20/20 Money Episode # 45 – From Beginning to End: The Timeline of Selling Your Practice with Erik Ferjentsik (Part I)

Hello, and welcome to this episode of 20/20 Money! My guest on today’s show is Erik Ferjentsik. Erik is the founder and principal of Visionary Practice Group, a firm that works with optometrists to broker, consult, and appraise their practice for transitions.

I’ve known Erik for a number of years and it was great to have him on the show. We have a common bond in that we’re both married to ODs so we both look at the profession of optometry through a different set of lenses, so I was excited to dive into the conversation, and I wasn’t disappointed. We covered so much information that what was only scheduled to be one episode turned into enough content for two separate shows. This episode, we start out talking about the ideal timeline to begin prepping a practice for sale and how important it is that you have all of your practice financials in order, including a self-kept inventory list…and why the list that your CPA has may not always accurately represent your practice, thus leaving value out of the appraisal.

We also talk about how long you can expect the process to take up to the point of closing, why it’s important to comprehend the amount of risk that an OD is taking by not having a contingency/selling plan in place as they get closer to retirement, and why most practices that are under $600k in revenue are not a marketable practice. We also discuss some of the mistakes that are made when it comes to appraisals, updated profit/loss statements, and add-backs.

As a reminder, you can get all the information discussed in today’s conversation by visiting our website at integratedpwm.com and clicking on the Learning Center. While there, you can also set up a 15min pre-discovery conversation to learn a little bit more about what it means to work with our firm or check out any number of additional free resources like our eBooks and on-demand webinars.

And with that introduction, I hope you enjoy my conversation with Erik Ferjentsik.

Visionary Practice Group

Hey, Adam here. I know the episode is cutting off abruptly, but this was a good place to break off the conversation and pick up next week, when we’ll discuss asset vs stock sales, how to think about goodwill in the practice, and a number of other great topics. Thanks for listening…and with that, we’ll close out the episode.