Charting Your Career Transition

Paths Among Obstacles – 2010

Sierra Nevada, NV

As you embark on your transition from practice, success requires clear vision of the outcome, meticulous planning and precise execution. As you begin to contemplate the transition from your cherished practice, it’s imperative to set the stage for an effective process that secures your legacy and financial future.

Personal and Professional Readiness

The initial phase of your transition is introspective. It involves aligning your personal aspirations with your financial readiness. Crafting a comprehensive lifestyle and financial plan is essential to determine if your assets can provide for your envisioned future lifestyle. This is essential in order to proceed with confidence. In the absence of such clarity, you’re likely to experience delays and obstacles that result from the lack of planning and uncertainty.

Once completed, it's prudent to undertake a thorough, objective review of the current condition of your practice. It’s crucial to ensure that your practice operates at peak performance, as this forms the foundation of your transition plan.

Enhancing Your Practice's Market Value

The next step is to bolster your practice's profitability, which enhances its value, both to you and potential buyers. This applies whether it involves another surgeon as in a classic succession, a private equity firm or a family office organization.

As is common in life, there are things that stand out in importance for what you should do and those that are best avoided, if possible. Let's explore those to avoid and others to embrace.

Tactical Decisions: What to Avoid and What to Adopt

The variety and number of issues to analyze that represent challenges and opportunities are significant. These are some examples.

As you scrutinize your practice from your perspective as well as that of a buyer, you'll discover opportunities and pitfalls. Starting with the latter, consider the impact of reducing your professional service volume. Although it may seem appealing, remember that your practice's value is tied to its profitability, and scaling back too soon could diminish its worth.

On the expense side, analyze the big items as well as seemingly inconsequential ones that add up over time. Don’t let small, unchecked and ongoing expenses erode your profitability. Question recurring costs that may have piled up unnoticed over the years and reassess their necessity…and execute your decisions.

Now, for the proactive steps:

• Revenue Streams: Evaluate all sources of income, including services provided by yourself and your team. Evaluate your practice from the perspective of your patient's experience as she interacts with the practice. What can be done to optimize her experience as well as maximize productivity? 
• Work Schedules: Challenge the status quo of past routines. Modifying work schedules can lead to increased profitability and consequently, an increase in practice valuation.
• Adequate Staff: Ensure that your team's size and skills meet the demand for current or future services. In addition, recognize that the time and effort required of you and staff to prepare for your transition is significant and will occur over a prolonged period of time. It’s best to identify key staff to assist you in the transition preparations. Be prepared to make adjustments in their roles and responsibilities to support your objectives. In effect, you will be creating an internal transition team.
• Surgical Facility Analysis: If you operate in your surgical facility, thoroughly assess the profitably of each procedure. That includes multiple procedure performed at the same surgical setting. It's crucial to determine whether your facility is profitable or not. The key to this is to analyze the different factors that contribute to the true cost of providing each surgical procedure.
• Medical Spa: It is important to know the profitability of each service provided as well as the revenue generated from the sale of products. This evaluation should include the revenue and profitability as it relates to each professional. Similarly, the various  cost factors that comprise the overall true cost must be analyzed.

Leveraging Your Team's Insights

Your staff is an increasingly valuable asset during this transition. Engage them in the process and seek their insights and suggestions. Inquisitive dialogue using the What, Why, When, How, Where, and Who framework can yield enlightening perspectives.

Reflect on your dual role as a leader and manager. The latter involves primarily ensuring that the necessary tasks are accomplished efficiently and effectively. You must know that this is the case in order to make progress. If it’s not, then you will know what is needed to be successful. Striking the right balance of these two roles is critical during your career and certainly at this time.

Embracing the Transition

This is a defining moment, an opportunity to harness all your resources for the benefit of your patients, your team, yourself, your family and your successors. Take the initiative, engage with the process, and cherish each step along this path.

My best wishes to you, your family and staff!

Updated: January 5, 2024 

PS: Would you like to learn more about how to transition from your practice? I would like to help you. I provide practice transaction services that are tailored to your specific needs. Click here to request an introductory conversation.

Sunrise from Sunset – 2005

Virginia Range, NV