What makes a dental practice sellable — and what buyers actually look at.
A practice that only works because you are in it is worth less than the same practice with the same numbers and a documented way of running. That gap is operational, and it is closable — but not in the month before you go to market.
The thing buyers are really pricing.
Every buyer is asking one question underneath all the others: what happens to this practice on the day the current principal stops turning up.
If the answer is that the diary empties, the team loses its reference point and nobody knows how anything is done, then what is being sold is a job rather than a business. That shows up in the price, in the structure of the deal, and in how long you are tied in afterwards.
The numbers get the attention, and they matter. But two practices with identical figures do not fetch identical terms, and the difference is usually visible in a morning on site.
What gets looked at closely
- Dependency on you. How much clinical income is yours personally, and what happens to it when you leave.
- The team and their contracts. Associate agreements, employment contracts, and whether key people are likely to stay.
- The patient base. Active patient numbers that stand up to a definition, recall attendance, and whether the list is genuinely as large as the software says.
- Documented systems. Whether the practice runs on written process or on institutional memory that is about to walk out.
- The compliance record. CQC history, and whether records are a routine or a scramble.
- The premises position. Lease length and terms, or the freehold arrangement.
The work, and when to start it.
Most of what raises the price takes twelve to twenty-four months to show in the figures, because a buyer is looking at trading history rather than intentions. Starting two years out gives you room. Starting three months out gives you a tidy folder.
Reducing key person risk
Moving income and relationships off you and onto the practice and the team. This is the single largest lever, and the slowest, which is why it goes first.
Documenting how it runs
The systems written down and demonstrably in use. Not a folder assembled for diligence, which buyers recognise immediately.
Cleaning the patient base
An active patient figure you can defend, lapsed patients either reactivated or removed, and recall attendance that supports the number you are quoting.
Reporting a buyer can read
Consistent monthly figures over a meaningful period. Numbers reconstructed at the point of sale invite questions you would rather not spend goodwill answering.
Team and contracts in order
Employment and associate arrangements documented and current, so the position is clear before anyone else examines it.
Compliance that holds up
CQC and GDC obligations met by routine and record. This rarely raises a price. It reliably lowers one when it is missing.
What this is, and what it is not.
This is operational preparation. I am not a broker, a valuer, an accountant or a solicitor, I take no commission from any of them, and nothing here is valuation, tax or legal advice.
You will need a specialist dental accountant and a solicitor who does dental transactions, and if you are going to market, a broker. What I do is the work that happens before and alongside them: making the practice itself worth more, and easier to hand over.
If you already have those advisers, I will work to what they need. If you do not, I will tell you which ones to get first.
Two ways to start.
Priced plainly, because you should know the shape of the cost before you have a conversation.
The diagnostic — £950
Half a day on site. An honest read on how the practice would look to a buyer today.
- Half a day on site
- A written set of findings
- A plan in priority order, with timescales
- Yours to act on with or without me
The preparation — scoped and priced at the diagnostic
The operational work, staged over the run-up to a sale. Defined start, defined end.
- Everything in the diagnostic
- Dependency reduced and systems documented
- Patient base and reporting cleaned up
- Full handover, whether you sell or stay
Everything here is worth doing whether or not you sell. A practice that runs without you is a better practice to own in the meantime.
Take the free audit first.
Twelve questions, five minutes, and a score across the six places practices lose control. Dependency on the principal is one of them.
No charge. Your total appears on screen straight away, and the six-section breakdown is emailed to you.