You have served your community well. You have kissed the babies, adjusted the mayor, helped minor hockey teams, spoken to the Girl Guides, done lunch and learns for the Kiwanis and Golden Age club ……….. you have served your community well. Now it is time to think more about you and your spouse and what will serve you best in retirement.
So where to start? Getting a Chiropractic practice valuation is a crucial first step so you can KNOW the amount of equity you have built into your business over the many years of service. But as you look at the extensive amount of data you need to reveal to your practice appraiser, you get a little intimidated and possibly even a little sheepish when you realize there are things the consultant is asking for that you either didn’t do or stopped doing for no good reason you can remember.
Here are the 6 Keys to mine gold out of your chiropractic practice.
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REPRODUCIBILITY
There are two aspects to a chiropractic practice valuation. The depreciated market valued assets and the goodwill. The goodwill is always the bigger portion of the value and therefore focusing on how to maximize that is key. Reproducibility is the key to raising the goodwill component of your practice valuation and that is our focus of this article. The next 5 steps will actually show you how you can increase the reproducibility of the great results you get in your business…
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SYSTEMS
The more systemized your business is the more likely any other doc can come into the business and reproduce the same results you are getting. Remember buyers don’t care as much about the results you get out of the business as they are curious about what kind of results THEY can get out of the business. So what kind of systems are we talking about …… read on.
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EDUCATION SYSTEMS
We are talking about systems related to intake for a new client, the report of findings, special appointment or health care demonstration, table talk, progress reports and anything else designed to educate your patients. Are there templates or scripts written out that someone could come in and work towards reproducing? Is the team trained to support you in these systems? Getting your educational systems structured will add huge value to your chiropractic practice valuation.
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MARKETING SYSTEMS
Do you have a marketing plan? Is it written up and worked on in a structured and reproducible manner on a yearly, quarterly or at least monthly basis? Do you track your ROI (Return on Investment) for the activities and strategies you use? Having this structure in your business will add value to your business while you are in it but also when you go to pass the torch to the new buyer.
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TEAM SYSTEMS
Do you have regular meetings with your team? Do you do regular training with your team either inside or outside of the office? Is there structure and a system to how and when these things occur? Do you have a team policy manual? Do you have an outcomes assessment and a contract for each team member? Do you do regular quarterly team evaluations? All of the aforementioned items increase the likelihood that your team is a well oiled machine and therefore a profit center in your business. Team systems definitely add value to your chiropractic practice valuation.
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POLICY’S/FORMS
Do you have a client office policy? Do you have written financial plans and policies you share with clients? Do you have an operations manual? Do you have written, auditory and/or visual teaching tools for clients? Do you use a pre-intake exam video or web presentation? Do you use a pre-report of findings visual teaching aid? All of these things will add tremendous probability to the reproducibility of the great business you run.
All of these systems can add thousands of dollars to your sale price, so if you have not started to systemize your practice, now is a great time to start. There are many other things to consider to mine gold out of your chiropractic practice valuation but these are some of the most common. Don’t wait until you are set to retire to build these things into your practice. Start now and reap the benefits BEFORE you decide to retire. That way you are mining gold while you are still in practice as well as when you retire.
After appraising 100+ practices, we have created the top 5 lessons in the ‘systems that sell series’ that can help you get an extra $106,000 at time of sale. Check it out here:
