How To Make Your Dental Practice Exit Stress-Free with Maja Thompson [CPD Available]

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If you think selling a dental practice is just about getting the biggest number, this conversation will challenge that fast. We are joined by Maja Thompson from Henry Schein, who works across practice sales and valuations at scale and has seen the real human cost behind once-in-a-lifetime exits. We talk honestly about the emotional whiplash sellers face, from the long build-up to the moment the deal completes, and the unexpected void that can appear when your identity has been tied to ownership for decades. 

We dig into what makes an exit smoother years before you ever go to market: planning purpose, setting realistic expectations, and building a life you actually want after the sale. On the business side, we explore practical drivers of dental practice valuation, including diversifying revenue streams across NHS, private, plan income and more, and reducing how dependent the practice is on the principal’s own clinical output. We also get tactical about measurement: chair utilisation, white space, and why “you master what you measure” is a real edge when you are trying to improve profitability and stability. 

Then we demystify dental practice due diligence, including what buyers check, why the timeline can drag on for months, and the hidden deal-breakers that trip sellers up. Property and lease length, building compliance, funding alignment, and the realities of CQC registration transfer all matter, and each can slow completion if you leave it too late.

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Transcript

Dr James 0:00

Selling at dental practice is notoriously stressful. It's a toss-up between getting the best number and also not having the process drag on for too long. But guess what? No matter where you are whenever it comes to that process, whether it's long before or imminent, there's things that you can do today in order to make that as smooth as possible. I have with me today on the Dentists Who Invest podcast Mrs. Maja Thompson. Maja works for Henry Schein, responsible for over 1 billion in practice valuations last year, and she's been in the dental industry for 10 years. She's seen those transactions happen firsthand that are normally once in a lifetime for us dentists. And over the years she's picked up a shedload of wisdom that she can share with us today in order for us to benefit. So let's get into it. As ever, you can claim your CPD for this episode within the official Dentists Who Invest Smart Money Members Club. Smart Money Members Club also includes multiple mini courses and webinar series on finance for dentists, including how to become as tax efficient as possible, as well as understanding investing. All of this content counts as verifiable CPD, and you can download your certificates there and then on completion of each lesson. In addition to this, we also include a whopping 10% discount on your dental indemnity and a 5% discount on lab bills for dental principals, amongst other perks and discounts for members. Please use the link in the description to claim your verifiable CPD for this episode. Maja, I know that you do this stuff day in, day out, but to us dentists, we only get to see it once in a lifetime. Tell me this. This is the first thing I'd love to ask. In your experience and in your wisdom over the years, what would you say are the biggest things that us dentists don't account for whenever we reach the practice exit side of things in terms

Selling A Practice Is Personal

Dr James 1:43

of our emotions, in terms of our outlook in life, in terms of how this affects us in ways that we don't expect? The the stage is yours, I'm all ears.

Maja 1:52

Yeah. No, it's it's great, James. I think that's a great question. And and uh I think um just kind of looking through the podcasts that you have done in the past, uh, a lot of them are talking about the financial value of a business and how do you value a business, how do you plan an exit, you know, what do you do with the money once you've um once you've sold, and which is super important. I mean, those things are you know somebody's life lifetime's work.

CPD And Smart Money Members Club

Maja 2:19

But really, I think sometimes we we neglect the aspect of what the what it means to the individual. And um I I've been in the business of kind of this kind of brokerage business for for a number of years, and uh it's so easy to get taken away with the transaction itself and forget that there's a person at the other end. So I think one of the key things that's this is usually a one-time experience. There are serial entrepreneurs and they'll sell businesses and they are serial buyers, and and you know, for them that that will be like bread and butter, and they will get used to the emotions that go with the ride of selling a business. But actually, doing it once in a lifetime, I think is a really big

Identity Loss And The Post-Sale Void

Maja 3:02

deal because lots of business owners identify with that, with that business. This is their lifetime work, and I think that impact of going through the process of sale, even though the kind of the exit might be the you know, the nirvana that they're waiting for, you know, oh the the the pot at the end of the rainbow. I think it's not always a rainbow, that that kind of the transition journey. So it's really important to consider that even before selling the business, because what I've found is a lot of owners find themselves in in the kind of the tsunami of the the um the transaction and the process going on, and they get towards the end of it and certainly past the end of it, and they've sold the business almost, and all of a sudden there's this huge void. What do I do with my time? You know, what do I what do I do when I've kind of left behind something that I've worked for all my life?

