Thinking of selling your dental practice can be a little overwhelming. There are many challenging aspects involved. You want your practice to stand out from others like it so that when you do go to sell your dental practice it commands the price you are after and all the time and effort that you have invested reflects in the final payoff. In some ways, preparing to sell a dental practice is a little bit like selling a home. It needs to curb appeal and upgrades to attract the attention of the people who are able to pay the price tag you expect. But just like selling a home, it can take a few ” renovations” and “upgrades” to give it that luster and modern ” move-in ready” appeal.
Create a Professional ” Focal point” for your business.
Having a recognizable brand image gives the allure of status and commands a higher price when it comes to selling. You may not be ready to list dental practice for sale now, but starting the planning process several years in advance can help make for a smoother transition in the end. It will also give you some reassurance that when you do finally list your practice for sale it’s at its peak performance and will sell for the best possible price.
Experts suggest that it is best to begin planning for the sale of your professional practice as far as 5 years in advance. This way if there are any issues you need to work out, you have plenty of time to begin to get things in order now. This also gives you time enough to make sure your brand image is sparkling.
Being able to draw attention to what makes you stand out from your competitors through your brand image also helps your business two-fold. By attracting new clientele now, and creates an alluring opportunity for a buyer when you decide you are ready to sell your dental practice down the road. Advertising increases customers and presents an alluring place to work for new employees in the short term.
Create added value
Identifying what aspects of your business that can be perceived as “added value or additional skills and expertise is a great step towards a building great brand image. This helps the general public as well as potential buyers recognize a high-quality product when they see it. “In a competitive market environment – which means just about everywhere – your practice needs to stand out in a positive and highly distinctive way because you are being compared directly to all others. Branding will help you stand out”.It also helps answer key questions from the community, would-be clientele, and prospective employees. Where do I know you from? or Where have I seen this listing before? To accomplish this consider having a press release or article written about you and your practice. These are great ways to spread positive info and good vibes that get the word out about aspects of your company that You want to promote. Advertising regularly in your local paper or a trusted professional publication like ADA News, JADA are also great ways to create a recognizable brand image. When recruiting to talent these resources can also give you access to top-notch recruits through their career center.
Clean up or establish your online identity.
If you haven’t searched for your practice online recently, do so right away. This is a simple task that is productive to keep doing so on a regular basis. You will want to check to make sure that addresses and contact info are correct and the information in your local listings are kept up to date. It is also important to respond to both positive or negative reviews by addressing negative reviews in a positive manner. Running online searches is one of the first things that people do before they buy or trust almost any type of business with their patronage. Your online presence should look ” alive” and lived in. It is possible to create the total package now through consistent advertising and maintaining your online presence. It is also important to make sure your logo and color scheme stays consistent. This is crucial if you want to be easy to recognize later on when you do finally list your dental practice for sale.
For the younger generations, social media and the digital world is almost second nature. So that means making sure your website, local listings, and overall online presence presents a clear understanding of your brand image or specialty area of practice. Maybe your practice focuses on orthodontics or pediatric dentistry. If nothing like that applies, perhaps you use state of the art equipment or really provide yourself with your fun and inviting atmosphere. Finding your niche will help people find you.
When you have invested yourself into growing our professional practice for years you want all the hard work to pay off. Planning for retirement and figuring out how to transition the business over smoothly. But if you start planning now and begin putting your best foot forward today, later on, when you are ready to sell your dental practice it can be the big reward at the end of a long profitable career.