Dental Start Up to Dental Acquisition with Dr. Kari Mann and Dr. Glenn Vo

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Dr. Glenn Vo was excited to sit with a good friend for this week’s episode of the Nifty Thrifty Podcast. Dr. Kari Mann has a lot of stories to tell and advice to give as someone who has evolved from owning a start-up to completing the acquisition of another practice.If you tune into the video version of this week’s episode, you’ll quickly notice that Kari has been doing pretty well for herself. She tuned in from Cape Coral, Florida, where she sat in her lavish home. After graduating from dental school, before Kari moved to Florida Kari always knew she wanted to own a practice; Kari’s father helped with the business. He would visit practices throughout Seattle—probably about 40 or 50 in all—always video chatting with Kari as he scoped out each location.Unfortunately, Kari and her father struggled to find a practice that was either realistically priced or willing to sell to a recent graduate. Kari was also surprised to experience sexism when she came across a guy willing to sell to a new graduate but not to a “young female.”Eventually, Kari found a practice that was considered a “Pseudo Startup.” The practice had been owned by a dentist for 40 years who—instead of selling it and getting out of it at its peak—had let the practice just drop off.In other words, his dental practice was struggling to stay afloat. There wasn’t much cash flow thanks to a very small patient base. Thus, Kari was left with the “bones of an office” with outdated and unreliable equipment. She had very little to go off of, building a brand new dental practice within a failing one.Kari and her dad made do with 1,000 square feet to host four ops, a three-person front desk, a patient lobby, a staff room, a staff bath, a doctor’s office, a sterile lab, and a laundry area.No matter, Kari and her father got to work. Her father utilized his construction background to help Kari set herself up for success.Kari owned this Seattle practice for four and a half years. It was on track to do $1.6 million when she sold it. She worked four days a week—seeing patients about 30 hours a week—taking two-hour lunches every day so she could work on the administrative stuff. Kari’s Seattle staffs were two full-time hygienists and two full-time restorative chairs. And while there still was room for growth, Kari decided to walk away.Kari had had enough with the weather in Seattle. She was having a hard time during the winters especially, not to mention the living costs. The lack of daylight was a big factor for Kari, as the sun wouldn’t come up until 9 am before dark again at 3:30 pm. She wasn’t keen on going to work in the pitch black and coming home in the pitch black every day.If Kari could say something to anybody looking to buy a practice, it’s this: set whatever prospectus a broker gives you on a practice aside and get an accountant—especially if you’re not a numbers person. Next, go through the numbers. Get to know your P&L;, tax returns, monthly costs, cash flow analysis, malpractice, tax burden, etc. If the numbers don’t pass the “stress test,” it might not be worth taking practice on. If you’re not the type of person to go in and flip that practice, then it’s not a good fit.For Kari, being in a group practice or owning a thousand practices isn’t something she’d be interested in. One of the big reasons why Kari was all for owning her practice was because it meant she could do as much of the clinical dentistry as possible—she loves the process of sitting in the chair and treating patients.Learn about:What’s the difference between a “true acquisition” and a “Pseudo Startup”?And more!Kari agreed to come onto a future episode of the Nifty Thrifty Podcast, so you can bet on seeing her again. She’s currently remodeling her new practice in the vacation land of Florida, so stay tuned to witness what path she chooses!