What’s In a Name?

Names for dental practices have been on my mind lately: practices named for the doctor, practices with progressive sounding names, practices with comforting sounding names, and practices with, well, just odd sounding names.

Being a practice appraiser, I’ve not necessarily been thinking of practice names because of their marketing advantages or drawbacks. Rather, I’ve been asking myself, what’s the value of a practice name? How much monetary value can an Assumed Business Name (“ABN”-a practice name  other than that of the doctor) be assigned during an appraisal, especially during an ownership transition? How much good will does it really contribute to the business?

The benefits of an ABN are obvious for a practice transition. While the practice may change owners, there is no need to change the name of the business, thus leading to increased stability and decreased patient attrition.

However, I would suggest never-changing a practice name for the sole purposes of trying to increase practice value prior sale or transition. It takes years to build good will in a practice name, so it’s unlikely to benefit the practice sale.

Even if a practice you’re considering purchasing is a sole proprietorship named for the doctor, that doctor’s name can continue to provide good will to the practice for a year or more after the transition.

There are many considerations the practice owner should review when choosing a business name, but I suggest that a pending practice sale should never be one of them.

What’s the Difference between a Practice Appraisal and a Practice Valuation

I had a client once ask me if, in anticipation of purchasing a practice, she should get a practice appraisal from the current owner or a practice valuation. She had sent me some materials from the practice’s owner that provided a practice value with a few reports and charts on the practice’s strengths.

In general, many would say there is no difference between the two. In fact, I told her that the two terms are generally used interchangeably within the dental practice appraisal profession. What she had sent me could be termed an appraisal or a valuation, depending upon the preference of the professional.

Still, I think there is a nuanced difference. In practice, though, an appraisal usually includes a valuation. Here’s the simple way to differentiate the two:

1. Does the report simply place a value or price tag on the practice? Then it’s a basic, no frills valuation.
2. Does the report “appraise” the strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities of the practice. Then it’s an appraisal.

Most reports paid for and/or used by dentists are appraisals that contain a practice valuation. While a simple valuation (how much could my practice sell for) might be useful in preparing for a practice sale or perhaps for life insurance planning, it generally provides no insight or benefit to the potential buyer.

The potential buyer, partner, or associate wants to get a bigger picture of the practice. They want a 3rd-party professional who will look at the history of the practice, the patterns of progress and how he or she, as an invested owner, might have to deal with various challenges.

An appraisal should include, at the very least, the following:

1. Financial data, including production and collection figures, a history of owner draw, practice overhead (gross and adjusted), and assets;
2. Practice information on patients (demographics, traffic, charts), staff, procedures, and marketing efforts;
3. Community information (profile, patterns of growth or lack of growth);
4. Facility information (location, layout, condition);
5. A detailed valuation (value broken down by tangibles and intangibles)

For more information or to discuss customizing an appraisal for your specific situation, please feel free to contact me at your convenience.

Todd Christensen
Owner/Senior Appraiser
Assist to Practice
TAWC Enterprises llc
Success@AssistToPractice.com
www.AssistToPractice.com

Spring Is a Time for First Impressions

What’s the first thing your patients see when they visit your office?

Here’s a hint: It’s not your front desk. It’s not your waiting room. It’s not even your front door.

It’s your parking lot and your building.

If you want to make a good first impression (and your DO), make sure your parking lot has no trash or clippings strewn across it and that the plants and shrubs are trimmed, tidy, and welcoming.

I spent part of this past weekend spraying the gravel area of our back yard with weed killer. No more worries till next year. Make sure you or your grounds keepers are doing the same on your cleared areas.

Like I mentioned in my post about office “curb appeal,” the first physical impression of your office literally impacts the value of your practice by thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars, just as it does the value of your home.

Have a wonderful spring!

Todd Christensen
Owner
Assist to Practice
TAWC Enterprises llc
Success@AssistToPractice.com
www.AssistToPractice.com

“DREAM” Your Way to Success

Have you ever had those days where you’re busy, busy, busy but, after all is said and done, you don’t feel like you “did” anything? I’ve got to assume everyone has.

As I recently commented on a blog at http://dentalmanagementcoach.com, I feel that “the most telling sign of a disorganized business owner [you can read "doctor," "teacher," "manager" or any other title] is not the mess on his or her desk but their complaint that they are too busy.”

We all have the same 24 hour day to work with. Most all business owners have more tasks than they could possibly address in one day. But some people just seem more effective in their use of time to produce results.

Here’s my recipe for a very satisfying and productive day: DREAM your way to success.

