Let’s take a real-life practice and a sale to a DSO before and during the event.  Be sure you keep in mind the lists of good and not so good things of a DSO, try to understand the culture of a DSO, and the ultimate goal of the business plan or model in a typical DSO structure.  Bottom line is that DSOs grow by mergers and acquisitions and not ...

Allow me to try and be more objective and mention the good points and the not so good points about DSOs.  This is the “ohs” in the title of this piece or a kind of “aha moment”.   THE UPSIDE ARGUMENT FOR JOINING A DSO: Decreases the amount of time that a dentist spends running the business. Minimizes the doctor being the ...

Most dentists are unaware that DSOs in one form or another have been with us for 30 years.  Yet, today, DSO has become the buzz word for dentistry’s future with experts predicting that 80% of the dentistry being done in 10 years will be from DSOs.  Currently DSOs own or control about 17% of practices in the US and are growing by about 15% ...

If you have followed through on being ready, and thoroughly vetted your candidate, we need to take a quick look at contracts.  In a simplified way, a contract memorializes in writing what you and your associate, trial partner, or purchaser of your practice have already agreed upon.  It is at this point that you are going to involve your attorney ...

If you have made it this far and you have poised your practice for growth, interviewed and found a likely candidate, or you are the young doctor almost ready to pull the trigger on taking that job, then allow me to give you one more quick look at things you may have forgotten.  I want to take time to go back and remind you of some of the myths, ...

It doesn’t matter if you are the owner looking for another doctor or the dentist looking for a job or partnership, we need to make sure that the time spent, along with the benchmarks we have spoken about, are already in play before we begin looking for that job or doctor.  In looking, we want to make sure that both participants in this ...

We cannot not lose sight of “Practice Benchmarks for a well-run General Dental Practice”:  I want to remind each of you of the benchmarks you should be pursuing.  Lose sight of these, and you lose profit and ruin your chance at a successful transition.  From a young doctor’s perspective, if the practice you are considering working with ...

NOTE: If you are reading this without first studying the previous 3-4 articles on associateships and partnerships from the perspective of the young doctor and owner, please go to www.summitpracticesolutions.com/blog/ and use the Quick link or Search feature to access these.  This will not help you without following the string of articles in their ...

Let’s say you are with us so far, and we are on the same page. You are either a doctor looking for a job, or an owner doctor considering bringing in another dentist to the practice. You understand how this can be messed up from either party and you are still willing to go forward. There is one more area you must consider in order to have a ...

Don’t forget that we will refer to any new doctor who will work for you in an associate relationship as a Trial Partner (TP).  Remember that we do this to constantly create a cooperative culture with your new associate.  I feel that the owner doctor owes it to the junior associate to educate them about the business of dentistry while listening ...