Dr James 4:00

And you know what? You know, the more and more I have these conversations, and I'm the I'm used to do this, I still do do this, but I I I I definitely did it in the past a lot more. I used to futurize my success so much, and I was like, okay, well, when I do this or when I achieve this, I'll be happy. Then I'm then it's okay for me to be happy. And any single, I even know that's not true because any every single time I ascend some sort of summit in terms of success and hit some sort of height that I wish to achieve or achieve something, there's always the next thing. There's like this happiness and then there's a void, right? And X in a business is going to be exactly the same.

Maja 4:38

It is. It is, but you know, there's a then there's uh uh another psychological aspect to it, living in the moment. I think you know kind of a lot of us don't live in the moment and actually enjoy it. And the the it's almost like the success or the rewards are always in the future. So, but that that's probably not what we're talking about today. But let's talk about that uh kind of the just the I suppose the idea of it happening at the time. I think it's it's being able in the same way that you visualize that success and you kind of think what what will success look like is then visualizing visualizing what will post sale look like. I think it's super important. Now, interestingly, a lot of sellers we're talking about, majority of the sellers will get to a certain age and they will then sell. So we're not talking about the transactions that are you know happening at a younger age where somebody might then buy another business and kind of flip that and continue to do it. We're talking about somebody realizing the value of their lifetime's work. I think that's also tied in with a transition in life, you know. So talking about retirement, talking about slowing down, talking about what does that period of life look like? And a lot of people talk about retirement and get, you know, almost like that place that you work all your life to get to that point. And most people, certainly dentists, will get to that, you know, the age where they're they can potentially retire in their you know, late 40s, early 50s, early 60s, where they have another potentially 40, 50 years, you know, of life to to get through. So it's important to think about what does that post-sale life look like? And what does, you know, you still have the ability, you still have all the knowledge, you have the experience. Usually you have a lot of time, maybe not the same amount of energy, but you certainly can continue to contribute. And that's not something that a lot of people think about, you know. And I I think it's a it's a really important aspect, making sure that you know they continue to be engaged. And and I suppose as a society, we give them the opportunity to be engaged if they want to.

Dr James 6:46

I think two questions spring to my mind. I think the first thing, and I don't know if this is something we can even quantify today, but in your experience of seeing these once-in-a-lifetime transactions fairly frequently, so being able to observe how this affects people fairly frequently, whereas we only get to observe how it affects us in ourselves, maybe once or a few times in a lifetime. So, how frequent is this? How many times do people do you just sail off into the sunset in from your from your uh perspective? And how many times do people just come back from more or feel a bit listless afterwards? I don't know if we've got any data on that so much, but I'm interested to know what your thoughts are.

Maja 7:23

Yeah, I think a big driver of that would be age. You know, what what age the person is, and and and actually, you know, starting up a practice, if you if you've sold in your 50s, it's quite difficult to then say, well, actually, I'm going to go and get involved in another one. But there's potentially capacity to then get involved as a clinical director somewhere else or an associate somewhere else, or you know, just continue to work. The most interesting thing is, and I think we will kind of get to potentially that process of due diligence and that latter process of selling a business, is that that process can be deceivingly long. So um I think sellers are not prepared for the fact that once you've agreed the sale, it can take months to get to the end point. It almost feels like, you know, I've agreed the sale, I've agreed the number. Actually, you know, it'll happen fairly quickly. And it doesn't. Sometimes it takes months. Sometimes it can take it can take two, two years and upwards. And that's a long time to be in that exit

