e e n g d g ?
When I ask a dentist, “When is the best time to start thinking about your exit?” the answer is often the same … “It depends on your age.”
How consistent your systems are when things get busy. How much of the day still depends on you personally. None of those decisions are one-and- done. They repeat across the entire life of your practice. Over time, they compound, sometimes in ways you don’t notice until much later. That’s why the old advice to “begin with the end in mind” actually matters here. If you don’t have a rough idea of where you’d like to end up, it’s hard to know whether the decisions you’re making today are helping or hurting.
life to look like when you’re no longer in the chair every day? Those answers don’t lock you into anything. They give you direction. One of the most painful patterns I see is dentists waiting too long to think about these questions. Most practices follow a fairly predictable arc: early growth, a long plateau, and then a gradual decline as energy, time, and attention start shifting elsewhere. Too many doctors end up selling during that last phase. When that happens, value is lower, and options are fewer than they ever needed to be.
This makes sense on the surface. But in practice, it’s dead wrong.
The more honest answer is this: The right time to start thinking about your exit is the day you become a practice owner. And if your reaction is, “Well, I wish someone had told me that back then,” you’re in good company.
That’s why today is the right time to start.
Here’s why. No matter how far away you think your exit is, the decisions you make as an owner today are already shaping what that exit will look like. Every year, you’re either adding value to your practice or quietly giving some of it back. Earlier, I mentioned that practice value comes down to cash flow. That’s true whether your buyer is another dentist or a DSO. Different buyers, different structures, same math. The more sustainable cash flow your practice generates, the more valuable it becomes. Once you accept that, a lot of everyday decisions start to look a little different. Think about the choices you make over and over again. What technology you invest in. Whom you hire. How well they’re trained. How you retain patients. How you bring in new ones.
So, where do you start?
It’s a tough outcome to watch, especially because it’s usually avoidable.
You start by getting clear about what a successful exit means for you. Not in a spreadsheet sense, but in real-life terms.
Some dentists worry that focusing on exit planning means focusing too much on money. In my experience, that’s not how it plays out. The practices that perform best financially are often the ones delivering the best care and creating the strongest patient relationships. Good dentistry and strong economics tend to travel together. Planning your exit is about running a better practice while you’re still in it and making sure that when the time comes, you’re choosing from options instead of reacting to circumstances.
Ask yourself these questions:
Why would you sell? Retirement is one reason, but it’s not the only one. Some doctors want a partner. Some want to reduce the administrative burden. Some want to keep practicing without carrying the full weight of ownership. How does a sale fit into the rest of your financial picture? Do you want to keep working after a transaction, or would you rather step away? Would you stay longer if ownership became easier? What number actually matters to you? And just as important, what do you want
E BUYERS WALK AWAY (The Red Flags They Avoid) One of the most common reasons buyers hesitate is when too much of the practice depends on the doctor personally. Systems that live in your head instead of on paper. Decisions that still route through you because “it’s just easier that way.” A team where true ownership of outcomes hasn’t been clearly assigned. overhead, and profitability don’t move together in a way that makes sense, buyers hesitate. Buyers look for numbers that tell the same story month after month. When the story changes without a clear reason, they pause.
If hygiene production is flat while doctor production climbs, they want to understand why. If overhead has crept up without a clear return, they notice. If revenue looks steady but EBITDA tells a different story, that raises questions. Buyers don’t like surprises. And practices that haven’t been reviewed through a buyer’s lens tend to have more of them than the owner realizes. Another issue buyers quietly avoid is what I think of as “soft systems.” These are systems that technically exist, but only work when the right person is in the room. Scheduling that runs smoothly as long as one specific team member is at the front desk. Case acceptance that depends on how much time you have that day. Hygiene reappointment that happens when someone remembers to follow up. Here’s a useful test. Imagine you’re gone for four weeks. Not checking in. Not answering questions. Just gone. Would the practice run the same way on week
From your chair, that often feels like leadership. From a buyer’s chair, it feels fragile. Another quiet deal killer is an unclear financial story. Not bad numbers, just numbers that don’t fully explain themselves. When production, collections,
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Stan Kinder - (703) 298-1690 · 3
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