A Dentist Who Built It, Ran It, and Sold It

Owner first, advisor second. After 33 years owning and running an oral surgery practice — meeting payroll, fighting PPO write-offs, reading my own P&L, and finally selling on my own terms — I completed my MBA, earned the CEPA credential, and put both halves together. Most exit planners know the deal but not the chair. Most dental advisors know the chair but not the deal. I sit in the narrow overlap, and that overlap is the whole point. I also serve as clinical faculty at High Point University's Workman School of Dental Medicine.

The decision before the decision. I work with successful, independent practice owners — the ones quietly leaving money on the table. Before anyone talks about selling, I help the owner answer the harder question first: stay, scale, slow down, or sell? Most exit advice assumes the exit. I don't. The worst sales I've seen were the ones nobody questioned.

Cash is a fact. When we go looking for money, it comes from two places. Some is leaked — gone for good through overhead bloat, stale fees, and quiet write-offs. Some is trapped — already earned, but stuck in aging A/R and unworked claims. They look identical on a tax return and need opposite fixes. Profit is an opinion shaped by tax elections. Cash is a fact. I deal in the fact.

I prepare the owner. Specialists close the deal. My work is readiness and value, not the transaction itself. I diagnose and coordinate; the owner's team executes — I'm an advisor, not a consultant who moves in and runs the place. When a practice is genuinely ready, and the owner genuinely wants to transact, I hand the deal to the transition team and M&A specialists who do that for a living, and I stay in the owner's corner through closing and into what comes next.