Marketing for Senior Podiatrists Eyeing Succession or Sale

You're listening to podiatry marketing, conversations on building a successful podiatry practice with Tyson Franklin and Jim McDannald.

Hi. I'm Tyson Franklin, and welcome back for this week's episode of podiatry marketing. With me, as usual, is my cohost, big Jim Mac, all the way from Ontario, Canada. How are you doing today, Jim?

Feeling bigger than ever. No. Things are good here in Canada. No complaints. It's a hot Canadian summer, but I'll take that over snow and ice.

So so no no worries here.

I can't wait to visit your area. And then when I do, we can do a live we can do some live episodes.

We'll do some live episodes from the snow and and the and the cold outside. Maybe we'll have an outside episode. That'd Well,

actually, we'll be we we will be doing some recordings in October when we're there for the podiatry marketing live workshop. One day, twenty first of October twenty twenty three.

Yep. We'll be together, and people should head over to podiatrygrowth.combackslash. It's the the button's there on the website, and then also go to podiatry.marketingbackslashlive. And, yeah, buy a ticket. Come come visit us.

Hopefully, we'll I know we're gonna provide a lot of great information on that one day. That's Saturday in October, so they should definitely check out those websites.

Well, if you've been enjoying the podcast, the live event will blow them away. Because there's certain things too that when you're doing it live and a lot times when I'm doing talks, I use diagrams and things like that. So it's hard to explain a diagram even if I attempted to on a podcast. But when you're doing it live and then you also have a group environment, I tell you, the ideas that get bounced around a room are fantastic.

Yeah. I'm really looking forward to you know, we we talk a lot of I would say we try to provide good examples as well when we're when we're doing podcasts, but kinda to be in the same room with people and to learn about their practices and help, you know, provide some real kind of fundamental, you know, value, you know, some real kind of customization to some of the things we talk about on a daily basis or, you know, weekly basis here on the podcast to their specific practice is what's really exciting for me. You know, I I get the opportunity to work with people one on one. I know you do as well, but, you know, to kinda get in a room of, you know, we're having you know, we have 30 open spots. So it definitely be viable for people to to look up the website and and and definitely attend Podiatry Marketing Alive.

It's gonna be a great event.

I'll look at this way. If I had the opportunity to spend the day with you and I, I would. I know that's a makes me sound like people go, oh my god. How big is his ego? But no.

But it's just I know when I've like, you are like, I go to I'm going to Business Black Ops the week before we're we're doing the event. And I hang out for that event every year because of the people that are in the room and what I learn and what I learn every year without fail. And I know our event, even though it's gonna be, yeah, one day, not over three days, is it's gonna be one those things where you know people are gonna walk away from it and go, goddamn it. It was good. Can't wait till next year because it will be annual.

That's the plan.

Yeah. I'm looking really looking forward to it.

Okay. Let's get on to today's topic because I keep forgetting sometimes that we are doing a podcast together, and we I just go off track. So Jim, what is today's topic?

Yeah. So today we're going to be talking about marketing for senior podiatrists that are eyeing kind of succession of their practice or maybe putting it up for sale. I think a lot of the times, you know, we've been talking about, you know, our marketing. We're we're really focused on kind of the why behind it. Yeah.

Know, we really try to make people understand. We're not just saying like, go do all these things. Go all do these things as tactics, tactics, strategy. You know, we really try to make people kind of like step back and think about, you know, why would they even consider marketing their practice? And one thing we haven't touched on yet is, you know, maybe someone's kind of nearing the end of their career.

They've enjoyed the practice. They've enjoyed taking care of patients, but now maybe they're five or ten years away from retirement. And, you know, it's a motivating factor to like, okay, you know, why would someone, you know, coming into your community, not just like open their own shingle, what's the opportunity for you to basically build up your practice in a way that, you know, not only to the public, but also to the prospective buyers of your practice really show off, you know, the great care you provide. Because anytime you're either trying to hire an associate or looking to sell your practice, you're marketing to those people as well. So I think it's really important to talk a little bit about that today and some ways to improve the the look and feel of of your practice to really kind of entice and really attract potential either associates or potential buyers of your practice.

Yeah. Well, I've heard some podiatrists, know, they've had a business for thirty five years, and in the end, they go, oh, I can't sell it. I'm trying to sell them a bit yet because they made decision, like, in 2023. Oh, I wanna sell it in 2023. And all a sudden, go, there's no one around.