D=Develope
R=Release
E=Educate
A=Advance
M=Manage

Develop: If you’re not consistently developing a plan for the future, brainstorming, investigating ideas, and thinking about ways to be successful, it won’t happen. Take time to imagine a successful practice and work on it. Write down your thoughts and ideas and any related notes.

Release: Before they let you stick you hands in their mouths, patients want to know you’re an expert. One of the best ways to become the expert in your community is by writing articles, publishing a relevant blog, being interviewed on television or radio, and letting your patients know about it. Have you noticed a trend in dental health in your area? Let the editor of your newspaper’s local section know about it. Just remember to keep it positive. Post newspaper, journal, or magazine articles by you (or that mention you) in your waiting area where patients can see and read them.

Educate: Take time regularly to educate yourself, train and educate your staff, and educate the community. Briefly review a pertinent article from a journal with your staff at a weekly meeting. Consider having a different staff member responsible for the “review” each time. And don’t limit it to journals on dentistry. Consider articles and studies on customer service, psychology, child development, sociology, finance, and business, among others. Also, make it a practice to send a staff member or the doctor to staff a booth at a community fair or school once a month where they can provide dental health care tips and information. If you’re seen as an educator in the community, you’ll be the “go to” office when dental health care decisions are made in households.

Advance: This is your opportunity to market your business. Besides flyers, ads, newsletters, school papers, and community announcements, make sure you’re regularly networking with other dental health professionals in your area, both generalists and specialists. When was the last time you attended a chamber of commerce event?

Manage: Some doctors hate it. Some doctors love it. But the management of your business demands your regular attention. Beyond the balance sheets, are you also holding regular formal and informal reviews with staff, and updating their personnel files? Do you have office policies and procedures written and are they reviewed and updated? Are you finding ways to motivate all of your staff members, beyond financial compensation, to give their best to the practice and your patients? Have you looked at your physical facilities lately as a new patient would? Are there signs, postings, portraits, or art work that are long overdue for an update?

Keep this formula where you’ll see and use it regularly. I have it saved as a read-only file on my desktop. I’ll regularly open it, type in specific activities I want to accomplish under each section, prioritize them, print out the page, and post it where I can see it. Believe me when I say that checking off a task at the top of each category during the week is a VERY satisfying habit to get into.

I’d rather accomplish one high priority task in a week than a dozen low priority tasks.

Todd Christensen
Owner
Assist to Practice
TAWC Enterprises llc
Success@AssistToPractice.com
www.AssistToPractice.com

Color Your World

When was the last time you painted the inside of your office? If it’s been more than a few years, then the next time you step into your waiting room, try to see it as a new patient or visitor would.

Are the colors fresh and welcoming? Or, are they dated, stale, or worse yet, dark and foreboding?

• Consider a neutral background color;
• Add eye catching accents (a search for the right ones could start simply with Googling “popular colors”;
• Avoid colors that some patients and visitors might consider too bold;
• If you use nontoxic, environmentally friendly paint, and make sure to tell your patients (signs at the front desk, website, newsletter, etc.). You’ll strengthen the loyalty to your practice of more than a few mothers and fathers of young children.

Once you’ve given your office a mini-makeover, your next step will be to make sure your marketing materials that have pictures of your office interior (brochures, your website, newsletter, appointment cards, Facebook pages) receive the same Tx.

Todd Christensen
Owner
Assist to Practice
TAWC Enterprises llc
Success@AssistToPractice.com
www.AssistToPractice.com

Pedo Practice Review and Appraisal Value Ranges

I had a great opportunity last week to review the appraisal of a pediatric practice. Although not always the case, this was a win-win-win situation. My client got helpful insight into the strengths and challenges of the practice, the original appraiser had many (though not all) of their findings confirmed, and I had the opportunity to see up close how other appraisers do their work.
It was comforting and gave me great confidence to know that much of what I saw in the original appraisal was of a professional and fair nature.
One of the great values in an appraisal review is the establishment of a value “range.” Typically an appraisal sets a practice value. While the value can generally but reasonably justified, Since appraising a practice involves some degree of subjectivity, so the value should never be considered as “set.” In the case of this appraisal review, I established for my client a range of justifiable practice values that empowered her to approach the buyer with greater confidence to negotiate a fair deal for both parties.
I love appraisal reviews.

Todd Christensen
Owner
Assist to Practice
TAWC Enterprises llc
www.AssistToPractice.com

Do Your Patients Know How Smart You Are?

There are numerous reasons for pursuing–and various benefits for completing–continuing education. One that I have seen very little of, though, relates to “marketing” it to patients.

