Travis, Can I Have This?

The market mini-series heads to the islands. Travis sits down with Carey Lee of DDS Match Hawaii, the state’s only full-time local dental broker, for an honest look at what it really takes to practice in paradise.

What’s covered:

• The lay of the land across Oahu, Maui, Kauai, and the Big Island, and why opportunity depends on the island and even the neighborhood
• Why specialists often find their best openings on the neighbor islands
• Acquisition vs. startup: why de novo practices are rare in Hawaii
• The typical Hawaii practice: three to four ops, around 1,100 square feet, and collections in the $700K to $800K range
• A smaller buyer pool, no in-state dental school, and why sellers should plan on three to five years to transition
• Heavy insurance, high costs, Hawaii’s general excise tax, and why you probably won’t make more money than on the mainland
• DSO penetration of just 1 to 2 percent, and fewer than 5 percent of owners owning their real estate
• The real tradeoffs: cost of living, private school culture, island fever, distance from family, and yes, flying cockroaches
• Staffing shortages, dentists doing their own hygiene, and creative fixes like offering housing to land a hygienist
• Licensure surprises, getting a Hawaii GET number, and this year’s entity-approval delays (bring malasadas)
• “Two degrees of separation”: why relationships drive everything in Hawaii, from patients to state offices
• Why Travis’s Hawaii clients may earn less but seem happier, and Carey’s bottom line: you have to really want to be here

A candid, aloha-filled guide for anyone dreaming of trading the mainland for the islands. Tune in.

Contact Carey: [email protected] or hawaii.ddsmatch.com

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It’s late October, the busiest stretch of the year at Uluru. Travis gives a sneak peek into his year-end client meetings and walks through the tax planning list every practice owner and 1099 associate should review before December 31.

What’s covered:

• Why fall, not April, is when the real tax planning happens, and why nine to ten months of data makes it the perfect window
• Retirement plans: 401(k)s, solo 401(k)s for 1099 associates, SEP IRAs for new owners, and why SIMPLE IRAs usually aren’t so simple
• Cash balance and defined benefit plans, the “401(k) on steroids” for owners ready to save big
• Roth IRAs, the backdoor Roth, and the pro rata trap that can trip you up if you have other IRAs
• The HSA: deductible going in, tax-free coming out, and why it “feels illegal, but it’s not”
• Putting your kids on payroll: the real math once payroll taxes are counted, why fair market wages matter, and why the newborn model is a harder sell
• The family management LLC strategy for avoiding payroll taxes on kids’ wages, and the risks that come with it
• Child tax credits and why childcare costs don’t get you much
• The two income numbers every doctor should know, where brackets jump and QBI and child credits start to phase out
• Year-end equipment purchases and Section 179: when they make sense, and how financing can create cash confusion later
• Writing off a vehicle: the 6,000-pound rule, the commuting trap, and why auto logs matter
• Reasonable compensation for S corp owners, and the payroll tax savings of getting it right
• The pass-through entity tax: paying your state taxes through your S corp, and why it has to happen in December
• The Augusta rule, the Masters golf story behind it, and how to document it properly
• Health insurance, meals, and travel: the most overused and underused deductions
• Advanced moves: cost segregation studies for practice real estate, and why the R&D credit has lost its shine
• The bottom line: most clients find $10,000 to $40,000 in savings, some in the hundreds of thousands

Boring? Travis admits it. Worth tens of thousands of dollars? Absolutely. Tune in before year-end.

LET’S CONNECT

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Travis sits down with client Dr. Melanie Vandenberg of Harbor Dental in Santa Cruz. She bought a small, shrinking practice that had sat on the market for years, one Travis’s own numbers said to pass on. She nearly doubled it in her first year. 

Here’s what we get into. 

• The numbers that worried Travis: declining collections around $380K, a heavy Delta Premier patient base facing a 30% haircut, no hygienist since COVID, and a listing that sat for years across multiple brokers
• Why a small practice turned out to be a feature: low debt, time to learn the business side, and room to grow without being buried on day one
• Year one results: $640K in collections, almost double the seller, while going out of network with Delta
• The “don’t rock the boat” approach: keeping the existing staff, learning the office’s systems before changing them, and respecting the seller’s dentistry with patients
• Hiring ahead of the need: adding a hygienist, front desk, assistant, and an associate day, because you can’t grow into capacity you don’t have
• Zero paid marketing: word of mouth, 98 five-star Google reviews, and referrals even from patients who left for an in-network office
• Year two on pace for about $900K, with overhead under 50% compared to the seller’s 62%
• The real time cost of ownership, a supportive spouse doing project research, and her experience in Glidewell’s Guiding Leaders program
• Bonus round: the accounts receivable headache, and why Travis now tells buyers to just buy the A/R

Proof that a bad-looking prospectus isn’t the end of the story. A lot of your success depends on you more than anything else. 

