Kunal Thakker weighs up and pros and cons of buying and building an existing practice versus opening a squat practice.
Today, we’re going to talk about buy and build versus a squat practice. There’s no real right or wrong answer, and it really comes up to individual choice, but what you need to be really aware of is the risks and benefits, and pros and cons, of both.
Buy and build
We’ve done a lot of acquisitions in the past, and when you’re buying a practice, you’re buying a ready-made patient book, an established building, you’ve got all the equipment, and you’re really ready to go on day one.
Everything is in-house and you can make money pretty much straight away because it’s an established business.
The downsides of buying a practice that’s already established is really around if you want to put your own mark on a practice, or you want to build in your own culture, that’s really hard. When you’ve got staff, you’ve got teams, that have probably been there for 20 odd years, changing the culture is really difficult. Changing processes, if you want to put a new system in, these things take a lot longer.
They take a lot of influencing, and you want to bring your team on that journey, otherwise you’ll end up losing your team. And what you’ve bought is probably not worth it, because you’ve lost half the team and the goodwill within your business. So, it’s a real fun fine balance.
Taking on a vision
The other downside of the buy and build model is really around the fact you can’t put your own equipment in there and you can’t really design the patient journey however you want. You’re taking on someone else’s vision.
If you’re someone that is quite happy to take on an established model, that’s great. But if you’re really entrepreneurial and you want to design what your patient journey looks like, you want to put your stamp on it, buying an existing practice can be more challenging, but not impossible.
Watch the full video for the pros and cons of a squat practice.
Catch up with the rest of the Developing a Squat Practice series:
- Top tips for opening the perfect squat practice
- The dos and don’ts of opening a squat practice
- Funding a squat practice – everything you need to know
- The key to marketing a squat practice
- Defining a clear brand for your squat practice.
Follow Dentistry.co.uk on Instagram to keep up with all the latest dental news and trends.