Expect A Long Exhausting Sale Process

Maja 8:25

mode. Now that process is so involved and so it can be very draining that you probably find that when people get to the end of that process, they are utterly exhausted. And I think if they never saw another document or legal document, they usually are at that phase where I just cannot get wait to get this over the line and done and moved on. And you can completely understand them. I mean, it's it's quite a tough process. But once you once you've got got past that and you know the money's landed in the bank and they're starting to kind of plan their life, a few months on, people start feeling the void because you have had the whole life of working, you've had this buildup of selling the business, and then you've got to the point where you have sold and then you know, nothing, or very little, or much less. And I think that that takes reparation. That takes kind of thinking about, and I think some of the things that um I wanted us to talk about today is that the sense of loss, you know, so you have had this thing that you have built up, and then you um your a lot of your identity is tied in with being that business owner and being, you know, the dentist and you leading the team and usually the dentist, leading the team and you know, building something. And that becomes your everyday. That's how people address you, that's how people in your business address you, that's how your business uh partners address you, and you then kind of live that life where you're basically the top dog in your business. And all of a sudden, once that's finished, you don't have a team, you usually don't have a team around you. You are you are basically your own individual and your identity is no longer tied with the business. So and I think that that takes a little bit of getting used to it, and it's not something people think about because you spend a lot of time working. Most people spend a lot of time working, and most people spend a lot of time with their identity tied around the business, so that when they get to a point where they're no longer part of that business, the sense of that identity and you know, what's my purpose? Potentially, what's my purpose for the next 40 years is no longer tied to that business. And I think people underestimate what that means to them. So it's something to bear in mind, you know, while you're going through the process and thinking about the future.

Dr James 10:52

The second thing I was gonna ask as well, which you actually kind of answered when we were talking just then, was what things can we do in the here and now so that we don't feel that sense of loss whenever we get there. I think it's just I think a big part of that is recognizing that it's just not going to be the nirvana necessarily that you think it's gonna be. And maybe it's just about not putting so much expectations on that moment. And I feel for me, you know, I've been in places before where for whatever reason there's a ton of stuff I want to do, but for whatever reason it just doesn't make sense to do it right now, and I have to wait like a month, okay? And it kills me. I hate it, I hate that feeling of listlessness, I hate that feeling of not doing something. Um, and I think that really, if you spend a lot of your time, that's the whole that's that's what retirement is in principle, right? Okay, or sailing off into the sunset is in principle where we don't do anything. So if you spend your whole life looking forward to that moment, and then when you get there, you realize that actually it's really not you. You've invested so much mental energy and so much of your life looking forwards to that moment when you could have just been enjoying things so much more in here and now. And I'm actually grateful for the times that happened to me because it taught me to enjoy the moment here and now, and it taught me to realize that the journey is the result, the journey is the thing that you enjoy, not the end.

Maja 12:13

Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely, and and uh but recognizing that that you know, if you're selling the business, recognizing that that journey is due to end at some point, you know, most people I suppose even if they had the stamina to run their businesses into the 70s, uh majority

Planning Purpose Hobbies And Contribution

Maja 12:35

of b dentists don't, or very few dentists do. It's then deciding what are those things. You know, you said you have a you have kind of a a list of things that you would want to do in your life. It's almost like jotting down the list of things that you wanted to do, wanted to try, and then looking at how do I put those things into practice and what do I do with my life afterwards? Do I have hobbies that I can spend more time in? Can I volunteer? Can I add the knowledge that I have, knowledge, experience, you know? Um how can I share that and actually still continue to be engaged, but be mindful of the fact that that's the transition in your identity for the future. So recognizing it and then being able to plan the kind of things that you couldn't do before because you were working, majority of dentist spend majority of their time with the fingers in the patient's mouth, managing the team and all of those issues that that you know that that arrive along the way. Um not having to do that anymore, but then being able to utilize those skills and being mindful that that's coming. And how can I make the like the best of it? It's supposed to be some of the best, like most freeing times in life. You get to retirement, you generally don't have as many kind of personal ties. You know, kids tend to have gone to university if you have them, so you have a lot more freedom to experience those things. And if the sale has been successful, you have the funds to do it as well. Yeah.

Dr James 14:05

Maja, I guess the traditional logic is that we want to just get the biggest number as possible on sale offer dental practice, but that's not always a good idea. Am I right in saying that? UK Dentists, Dennists Who Invest now has an official platform where you can learn about finance and obtain UK compliant, verifiable CBD at the same time. The only platform that exists on which you can do both. The Smart Money Members Club has hundreds of hours of mini courses, webinar series, and live day recordings on all things finance slash tax efficiency for UK dentists. This includes complete courses on how tax works for UK dentists, finance so that you can invest and grow your own money, business so you can improve your profitability as an associate or principal, and for those out there that want it, there's also a mini course and how you can responsibly enter the crypto space using measured amounts of capital. I've gathered this content from the best of the best I could find in each respective area so that you know that this is how people at the forefront of each field advise their clients. The Smart Money Members Club also contains discounts on common things that UK dentists need to pay for on a regular basis. This includes a whopping 10% discount on dental indemnity, the offer to beat your income protection deal no matter what you're paying, and for the principals out there, 5% discount on lab bills and 10% discount on practice insurance. These are designed to offer hundreds, if not thousands, in annual savings. The purpose of this members club is to not only boost your monthly income but also manage your outgoings as much as possible and therefore create more profit. To celebrate the launch of the Smart Money Members Club, and given that the CPD deadline is coming up soon, I've decided to offer

