So you are thinking about selling your chiropractic practice. When you run through a mental list of things to do, you- hopefully!- will think of cleaning house. After all, just like selling a home, you want your office to show well, and a good cleaning is vital.
But before you even get to that, there is some other, much more important organization you need to get to. Whether selling a practice on your own or through a broker, you are going to need a detailed information packet to provide to potential buyers, which will include:
Financial statements for the last three years
Tax returns for the same period
List of equipment, furnishings and inventory including purchase year and price
Detailed practice statistics for the last three years
Detailed information regarding your practices operations, marketing, staff, and more
We work with our clients to gather this information, going over it with a fine tooth comb to ensure it is accurately portraying the information prospective buyers need. Then we organize it into a preliminary marketing piece, and an in-depth information packet for serious prospects.
If you are not working with a broker to sell your practice, you will need to prepare this information as well. It is critical to make sure everything presented is accurate and up to date. Any discrepancies or disorderliness here will certainly scare off skittish potential buyers. And all of this information will be poured over in great detail during the due diligence period- so if you have any loose ends, now is the time to tie them up. This could be past due bills, poorly kept accounting records, tax liens, poor record keeping, etc. Time invested here will be worth it!
A second area to focus on organizing is your business operations. Have all staff type up a list of their duties and the steps to complete each one. You do the same. While it’s time consuming, systemized businesses are much easier to run and also make it much easier to train new hires- and new owners! A highly organized business is less risky for the new owner, which in turn makes it more valuable to you. So spend some time getting this done.
A side benefit here- you may realize there is room to transfer more of your own tasks to someone else in the office (which also makes the business more valuable), or even add additional tasks or projects to a staff member’s workload that could add more revenue, aka value (new marketing projects, patient recall and retention strategies, etc).
There really is no downside to performing these tasks, and the upside is incredible. Feel overwhelmed by the scope? We can help you with that, just call or email for a complimentary consultation to learn more about our services.
Share your practice organizational strategies- and dilemmas- in the comments below!