Audio Message

Two groups of courses are available. GROUP 1 is focused on practice development and business planning. GROUP 2 is focused on practice transition, succession and valuation. All courses have an appropriate slide presentation and course agenda with supporting handout materials.

All courses are available either as a half day program or in a 2 hour version ideal for morning, afternoon or evening programs. Note the title can be modified for a particular audience.

The premise for this course is that for each doctor a personal vision is the starting point of a satisfying and successful professional practice. It is with a well considered vision that the talent of the doctor can be engaged and, coupled with their practice facility and staff, focused on the quality and type of patient care desired. Without the parameters a vision brings the application of any human and financial resources and the results achieved from them are more difficult to measure. Vision, this course stresses, is a forward looking experience that should be repeated frequently. Having vision renewed and refocused periodically provides a needed discipline and zest to the life of any professional and his or her practice.

By participating in this course attendees will:

• Gain an understanding of vision as the starting point for integrating their future with their present present practice to enhance the doctor's financial and personal security. 

• Take actual 'how to" visioning steps that apply to their practice in gaining a strategic inspiration for the doctor CEO and his / her team.

• In this exciting format the participants will exercise their creativity by looking beyond troubling current personnel, operations and facility items to what they would find motivating NOW, that will get them up and focused on meeting their business and personal objectives. 

This course focuses on meeting the challenges of building a growing practice. A premise of the course is that dental teams must be aware of and implement specific planning measures to have the practice desired by the doctor. A key premise of the course is that having effective planning measures in place helps insure providing high quality care to the practice patients. Examined will be six key initiatives that permit a practice to perform continually in a cutting edge manner. Areas to be discussed include applying planning to: developing the overall practice strategic plan, administration, finance and profitability, marketing, personnel, expansion / succession of the practice, and meeting regulatory challenges. This is a course designed for practice owners, associates in the practice, key dental team staff and spouses.

By participating in this course attendees will:

• Receive an invaluable orientation to the dynamic nature of change impacting dental practices leading to group practice interest.

• Gain an understanding of what "value" is in a practice and apply the understanding of value to an analysis of how to build practice value.

• Gain an understand the importance of strategy as it relates to building a specific practice future, including planning for practice growth and succession planning.

• Identify how to avoid transition pitfalls in the growing practice in associatehips, partnerships and retirement/sale planning since inherent in growth is often the question of how to add more doctors.

• Learn about how the initiative areas discussed help practices to meet the challenges of contemporary practice in each of the vital areas discussed.

• Discuss staff roles to help ensure the practice success, how staff can be rewarded for that contribution and how staff can participate in practice succession planning.

Group practice arrangements are growing. Today's group may be traditionally organized or not. Examples include owners with a large staff and practices with rotating independent specialists coming into the practice, owners with several associates, solo groups, partnerships, multi-discipline groups of general care and specialists, managed care or service company groups and even virtual groups. Unfortunately, group growth is challenging and often without proper direction. Unlike solo practitioners good information on how to administer, market, and plan succession is not readily available. This course focuses on articulating a vision for answering the question "What’s next?" for the dynamic group practice. Vision is followed with a thought provoking discussion of the critical distinction between strategic planning and long range planning and why groups must start their assessment of direction with strategic planning. Important "must have" aspects of meeting the challenge of a group include annual objectives that are time bounded and measurable with responsibility tagged to key individuals (doctors, staff or outside advisors) and a succession plan and disaster recovery plan. References will be made to a variety of materials to assist groups including selected referenced to the ADA publications Valuing a Practice and Guide to Associateships, both co-authored by the speaker.

By participating in this course attendees will:

• Examine widely different group formats that are operating in dentistry and discuss lessons drawn from the formats.

• Receive a step by step procedure to facilitate articulating a vision so that all participants in the life of a practice can relate to it including, equity owner doctors, non-equity doctors, staff, suppliers, advisors and patient populations.

• Learn the difference and apply the difference between strategic planning and long range planning.

• State objectives that tie to the strategic plan and discuss how that advances in a planned manner the direction of the practice development.

• Gain an understanding of relating growth, strategy and planning for succession of equity interests in a growing practice.

Each doctor takes a path that is driven by cumulative pieces of their past, the present and desires for their future. How should the younger practitioners set a course? How should mid-term and senior practitioners undertake a course correction? How should all practitioners work to better the patient care experience? These and other issues of planning, strategy, practice transition and balance are addressed using three magical questions. In this one of a kind program participants will be challenged to see their practices from the outside in and inside out to gain the advantage inherent in an objective look at business development and setting an appropriate course for both doctors and their practices.

By participating in this course attendees will:

• Participants will learn how clarity of objectives and the use of a timeline planning tool can help any doctor to reap significant rewards at each stage of the orthodontic career.

• The discussion will raise awareness of the issue best stated "less can equal more" in helping to improve the patient care experience and the doctor’s experience providing care.

• The participants will learn the benefit of proactively tailoring an approach to their careers using planning, strategy and practice transition techniques.

This course is designed to help the participants learn the ins and outs and the advantages and disadvantages of various practice transition and succession alternatives. Knowing the range of options and what other practitioners have found to work successfully can be a great help when it is time for the participants to make their own choice. The premise of the course is that if you know what you are looking for its there and you can have exactly the practice transition you want. Both new professionals and practice owners can be better prepared to avoid the pitfalls others have stumbled into by gaining an understanding of why certain strategies pose greater risks than others. Topics include understanding transition strategy, evaluating various creative arrangements, primer on practice valuation and making a transition choice. References will be made to a variety of materials to assist attendees and to provide after the course reference materials including selected references to the ADA publications Valuing a Practice and Guide to Associateships, both co-authored by the speaker and selected materials from the Expert Series for Dentists™.

