Why Patience Is Your Greatest Asset as a New Owner

By Dr. Eric Chatterley, DDS

MEET DR. CHATTERLEY IN DUBLIN ON OCTOBER 24

A free, highly interactive forum for prospective buyers and newer practice
owners - with small-group discussions, recent-buyer panelists and plenty
of time for your questions.
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Saturday, October 24, 2026 | 9:00 a.m. - Noon
REA & Associates Conference Center, Dublin
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FIRST 15 REGISTRANTS RECEIVE A FREE PRACTICE EVALUATION

A $5,000 value from Dr. Eric Chatterley through CTC Pathways.
The evaluation reviews not merely a practice’s financial results but also patient experience, systems & processes, team dynamics & culture, and leadership & management style. Buyers may use it for a practice they’re considering and current owners to see where to improve. This is not an appraisal.

Reserve my seat + Free Evaluation

Ownership Creates Pressure to Change Things Quickly

There's a moment shortly after closing when the keys are yours, the bank account has your name on it, and you walk into the practice as the owner for the first time. It's an exhilarating moment, and almost immediately it's followed by an internal pressure to start making the practice your own. You begin to see things you'd do differently. Systems that could be improved. Team habits that strike you as inefficient. Marketing approaches you'd update. The temptation to act on those observations quickly can be overwhelming.

Wait Until You Understand the Practice

I recommend resisting that temptation for a minimum of six months, and often longer. The reasoning behind this recommendation is not about caution for its own sake. It's about the fact that you genuinely do not yet understand what you're seeing. The practice you inherited operates the way it does for reasons, some good and some not so good, and most of those reasons are invisible to you in your first weeks of ownership. Changes made before you understand the underlying context tend to produce unintended consequences that can take far longer to repair than they would have taken to avoid in the first place.

Learn Why Existing Roles and Systems Developed

Consider the team member whose role looks inefficient on paper. Before you reorganize that role, you need to understand why it evolved the way it did. There may be a patient population the team member serves uniquely well. There may be historical issues that shaped the current approach. There may be quiet contributions that don't show up in any procedure code or job description. The same applies to operational systems, scheduling protocols, supply ordering, marketing channels, and almost every other dimension of how the practice runs. What looks suboptimal from the outside often makes sense once you see the full picture.

Spend the First Six Months Watching and Listening

The first six months are best spent watching, listening, and asking questions. Spend time with each team member individually. Ask them what they love about their work, what frustrates them, what they wish were different, and what they hope you'll preserve. Listen to the answers more than you talk. The wisdom that comes through these conversations will shape every important decision you make in your second six months and beyond, and it cannot be acquired any other way.

Seek to Understand Before You Lead

There's an old principle that says we should seek to understand before being understood, and nowhere is this more important than in the early months of practice ownership. Your team members have been operating in this environment for years. They know things you don't know, and they know them at a depth that your most thorough due diligence could never have surfaced. When you approach them with genuine curiosity about their experience and expertise, you accomplish two things simultaneously. You learn what you need to learn, and you communicate that you respect them as the experienced professionals they are.

Patients Need Continuity

Patience also serves your relationship with patients during this period. Long-term patients who have been with the practice for decades are watching carefully to see what kind of doctor you'll turn out to be. Major changes to scheduling, fee structures, treatment approaches, or office culture in the first few months feel disorienting to patients who came expecting continuity. The goodwill that transferred to you from the selling doctor is real but conditional, and it can erode quickly if patients feel like the practice they trusted has become something unfamiliar overnight.

Make Only Necessary Changes Early

This doesn't mean nothing changes. There will be small adjustments, course corrections, and necessary updates that simply must happen, and that's fine. The discipline is around significant changes, the kind that reshapes how the practice feels, what the team experiences, or what patients encounter. Those changes benefit from a foundation of trust that takes months to build, and they land much more smoothly once that foundation is in place.

Tell People What Will Stay the Same

Use this period to communicate what will stay the same. Team members and patients alike are most worried about disruption and reassuring them about continuity is one of the most useful things you can do. Make space for casual conversations where people can voice concerns. Address those concerns specifically and promptly. The early months are when fears are loudest, and a new owner who hears those fears and responds with care earns trust that lasts for years.

Patience Is Active Leadership

Patience in your first six months is not passivity. It's active observation, attentive listening, and disciplined restraint about acting before you understand. Buyers who embrace this approach almost universally report that the changes they eventually made were better, smoother, and more successful than the changes they originally thought they'd make on day one. That alone is reason enough to slow down at the beginning.

Bring Your Questions to the Forum

If you are considering a practice purchase, due diligence is exactly the kind of work you should understand before you are under the pressure of a closing timeline. The first 15 dentists who register will also receive a complimentary Practice Evaluation from Dr. Eric Chatterley through CTC Pathways, a $5,000 value.

At the 2026 Ohio Dental Practice Ownership Forum, Dr. Eric Chatterley will lead an interactive morning built around real questions from dentists like you. You will take part in small-group discussions, hear from dentists who recently purchased practices and have time to ask the questions that cannot be answered by reading another article or watching another webinar.

The Practice Evaluation is not a formal valuation. It is a practical review of the entire practice, including financial alignment, patient experience, systems & processes, team dynamics & culture, and leadership & management style.

If you are considering a purchase, you may use the evaluation for a practice that interests you or use what you learn to identify changes you may want to make after becoming the owner. If you already own a practice, the evaluation can show you what is working and where improvement may be possible.

The Forum is purely educational and free to attend. Advance registration is required, and the complimentary Practice Evaluations are limited to the first 15 registrants.

Saturday, October 24, 2026
9:00 a.m. until Noon
REA & Associates Conference Center
5400 Frantz Road, Suite 200, Dublin, Ohio.

Reserve My Seat + Free Evaluation

This event is made possible by the generous support of our sponsors:
Bank of America, Provide, REA & Associates, and Huntington Bank

Your First Six Months: The Changes You Shouldn’t Make Yet