Chasing The Biggest Number Trap

Dr James 15:48

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Maja 16:08

Um depends on how well you do the planning and the kind of of what you do with you. I've had accountants here, I'm sure that they'll tell you that a big number is good and the bigger number is even better. And it's just how you plan uh kind of your I suppose exit in terms of tax planning and preparation. So if that's kind of where you're going, I think in terms of that takes time. So if you if you're looking to so one of the things that I would say to somebody, if you're looking to sell, you start thinking about that fairly early on. So let's let's kind of play a scenario of somebody who is looking to sell in their early 50s, mid-50s, or something like that, or late 50s. Let's say in their 50s. I would I would suggest that they start planning in their in their early 40s because at that point, kind of having control of your business, knowing your numbers, knowing where your income is coming from. So you're kind of working from the top line, you're then working, making sure that you're maximizing the revenue that you're bringing to your business. I talk about a dental business being like a chair. And if you have a chair that's sitting is like on one leg and your all of your income is coming from the NHS, it's not a particularly stable chair. But if you have a chair that has a number of legs, so you have private income, you have um potentially plan income, you potentially have other sources of revenue, aesthetics or or things like that. The more revenue streams you have, the more legs your chair has and the more stable it is. So that's really important. So it's kind of thinking about and you can start addressing that fairly early on. So that's one of the first things. I would say that that revenue needs to come from different places so that it's pr it's a pretty stable business. The other thing it's really important to consider is are you the only or the main contributor in the business? Because if you're then handing that over the uh business over to somebody else, you need to think about the fact that um the other person or people have got to pick up your patients. And if your patients are really tied to you, and if majority of the revenue in the business is tied to you as the owner, it's really quite uh difficult to guarantee for the buyer that they would be able to pick all of that up or pick all of that up securely. And even more, if you look at uh corporate buyers, so corporate buyers tend to buy the business, you you then end up being

Building Value With Diverse Income

Maja 18:50

tied in that business for a number of years. But if majority of the revenue is with you, and let's say you have a few associates and those those associates contribute a smaller proportion, it's a very big risk on one individual. So as you start preparing for that transition and selling your business, whether you are doing it to an independent buyer uh or whether you are selling to a corporate, you need to think about what's my contribution to this business and how um how much of this relies on me. So then if you start in your 40s, you can think about your revenue streams, you can think about what proportion of uh work you bring in, and then reducing the risk for somebody else in the future. And starting like that, if you think if you're reducing your responsibility within the business, you could then be looking at when I exit this business, what could I be doing in this time that I am reducing my responsibilities now by handing those over to somebody else who will be for either fulfilling the NHS contract or seeing my private patients or or what you know, whatever that might be. So you are reducing the risk in the current business, but you're also future-proofing kind of that thought process about what do I do with my time once I retire or once I exit.

Dr James 20:12

Interesting. And I'm gonna guess the actual sales process itself, as in the negotiation, is gonna be an emotional whirlwind, at least normally for most people.

Maja 20:23

Yeah. It can be. Yeah, no, no, no, it can be. It definitely can be because um, I suppose let's talk about that going back to that time between like your your foot, so you're in your 40s, you are thinking about this lifetime work, you are getting that income to come from different avenues, you have a stable chair in your business, uh, you're bringing in associates, and you will then get to a place where you know you'll kind of look around, there'll be your generation that are selling their business, and then you'll start comparing your business to their business, and they'll say they also they have sold for this amount, or they've sold at this multiple or that multiple. And in your mind, people tend to build up what's this number that I'm working towards. And in most cases, you know, dentists are are aware of what approximately their number might be. But uh I suppose the most important thing is like if you if you are planning with that number in mind, get get a valuation. I think that's a great point place to start because the valuation process itself will take you through the details of you know your income, your costs, and it'll give you that Ibidar operating profit uh figure. And then you'll be able to see kind of what your business is worth. Now it's really important to I suppose um be realistic in that process. So and listen to the listen to kind of people that that. Go through it all the time. You know, so we as a business, we value about 400 practices a year.

