Multiple dental practices. Worth it?

Over my years in dentistry I’ve seen many dentists who own multiple practices. Usually it’s two practices, but sometimes it’s 3, 4 or more.

The theory goes that:

“I will get people to work for me and I will make more money and have more free time.”

Occasionally I’ve seen that work.

The type of dentist who can succeed with multiple practices is an expert at managing people (and loves doing it). Also they need the ability to put out fires because with a large staff and multiple dentists problems happen constantly.

But, my experience indicates that most of the time, owning multiple practices is a failure.

The dentist ends up working as hard or harder than before while earning the same or less than they could have done out of a single practice. For example:

• I’ve seen a formerly magnificent practice totally destroyed by two successive absentee owners.

• I’ve seen a new practice fail to grow and close down in a year because the owner was mostly working elsewhere. Meanwhile, a nearby practice grew exponentially because the owner was there all the time.

• I’ve seen a dentist with two practices where the net profitability dropped to zero every time they took time off.

If I owned multiple practices I’d look very closely at my results.

Am I making more money and having an easier life than when I had a single practice?

Is my main practice as profitable and busy as it would be if I gave it my full, undivided attention?

If the answer to both questions is not “Yes” then it is time to sell up one of the practices and move on.

The only thing that holds many dentists back is the sunk-cost fallacy: “I’ve put all this work in and so I can’t sell it.”

You need to get over that.