Exit Planning in the COVID Era
Are 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.
Sell a Practice Now?
What a crazy time we are in. At least to me, this is a sober reminder that major disruptors are almost impossible to predict. I am reassured that our nation seems to be taking the situation seriously and I do firmly believe we can weather this storm. Most of you reading this are making difficult decisions about staffing, how to deal with emergencies, and how you are going to pay the rent for the next few months. I don’t envy any of you right now. There is a strong support system in this industry ready to help. Don’t hesitate to reach out. I think you will find all of us willing to go the extra mile right now to help you keep the ship afloat.
Many of you reading this are very close to transitioning your practice, some of you being on the fence. It is human nature to want to put off transitioning until after this crisis is over. You may even be getting that advice from your CPA or financial adviser. I am going to give you three reasons why you should do exactly the opposite.
One, value. We have been in a booming economy. Many of your numbers have been at all time highs over the last couple of years. Now COVID-19 hits. How long will we be shut down? How will the economy look on the other side? Will the clients pull way back on elective treatments for a couple of years like they have done in other recessions? In the present, buyers and bankers will mostly be willing to look past these next couple of months as an anomaly. Practice values will hold. For a while. That said, as someone who does Valuations and sells practices, I can assure you that in two years no one will care what your 2018 and 2019 numbers look like. In two years, what happens in 2020 and 2021 will be the new reality.
Two, market. There is a backlog of practices that are nearing the market. The people who work the transition market have been wondering when that bubble will burst for a few years now. I for one believe this crisis will do the job. Most doctors are going to ignore me and wait two, three, even five years, watch the market flood, the economy falls off its current pace, and wonder why their practices are down in value and are hard to sell. The early bird gets the worm.
Three, time. Many of your potential buyers had their hours cut, some by 100%. They have unprecedented time right now to look at practices. Odds are you also have more free time than normal. Realistically, practice sales won’t close until this crisis is over. That said, there are months of work between deciding to put a practice on the market and a practice changing hands. When life gives you lemons…
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Broker Vs. No Broker
Thinking of selling your practice but don’t want to pay the broker’s commission? Think again. History shows that any time you sell your business and/or real estate yourself, the chance of failure of the transaction is over 50%. A commission will be much more digestible than the result if you try to do it yourself. We receive calls from senior veterinarians stating they sold their practices and took payments and it didn’t work out. After one year, they often must take the practice back and struggle to resurrect it to try and sell again. This is typically an experience that is new to both buyers and sellers. It takes time, marketing expertise, sales experience, buyer and advisor contacts, and lots of patience.
Your broker may spend hundreds of hours on your transition and your time is better spent at the clinic and planning your retirement agenda. Brokers do lots of specialized marketing which can be costly and time-consuming, and it includes many weekends and evenings meeting with potential buyers. When working with a broker, the average practice sells in about 6 months so selling it alone can be much longer. Your broker should have a list of qualified buyers and a commercial real estate license. If you own your space, it’s often critical to sell the building at the same time or get a solid agreement together for future purchase. Time and time again we see senior veterinarians sell the practice and lease the space with a loose agreement and lose their renter. The buyer decides they like a newer building down the street and leave you with an empty veterinary building.
A good broker will determine the value of your practice and there is much that goes into this process. It’s not just about collections. Everyone’s goal should be to sell at a fair price in a timely manner. If the price isn’t “right”, the banks won’t finance, and you certainly don’t want to carry the loan. If you get pressured to sell too low, which we often see, you can lose tens of thousands of dollars. Brokers spend a lot of time working with all the trusted advisors you need such as veterinary specific banks, CPAs, and attorneys to determine the value of your practice and facilitate a smooth and successful transition.
HARVESTING YOUR EQUITY IN YOUR PRACTICE
You Don’t Have To Retire If You Sell Your Practice
By Rod Johnston, MBA, CMA
A few years ago, I decided to sell my house in Kirkland, WA. I wasn’t planning on moving anywhere. I still planned on living for quite a while longer. I didn’t have any health issues, nor was I downsizing from my 1,100 square foot house to a smaller house. I purchased the house almost 20 years prior and it was nearly paid off, so I had quite a bit of equity built up into it. I had just decided it was time to harvest the equity I had built up in the house and use part of the equity to buy something else, part of it to put towards retirement, and part of it to have as a safety cushion for a rainy day. I’m glad I sold the house as it was over 1/3 of an acre and had a lot of flower beds and landscaping. It was also getting older and required quite a bit of maintenance.
I’m telling you this story because you can do the same thing with your practice. You have put in many years of hard work in your practice. It may need maintenance every year that you may be tired of taking care of. After 20 years of staff issues, they may be getting to you. Maybe you just had a new corporate move in down the street, and you’re worried about competing against them. It could be that you just want to be a veterinarian and just want to see patients – not manage staff, clean the office, pay the bills, deal with the leaking roof, post to the office Facebook or Twitter pages, come up with new ads to get clients in the door or any of the other 100 items that are required of a veterinary practice owner. I know, as I’m also a business owner – and who do you think cleans our toilets on the weekends?
No laws say you must own a practice to be a veterinarian. You can Harvest your Equity from your practice and continue to be a veterinarian. Imagine getting hundreds of thousands, if not millions, out of your practice, continue to work in your own practice, or go to work in a different practice if you choose and no longer have to manage a practice. You can put the money you receive to work for you in a retirement or investment account. You can free up some of your time to enjoy your family. You can buy a vacation home that you’ve always dreamed of, or just simply put the money away for a rainy day and continue to work.
So, what are the steps to Harvesting Your Practice Equity?
- Set up a free consultation with one of our advisors.
- Have a practice valuation done on your practice.
- Meet with your financial advisor to discuss your plan and the valuation.
- Meet again with an Omni Advisor to discuss possible options in selling your practice and the feasibility of working back in the practice.
- Let Omni take over the selling process and find a buyer that matches your needs. The “your” is vitally important as we are matchmakers and want to find a buyer who will be a near-perfect fit for you, your practice staff, clients, and the community.
- Close on the sale of your practice and plan your new, less stressful life.
That’s all there is to it to take back control of your life. Of course, there will be some work between steps such as running reports, meeting with a potential buyer(s), and discussing options with your advisors. But if you rely on Omni and other experts, the process can be simple.
We have helped numerous veterinarians who sold their practice and are working back in their practice or are working for someone else and appreciating their newfound joy again being a veterinarian and helping animals get better. The first step is the easiest. Just give us a call at 360-941-2341.