Whenever I sit in a waiting room (which is hopefully not for very long), I have yet to see information on the continuing education that my dentists or their staffs are completing or pursuing. No plaques on the wall, no binder of photos or certificates, no log of class attendance…nothing.

Your clients may not know their perio from their endo, and frankly, they probably don’t care. But I guarantee you that they do care that you and your staff know the difference.

If you and/or your staff attend a dental conference, take a continuing education course, or go to a society meeting, bring back a certificate–or print one up–and display it somewhere in your waiting room. It will increase your patients’ confidence in your care and, who knows, may even serve as conversation fodder.

Todd Christensen
Owner
Assist to Practice
TAWC Enterprises llc
www.AssistToPractice.com

Personal Budget Busters

Ordering out for lunch every weekday will cost you over $1,500 per year. Most people don’t realize the large impact such seemingly small expenses can have in the long-term.

In addition to my practice appraisal services, I am a Certificate Personal Finance Counselor® and a financial educator. For many people, hearing the term, “Personal Finance,” is tantamount to covering their face with a rag doused in ether. Zzzzzz.

With that acknowledgement, one of my favorite personal finance sub-topics – and one that most participants in my classes actually find interesting and enlightening – is a “Budget Busters” table. It lists several of the little expenses that creep into our day-to-day finances, along with the big sums that they add up to on a monthly and yearly basis. I’ve heard it called “the latte factor” elsewhere.

Here’s the link:

www.nationalfinancialeducationcenter.org/docs/Budget_Busters_Brochure.pdf

Check it out and see if you have any of your own Busters listed. We’ve all got something we can work on. It’s not necessarily about eliminating them, but rather minimizing their impact and placing them in their proper place among our financial priorities.

Todd Christensen
Owner
Assist to Practice
TAWC Enterprises llc
www.AssistToPractice.com

New Service

I’m working on developing a new consulting service to add to my appraisals. It’s all about efficiency.
There was an interesting segment on NPR profiling an efficiency consultant who visits businesses for several days and makes recommendations to improve business. It’s amazing how “outsiders” see opportunities for improvement that owners and personnel miss every day.
My immediate thought was of dental offices and how I could modify the approach the profiled consultant took so that it makes the most sense (and cents) for dentists.
I’m already nearing launch of the service, which I am entitling, DOE (Dental Office Efficiency). Everyone wants more DOE, right?
It will involve efficiencies in the management of Time (waiting, wasting, scheduling), Energy (motion, movement and momentum), Talent, Processes, Training, Inventory, and Duplication (overproduction, overprocessing).
There will be 3 package levels: Platinum (one week of observation), Gold (2 days) and Silver (4 hours). I’ll be offering, through my blog and my Facebook (www.facebook.com/practiceappraisals) one free Silver package and a discounted gold package.
Watch for more details, or give me a call/send me an email for more details.
success@assisttopractice.com.

Todd Christensen
Owner
Assist to Practice
TAWC Enterprises llc
Success@AssistToPractice.com
www.AssistToPractice.com

Personal Financial Goals for Dentists and their Spouses

You’ve likely got a mission statement (or at least you should) for your practice. But have you written down your “personal practice goals?”

I’m not talking about how many new patients you want each month or what production level you need to achieve. I’m talking about writing down what YOU want to achieve and do… personally.

Why did you go into dentistry? Besides the pleasure of being your own boss and the satisfaction that comes from the artistry and challenges of the work, you most likely also considered the financial rewards of the profession.

Here are a few goals that, if you haven’t done so already, you should absolutely have written down and even carry with you:

1. What do you want to do in the next 6 months that will require money? In the next 18 months? In the next 5 years? These are UNRELATED to your practice. These are personal goals that will motivate you to create and stick to a spending plan. If you’re married, you and your spouse should discuss them together and both agree to them. Again, post them where you both can see them. It’s the single most important thing you can do to find common ground and “stay on track” financially.
2. How much of the money required from goal #1 will need to come from your practice? Let your personal goals guide your practice goals.

Too often, we let our business goals detract us from or even set our personal goals. We falsely assume that if we’re making as much money as our practice possibly can, we’ll find financial satisfaction in our personal lives. But without the written personal goals to guide us and to measure our progress, such satisfaction will frequently remain illusory.

I may be a practice appraiser, but I am also a certified personal finance counselor. As such, I will also use this blog from time to time to provide you with ideas and suggestions for increasing and determining not only your practice’s value but also your net worth.

Best wishes for practical success!

Todd Christensen
Owner
Assist to Practice
TAWC Enterprises llc
Success@AssistToPractice.com
www.AssistToPractice.com