Many chiropractors are approaching retirement age, yet few plan for this exit. A deep love for their work and dread of loss of identity as healer and clinic owner are common culprits. However, every DC will eventually leave their practice—by choice or necessity. A proactive approach allows you to maximize value, protect your legacy, and create a smooth transition. In this scenario, retirement can feel like
another fulfilling career chapter where you pass the reins to a passionate, capable successor while your patients and community remain well-served. Alternatively, avoiding retirement planning exponentially increases stress levels for the selling doctor, creates unnecessary risk of declining practice value, and can even render a clinic unsellable. Optimize your chances for retirement success with these pro-tips:
Start Early
Best practice is to get a valuation and exit strategy analysis at least three years before a sale, providing a clear understanding of current practice value and strategic adjustments that often significantly impact sale outcomes. Doctors with shorter timelines also benefit from early prep work to lessen the stress and effort required when the practice goes to market.
Recognize the Intricacy
Many doctors assume a practice sale is like a real estate transaction, but it is far more complex due to the extensive data involved. There are numerous moving parts, making selling a practice like solving a Rubik’s cube. Each decision impacts the overall solution, making it challenging to align all aspects— financial, legal, operational, lending, lease, etc.—until everything fits together properly. This complexity adds time to the process; preparing for the sale alone often takes doctors months, and once a buyer is in place the average sale takes 3-4 months. Without expert guidance, the process usually takes significantly longer.
Resist Delays
Postponing retirement decisions often results in declining patient volume, reduced practice value, and less energy available to manage the demands of ownership in later years (much less a rigorous sale process). This leaves practices vulnerable to “fire sale” pricing or permanently closing the doors, leaving the doctor with nothing to show for years of hard work, and the community with less access to chiropractic care.
Understand how Practices are Valued
After years of putting the proverbial blood, sweat and tears into a practice, it is easy for doctors to confuse sentimental value with market value. However, the practice’s true value is based on the documented profit that transfers to the new owner. This is often not the profit on your tax return; numerous lender-friendly adjustments are typically required to come to the true profit. Market pricing is key for sale success. Buyers don’t want to be disrespectful, so they often won’t even inquire about practices they perceive as overpriced. They compare prices and profits, viewing the purchase as an investment or a job. Lenders have firm profit requirements they must meet to approve a loan amount. So, pricing a practice at market value is essential to attract buyers, secure financing, and avoid the need for risky owner financing.
Don’t Lose Focus – or Go to Part-Time Hours
Anything that lowers profit lowers practice value – quickly and often dramatically. Key offenders are injuries and mental burnout. These are VERY hard to overcome for long, making these sales more urgent than the DC often realizes.
Be Open to New Ideas
There are several practice sale models, each with unique pros and cons. While chiropractors often favor associate buyouts for their perceived ease, this model actually has a much higher failure rate than other sale structures. Poor planning and communication, lack of professional guidance, and the life changes that come during the prolonged timelines are the primary reasons for failure. Additionally, today’s tight labor market has made it harder to hire associates, so doctors who planned for this sale model may now need to reconsider their retirement strategy.
Gain Vast Benefits from Professional Guidance
DCs sell their practice on their own all the time – but they often sacrifice value, sale success, and sanity in the process. Just as patients should rely on their highly trained chiropractor for diagnosis and care, DCs should trust experienced practice sale professionals with vast experience in today’s complex practice sales market. Working with seasoned brokers ensures smoother transactions, higher success rates, and fewer post-sale issues, making their expertise well worth the investment.
Keep Market Conditions in Mind
The practice sale market remains strong. Buyer activity is high among chiropractors and corporate buyers, with decreasing interest rates and continued access to business loans driving demand. Demand is projected to grow in coming years, but economic changes like recessions can occur suddenly and tighten credit, which means fewer doctors have access to business loans. So timing is crucial for the best sale outcomes.
By planning ahead and avoiding common sale pitfalls, you can greatly increase the likelihood of a successful practice transition, leaving your legacy in capable hands and achieving the best possible outcomes. This paves the way for a fulfilling next chapter, whether focused on family, adventure, or continued service to the profession you’ve loved.
Crystal Misenheimer is a certified business intermediary and lead broker with Progressive Practice Sales.
