Articles

The devastating bushfires that took place over last summer have become a distant memory for many people, as have the courage and sacrifices of the Volunteer Firefighters. We interviewed Dr Richard Warren a few months ago, one of our dentist vendors from 2019, for our “Life After” series and found that he is one of the volunteers who spent much of the fire season on call and in the field, working tirelessly to save homes, businesses and wildlife. We owe volunteers like Richard a lot!

So happy to be able to help YWAM with this acquisition. Sounds like it will make a massive difference in the oral health of PNG school kids!

As Australia combats COVID-19, there is a lot of uncertainty about what the future holds. The current situation is essentially unprecedented in human history. While there are some “chicken littles” out there, running around saying that the “sky is falling” and hoarding enough toilet paper to satisfy a small country, most people believe that the outbreak of COVID-19 will run its course within a few months. When it does, there will be many dentists who will be worried about the impact the economic shutdown will have had on the value of their practice, particularly if they are at a stage in life where selling is typically the next step. While no one has a crystal ball here, there are plenty of reasons not to be distressed.

My practice was a low - level suburban practice, so I didn’t anticipate a lot of interest. However, we had 13 interested parties come through to view the practice within a week or so. The new owners are a lovely couple, a husband and wife who are both dentists. I am still working for them two days a week. They are able to offer a number of things, which I hadn’t been prepared to do. I’m lucky as they have been extremely easy to work with. If I have a problem I can talk to them about it, and they are happy for me to do the two days. I’m very busy on those days – I often think I work harder on those two days than I did before I sold the practice!

Selling really worked out well for me. It has been 11 months since surgery and my hand is almost recovered; it is functional, but it will take a bit longer to return to its normal strength. If I had been practicing dentistry in the way I was before the surgery, I may have caused more damage long term – a chance that I didn’t want to take. For me, it’s not about proving anything to anyone, it’s about making the best choice you have at the time with the info you have and not looking back and having any regrets.

If I had any regrets, it would be that I wish I had taken more holidays earlier on. I think I could have, I just didn’t know how to do it at the time. I wouldn’t have sweated the small stuff. One of the things my accountant said resonates with me – “you get to a certain point in life where you have everything except time.” People seem to live life back to front. When you are young, and the kids needed us more we are all probably guilty of working too much. We are trying to make up for that now.

I had become tired of managing the practice, the red tape, the bureaucracy. I wasn’t ready to retire completely, I just wanted to slow down. My daughter was pregnant, and I knew I’d want to be able to spend time with my grandchild. I love my camping and fishing and wanted to do more of it. I had been in Italy on holiday. I came back on the Saturday, ready to go back to work on Monday, and I realised that I didn’t want this anymore. I rang up my financial advisor on the Sunday, and on the Monday I called Simon Palmer at Practice Sale Search.

The immediate transition was so much easier because Simon had found the right buyer. It makes a huge difference to know that your patients are in safe hands and you can genuinely be confident in recommending your successor... People think of retirement as the end, but for me it has been the start of a new journey. Once I had sold, my head was in a completely new space.

A few years ago I went to the US on a holiday and I picked up a bug while I was away. After nearly dying, I woke up having spent six days on a ventilator. It took a long time before I could even walk. That was a big wake-up call for me. I decided I didn’t want to continue building up the practice. I wanted to sell and concentrate on getting healthy again and doing other projects that I was passionate about.

Thrilled to be asked for comment on this important topic.