PRACTICE SALES
Experience is Everything
Our owner, Larry Jacobson is a licensed attorney and CPA with almost 40 years of experience in structuring the sale and purchase of professional practices. He works with owners and purchasers to develop deal structures that optimize their financial, tax and business objectives. No practice sale situation is too complicated for us to handle.
We can value oral surgery practices on a stand alone basis, apart from our representation of practice sale owners. We value practices for partner buy in or buyout purposes or for estate planning purposes. Since we value practices not only for sale, but for other planning purposes, we have a unique skill set and a proprietary valuation model that recognizes that oral surgery practices are valued differently than other dental specialty practices.
We work with a team of specialized banks all around the country that know OMS Exclusively and how we value practices. We assist buyers in finding the right lender for them and that can help us bring a practice purchase to a successful conclusion. Our assistance in matching buyers and lenders is a key component to our success in getting practices sold.
We don’t waste time with tire kickers. The time of our sellers is too valuable to waste on unqualified or disinterested candidates. So we vet candidates very carefully before we introduce them to practice sellers. We also spend a lot of time with our practice sellers to ensure that they understand the selling process and how to maximize the likelihood of a successful sale.
Although we do not act as attorneys to either our practice sale clients or their buyers, we do offer to review documents prepared by their attorneys, not to second guess the attorneys, but to aid in helping the parties navigate through issues that might be unnecessarily holding up the execution of a fair purchase contract.
We like to tell our clients that around 50 percent of what we do is deal structuring and the other 50 percent is coaching buyers and sellers. We are keenly aware that the purchase and sale of an oral surgery practice is a deeply personal matter and that issues other than financial or business can be as important as the personal and professional concerns. We focus on deeply understanding those non-financial issues so we can maximize assistance to both the buyer and seller.
Don’t find your answer here? Contact us with your question.
How long does it take to sell a practice?
While there is no set answer to this question, the reality is that the shortest period of time to sell a practice that has been listed with us is around nine months and some practices might take up to two years to sell. The factors that influence the length of time include the size of the practice, the location and how difficult it is for an out of state buyer to get licensed and registered on insurance plans. Very importantly, it is critical that the buyer and seller are represented by competent advisors that are very familiar with the process of how oral surgery practices are valued, how the due diligence of the practice is conducted and how the deals are documented. The more professional the representation of the parties, the shorter the time frame from start to finish and more likely the deal gets done.
How does OMS Exclusively go about finding buyers for my practice?
We have a data base of every surgeon and resident in the country. We get to know many associates and residents. We know who wants to purchase practices, including right out of residency. We know the geographic and practice orientation requirements of practice purchase candidates. We know the general size and profitability requirements, whether the purchaser is an individual, a partnership or a corporate buyer. We do not waste time trying to match practices and associates that are obviously bad fits. We have a long standing reputation of matching the right practice purchase candidate to the right practice.
How does OMS Exclusively deal with confidentiality during the practice sale process?
We take confidentiality VERY VERY seriously both on the candidate and the practice for sale. We will not talk to a candidate without him or her signing a confidentiality agreement. We will ask a practice, before we set up an interview, if they want to meet with the specific practice purchase candidate. We do the same thing with the candidate. In addition, our ads (which are approved by our clients) are drafted with confidentiality in mind so that candidates cannot identify a practice until the confidentiality agreement is signed and the practice decides they want to interview the candidate. Moreover, detailed practice information is not shared with a candidate until they sign a letter of intent specifying a purchase price and other timing requirements
How are practices valued?
Put simply, anyone who says that practices are valued by buyers based on simple formulas doesn’t work with oral surgery practice sellers for a living. We use a nine factor proprietary formula to value practices. The most important variables are the annual cash flow available to owners after paying overhead and the location of the practice, but there are other important factors as well. Since most purchasers are receiving 100 percent financing to acquire practices, we know how lenders work and how they value practices. We tell our clients that we value practices “to lend”; an overvalued practice will attract fewer buyers and the buyer will not be able to finance an overvalued practice. We list practices at the price we intend to sell them.
What type of practices does OMS Exclusively represent?
OMS Exclusively generally represents as a practice sale consultant those practices that have a minimum of $1,000,000 in annual collections per surgeon and owner cash flow after overhead per surgeon of at least $500,000. Our purchasers are looking for practices of a significant size and quality. We want to make sure that the clients we take on are clients we can successfully help get their practice sold.
“I had my practice listed with a practice broker for over a year and never heard from them and they never sent me a single candidate to talk to. You sent a candidate the first week and they bought it. Plus I had to sign an exclusive agreement and I was stuck with them. A wasted year.”
“From the first call I made, to the closing of the sale of my practice, OMS answered any question 24/7 quickly, in a very friendly and positive manner. On top of that, “they know their stuff!” The experience and expertise was evident throughout.”