No one wants to buy it. And it's because, I think, what you just said then, they haven't thought about it years ahead. I wanna sell this business. Now how can I, when I'm marketing this, how can other podiatrists see what I'm doing and go, wow, that'd be a business I'd like to own at some stage?

No, mean, that's a great example there. And I think whenever I look at kind of older it starts with kind of like, obviously, we're talking I'm I'm more kind of I talk about kind of things in the digital realm, right? So but, you know, as kind of the digital channels become more popular, you know, you show up on Google, you show up in these places, you know, if if someone is, you know, considering to buy a practice in a local area and either you don't show up, that's really bad. Right? But Yeah.

Probably almost even worse than that is when you they show up and it looks like the website's from like 1995. And it just really shows that, you know, it's kind of a a huge kind of signal to people that if they're not willing to either spend money or really kinda like kind of present a professional look to the practice in this way, like what's actually going on within that practice? Is that even a practice I would even consider, you know, wanting to be an associate with or or to buy? So, you know, kind of that first impression, that digital first impression is really, really important. And like I said, you know, the number of kind of, you know, not to slag on any, you know, website builders, but things like OfficeSight.

Slag away.

Well, there's a there's a provider called Office Site. Right? Like, these are like the websites that are built in like 1995 or February.

And Yeah.

While they were good back then, things have changed a lot. You know, we have video, high quality imagery, just not these cookie cutter websites that's really not gonna show personality. If it looks like it's from 1995, good luck. You know, you're gonna kinda probably in that category of a podiatrist who feel like no one wanted to buy my practice or no one wanted to do it. But if you're proactive, knowing that it's five, ten years out and you're starting to kinda take steps, you know, kinda making a plan is kinda that first step to kinda move in that direction.

Yeah. I think for some reason, I think some older podiatrists look at their practice like it's an old house and it's a fixer upper. Oh, yeah. Here, this house, great house, strong bones, but it's it's there for the person that wants to build it up. And I think there's two problems with that.

It's just some younger podiatrist coming through who, I don't wanna build it up. I wanna buy a business that's already really profitable. Because if it's really old, then does it mean that all your patients are all old and outdated as well? And what am I really buying? Am I just buying headaches?

And I think from the other point, if you can lift the whole profile of your business and make it look better, one, it's more appealing to the person, but you'll sell it for more.

No. That's a huge that's a huge thing. Like, not only is it the like, you know, I kinda talked about the digital aspect of things, but if you're, you know the the upkeep of your practice, right? Of your clinic, what does the clinic look like? Have you, you know, has it been redecorated in the last four decades, right?

Like, is it, you know, like, does the, you know, the exterior look like professional? Does it look like a high quality practice? And there's definitely ways to improve things gradually over time. It doesn't have to be all at once, but, you know, it is one of those things where it is really important to consider those things. Otherwise, you're just, like you said, someone's just going to say, see no value in it and just kind of move on and, you either open up their own practice or maybe try to buy someone else's practice in town.

Yeah. They want to know, does the toothless receptionist come with the clinic, with the business? Some of them yeah. Some of them, they just outdid. But there was a there was a podiatry clinic that I know.

Could have been local, I won't say. And the person had the business for a long period of time, and then they were trying to sell the business, trying to sell it to the other podiatrist that actually worked for But the other podiatrists eventually just went across the road and set up an opposition to them because what they were selling just wasn't I just don't think it was appealing to them. And they thought, well, I can spend the same amount of money and just do my own thing. Whereas I think there's a lot of podiatry businesses out there that have got a lot of potential, they just need to get it right.

No. A %. And I think there are huge opportunities for podiatrists that have been doing it well. I was talking to a podiatrist recently and he purchased a practice. And one of the reasons he decided to purchase it was is that during the twenty five year, the last twenty five years, this clinic, while they didn't have the most amazing website or and their clinic was, you know, it was in decent shape, but the thing that actually attracted him the most to it was they had 25,000 emails.

Yeah.

Like he said like, this practice that had been gathering emails of patients with permission over the course of like, you know, twenty five years with that that many emails, it's super valuable. Because let's say,

you send an email Yeah.

It's a huge goldmine. Like you send an email blast and you get a 1% appointment rate or a half a percent. Like, do the math. It's like, you know, that that can just continually rake in new patients. They tell their friends, their network of people.

