Dear Joel:

I was hoping you could assist me.  I have been approached to sell my 
practice and was wondering if you could give me some guidance.  I'll 
give you as much detail as I can and I understand that there is a 
limited amount you can do through e-mail but all I'm looking for is a 
ballpark figure.  I also understand that this is your profession and as 
such get paid for your services.  If after you read this letter, you 
feel that this warrants payment, please forward your fees.  Thank 
you in advance.  

As far as the practice is concerned, here is the lowdown on it.  I am 
located in Texas.  In 1998, I began a working relationship with 
another chiro in their office.  To accommodate this I made some 
changes to my office.  I bought a house and moved it there creating a 
home office.  I went to a cash practice from an insurance practice.  I 
discontinued therapies, only doing adjustments and turned it into an 
open adjusting setting.  Scaled back the hours to about 20 a week.  I 
also did this relatively cold-turkey, meaning not much lead time to 
the changes.  Needless to say, I lost quite a few patients.  But it did 
not matter because my other situation was working out quite well.  
It was also very Subluxation/education oriented.  My PVA was around 
100.  

In '99, I scaled back the hours to about 16 a week and now I am 
basically just seeing those who have been with me from the 
beginning in about 3 hours a week.  Some of the numbers: '98 gross 
was $140k, '99 gross was $65k, and currently about $2k a month.  
Though I probably should have sold earlier, I enjoyed the part time 
income.  There are about 15 active patients right now.  About 200 
patient files within the last 18 months and over 2k files all 
together.  

I have referred 4 patients in the last couple of weeks to him and he 
sees that he can profit from my former patients.  As the practice 
was a home office, I am only selling the patient list.  No physical 
property.  The buyer is one town over and we have a good 
relationship as I go to his office to get adjusted.  His office is very 
successful and he practices exactly the same way as I did, i.e. 
Subluxation, education open adjusting, etc.  So my patients would be 
a perfect fit for his office.  My case avg was about $1500.  He plans 
on a heavy direct mail campaign with this list and I will be sending 
a letter recommending his office.  I have given you what I think is 
the relevant information and would very much appreciate your 
assistance.  

My logic is that If he can reactivate at least 20 patients, which is 
conservative, he would generate upwards of $30-40k minimum.  
Also, if you acount for referrals or activating more than 20 patients, 
this figure can rise substantially.  Therefore, I am thinking about 
asking around $40k.  Is this too little, too much, or in the ballpark?  
What do you think?

Again, I am not looking for your most researched answer.  I would 
just like some kind of ballpark figure and any other info you would 
like to provide.  Thank you for your help. 
A:

I am not sure if I got the whole story straight. It seems that you 
presently have a practice within the office of another DC and 
literally left your personal practice that was home based. You have a 
DC that is a town away from your home who wishes to purchase your 
patient list for a fee and you wish a ballpark figure of how much 
this list is worth. I understand that you have no physical equipment 
to sell just a list of names. 

Okay .. you may not wish to read further .. but if I was counseling a 
DC I would recommend they not pay too much for a list of names. Yes 
.. the potential may be great but it also may be minimal. To pay 
thousands of dollars .. $40,000 as you mentioned for a possibility is 
a great financial risk. But .. to salvage this e-mail, let me 
recommend another answer one more qualified for you.

Dr. Pete Fernandez has a buy/sell service along with his consulting 
and seminar program. In fact he has a great book called Buying and 
Selling a Practice. You may wish to call his office: 1-800-882-4476 
and see if there is a specific formula to plug into. He does charge for 
this service but it may be worth your while to have things done 
correctly. I will forward your e-mail to him and hope he replies .. but 
to expedite the matter you may wish to call his office. He may have 
a fee for a consulting hour and this too may be worth your funds

Sorry if the answer you hoped for was not given .. but this is how I 
see it.

Have a Great Day

Dr. M