Know Your Numbers And Fill Chairs

Maja 22:06

And over the last, I think, 15 years, we've valued a lot of businesses. So we have background data on how the businesses' business valuations vary. So our team will be able to advise and say, this is what we're seeing in the market. And this is how it could be affecting your business. And, you know, depending on where you're in the country, it'll also affect, you know, the value of your business. So it's being, I suppose, approaching it realistically. You know, if you get the upside and your business sells for more, great. But don't peg your expectations to a figure because that can just lead to disappointment. And um so that's really important, kind of keep it keeping it real, you know, being realistic of where where you can get to. But also um that process of um the closer you are to your business in terms of numbers, and um, I suppose understanding how well your business is performing, the more informed you will be of the kind of things that you are doing to the business and how that's affecting the output. So we talked about you know that stability of a chair, knowing what percentage of your revenue comes from NHS, what percentage of your revenue comes from private, how profitable those individuals' revenue streams are. Um, looking at white space in your practice, you know, how utilized are your chairs? Are they, you know, is there a bum on the seat whenever the seat is free? Really important. What's the value of the dental hour on those chairs is really important. And those are some of the like big levers that you can pull within your business to then understand how profitable it is and ultimately have that reflects on the value of the business. So knowing your numbers, so having I guess Henry Schein business. So Henry Schein One, software of excellence, dentally have really good reporting tools and uh background reports where you can take this data out. And they have consultants that do it for free and help you um decipher kind of these, they call it magic numbers, but like key levers in your business and how well you're performing against other businesses. I think they have like 70% of the market covered with their practice management system. So, as a pool of data on kind of how businesses are performing, you can then benchmark your practice against those other practices and say, well, actually, you know, I have a, you know, I have 50% of white space. Some of the best performing practices have 90% occupancy. You know, I'm missing 40% of occupancy on my chairs. What can I do to fill those? So things like that. Really important to know your numbers so that that can lead to knowing your valuation. Long-winded answer.

Dr James 25:04

No, listen, the more value, the better. And there's a saying that I love, I'm sure I've said this a hundred times in the podcast, but I'm going to say it again. You master what you measure. Every time I've bothered to look into the numbers of how something works, you you know, it's very hard to figure out sometimes what to do next. And if you're in that place, I bet if you look at the numbers, they'll help you significantly, or there'll probably be an answer staring right back at you. Because the number of that's if I ever am confused about where I should go or what I should do, it's almost always a data problem, I think personally. It's really helped me out. And practice, dental practices are no exception. All businesses operate like that, so it's worth saying another podcast today. On the topic of numbers, due diligence. Let's talk that because that confuses the heck out of dentists.

Maja 25:48

Yes. Okay, uh, again, I was just going to say on the numbers, one of the scary things about the numbers is that you start scratching if you if that's not your bag, if you are not the person that's like on top of your numbers, starting to scratch the surface of that can be really scary. So start early. We're talking about 40s, you're preparing to sell in your like late 50s. If you start in your 40s and just get over the kind of anxiety of uh being knowing your numbers well, it will serve you so well because it can only get better, because otherwise you're driving blind. So that's the on the on the point of numbers. I think it's super important to know them. And you're right, it's always in the data. Um, so let's say talking about due diligence. So you are on the journey to sell your business, you've got the right valuation, you're really happy with with where that's going. Um, you then get to a point where you have negotiated with the buyer, they've given you an offer, you have agreed, you're both happy, they're getting the right kind of business. You are you are selling your business for the number that you want. Now, the most important thing is if you remember, I said um these things take time. And the process of uh once the buyer and the seller have agreed to buy the business, sell the business, um, they come into uh into an agreement. And it's an agreement that's a basic agreement that the buyer agrees to you know to buy this business at this value and the seller agrees to do the same. They are always contingent on the due diligence process

