The Bristol Dental Practice

Project Information

Jonny Cochrane is an ambitious young dentist who asked for our help with his first practice purchase; a beautiful large site located in Queen Square, Bristol. He understood the practice had headroom and was decisive in assembling a comprehensive team of external advisers with lots of experience. We were asked to financially model the initial three years of his imminent new business.
  • Client : The Bristol Dental Practice
  • Date : 2018
  • Skills : Post-purchase financial modelling

Result Driven

Support and oversight through the stressful acquisition phase
Cash to invest on operations immediately
ÂŁ50k tax savings
Delayed acquisition to avoid Jonny losing 100% of his fees while on holiday
10% ahead of revenue targets within two months
A slew of leading specialists have been recruited
Three horizons business model

Challenge & Solution

Unfortunately, things had been missed by the incumbent accountant. Notably, the acquisition date had not been optimised for commercial return. Moreover, no provision had been made to ensure that there was going to be cash in the bank. Sadly, such omissions are not uncommon because advisers tend to operate in silos, so our role was to pull all the strands together and provide tactical oversight.
Discovery diagnostic day
We dedicated a day for a market appraisal to look at his funding, the time he had to invest, geographical limitations, his aims, attitude to risk and leadership style. Many first- time buyers are uncomfortable with asking these questions, but Jonny had the wisdom to realise that if the practice wasn't right for him, it was worth finding out now. As it happened, the practice was right.
Establish a plan for a successful acquisition
There is a difference between an acquisition and a successful acquisition, it's about not putting yourself at a disadvantage from the start. So rather than simply facilitating the purchase, how do you create the foundations for a high performing business? In this case it was about risk mitigation, freeing up cash to invest in capital expenditures; a CT scanner, inbound telephony hub, refurbishing the facade of the building and new signage. This was to be immediately invested and would produce a 400% return.
Identify efficiencies
We identified two tax claims giving Jonny a ÂŁ50k head start. We also noticed that due to his personal holiday plans it would be prudent to delay the exchange of contracts by over two months.

Our Process

Once the financial model was ready, we asked Jonny what was next. Being highly motivated and ambitious he didn't blink and we were able to begin working on a three horizons business model with him:
Horizon 1: Active projects where success means profitability
Grow revenue to ÂŁ3.5m with 20% EBITDA - ÂŁ700k
Horizon 2: Projects in the pipeline that aren’t initially profitable, but which you are pulling towards Horizon 1.
Acquire and grow additional sites in key locations. Develop core site into Bristol's first private dental hospital that will also offer post-graduate dental teaching and an academy for nurses.
Horizon 3: A way of tracking the ideas for growth that you think and talk about but that aren’t yet coherent.
Launch the franchise chain nationally.
So now Jonny realised he was aiming to be assemble a comprehensive specialist team with which to develop Bristol’s first private dental hospital, including a post-graduate dental teaching and dental nursing apprentice academy. He also began conceptualising plans for a national franchise (horizon 3).

I have in the past wholeheartedly recommended Hive.

Testimonial
Jonny
Jonny

I have in the past wholeheartedly recommended Hive.

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We improve the financial performance of dental practices with business services underpinned by in-house management consulting, accountancy and marketing.

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