The First 24 Months of Practice Ownership Shape the Next 24 Years

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.
_________________________

Saturday, October 24, 2026 | 9:00 a.m. - Noon
REA & Associates Conference Center, Dublin

A Personal Invitation from Dr. Eric Chatterley
Watch this one-minute invitation, then reserve your seat for October 24.

Reserve my seat

Closing Is the Beginning

There is a moment after every practice acquisition when the transaction ends and ownership actually begins. The documents have been signed, the funds have moved, the keys are in your hand, and the team is waiting to see what kind of owner just walked through the door. Patients are watching too, even if they never say so directly. The decisions you make from that moment forward will shape far more than your first few months. They will establish patterns that can follow you for the rest of your career.

Most buyers understandably treat the closing date as the finish line. It represents the culmination of months of searching, due diligence, negotiation, financing, and uncertainty. What I have come to believe, however, is that closing is better understood as the beginning of a two-year apprenticeship in ownership. The first twenty-four months are when you learn how the practice truly works, how you respond when the numbers disappoint, how your team experiences your leadership, and whether the habits you build will support the life and career you hoped ownership would create.

Financial Margin Protects Good Judgment

That is why financial readiness matters long before the purchase agreement is signed. Debt itself is not the enemy. Many excellent practices are acquired with significant financing, and the cash flow of a healthy practice can support that debt comfortably. The greater danger is financial fragility, because an owner without sufficient savings or working capital is forced to make every decision under pressure. A healthy reserve gives you time to think clearly. It protects your clinical judgment, allows you to care for your team when a difficult month arrives, and keeps short-term anxiety from dictating long-term decisions. Financial margin is not merely a balance-sheet concern. It is one of the conditions that allows you to lead with integrity.

Buy the Practice That Fits

Buying wisely matters just as much. The right practice is not simply the one a lender is willing to finance or the one with the most impressive collections. It is the practice whose patients, procedures, team, community, and philosophy align with the dentist you are prepared to become. This is why the deeper numbers matter. New-patient flow, active-patient trends, schedule density, accounts receivable, insurance participation, and production by procedure tell you whether the story on the surface is supported by what is happening underneath. Thorough due diligence does not eliminate every surprise, but it helps ensure that the surprises you inherit are ones you are equipped to handle.

Protect the Seller's Goodwill

The relationship with the selling doctor also shapes more of your future than most buyers recognize. You are not only purchasing equipment, records, and cash flow. You are receiving relationships that may have taken decades to build. When the seller genuinely trusts you and communicates that trust to patients and team members, goodwill moves across the transition in a way no contract can guarantee. Treating the selling doctor with patience, humility, and respect is not a ceremonial courtesy. It is part of protecting the value of what you purchased and honoring the work that made your opportunity possible.

Resist Changing Everything

Then comes the discipline that may be hardest for an enthusiastic new owner: resisting the urge to change everything you notice. During the first six months, you will see systems that appear inefficient, habits you would not have created, and opportunities that seem too obvious to ignore. Some of your observations will be correct. What you will not yet understand are the reasons those systems developed, the quiet contributions certain team members make, and the expectations long-term patients carry with them. Patience during this period is not passivity. It is active observation, attentive listening, and the humility to admit that ownership has given you authority faster than it has given you understanding.

Trust Before Change

Your team will decide whether to trust you during hundreds of small moments in those early months. They want to know whether their jobs are secure, whether their compensation and benefits will be protected, and whether the daily experience of coming to work is about to change without their input. Address those concerns honestly. Learn the history of each person's role. Replace private assumptions with shared agreements about what success should look like. Trust grows when people see that your words and actions remain consistent, especially when the pressure is high and no one outside the practice is watching.

Move Beyond Control

As trust develops, your leadership must move beyond control. A practice cannot reach its potential if every meaningful decision has to pass through the owner. Give your team a clear vision, establish thoughtful guidelines, and then create genuine room for people to use their judgment. Freedom offered within a healthy framework produces a kind of accountability that supervision alone never can. Team members who feel ownership of their work notice problems sooner, contribute better ideas, and hold themselves to standards that cannot be manufactured through rules and consequences.

Leadership Without Status

As the story about scrubbing toilets illustrates, leadership is often revealed in work that carries no status. Your team remembers whether any task is beneath you and whether any person is beneath your respect. The culture created in those moments can carry a practice through challenges that strategy alone cannot solve.

The Pieces Reinforce One Another

These principles are often discussed as separate parts of ownership, but they are deeply connected. Financial margin gives you the patience to make good decisions. Buying the right practice gives you a foundation that fits your skills and values. Respect for the selling doctor preserves goodwill. Patience creates space for understanding. Understanding builds trust. Trust makes empowerment possible. Servant leadership turns that empowerment into a culture people want to protect. When these pieces reinforce one another, ownership becomes more than a financial opportunity. It becomes a framework for creating a practice that serves patients well, develops people, and sustains the owner for decades.

Direction, Not Perfection

None of this means the first two years will be smooth. You will make decisions you later revise. There will be months when collections fall short, team conversations that do not go the way you hoped, and moments when the responsibility of ownership feels heavier than you expected. The goal is not perfection. The goal is direction. The habits you repeat under pressure become your leadership, and the choices you normalize in the first twenty-four months become the culture you may still be living with twenty-four years later.

Continue the Conversation This Saturday

At the 2026 Ohio Dental Practice Ownership Forum on October 24, we will bring together the financial, analytical, relational, and leadership dimensions of ownership so buyers and new owners can see how the pieces fit, learn from people who have lived them, and approach their own transitions with greater clarity. If practice ownership is in your future, or if you are already living through those formative first years, I hope you will join us. The first twenty-four months pass quickly. What they shape can last for the next twenty-four years, and that is worth preparing for with intention.

The Forum is purely educational and free to attend. Advance registration is required, and space is limited.

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

Reserve My Seat

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

Your First Two Years Will Echo for Decades