Due Diligence Finance And Legal Reality

Maja 27:25

being carried out. So at this point, the buyer is taking taking the seller on face value that the stuff that's in the valuation is exactly as it is. So they are making their offer based on the information that they have at that point. Now, what the due diligence process does, it allows you to kind of scratch the surface of that business, for the buyer to scratch the surface of the business, and then basically have a look if the if the numbers, the way that they have been presented, if the team, if the property stack up in the way that they had imagined, and that's reflected in their offer. And the due diligence process covers kind of main areas. So most people think about due diligence basically being based around finance and finance and and kind of the legal side. And in theory, they are. So finance makes a big part of it. It's a it's a uh quite an in-depth dive into the profit and loss, into the kind of things that the company owns, into the um patient numbers coming through, patient lists, NHS contract. So it's it's a it feels quite invasive. You know, somebody's having a like taking a big looking glass and having a look into your business. So that's a big part of it. Then you have the legal aspect, so the buying agreements, potentially if you're selling to a corporate and associate agreement. So that takes time, which is basically kind of uh, I suppose tying up the legal side of transferring a business to somebody else. So that's the legal side. And the thing that gets a lot of the there are two other really big areas that can end up being really troublesome, and they need to be addressed very early on almost in the sales process. So if somebody is looking at selling their business, the property, so your business is an entity that sits in a building. Now that building is either owned by you as the dentist owning the bit owning the building where your business is sitting, or it can be owned by another landlord or it can be owned by your SIP, but the business is a different entity to the property that it's sitting in. So if you think about it, if you are buying a business that's sitting in a property, what you want to know as a buyer is that that business will be able to continue to operate in that property for a number of years. So as a seller, when you come to sell the business, what you really need to think about is do I have the permission to continue to operate my business from these premises, you know, for the long term? That's pretty simple. If you own the property, you know, you're the landlord, you can then decide either I'll sell the property at the same time, potentially to that buyer, or I will retain the property and continue to receive income from it. But uh, if your landlord is a third party or somebody else owns the building, there are a few kind of legal requirements with regards to the lease. Uh, so to make sure that you can continue to have that lease for a number of years. So if your lease is coming up to renewal within the next

Property Leases Funding And CQC Delays

Maja 30:44

one, two, three years, it's super important that you extend that lease if it's a third-party landlord. Because you might get to a point where you want to sell your business and actually the buyer goes, Well, how do I know that I'll be able to operate? You know, I buy this business and the landlord won't extend the lease for me. So it's really important to have a long lease, super important. And that's something that trips up a lot of people. And property matters, legal matters, in my experience, don't happen very quickly. So if you're thinking things will happen quickly, they generally don't. So tackle that early. The property is really important to be tackled early. And alongside with the property, you have a number of other things that are within the property, health and safety, fire, um CQC and regulations. You got, is there asbestos in the building? Um, is the lease if you do have a lease, is it in good repair? So does it will the building need other adjustments before somebody can take the lease on? So there are a number of other things that you need to consider that are tied to the property. Um, so you need to address those very early on because they are a big part of the due diligence process. And one of those things that that takes a really long time. The other thing that's important, obviously, how you're funding this. So I'm sure that there were people on on the on the podcast that were talking about funding, would know a lot more kind of in detail funding um uh kind of aspects of buying a business. But it's really important that you secure funding early enough, that you have the right level of deposit, that um the valuation that the bank carries out aligns with the valuation that you might have uh that the offer is based on. So it's it's really important that those things are aligned. So and making sure that obviously you can you can buy the business and you can buy the property if you if you decided to buy the property. And the last one, the really big one, is the CQC. So CQC, huge in our industry, obviously um regulate uh the way that practices operate. But that process of transferring the CQC registration from one owner to the other owner can be really complicated. And CQC have recently had um a lot of changes kind of at that top level. They launched the portal, the portal hasn't worked uh that that well. Uh so they're back to paper applications. And the process that would usually take, say, three to four months, can now take six months, seven months. So this is from the moment when the sale is agreed. So you're kind of thinking, actually, I've sold. I now have four, six, eight months for the process to be, you know, submitting an application to CQC, getting all of the kind of um things in place so that the application can be approved. It can take time. So it's being really prepared and making sure that you have the right advisors around you for that process uh that takes kind of that significant amount of time to happen. And being kind of, you know, if you're prepared for it, if you know it's coming, it's much easier to deal with than when you are in the midst of it and kind of thinking, is this ever going to end? You know, I am in this process and these people are asking me for stuff. Um it's really important to be surrounded by people who are guiding you on that journey. And there are a number of really experienced solicitors, really experienced brokers, um accountants that understand the dental industry and the intricacies of the dental industry that can hold your hand through that process. Um, so that, you know, if you're prepared, you kind of know what's coming, and you are aware of the fact that you have to be pushing and you have to be engaged as a seller, that this process is far less painful than if you just go in with a blindfold and go, I know what I'm going to get. It's just I just don't know what is going to happen because this process is killing me.