure that your cash flow figures are clear and kept separate from the extras in your business, such as nonessential travel. Personal expenses, possibly your salary, should also be left out because your buyer will not inherit those costs. A cloudy financial picture of your business “ruins the deal,” Chamberlain warns.

Build a Mini-Business Plan: Selling a business requires sales skills. Chamberlain says owners of small businesses should develop a business plan to sell to potential buyers. He calls this “your story,” and it includes your business’ financials, sales, the business plan, industry projections, recent improvements and other important aspects of your business. Have you had employees for 20 years? That’s a great selling point. You may also need to explain why you want out if your business is a great investment. For example, Chamberlain says, you can tell a potential buyer that you think the business would thrive with a sales representative, but you couldn’t afford one.

Know Your Worth: Valuing your business is an arduous yet necessary task when you decide to sell. There isn’t a single formula that can accurately determine the worth of your business. The best way to know your business valuation is to hire an appraiser, who can work through the technicalities of determining its value. But Chamberlain says this isn’t necessary for many small businesses that have straightforward finances and business strategies.

Packaging is 95% of the Sale……………………………………..

In Marketing 101 we learn that packaging is 95% of the sale. What exactly is the sale? Everything is the sale! Think about it, When you want someone to do something, like your kids, you package it in a way that will make them want to accept it. If it is warm & fuzzy or blunt & tough, it doesn’t matter, it’s a package. When you present a treatment plan, you use the best examples available to create an attractive package. Present it on an iPad & the package changes. There are situations, when the presentation is the key. You don’t know about the ones you “just missed” because they just become part of your un-scheduled treatment plans. If you got just 1 of those cases, what did the iPad really cost. If you want to package yourself, talk to me about the presentation.

The physical appearance of your office and your website is the wrapping on your package. Do you ever walk in your front door and look at what your patients look at? If the reception room looks old, so is your dentistry. If it is high tech, so are you, if it’s class and artistry, so are you. By the way, it is called a reception room, not a waiting room, because our patients don’t wait. They don’t wait because we discuss the day at the morning huddle. I hope you’re doing morning huddles, they are major part of your package. 

Packaging is telling your story in a manner that will attract the type of patient you want. Please feel free to contact me at any time to discuss growing your practice. I can be reached 24/7 @ 201-321-7494 or cliff.marsh@henryschein.com.

Vidar Dental Film Digitizer…………………………………………

Medical film digitizing is an imaging procedure governed by medical and industry regulations. The Dental Film Digitizer from VIDAR is specifically tailored for the dental application and is a regulated medical device for use in diagnostic applications. Special attention must be paid to the unique challenges of accurately and reliably visualizing the details in medical films since decisions will be made about patient care based on these images.

VIDAR employs specialized optics to deliver quality results specifically for transmissive materials such as x-rays – not reflective media. The imaging system is designed to accurately render the full grayscale data with minimal noise throughout the specified grayscale density range. VIDAR’s medical products repeatedly meet demanding Optical Density tests that include specifications for both noise and linearity – at all grayscale steps. This is a calculation of clinically relevant Optical Density – not DMAX. For medical professionals this difference is important.

http://www.vidar.com/dental/dental-film-digitizer-video.html

Visit Your Dentist Twice a Year, Why?…………………………………..

Who said you need to see a dentist every 6 months? It wasn’t the ADA, they say it should be as often as the dentist thinks. It wasn’t the insurance companies, they just piggy backed on the idea. So, who started this policy, why did they start it and when?

It all came from an advertising campaign by Pepsodent Tooth Powder and their sponsorship of the Amos and Andy TV show from the 1950s! First a wildly popular radio show, a television adaptation ran on CBS-TV from 1951 until 1953, and continued in syndication though 1966. The show was sponsored by Pepsodent Tooth Powder. Toothpaste had not yet been invented (the procedure was to put some powder on the palm of your hand, wet your toothbrush, and touch the powder with your brush) and in those days going to see the dentist was not a routine activity. In fact, most people went to see a dentist when they needed an extraction or when they were in pain. The Pepsodent ad campaign was quite successful, and in an attempt to appease dentists and gain their recommendation, stated in the ad that in addition to brushing twice daily, that they see their dentist twice yearly (or every 6 months).

Yes, the ad men of Pepsodent (clearly madmen) are responsible for determining the frequency of your dental cleaning visits today! God bless America. The following video is the add jingle, however, “See Your Dentist” is not in the recording.

Sunday, December 12, 2010…………………………………………..

Today is Sunday, December 12^th and it is raining outside. Stay dry and enjoy the day.

Cliff Marsh

Henry Schein Dental

P.O. Box 663 / 45 Rt. 46 East, Suite 605

Pine Brook, NJ 07058

Cell: 201-321-7494

Fax: 201-262-2210

cliff.marsh@henryschein.com

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December 12, 2010 - Posted by Cliff's Notes Blog | Uncategorized