So, you know, obviously, you know, for the younger people on this practice, there's there's definitely ways to evaluate. Obviously, you're gonna there's there's ways to, you know, hire companies to evaluate practices and those things. But, you know, understanding that how much time and effort they put into the physical building, their online presence, things like their email list, all these things are super important when deciding whether to to buy a new practice or to start a new practice or to buy someone's current practice. And I think those are little details that sometimes are overlooked by the people selling, but also sometimes overlooked by people buying.

Yeah. And it's it's really important what you said there. It's not just the database itself and and how they use it. But if I was looking at a podiatry clinic, one of my questions would be, show me where your patients come from. And, yeah, I wanna see the referral sources, and I'm not talking just from GPs and physios.

What how are these patients finding your clinic? How are they coming in? What are you actively marketing to constantly bring that flow of flow of patients in? If you've got a really good marketing plan behind the business, that's what I'm paying for. I wanna pay I wanna know that you're gonna give me that marketing plan so when I buy your business, I can keep that going, I will get the same results.

It's not reliant just on you as the podiatrist.

No. I think that's really, really important. I think it's also really important to to really kind of continue to build the network of of what are those referral networks you have in place, whether it be professional or or or, you know, the local businesses in your area. I think it is one of those things where, like you said, you know, five or ten years out, it may feel like a time when you really wanna slow down or you may want to like, you know, turn off some of this stuff. But really that's that's that by turning those things off, you're putting your you're kind of doing a disservice to yourself and to the potential person that either may want to buy it or bring on an associate.

Because if it's if you if you basically haven't been networking or connecting with other new healthcare professionals in your local area for a decade, that makes it a lot less appealing, right? If you don't have doctors referrals and things coming into your office on a consistent basis, you can't really fake that kind of stuff with with someone. I guess you could you could try, but it's really, really important to continue to do those things. So, you know, the networking from your professional network, then also, do you have a local do you have a residency in your area? Do you have friends or colleagues that had, you know, been associated with residencies?

Because, you know, finding you know, it's not gonna be super easy to find someone to buy either. So Mhmm. You know, maintaining those networks of people, you know, that are associated with residency programs or, you know, people that are in large metropolitan areas that might have more residents or students coming out of those areas. You know, maybe you've been, you know, yearly, you go to the school. You go you go back to your school for a awards night.

You know, actually, this year, I have my I hate to say it out loud, but my twentieth Scholl College reunion is this year.

You all if

you're trying to I know. I'm I'm ancient these days.

Right? Hey.

But it is one of those things by by kind of providing value to your school and kind of staying connected to the alumni network, these things can come in hugely valuable when you're ready to sell your practice. So, you know, obviously the digital stuff is important, your physical building, but really don't, it's really important not to downplay the importance of your network and those people that you've gone to school with or are in your local area to really help you when it's time to consider making that gradual transition or selling your practice?

It all comes down, and we have mentioned it before on the podcast, is dig the well before you need the water. A lot of people, you can't wait until you're thirsty before you start digging the well. By the time you dig the well, you'd be dead. This happens when it comes to selling your practice, is you've got to dig the well before you need the water. As you know, at some stage, you probably wanna sell your business, whether it's five years' time, ten years' time, or fifteen years' So start digging the well now before you wanna sell it.

Like you said, the online yeah. Your online presence, your networking, your referral sources, all these things are stuff that you need to be doing over a number of years. And then when it's time to sell, you've you've got everything in place.

And I think it's also important to know that, like, you're not in this alone. If you're, you know I I kinda compare it to, like, buying and selling a house. You know, most people maybe have, you know, three or four opportunities during their lifetime to Mhmm. Kind of make some of these big purchases. Right?

And I know that when I first bought when I bought my first house, felt like, if I would have known that or if I had like that little thing here and well, I'm well, I don't regret it. You know, definitely the more times you can do things, the better you're gonna be at it. So, you know, taking, you know considering having some expert help or some people to kinda bounce ideas off of whether it be a consultant or someone to help you advise in these different areas. For example, you know, getting you don't have to go learn digital marketing. You don't have to go become a Google Ads expert.

That's not what we're saying here today. But you need to go find someone who is that can help you. I I happen to know a guy. Not to not to toot my own horn here. But, at least getting an audit as far as how do I compare to what else is out there or to local other local clinics or other clinics that I Oh, I know I had Maybe you have like friends that have sold a clinic and you wanted to see what did their website look like when they sold it.

So there's ways to kind of, you know, do that on the digital side, but also there there's companies and there's probably consultants out there that that handle these kind of clinic sales or, you know, finding an associate or potential sick a successor for your practice. And, you're probably only gonna sell your practice one time, right? So you wanna make sure that you get the maximum amount of value out of it or five times.

