Entering a partnership within the scope of your dental practice requires due diligence on both sides. But where does due diligence end and trust begin?
In the video below OPS President, Dr. Jack Bayramyan, and myself, discuss that very situation. If there is true trust in someone you choose to go into partnership with, there must also be clear and open communication between you both. Partnership doesn’t exist without communication or trust.
One of the first tests your partnership will encounter will be the due diligence aspect of becoming a partnership. This is where lawyers come in and start looking at your books, your operations, and you. Being ready for this process is paramount to the success of it.
Preparing Your Dental Practice for Partnership
Being open and transparent is one of the keys to success in beginning the process of joining two entities. Make no mistake, lawyers will look at everything: your daily calendar of events, how you run your operations, the true valuation of your organization, etc. It is a normal and detail-oriented process and you’ve got to be prepared. You always want to put your best foot forward, but you also want to be honest and truthful throughout the process.
After the glow of meeting someone and then determining they’re the right partner for your practice, creating a business partnership is actually a lot of work. One of the keys to success is to begin the process of scaling your practice. When you evaluate your practice and stress the system to see where the weak aspects are, you are already able to understand your business better. And that really is what it comes down to, you want to have a detailed understanding of the operations, teams and systems of your entire organization.
One of the ways you can gain that understanding is with our Assessment. OPS has a comprehensive assessment you can take for free. That assessment will give you a clear understanding of your practice and what it is ready to take on. It will also help you answer if you, yourself, are ready for partnership or even if you want to take those next steps or not.
The Power of Partnership – Part 5
The Values that Guide You also Guide Your Dental Practice
But when is too far, too far? In the video, Jack describes being inundated with the same questions over and over again. He describes an almost too painstaking experience of having to repeatedly prove himself to lawyer after lawyer. When is it too much and enters into the realm of redundancy?
In my experience, dental entrepreneur has her or his own line in the sand, if you will. No matter what, due diligence is a necessity but as in Jack’s situation, my lawyers were going above and beyond what they needed to do. I appreciated their thoroughness but when I got that call from Jack, I knew I had to act.
After all, Dr. Jack was about to become my business partner, I needed to do my due diligence, but then I needed to balance that with the trust I would extend to any other partner or colleague. I got on the phone with my lawyers immediately. I checked to make sure we had what we needed, we did, and then I told them to back off. I called Jack back, explained the situation and let him know we had got what we needed and there would be no more redundant questions, etc.
It was at that moment that trust was forged for real. That was truly the first real test of our partnership. He expressed a real issue and was honest and open about it. I had the power to address that issue and solve it to his satisfaction, so I did. We both ended that day happy.
Are your personal values reflected in your dental practice, and the work you do? You may be interested in this post…
What Do You Look for in A Partner as A Dental Entrepreneur? I knew that Jack Bayramyan’s organization was a cut above. I would be lucky to partner with him. His organization…
Are You Ready for Dental Partnership?
That first “issue” in our partnership really laid the groundwork for how we both handle issues that arise in our business. And issues arise every day, don’t they? No business is issue-free, ever. But what smooths out the issues, what makes partnership with anyone work, are the basics: communication, transparency and above all, trust. If you don’t trust the person you’re entering partnership with, that is not a true partnership.
Are you ready for partnership in your dental practice? Well, we’ve got an easy way to find out. Take the free assessment I mentioned and get a good indication of what your practice is ready for and maybe more importantly, what you’re ready for in your business.
Scaling your dental practice organization and entering partnership are both big steps. So, find out whether you and your practice are ready for those next steps.