There is a difference between being ready to exit and being exit ready.
Just because you find yourself burned out, worn down, or saying, “I’m done,” does not mean your practice is ready to sell.
Most owners do very little to prepare until they feel the emotional catalyst.
Burnout.
Health limitations.
A family crisis.
A growing awareness that they no longer want to spend the next five or ten years doing what they are doing now.
By that point, they may be ready to exit.
But the practice may not be exit ready.
Exit Ready vs. “I’m Done”
A potential buyer is not going to evaluate your practice based on how ready you feel to leave.
They will evaluate it in specific, measurable ways.
They will look at your production mix.
They will want to see steady or growing new-patient flow.
They will look at whether the building has been properly separated from the practice.
They will look at overhead, debt, receivables, financial records, systems, lease terms, and how dependent the practice is on you personally.
These are the same metrics you should be using to evaluate your own practice now.
It is difficult to quickly fix all of those areas of the practice once you feel ready to leave.
The time to do it is now.
You will benefit from cleaning up all of these areas even before you sell.
I call this becoming “exit optional”.
Below, I provide an accompanying Exit Ready Checklist lays out 21 specific areas a buyer, bank, or broker is likely to examine before you ever sit down at the table.
The more of that groundwork you complete in advance, the more control you keep.
But here is the most important part.
“How Much Do I Need to Get From This Sale?
It is not enough to know what your practice might be worth.
You need to know what you need to get for it.
Those are not always the same number.
A valuation tells you what the market may pay.
Your Freedom Number tells you what the sale needs to accomplish in your life.
Without that clarity, it becomes very easy to confuse maximizing the sale price with making the right decision.
How Much Are the Next Five Years of Your Life Worth?
The answer to that question might depend on how many years you have left to live.
If you only had five years left, would you want to spend them practicing dentistry?
Maybe you would.
There are doctors who still love the work. They enjoy their patients, their team, and the contribution they are making.
But many stay in practice years longer than necessary after the enjoyment is long gone.
They keep going because they cannot stomach the idea of taking less than the maximum their practice might be worth.
For some, that is financially necessary.
For others, it is not really about the money.
It is about acknowledgment.
They want the sale price to validate what they built.
They want someone to recognize the years of work, risk, sacrifice, and responsibility that went into creating the practice.
That is understandable.
But acknowledgment is not worth years of your life.
When you get to the end of your life, you probably will not regret that you did not work longer and harder to get the extra 10 or 20 percent.
You may regret what those additional years cost you.
I Sold My Practice for Less Than It Was Worth
I had a real reason why.
I had come to the realization that every moment with my daughter was a gift.
She had been through leukemia and a liver transplant.
I did not know how much time I would have before the third strike.
That changed the way I looked at the practice. It changed the way I valued money. And it changed the way I valued time.
I sold my practice for less than it was worth.
I have not regretted selling it for what I sold it for—not for one moment.
In hindsight, I wish I had sold it sooner.
The life waiting for me on the other side was bigger and more fulfilling than I could have imagined while I was still inside the practice.
That does not mean everyone should sell early.
It does not mean the math does not matter.
For some owners, the math matters a great deal.
I call this calculating your “Freedom Number”.
Why Your Freedom Number Matters
Some owners remain in practice because they genuinely need more time.
They need to reduce debt.
They need to build capital outside the business.
They need to increase the practice value.
They need the sale to produce a certain amount of net proceeds.
That is a financial reality.
But many others remain because they have never clearly defined how much is enough.
Without clarity and definition, the uncertainty around that question will push you back toward the familiar, comfortable status quo of trading time for dollars.
You will tell yourself that one more year is the prudent choice.
Then another.
Then another.
Every offer will feel too low because there is no defined number against which to judge it.
That is why the Freedom Number is so critical.
It turns “as much as possible” into something specific.
It helps you understand what the sale needs to produce after commissions, taxes, debt, and transaction costs.
Most importantly, it allows you to make the decision based on the life you are trying to create—not simply the largest number you can extract from the business.
Not If, but When
You will reach a point when it is time to sell.
Maybe that point is five years away.
Maybe it is ten.
Maybe it will arrive sooner than you expect.
When that time comes, do you want to be confident and ready, with a plan that has the benefit of years of groundwork behind it?
Or do you want to take whatever options happen to be at hand when the moment arrives?
You get to decide.
There are two ways to lay the groundwork:
1. Make your practice exit ready.
Build a practice that is financially clean, operationally transferable, and valuable without depending entirely on you.
2. Know your Freedom Number and have a plan for reaching it.
Understand how much you need, how much you already have, and what role the practice sale needs to play in closing the gap.
Do those two things, and you will be at the top of the class.
You will not be forced to stay because you are uncertain.
You will not be forced to sell because you waited too long.
You will have options.
And that is the real purpose of becoming exit ready.
To your Freedom,
David
P.S. I have put together a simple Exit Readiness Scorecard based on what I’ve learned from walking alongside dozens of colleagues through their own transitions. It takes less than 4 minutes to complete and will give you a simple scorecard on how “Exit Ready” you are right now. When you complete it, I’ll also send you the 21-point checklist I use to think through the practical side of getting a practice ready. Both are free. Get your scorecard here.