I've done it five times. I can't believe I've sold sold my clinics five times. I've sold them.

What lessons did you learn, Tyson, by by selling five different clinics? The bigger

the biggest lesson is is you can you dig the well before you need the water. So my first first clinic I sold was on the Gold Coast. Had to sell it because I had a hand injury, and I couldn't work anymore. So I maintained the clinic for about twelve months, and I desperately tried to hang on to it, and it was pretty much a fire sale. I had to sell it.

Surprisingly, I got okay money for it, but not as much as what it was probably worth. But I walked away thinking, okay, I'm pretty happy with it. The next one that I sold was in Mackay, and I'd sold half of it to start with, brought in a partner, and then we sort of didn't really work out too well, so then I I sold the other half to him. Still made pretty good money on it, but not as much as what it was I probably could've. The third one I sold is I set up an opposition to my old clinic in Mackay.

There's a long story behind that. And but Mackay's Eight Hundred kilometers away from from Cairns. Was clinic was going really good, going great, but I got tired of the travel and and having to look after it. And even though I hadn't been to the business for, jeez, over twelve months before I sold it, but it was still going really well. Sold that for a really yeah.

That was a good price. Then I sold one on the Sunshine Coast, which was 1,200 kilometers away. Oh, no. 1,800 kilometers away. So I like to do things in distance.

And same thing. It was just the distance that really bugged me, so I sold that as a fire sale just to get rid of it. Good part is these clinics are still all going, which is great. So the bones of the clinics are good, but the Cairns One, When I sold the Cairns One, it was one of those ones okay. It was a far better business than any of the other ones I'd ever done.

But it was about eighteen months before I sold it that I went, I really, really wanna sell this business, and I wanna cash in big time on it. So I sat down and I worked out a plan of what I was gonna do for eighteen months before I started throwing it at the field as they got, you know, who's interested in buying this? Now I had a rough idea who wanted to buy it because I'd said to them no three times beforehand. But I ended up selling it for probably three times more than what they're originally offering it to me three or four years before that because I sat back and went, where's the value in this business? What is it that they're offering?

And then I just kept working on the value, and I just kept adding value to the business. And and as I did that, the business just kept growing. So by the time I got ready to sell from when they were first talking to me, it it was a far more valuable business. And they got a good deal, and I got a great deal. What they did with it afterwards is entirely up to them.

But I got a really good deal from it. So anyone who's thinking about selling your business, you've really gotta step back and plan it out over a period of time so you get maximum value for that practice.

Now that's Sage advice. I think there's a lot to take away from that. And I, like, I think it's great that you had five different opportunities and and kind of learn from each of them. And I hope that the people listening to this show will, you know, take some of the take some of that advice and that wisdom and use it towards selling their own practice. But I think, like you talked about, I think the real key to this entire episode that we're doing here is really the planning portion.

You know, planning if you don't plan, if you're just expecting to just, like, get up to where you wanna retire and then just think you're gonna sell it, you're gonna be really, really disappointed. But if you take the time to figure out where's that value, how can you can continue to build that value, whether it be through, a professional looking website? Is it like your physical location looks great? And then also increasing the amount of revenue generated in the practice and doing things you love to do will really help attract a potential successor, whether that's an associate you sell to, or maybe it's an outside someone starting a clinic, or maybe it's some of these different venture capital firms that are buying up clinics these days. But there's definitely a lot of different options.

And I think it's really, really important. Like I said, there's different types of motivation we have for doing marketing. You know, a lot of it's, you know, wanna get a certain type of patient or wanna get more patients. But the opportunity to kind of attract a potential associate or successor to your practice is a huge other kind of motivation, and it shouldn't be taken too lightly.

Yeah. And I've heard some people say the days that your practice should be the first day you're thinking about when some stage, you're gonna sell your practice. So right from the right from the beginning, think about what is your exercise strategy gonna be. And it might be thirty years' time. It doesn't mean you're gonna sell it in five years.

Like, I never expected when I opened up my first clinic in 1989 that I would have sold it 1991, '2 years later. That was never part of my plan. But sometimes things just happen that that's out of your control. And I think that's the part that's really important, what you're talking about, putting those foundations in with your marketing and your networking and your referral systems because you don't know what's gonna happen next week or next month. And if all of a sudden there's a health problem and you're forced into selling like I was with my hands, even if you're forced, if you've got all these good foundations in there, you will still sell it for more.

