How To Sell Your Optometry Practice and Find the Right Buyer
There are many reasons you may decide to move on from an optometry practice; from entering a new phase in your life to moving to a new home to pursuing additional or advanced education. Whatever the case, you may reach a point someday when you’re ready to consider putting your practice up for sale. Here, we’ll look at the process you’ll need to go through to sell your optometry practice, important things to consider when it comes to a price, and some alternatives to departing the practice entirely.
The Basic Process
First, let’s look at the basic process of selling your optometry practice:
- Put together a comprehensive exit strategy, preferably three or more years in advance to maximize your equity. Make sure you outline your goals for the sale and your reasons for selling.
- Determine the value of your practice and set a comprehensive price. You should consider the potential for future growth, the state of the market, and trends in the optometry industry when pricing your practice.
- Qualify your prospective buyers. Using things like non-disclosure agreements, background checks, practice visits, and letters of intent will ensure you find a buyer who is suitable to treat your patients well and will honor the terms of the sale.
- Negotiate with the buyer. Settle on a sale price and the terms of the sale, including things like trial ownership periods and after-sale contact.
- Perform all the necessary closing procedures, such as finalizing legal documents.
- Transition the practice to the new owner, introducing them to the staff and your long-term patients (if you haven’t already).
Putting a Price on a Practice
An important part of selling your optometry practice is setting a fair price, and that takes into consideration a comprehensive optometry practice valuation. To put a fair price on your practice means considering a lot of different factors. Some of these factors are:
- Financial performance and goodwill.
- Location and traffic.
- Adjacency to local competitors.
- Special services unique to the practice.
- Practice size, both physical and in terms of patient numbers.
- Practice sophistication, both operational and technological.
Another factor outside the practice itself is the state of the industry. Industry research and support network The Vision Council said in a January 2024 report that as of 2023, the optical market in the United States was valued at $65.6 billion, and over 93% of adults in the U.S. regularly wear some sort of eyewear. This value and the potential for profit the market offers can be factored into your asking price. However, trends like anticipated advances in technology should also be considered. Since a buyer may want to barter down the price to account for new equipment, you will need to stay competitive in the near future.
Sale Alternatives
Some practice owners consider selling a practice while remaining active in the industry. For these people, there are alternatives to leaving the practice entirely. One such option for optometrists who own their own practices is selling the practice and staying on as the practicing optometrist. An arrangement like this will relieve you of the managerial and administrative burdens so you can concentrate on patient care. While you may maintain your authority over patient care-related decisions, you should be prepared to hand over business-related decisions to the new buyer.
If you want to maintain some decision-making autonomy but ease your administrative duties, you may want to try converting your practice to a franchise. This allows you to maintain your autonomy in running your practice while relieving yourself of a good deal of administrative burden. A franchisor like Pearle Vision will provide you with support services to help with behind-the-scenes operations, like marketing, advertising, and setting up supply chains. You’ll also get the benefit of the franchisor’s brand reputation to help bring you new patients.
Open Your Eyes to Franchising With Pearle Vision
We’re eager for franchisees like you to join our team. Whether you’re putting up an optometry practice for sale or looking to open your first practice, we welcome the opportunity to help you find success in the optometry industry. Get started today by submitting a franchise form to learn more about franchising with Pearle Vision.