Selling your veterinary practice may be one of the most important life decisions you make. You need to weigh veterinary practice brokers all the factors, including why you want to sell, is it the right time to sell, and how to make sure you value the practice correctly. You want to plan far enough in advance so that you can be sure to get the best price for your practice and be happy with your future after the sale is finalized.
Questions to Consider When Contemplating Selling Your Veterinary Practice
You need to ask yourself some serious questions before putting your practice up for sale. The most important question to answer is, “Why do you want to sell your veterinary practice?” Some of the most common reasons veterinarians give are:
They want to retire.
They are making a career shift.
They are frustrated with practice management. They are tired of hiring, firing, supervising, billing, debt collecting, and dealing with bad clients. They also are fed up with lawsuits and government regulations.
They want to relocate, maybe move across town, to another city, or to another state.
What do you want to do and what goals do you want to achieve after the sale? Why are you choosing to sell now? Is the right time to sell? If you have made the tough decision to sell, how do you plan to go about it?
How to Plan for the Sale
If your plan is to sell your practice and retire, many experts advise you to plan years in advance. Whether you have planned that far ahead, or have only recently decided to sell, some things you need to do to make the most of the sale include:
Getting legal and tax advice. As far in advance of the sale as possible, you need to consult with legal and tax consultants. Attorneys and certified public accountants (CPAs) are your friends. They will evaluate your practice and help you make critical decisions along the way to protect you from future legal liability and to minimize tax consequences.
Making sure your business records are complete and updated. There are key documents you need to be sure are in order and up to date. This includes:
All partnership agreements.
Operating agreements.
Licenses.
Ownership records.
Business registrations.
All contracts, for example, with vendors, suppliers, advertising companies, equipment leases, lease agreements, and employment contracts.
Check to see if there are any liens. You may be surprised to see there is still a lien on the practice years after you have satisfied the debt for which the lien was placed. Run a Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) search to see if there are any liens remaining. Do this even if you believe a lien was never filed. You can then follow up with the lien holder and ask for a release to be filed with your state’s Secretary of State.
Protect intellectual property. This is not just for inventions but includes trade names and logos. Even copyrighted written material. You may want to assign these to the buyer, but you want to do this knowingly and intellectual property that is assigned may increase the value of the practice.
Consideration of employees. Since your employees won’t know about the sale until after it’s finalized, it is best to retain the status quo with your employees and not cut salaries or benefits.
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