Three Reasons to List your Veterinary Practice For Sale with Omni
At OMNI Veterinary Practice Group, maintaining seller confidentiality is one of their highest priorities. Deciding to list a Veterinary practice for sale a major career move, regardless of the reasons behind it. When confidentiality is breached, the practice risks losing valuable patients and employees who would otherwise have remained during and after the sale, which reduces the overall value of the practice. For this reason, the professional team at OMNI Veterinary Practice Group have dedicated themselves to becoming experts at maintaining complete confidentiality throughout the process, while ensuring high listing exposure.
Marketing Experts
Even the most profitable Veterinary practices for sale can sit on the listing pages indefinitely when marketing efforts are lacking. At OMNI Veterinary Practice Group, this is not an option. The OMNI team of professionals has extensive experience and formal training as marketing experts to ensure the highest exposure for the listing as possible without risking the seller’s confidentiality. Each practice is listed across the nation in over 30 locations, including:
- Universities
- Associations
- Programs
- Social Media Platforms
- Online Marketing Efforts
- Mailers
- And More
Strong Relationships
To better expose Veterinary practices for sale, OMNI Veterinary Practice Group has built strong lasting relationships within the field. These relationships, which also help in speeding up Veterinary practice transitions, include:
- Vendors
- Bankers
- Attorneys
When you are ready for a career move involving the selling of your current practice, you can trust the experts at OMNI Veterinary Practice Group to maintain your confidentiality, while marketing your practice to a large group of potential buyers. To better assist you in the transition, OMNI Veterinary Practice Group is a leading provider of a wide range of services to Veterinary professionals, which include:
- Practice Sales or Transitions
- Valuations
- Consulting
- Real Estate Service
- Buyer Representation
To learn more about listing your Veterinary practice, please contact the expert team at Omni Veterinary Practice Group. OMNI specializes in Veterinary practice sales, and are dedicated to ensuring your success throughout the entire process.
When to Tell your Staff your Practice is For Sale
By Corey Young, MBA, CEPA, CVA, ABI
Congratulations, you just accepted an offer on your practice! With all the emotions associated with the transition, when to notify your staff is surely at the top of your “to-do” list. Telling employees that you are selling your practice is an extremely delicate process. Breaking the news too early can come with many risks, so best to wait until all final closing documents are signed by both parties and no more than one week before the new owner takes over.
So, what are some potential risks?
One of the primary risks is that employees will naturally be worried about their job security the moment you make your announcement. Oftentimes if they have too much of an advanced notice they may start searching for other opportunities. Staff leaving could negatively impact the transition and patient experience because of how instrumental they can be in helping the buyer and the patients adjust to new ownership.
The other major risk is that nothing is final until its final. Veterinary practice sales are extremely complex and can be delayed for a multitude of reasons or fall through completely. Making the announcement before the sale is complete will cause stress and heartache amongst your staff during a time that you will be preoccupied with navigating a significant professional milestone. If the staff were to find out before closing was final, you wouldn’t be able to offer any reassuring answers because of unforeseen changes to the closing timeline.
Finally, regardless of your views of your staff’s maturity level, gossip will ensue. I have seen it countless times where a veterinarian tries to provide honest reasons on why they are selling, only to have their words misconstrued. Comments such as, “I’m selling my practice to focus on my health” can quickly morph into, “S/he is selling because the practice is going under,” or lead to unfounded conclusions such as, “After the new guy starts, we will all be replaced.” This kind of fear and uncertainty will have a profound impact on staff morale during a time where they will be needed to ensure a great patient experience during the transition process.
In the end, you probably have a deep and meaningful relationship with your staff. They deserve to know about ownership changes as they will be impacted, but it is best for them (and for you) that they be kept out of the loop until you have concrete answers to provide them.
Veterinarians Sell in 5 years? 1 year? Now?
Jim Vander Mey, CPA, ABI, and Certified Practice Transition Broker with OMNI Practice Group, helps veterinarians analyze whether or not it is the right time to sell.
Read MoreExit Planning in the COVID Era
By Corey Young, DDS, MBA, ABIAre you ready to transition?
Is your practice ready to transition?
What is the market like?
These are all key questions to ask yourself. When is a good time to start thinking about all of this? The real answer is as soon as you buy or start your practice, but the more practical answer is dependent on you. If there any chance you will want to transition in the next five years, you should start working on your transition today.Personal readiness and practice readiness are both more important than current market conditions; however, considering the COVID crisis, I am going to focus on market timing.
If any of the following sounds even slightly familiar, raise your hand:
I was ready personally, and my practice was ready in August 2019. I choose to wait because (pick one or more):
- I have a kid with one year left in college
- I have one year until I can draw Medicare
- There is one more room in the house I would like to finish
- My spouse retires in a year
- I pay off my house in a year
- I turn (insert round number like 60 or 70) next year and I would like to wait until then
- Etc.…
Now, for those of you that raised your hand, consider the reality of August 2020. How does that August 2019 decision to wait look? Questionable at best.
My intent is not to beat up on those of you that this struck a chord. Rather, I want to emphasize the need for starting early and getting help.
Transitioning is a difficult process. Do not go it alone. Contact an experienced, qualified transition specialist and get the ball rolling. We are here to help.
Maximize Your Practice Value
Freshen up your practice – Buyers like to see a fresh, clean and somewhat updated practice. That does not mean you need to do a complete remodel and spend a $100,000. It does mean you need to take a look at your flooring and your walls. If you have large holes in your wall or your flooring was leftover linoleum from World War II, you should fix the holes and put in new flooring. Talk to your landlord, sometimes they will help with the cost. If you have equipment that is held together by the “fix everything” duct tape, contact your local equipment rep and have it fixed.
Update your technology – We run into an occasional practice owner that considers indoor plumbing as new technology. If you are in that category, or if you have not done any technology updates since Richard Nixon was president, you should look into digital x-rays and other technology that will not only appeal to buyers but will help you increase your production in the practice. Contact your equipment rep for the latest and great technology.
Financial Review – Have a meeting with your financial planner or advisor to see where you currently stand with your retirement portfolio. This will help determine how soon you can possibly retire, how much more you may need to put away to retire and/or how much you need to get out of your practice sale in order to retire.
Practice Valuation – You should get a valuation done on your practice. This will help your financial planner and you see where you stand with your entire portfolio. Some doctors rely heavily on their practice sale to be a piece of their retirement nest-egg, so if you don’t know what your practice may be worth, you don’t know what size of nest-egg you have. Call Omni for a free snapshot valuation.
Clean up your books – If you have been aggressive in running expenses and other items through payroll, you should work on making sure the books are clean. If you have multiple practices but run all of your income and expenses through one tax id number, you should ensure you can separate the income and expenses of both practices. Meet with your CPA to analyze your numbers and see if you are in line with industry averages.
Grow your practice – One of the worst things you can do is take your foot off of the gas pedal. If you want to maximize the value of your practice, keep production at least level with prior years. A growing practice sells quicker and easier than a dying practice. If you don’t know how to grow your practice and make it more sellable, contact a consultant, or have a practice assessment done.
These are just a few items that you can do to help prepare your practice for a sale. If you work on these items now and over the next 3 years, you will maximize your practice value, enlarge your pool of potential buyers and be able to sell your practice quicker. For a free consultation or an expanded list of things to work on, give us a call at 877-866-6053.
