Must-Do’s To Create Your Medical Practice Legacy

Question: “Can a branded, cash-based, cosmetic practice legacy be bought and sold as an asset?”

Absolutely, if you have the right legacy program protocol in place. The cosmetic physician that makes early plans to organize their vital marketing assets is preparing to profit from hard legacy work. How? Make sure your practice branding is transferable, maintain Internet and patient practice performance data and a robust internal marketing program to retain patients. While you are planning for retirement with IRAs and savings, make sure you also plan for your practice’s legacy transfer. Also, an unforeseen disability can surprise you so you want to be prepared. With some professional assistance, your practice will sell or transition its earning legacy for a profit. And, maybe you have an option of being a business mentor to an appreciative medical protégé!

Sellers – Don’t Wait Until It’s Too late to Create a Practice Legacy

Today’s cosmetic practices have an opportunity that other medical specialists dependent on insurance do not have. This class of doctors have the opportunity to exit their practices as profitable assets.

It’s tragic that today many successful cosmetic practitioners wait too late to have the opportunity to sell their once vibrant, cash-rich practices. These doctors watch their practices dwindle and die a slow death. They have to walk away if they become disabled or wish to retire.

Start-Up Practices – Explore Your Practice Legacy Options!

Establishing a practice de novo that has a steady stream of patients will be challenging and expensive. Joining an existing practice preparing for a future transition to be bought requires careful research and maybe a delay in achieving your ultimate goal. 

Joining an existing practice that you may buy is less risky and offers a faster path to building a purely cosmetic patient base. You can pay down existing debts and be a real and new contender in an existing market. However, there will be upfront costs, obligations and need for due diligence with all options being entertained. Therefore, the buyer must weigh the advantages of joining an existing practice against the risks that come with being a start up practice taking on big competition.

Must-Have Assets for Practice Legacy

Prospective buyers of cosmetic practices will be analytical when looking for a practice opportunity. Therefore, it is imperative that the seller of a practice is prepared with accurate and timely financial operating information. This information must be in hand to validate the sources and quality of new patients and the effectiveness of the marketing programs to sustain the influx of new patients.

Key Practice Marketing Assets Checklist: 

• Practice name without current doctor’s name (commonly overlooked)
• Ranking, up-to-date website trending analytics, transferrable URL & social media
• Cash paying patient names, phone #s and email addresses & demographics
• A protocol to legally transfer the patient relationships & communication process
• Current and historical track record of volume of key cosmetic procedures a buyer or new associate can perform
• A credentialed Internet & marketing expert that is more than a web developer
• A relationship with a banker that knows the history of the practice is also useful 

Conclusion to Create Practice Legacy

The sellers of practices that have prepared their exit strategy should have a timeline of at least two to five years or more. It is a must to have Key Marketing Assets in place, have excellent prospects to sell the practice or execute a legacy transferred/leveraged plan. It will never again be as easy as it was just five years ago.

The optimal option for establishing a new cosmetic practice should be to seek out an existing practice that has taken the step to prepare for a legacy transfer.

The incentives to not be a start-up practice today are large and include:

• A growing list of branded, cosmetic service practitioners using costly and branded technologies making it challenging to get a foothold in most desirable markets
• Requirements of advanced digital marketing that works is expensive and will take time to get the patients needed to sustain a new practice start-up overhead waiting for the cosmetic income to grow
• Funding the initial cost of business operations, staffing the clinical and marketing operations is formidable

Some assistance of an attorney, tax accountant, and an Internet marketing specialist will be required to complete the final sales process. Create your practice legacy now.