Bulletproof Dental Practice Podcast Episode 2

Host: Dr. Peter Boulden

Atlanta Dental Spa

Guest: Dr. Mark Costes

Founder, Horizon Schools of Dental Assisting

Founder, Dental Success Institute

Author, Pillars of Dental Success

Title: Expanding Your Practice Through Acquisitions featuring Dr. Mark Costes

Subtitle: How to Expand Without Getting Burned Out

Key Takeaways:

Not having the right systems in place results to burnout and breakdown. It causes exhaustion.
Building multiple practices can help you predict a good return but you need to put the correct systems in place.
Investing in dentistry business puts you in control.
First time buyers have to consider a lot of things before buying their first practice such as demographics like strength of practice, physical location, etc.; history and reputation of the practice.
Do not expand before your flagship practice is the way it should be.It should have reproducible systems that are ironclad and that you can replicate in your remote practices.
Consider the pros and cons when deciding whether to use brand extensions or keep the original brands of the dental practices you’re acquiring.
- Pros can be that the acquired dental practice can piggyback on existing reputation while cons can be that it’ll be harder to sell in the future and reputation management is more critical.
Determine your exit strategy in order to know your buying strategy.
- There are 3 definitive ways to sell a practice: sell to corporations, sell to private equities and sell one practice to one time buyer. Each have different returns and different criteria.
A dental practice that is run well can earn huge profits.
There is no template way to determine if you need to rebrand a dental practice. It depends on the situation.
Things apart from the P&L to consider when buying:
- Purchase a dental practice that is near where you’ll live.
- Consider buying a more expensive practice with good history of revenues.
- Buy a practice whose dentistry services are something you like or know how to do.
When buying, consider if there is an opportunity to grow. Consider an underperforming practice. Look for the upside such as ability to market digitally.
Podcasts are great way to learn how to improve your practice.

Tweetables:

“Begin with the end in mind and re-engineer, otherwise it will be re-engineered for you.” - Dr. Peter Boulden

“We [dentists] are the luckiest in the industry because of the tangible asset we have.” -Dr. Mark Costes

“Determine your exit strategy in order to know your buying strategy.” -Dr. Mark Costes

“Build your company as if you’re selling it even if you’re not.” - Dr. Peter Boulden

“Dentistry is the darling of private equity right now.” - Dr. Mark Costes

Books To Read

Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink

The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes

Apps

iPhone Calendar

Alice Adams, by Booth Tarkington. Part II.