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Let’s talk about when you need an exit that’s not planned. That might be quicker than you’ve ever thought of. And you start considering the options of, do I need to actually close my practice down, or are there alternatives and options to me that I’m just not aware of? So very often people will come to me and they might say, that might be a spouse or a ca and they’re like, the doc got sick or they’re injured for some reason, they really can’t continue to practice. That’s a category. This will fall under. Another category that this will fall under is just you are done. You don’t wanna take the time to sell your practice, which we’ve discussed many times can take 12 to 24 months, maybe your lease is expiring and you really don’t want to renew your lease.

The other thing that sometimes happens a lot lately is. People need to relocate. Maybe your significant other got a job and got transferred and you’re gonna be relocating your family and you really don’t have the time that it takes to put in to actually find a buyer. Bring a buyer to. The practice and go through that process of the acquisition.

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So here’s something that I help people do when we get to that point for someone In this situation, we do what I refer to as a fold in some people say acquiring and some a neighbor neighborhood practice or something. I use the word fold in and I’m gonna explain why that terminology is really important in a minute.

So what I always instruct people is think of what chiropractor in your neighborhood, okay, or the surrounding area, you have enough of a relationship with that you actually trust them. Now, I know we should trust everyone, but that’s not the real world. Because this is for most people going to be a handshake agreement.

There are exceptions to that I’ll mention in a few minutes, and what I explain people to do is to go to that doctor and say, listen, I. I’m thinking about retiring. I’m thinking about closing my office. My husband just got transferred and we’re moving to Florida and I need to find something that will work for my practice and my patients.

And what you go to them and offer is, would you be interested in me folding my practice into yours? Now, notice I specifically did not say, do you wanna buy my patient list? Do you wanna buy my files? I. That has no value to anyone in their mind. For most people anyway, this all of a sudden is I’m gonna fold someone else’s practice into mind.

Let me hear more about that. And they’ll usually ask you what is it that you were thinking along these lines? And pretty simply. There are some specifics that can apply to individual situations, but we really try and keep it simple and keep the offering simple and appealing. I. So what we tell ’em is you’re gonna go to this doctor and you say, do you be interested in folding my practice into yours?

And what you’re going to do is you are going to physically schedule your patients at that location for anywhere from two to four weeks. That’s whatever you feel the comfort level is, that you need to complete this. And it would be similar to if. Hey, we’re moving our office, which people do all the time.

So what this does is it gets your patients physically into that location. So now they’re starting to feel comfortable. They’re meeting the staff that the doctor that’s going to be folding the, your folding your practice into, and then they get to meet the doctor and you hand them over just as if it was a transition of a sale.

First you adjust them and then they watch and you go through the file with them and you explain, how Mary Jones maybe prefers to be adjusted or what her particular situation is. Usually one or two times. And then you should be able to just turn the patient over to the income to the doctor that you are folding the practice into.

As basically the new care provider, and then it’s up to them to establish that rapport and that trust with the patients as well as their staff and their team to also really go a little bit further, really take that extra step to make that person feel comfortable so that they stay in that office.

Sometimes your staff might translate into this other location. That’s obviously a conversation for the staff member to have with the doctor that we’re folding the practice into, but they may not need additional staff. They may, it really depends. How busy are they? How much volume are you gonna be contributing?

Do they need to up their staff level? And if one of your staff members actually is interested in continuing their employment and they’re gonna go with this new doctor, that’s a win-win for everyone. The way this benefits you as the exiting doctor is that this agreement is typically for 12 to 24 months, whatever of your patients come in.

They split those proceeds with you, 50 50 of that income. So again, this is why I said it has to be someone you trust because it is a handshake agreement. Now, if you have a staff member that’s there, obviously there’s someone to report to you a little bit, but most people are honest and most people are grateful that they get an opportunity to grow their practice without any really outlaying on their part.

The other thing that’s really important is that you get to transfer conservatorship of your files, so this is where you would need to consult. An attorney, a legal professional because compliance would probably require that you have something in writing that you’re transferring these files, and that’s something else that you do need to consult a compliance person.

There’s many of them out there in our profession. Probably one of the more well-known ones is Marty Kotler of Target Coding. They could talk you through what particular things you need to do to be com PA compliant, and everything along those lines. So the other thing that kind of sweetens the deal here on this is that you give them your phone number.

So if you’ve been in practice for, we just did, when someone was in practice for 40 years, that phone that’s been ringing for 40 years in that other office is now ringing in this doctor’s location. To me, that’s the gold. I always, couldn’t even care how many patients. Initially came in, get, getting that phone number is awesome, and if it’s someone that could offer, you, can offer up your URL that they can grab and redirect to their website or whatever their webmaster and marketing person wants to do with it.

That’s another plus. Sometimes that doesn’t work in particular situations, if you have multiple locations that are all attached to the same URL, but. Again, these are things that you can offer. This process for some people can actually render quite a bit of money over the 12 to 18 months, again, depending upon how many patients come in.

We did one where the doctor that was acquiring the practice did a marketing campaign. To the doctor’s list, reactivated a whole bunch of people and gave them credit for that. Again, we have to be trusting and it has to be someone that you have that little bit of faith in. But here’s the thing to remember.

If you are at the point where. You’re injured, you’re sick, you can’t practice. You really need to be on the other side of this, or you need to move quickly, or you’re just done. You’re done with practice. You put your time in, you’ve practiced for 30, 40 years and you just don’t wanna go through the process of selling.

This is something better than nothing. ’cause if you just lock the door. Not only if you still have a lease, you’re gonna be tied to your lease if the owner of that facility doesn’t let you out. You have to store your files, whether it’s physically or digitally, and be responsible for them for however many years the, your state requires.

There are certain state requirements that upon closing, that you have to meet with again, though that a, along with an attorney. A coding a compliance specialist. You want to consult your state association as to what their requirements are when you’re doing a process like this. But again it gets you on the other side of it.

Hopefully you get some revenue out of it. If you have ar, take that with you. That’s not part of this process. You get to transfer conservatorship of your files. And you are getting your patients somewhere that you feel comfortable. And that’s always a very significant thing for most docs in this situation is they feel like, I want somewhere for my patients to land.

And this gives you the opportunity to do that in a very loving and compassionate way that you care enough about them, that you’re gonna take the time to bring them to another facility of someone that you trust. And let them land there for the remainder of their care and their family’s care. So that is very much in a nutshell what this model is.

If anyone needs help with this, I always offer a conversation. There’s no charge for that. It’s complimentary where I could give you these steps again and maybe some things that are particular to your specific situation. There are times when there’s almost a purchase agreement.

We’ve done them where we do evaluation. We set a price of what the both parties are comfortable with and a payment schedule that’s more rare than what I described previously, because previously, what’s so appealing to someone again, is the opportunity to grow their practice with no financial input.

If it’s successful, great, they make money, you make money. If. So there’s not a lot that goes on. They haven’t really invested a lot. So to me it’s a no brainer. You just, again, have to find that person that you are comfortable with.