Selling your dental practice

You've spent a career building it. The difference between a good exit and a great one is set in the two years before the sale — and in the structure of the deal itself.

Exit planning

Great exits are prepared, not stumbled into

Buyers pay for clean, believable, transferable profit. Every pound of cost that's really personal spend, every associate arrangement that isn't documented, every plan patient who isn't contracted — each one gives a buyer's adviser a reason to chip the price.

Starting early lets us present the practice the way buyers' due diligence wants to see it, push the genuine profit improvements that multiply into price, and make sure the tax reliefs are locked in before the deal, when they're cheap to secure.

What we do on a sale

Exit readiness review — your accounts, structure and reliefs, viewed as a buyer's accountant will view them
Valuation guidance — a realistic range built from your adjusted earnings, so you negotiate from evidence
Deal structure — share versus asset sale, earn-outs, deferred consideration and your ongoing clinical role, modelled after-tax
BADR & tax planning — eligibility confirmed early; the sale timed and structured to keep more of the price
Through completion — working with your solicitor and the buyer's team so the numbers never hold the deal up

Selling to a group? Corporate buyers are professional acquirers with standard playbooks — tie-ins, targets, and clawbacks. You should have someone equally fluent on your side of the table.

Seller FAQs

What sellers ask us most

When should I start planning a sale?

Two to three years out, ideally. That's long enough to tidy the accounts, normalise your own costs, secure the tax reliefs and let profitable changes show up in the figures a buyer will pay against. Selling well is mostly preparation.

What is Business Asset Disposal Relief?

BADR reduces capital gains tax on qualifying business disposals — currently to 18% on gains up to the £1 million lifetime limit. The qualifying conditions have traps (shareholding levels, officer status, timing), so we confirm eligibility early, while there's still time to fix anything.

Share sale or asset sale?

If you trade through a company, a share sale is usually better for you and an asset sale usually better for the buyer — the difference can be six figures. It's a negotiating point, and you want your adviser modelling both outcomes before the heads of terms are signed, not after.

How do earn-outs and deferred consideration work?

Buyers — especially groups — often pay part of the price over time, contingent on performance, with the seller staying on clinically. The detail matters enormously: what the targets are, what you can still control, and how each element is taxed. We stress-test the structure before you agree it.

Ready when you are

Start the exit conversation early — it costs nothing.

A confidential, no-obligation chat about where your practice stands today and what would make it worth more in two years. Even if the sale is years away, you'll leave knowing the plan.

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