You will still attract more people who wanna buy that business.

Yeah. It's like that like talking about the rundown house. Right? Like, if you're Yeah. You know, waiting for that time and then you're just gonna, oh, we're just gonna do a fixer upper.

We're gonna do amazing, you know, renovation here. It's much easier just to do little chunks at a time. Right? Like or, like, have a plan, do some little things gradually over time, and then it's not that thing where you have to like, you know, you run into an emergency or something happens and then you're feeling kind of stuck and have to do a fire sale. There's definitely ways to, gradually build out and kind of make this as smooth of an opportunity for you to sell your practice and to transition as possible.

Yeah. And one other mistake I made when I sold the last business in Cairns, which worked out well in the end, was it it was supposed to go through in May. That's when the sale was supposed to happen. So knowing it was going in May, I sort of eased back on my marketing leading leading up to my thing. Well, it's gonna be theirs.

I don't need to be spending all this money. It didn't end up settling until August. So June yeah. May, June, July, those three months and probably two months leading up there, I really slackened off my marketing, and my figures sort of plateaued a little bit. So I look back and I go, wow.

That five month period from, say, March, April through to August when it finally sold, I probably lost money over that period because I thought, oh, this is a done deal. Now that could've fallen through. If they had fallen through, what momentum had I lost? So to me, if you're thinking of selling business, just run right through to the finish line. Just do it the way you would do it because if it falls through, you can just keep going.

And if it doesn't fall through, you're handing something over, and you've made maximum amount right up until the day of the sale. Told you I've made a lot of mistakes.

I I couldn't believe it, but now definitely, you you could've bared your soul here. So I appreciate your your openness and honesty with those things.

Well, it's just the this is what I like about the podcast. If someone can just take one thing away from every episode, whether it's you're you're talking about you're making sure you're looking after your marketing or that, hey. If I'm selling the clinic, don't just assume it's a it's a foregone conclusion it's gonna sell. Any any of those little things could make a huge difference just to their their long time long term future and the future of their family.

No. For sure. I think it is usually important to like you said, you know, things happen. You know, life, you know, life happens, so you you have to adjust to it. And think that I think run through the finish line is a great analogy there.

What'd Ned Kelly say? Such is life.

Do you

know who Ned Kelly is?

They used have a steakhouse. It's called Ned Kelly's steakhouse in Urbandon, Illinois where I grew up. So I knew it was an Australian steakhouse, but I have no idea who Ned Kelly is.

Oh, Ned Kelly is their most famous bush ranger.

Okay. Do

you know what a bush ranger is?

I assume he's like kind of a wilderness cop.

Jim, Jim, Jim. Nick Kelly, a bushranger is an outlaw.

Okay. Alright. I'll have to yeah. I'll okay. I'll I'll I'll look him up once we get off the park.

Yeah. So he didn't he didn't he wasn't like Robin Hood. He didn't steal from the rich to give the poor. He stole. He pretty much he stole and shot people.

And, yeah, was was a bad guy. But we, Better Strange, we we love our bushrangers. The history and just all that that goes along with them. So look up Ned Kelly. Educate yourself for next time we come on the podcast.

I'll ask you questions. All the Australians listening to this are just shaking their head going, cannot believe Jim didn't know who Ned Kelly was.

Like I said, he had a steakhouse in Urbana, Illinois. That's all I knew about him. So they had a really tasty, like, very warm cookie for dessert that I remember there. But, yeah, I went there a few times.

And they now have Ned whiskey. So, actually, I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna talk about Ned whiskey on the next episode. Therefore, between now and the next episode, Jim, you you need to go and look up who Ned Kelly is because on the next podcast, I'm gonna be talking about Ned whiskey and some of the marketing that they're doing, which is absolutely brilliant.

Very cool. I'll definitely have to bone up. You can quiz me on the next episode.

Yeah. Bone up means something completely different in Australia too.

Yeah. It means learn in just for the Australian language, it means learn in North American English.

Yeah. In Australia, it means something completely different.

I could imagine.

Okay. Okay, Jim. This has been fun. Great way to end the podcast, and I look forward to talking about Den Kelly next week.

Alright. Sounds good, Tyson. Okay. Bye. Bye.

Thanks for listening to Podiatry Marketing with Tyson Franklin and Jim McDaniel. Subscribe and learn more at Podiatry Marketing. That's the website address, podiatry.marketing.