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Travis brings back Jared Bergquist, a Las Vegas-based dental broker with two decades of transitions under his belt, for a blunt breakdown of why a DSO sale isn't always the win it's made out to be.

What's covered:

• Reason one, transparency. How EBITDA calculations, complicated contracts, and vague post sale expectations leave sellers confused about what they actually agreed to
• Reason two, financial risk. Why earnouts and equity rollovers depend on a private equity market that has cooled significantly in the last few years, and why some sellers are still waiting on money they were promised
• A real example of a client who would have made less money selling to a DSO than by simply staying put
• Reason three, legacy. A gut wrenching story about a Summerlin practice owner who watched her staff and patients walk away within a year and a half of selling
• Why corporations are financially pressured to increase production fast, whether the team and patients like it or not
• The bonus round, Jared's own answer to the DSO problem: skipping the middleman by co founding Las Vegas Dental Management, a dentist owned collective aiming for private equity multiples without giving up control to a traditional DSO

A candid, insider's view on the tradeoffs of corporate dentistry from someone who has helped broker it hundreds of times. Tune in.

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Travis sits down with longtime friend Phill Hoover of Western Practice Sales to map out what buying a practice in Northern California actually looks like, from the Bay Area's sky-high demand to the hidden gems everyone overlooks.

What's covered:

• Phill's 20+ years in dental finance and transitions, from banking to running Western Practice Sales
• Why geography (not just miles) dictates where you can realistically live and practice in Northern California
• How Silicon Valley, San Francisco, and Walnut Creek each demand totally different practice strategies
• Hot, competitive markets vs. underserved gems like Stockton, Modesto, Turlock, and Monterey, where a $100K practice can grow into a $1M practice in two years
• The Delta Dental Premier trap: how legacy sellers quietly inflate collections, and what buyers need to ask before making an offer
• Why hygienist and staffing costs run higher in Northern California, and how loyalty works differently here
• A surprising stat: only about 110 of roughly 3,800 active Northern California dental offices are DSO-owned, making it one of the most private-practice-friendly regions in the country
• Why corporate consolidation has largely skipped Northern California, and how private doctors are running their own mini roll-ups instead
• Phill's biggest advice: know yourself, know the dentistry you can deliver, and don't let analysis paralysis keep you on the sidelines

A must-listen for anyone weighing whether (and where) to plant roots in the Bay Area or beyond. Tune in.

Contact Phill: WesternPracticeSales.com | [email protected] | 415-481-2933

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Travis sits down with David Haynes of the Menlo Group, a dental-specific M&A firm, to dig into one of the most polarizing topics in dentistry: is selling to a DSO actually a good idea?

What's covered:

• David's winding path from accounting dropout to dental lender to DSO deal expert
• Why practices collecting under $1.5–2M rarely make sense for a DSO sale, and why size changes everything
• The real reasons doctors sell: burnout, staffing headaches, reimbursement struggles, or just wanting to de-risk their biggest asset
• The single biggest argument for a DSO: eliminating "transition risk" if you're mid-career and your wealth is tied up in one practice
• Why EBITDA calculated by a DSO is nothing like your actual tax return numbers — and why that gap trips up so many sellers
• The dangers of rollover equity, and why "free" future upside isn't guaranteed
• Red flags: too much debt, too little cash at close, culture mismatches, and multi-doc partnership complications
• Why leases are a hidden minefield for doctors who own their real estate
• The case for hiring a professional negotiator instead of going direct to a DSO solo — and yes, the mustache came up

A clear-eyed, no-hype breakdown for any practice owner wondering if a DSO offer is actually worth it. Tune in.

Contact David: [email protected]

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Travis catches up with Dr. Bustos and Dr. Thacker, a husband and wife team who bought a thriving fee for service practice in Las Vegas and just wrapped their first year as owners.

What is covered.

They met in college, went through UNLV dental school together, and spent three or four years searching for the right practice before this one landed in their lap through a chance connection at Bank of America.

