COVID-19 and the effect on dental jobs and practice sales

2 April 2020

Yep another email on COVID-19, sorry.
 
Firstly a big thumbs up to the tireless work NZDA are doing for the profession in this space. I’m sure that has involved more than a few late nights.
 
I wanted to touch on job security and practice sales (and value) during this period. I've had to rewrite it a few times as the goalposts keep moving.
 
Firstly associate roles - if you have a good one hold on to it!
Do what you can to help your bosses during this difficult time. Be flexible with what hours you are prepared to do once we are out of Level 4. Broaden your scope, make sure you know how to do socket preservation, as I see a few teeth being extracted, that in the past may have had RCT’s. The reverse is also true. Good quality pulpectomies will see your patients through the tough times. Cashflow is going to be really tight for business owners when we restart.
 
If you have an average role.  NOW's the time to contact Toni Marr, my recruitment manager, so you're the first to know of openings on the other side. Again you'll need to be flexible, well-skilled and prepared to do the hard graft. Take a look at your cv and see if it needs an update. We have a cv template you can use. Toni can be contacted on 03 951 3176.
 
As for practice sales and values...good practices are still valuable and we rushed a couple of sales in before the lockdown and have another one in negotiation and one which the settlement has been extended to give certainty for the purchaser. So the market is still active, but there was some truth in my regular comment "start selling 5 years before you think you need to". There will be some who were thinking about selling and now feel they have missed an opportunity. but well organised busy practices will hold their value. Bruce manages that process for me and like the rest of us is currently stuck at home. So get in touch with him if you're thinking about selling in the next 5 years. You'll have some time to get things in order. Bruce can be contacted on 021 777 499.
 
I plan to get a few emails out over the coming weeks and months. I want to interview a few influential people in the profession on how they see this all playing out, what they're doing in their downtime and what risks they see for us as a profession.
 
So stay tuned.