Are you unwittingly killing your chances of selling your practice?
I bet you are a really good doctor. I have no way of knowing this of course, but all day long we talk to highly skilled doctors. Often they are also shrewd business people as well. They have built up highly successful practices, and that takes expertise on many levels.
However, very few of them are able to accurately price their clinics. A lot of doctors and practitioners don’t even try- is that you? Or are you in the crowd that’s going to put a quick and easy number on your clinic, put it out there, and ‘see what happens’? If you are in the second group, are you employing one of the following methods to estimate the value of your clinic?
Setting the price of your clinic based on your financial needs
Evaluating your clinic’s worth on a personal and nostalgic view based on your years of hard work
Basing your clinic’s sales price on another clinic’s asking or sales price
Using a cookie cutter formula you found online, or were given by your bookkeeper or consultant
You are not alone, these are very common missteps. The truth is, it is challenging to put a value a holistic clinic. The standard formulas used by accountants and traditional business brokers don’t provide an accurate analysis for the industry. The ‘rules of thumb’ that are commonly employed by consultants are not precise enough to capture the complexities of the clinics intangible factors. And an educated guess is, well, just a guess.
How will you calculate the present value of the equipment and furnishings? How will you determine the clinics goodwill? How do factors like the clinics amazing location, the new décor you invested $2,000 in last year, and your fantastic office manager who has been there for the last 20 years affect the clinics value? Or maybe your clinic is not in a great location, looked better in years past AND the collections are on a downwards trajectory- how can you best price this clinic where, despite these downfalls, it will still sell? The methods above don’t account for any of those details, and that spells trouble:
You might be undervaluing your clinic, missing out on return from your years of hard work. If your clinic is thriving, you want to make sure you capture all of the intangible value that rules of thumb and educated guesses miss
You might be overvaluing your clinic, seriously damaging your clinic’s salability, both now and in the future. Failing to see your practice through a buyers critical, unemotional eye is the #1 reason practices stay on the market too long- or sadly, never sell at all, resulting in the owner walking away with nothing
For sure you are damaging your ability to negotiate by not giving yourself firm ground to stand on when it comes to defending your price with a potential buyer.
There is a simple solution- a professional practice valuation! At Progressive Practice Sales we utilize proprietary algorithms that are built specifically to value chiropractic, acupuncture and holistic clinics. We take into account all the pertinent intangible factors to make sure that not only are you capturing all of your value, you are also priced at a point where your clinic will likely sell within your preferred timeline, not interminably languish in the marketplace while you put your life on hold and cross your fingers. And guess what? When you sign up for our all-inclusive service plan, you actually get 100% of the appraisal fee back when we sell your clinic. Consider it an investment in your business that reaps huge returns when used to effectively price your clinic.
Ultimately, it comes down to you- how badly do you want to sell this clinic? How strong is your desire to do whatever you are envisioning for the next stage of your life? If you are truly ready to move on, you have got to get a professional valuation, and price it within those parameters. Ready to get started? We’d love to give you a free consult to learn about your goals and share how we can help you accomplish them!
Until next time,
Crystal