This thorough yet fast moving course is designed to provide an insiders look at the details that make up various practice transition arrangements and how to make them work. If the companion lecture, Strategy & Options: Have Exactly The Practice Transition You Want, is presented first during the program then this course moves directly into specific detail materials. If not, then this course starts with a brief introduction to strategy and options and why having a clear choice in mind facilitates implementing the transition. This course has as its premise that if you know what you are looking for, you can have exactly the practice transition you want, but it is in stating the terms properly that you gain or lose the objective of the transition planned by two or more doctors. As most doctors know, the devil is in the details and this course will shed light on how to avoid the pitfalls. Topics include a brief introduction to choosing a strategy, approaches to creative associateship arrangements, how to structure the equitable associateship and have a good associate agreement, proven steps for a buy-in to partnership and an equitable buy-out. Management essentials for the practice in transition to help ensure quality for patient care will also be emphasized. Key practice management, marketing, financial, valuation and legal points will be covered. References will be made to a variety of materials to assist attendees including selected references to the ADA publications Valuing a Practice and Guide to Associateships, both co-authored by the speaker and selected materials from the Expert Series for Dentists™.

By participating in either course attendees will:

• Examine practice transition strategy and specific topics applicable to the theme of the course in significant detail.

• Identify advantages and disadvantages of a variety of approaches to associateship, partnership and sale options for effecting a practice transition.

• Receive specific suggested steps to take to implement particular strategies.

This course is designed for newer practitioners and residents. Every facet of the course is addresses and answers the concerns of the newer practitioner as they grapple with and assess practice transition opportunities. The course starts with the premise that for most younger professionals answering the question "What are you looking for?" in a location, in a practice, in financial, compensation and valuation aspects is vital to consider before looking at ads, notices or talking with practice owners. The format of the course is audience involvement by asking key questions and answering the points with audience participation and various slides and handout reference materials. The material will emphasize how residents and newer practitioners can set a personal practice strategy, identify key planning items, avoid pitfalls and settle on appropriate timing. In short, if a younger doctor starts a practice transition right, by intelligently weighing competing variables, he/she has a greater likelihood of achieving a satisfying practice transition result.

By participating in this course attendees will:

• Consider the importance of location and demographics in resulting practice patient profile and treatment acceptance as well as satisfaction living in a particular area.

• Consider the various reasons and options offered by practice owners when they determine their own practice transition strategy.

• Learn the differences in outcomes when practices use associate employee, independent contractor and solo group for foundation practice transition planning.

• Review steps for the younger professional and the practice owner for considering adding an associate or equity owner to the practice.

• Examine compensation issues, break-even analysis and cash flow techniques to assure a successful associateship.

• Review key provisions including restrictive covenants, liquidated damages, non-solicitation, confidential information and, when planning the partnership or purchase, the use of right of first refusal /options.

• Consider negotiation approaches, financing options, debt management approaches for the younger professional.

This is an ideal course for a mixed audience of practice owners and younger dentists just starting out. The focus of the course is on how to develop and maintain a successful practice while undertaking to orchestrate a practice transition. Constantly updated, this course emphasizes tackling issues related to associateship relationship development and using associateships to plan for undertaking a practice transition.

A key premise of the course is that the process of practice transition planning can be a win-win equitable endeavor if the doctors clearly understand the available options and all parties have access to pertinent practice information. Strategy, approaches and options will be examined for each of the following: the dental practice associateship, buy-in/partnership and buy-out/purchase and sale. Appropriate considerations for all parties to the transaction will be provided in structuring the successful transition and succession of the practice where a growing or declining practice is present. As appropriate, specialty practices will be distinguished and contrasted with planning the general dental practice. It is expected that by attending participants will be conversant with fundamental aspects and options for successfully structuring an equitable transition including key practice management, marketing, financial and legal points. Various example provisions from practice transfer documents will be presented to further illustrate the points and facilitate learning. References will be made to a variety of materials to assist attendees including selected references to the ADA publications Valuing a Practice and Guide to Associateships, both co-authored by the speaker and selected materials from the Expert Series for Dentists™.

By participating in this course attendees will:

• Explore various combinations of approaches to associateship and ownership or sale.

• Gain an appreciation for why a short term associateship is justified if coupled with a buy-in or buy-out.

• Learn why an immediate buy-in as an alternative to the extended associateship is worth exploring if safeguards for the practice founder are in place.

• Examine compensation issues, break-even analysis and cash flow techniques to assure a successful associateship.

• Review key provisions including restrictive covenants, liquidated damages, non-solicitation, confidential information and, when planning the partnership or purchase, the use of right of first refusal /options.

• Scrutinize valuation issues and methods.

This course focuses exclusively on the alternative practice settings that may permit the planning, creation and management of a solo group. Important decision points are highlighted and a proven approach to the financial arrangements for the host practice and solo group doctor. How to approach contract provisions with example formats for selected examples are provided. An buy-out approach is provided for either doctor in the event of death, disability and if desired, retirement. The presentation will contrast associate employee and independent contractor arrangements.

By participating in this course attendees will:

• Consider the powerful alternative practice transition format that can benefit practice owners that do not want to take in a partner but still want to slow down.

• Consider the benefits to younger professionals to start right out on day one as a practice owner but receive all the advantages of having a fully developed practice facility, equipped and ready to go with staff.

• Develop an understanding of how to assess whether a particular host practice and the doctors involved can benefit from developing a solo group.

• Learn the differences in outcomes when practices use associate employee, independent contractor and solo group.

• Apply and discuss example contract provisions to demonstrate how overall management, solo group payment and use fees work in a real solo group context.