The practice they bought had a devoted following and decades of history in Las Vegas, and they walk through the nerve wracking process of earning the seller's trust before ever seeing the office.

They share the tangible lessons, like discovering the entire office ran on outdated computers with no IT due diligence done, and a lease with no clear language for a dental tenant, including a rogue printer contract that cost them thousands.

They dig into the harder, intangible lessons, like learning to communicate their vision clearly to a longtime team instead of quietly trying to preserve the status quo.

They talk openly about the emotional weight of managing employees through change, and why taking feedback and conflict personally makes ownership so much harder.

They reflect on stepping into a highly regarded predecessor's shoes clinically, and how honesty with patients about their own pace and standards built trust instead of losing it.

Despite the stress, both agree they would do it again without hesitation, choosing the freedom and integrity of ownership over the comfort of being an associate.

A grounded, funny, and honest look at what the first year of practice ownership really feels like. Tune in.

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LET’S CONNECT

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Travis sits down with Conor DePalma of CFS Dental Division to cut through the noise on dental insurance — because "insurance" is one of those words with a hundred meanings, and picking the wrong policy can cost you way more than a premium.

What's covered:

• Why CFS's salaried (not commission-based) model changes the advice you actually get
• The big three every new dentist needs: malpractice, life, and disability insurance — and when (or if) you actually need them
• Occurrence vs. claims-made malpractice policies, and the "tail coverage" trap that can leave you exposed after leaving a job
• How vicarious liability hits multi-doc practices, and why associates' coverage matters to owners too
• Term vs. permanent life insurance — and why whole life often makes salesmen rich and clients poor
• Disability insurance deep dive: level vs. graded policies, how much coverage actually makes sense, and why "get the max" isn't always good advice
• What changes when you go from associate to practice owner: bank-required life insurance, business overhead expense coverage, and more
• Business owner's policies — general liability, property/contents coverage, and business interruption — plus real claim stories (yes, cars have driven into waiting rooms)
• Newer risks every practice owner should know: employment practices liability (especially in CA) and cyber liability/social engineering scams

A must-listen before you sign anything with a commission-hungry insurance rep. Tune in for the real breakdown.

Contact Conor: CFSdentaldivision.com | [email protected]

LET’S CONNECT

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Travis kicks off a brand-new mini-series exploring dental markets across the country, starting with the one and only Las Vegas. Joining him is Jared Bergquist, a dental-specific broker and commercial real estate expert who's called Vegas home since 1992 and has lived through every boom, bust, and boom again.

Jared Bergquist

702-521-9953

[email protected]

What's covered:

• Vegas dentistry's wild ride — from the golden 70s-90s, to the 2008 recession gutting the market, to today's red-hot buyer demand
• Why Vegas has some of the highest insurance reimbursement rates (and patient spending) in the country — and how that fuels heavy DSO competition
• The case for buying an "ugly" older practice with decades of goodwill over chasing a shiny new location
• A geographic breakdown of Vegas's best opportunity pockets — Northwest, Inspirada, Summerlin's hidden restrictions, and more
• Real numbers on de novo startups: build-out costs, lease rates, and why it's not the cheap route it used to be
• The often-overlooked goldmine of second-generation dental spaces
• Vegas's unique hygienist and assistant shortage — and how the service industry (yes, cocktail waitressing) is stealing your staff
• Jared's parting advice: get on every broker's radar and surround yourself with real dental-industry pros

A must-listen for anyone eyeing Vegas as their next practice home. Reach Jared at BergquistGroup.com.

LET’S CONNECT

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Travis sits down with husband-and-wife duo Dr. Godoy and Dr. Gorospe to unpack their whirlwind first year as practice owners — proof that some couples build empires and still like each other afterward.

What's covered:

• How they found "the" practice and knew it was the one
• The wild story of nearly backing out days before closing (cold feet is real, folks)
• What actually changed once they took the keys — spoiler: top line, bottom line, every line grew
• The mindset shift from associate to owner, and why it hit different for each of them
• Balancing being two of the sweetest people you'll meet with being straight-up hustlers when it counts
• Real talk on the sacrifices, surprises, and lessons from year one that no dental school class prepares you for
• Their advice for anyone eyeing a practice purchase of their own

Whether you're weighing a practice acquisition or just want a feel-good underdog story, this one delivers. Tune in for hustle, heart, and a whole lot of hard-earned wisdom.

LET’S CONNECT

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