How Do I Sell My Optometry Practice

“I want to sell my optometry or ophthalmology practice.  How do I start?”

 

This question can have many answers depending on how quickly you want to transition.  If you are thinking that you want to sell NOW, the answer is very different than if you want to sell in three years.  We will give some ideas based on both of these timelines.

I want to sell my eyecare practice NOW!

  1. Start with gathering your financial information, including the past 3 years’ tax returns, P & L statements, etc. Make sure it is “clean” and error free.
  2. Make sure you have copies of any paperwork that a potential buyer will want, such as a copy of your lease, any contracts that are in place (software, equipment, employment, etc.)
  3. Take a critical look at your space, and remove any clutter, touch up any paint flaws, and make the space as visually attractive as possible.
  4. You are ready to start!If you are working with OptiRova, we will then list your practice on our website in an unidentifiable way giving the general location and approximate revenue, as well as an asking price if wanted.  We will also work with you to establish a fair price. We try to give the buyers a good enough idea of where the practice is to decide if it is in their area of interest, but not enough that a buyer (or your employees or patients!) can tell exactly which practice is for sale.  Here is an example.

I want to sell my eyecare practice in three years.

  1. Review your P & L’s and determine where you are vs. similar practices.We recommend benchmarking your P & L’s every month to make sure that you are not getting off track.  It is very important to categorize your P & L’s to make management of the business much easier.  If your P & L report is alphabetized but not categorized, you are making your job of managing the practice much harder.
  2. Adopt a strategy to grow sales. Incremental sales are magical in their ability to drive profits. Since you are already paying the overhead (salaries, utilities, rent, etc.) approximately 60% of incremental sales fall to the bottom line. So for every additional thousand dollars in sales, six hundred falls to the profit line.  With current multipliers, that means that for every additional thousand dollars in sales, the value of the practice will grow by $2,400 to $3,200!
  3. Keep your foot on the gas. Now is not the time to take that 4 week trip to Italy, do that after you sell the practice! Try to maximize your practice income, and fill the demand for patient exams.
  4. Watch your expenses. Most practices are already pretty good at this, but if you are not on top of expenses, things can get away.
  5. Have your billing and coding audited by a third party. We have seen many practices that have done their billing and coding internally lose a ton of money by incorrectly filing claims, or worse, not filing at all. This can make the difference between a healthy profitable practice and one that is struggling.  One company that we can recommend is CS Eye, based in Minnesota but covering the entire United States.

This is a brief idea of how to sell your ophthalmology or optometry practice.  At OptiRova, we specialize in eye care practices, although we work with all medical specialties.  Let us know how we can assist you, no matter what phase your practice is in.