Are you looking to Sell a Veterinary Practice now, or within the next 5 years?

Selling a Vet Practice can be a time consuming, stressful and a confusing time, and it requires the correct legal process. The process is full of pitfalls and risks. Care must be taken to minimise these. You are usually dealing with one of your biggest assets and you often only have one go at it. You need to get it right the first time!

It needs strong market knowledge and plenty of research to know where to target buyers and how much to ask for.

You have come to the right place as we utilise our exceptional customer service and sales skills when it comes to selling your Veterinary practice in WA.

NB: The Corporate buyers, now no longer buy everything, despite what they say on their Websites. They have become very risk adverse and you need to present your practice just right to get the best price or an offer at all. This is where we excel. Remember you will only get one chance with them. Please contact us for Obligation Free advice before you contact them if this is a consideration.

This is where Dr Robert Adams and HPB Vet Brokers come in, we understand the market. We conduct a full analysis of your business to find the right buyers for your practice.

We take in to consideration the goodwill, plant and equipment value, location, and many other key aspects when assessing the value of your business to ensure nothing is left out that could add value to your selling price.

Direct marketing to my Database of almost EVERY registered Vet in WA is unique and unsurpassed. You cannot get more directly in front of your most likely buyers.

We help through the whole negotiation and legal sale process to make sure nothing is missed and that you achieve the Maximum price.

Health Practice Brokers work alongside you and your business and will always have your best interests at heart when selling your business.

If you are considering selling anytime within 5 years please contact me for Free Confidential advice on how to go about setting up your business for sale or the sale process. I am only too happy to help.

Why Sell Through Us?

• I currently have ( 114 ) Buyers looking for specific Practices in WA.
• I conduct a full market assessment of your business.
• I consistently research and evaluate the market, so that our sellers have the most up to date market knowledge.
• I take into consideration the value of the entire business.
• You will Always get a better price on the open market than you will selling internally.
• I market DIRECTLY to ALL registered Vets in WA. You can not get more targeted and cost effective marketing to potential Buyers!
• We are a small, specialised, independently owned brokerage who work alongside your business to provide a professional, personalised service for our valued clients.
• We employ our strong customer service skills to help you sell your practice with ease.

Thinking you can do it yourself to save money?

I very commonly get practice owners asking me to sell their practice after they have tried themselves and failed.
They have failed because of a variety of reasons:
Nothing was marketed well; a full proposal was not presented well, or not at all.
If they did manage to get some interest – Buyers were not given the right information, or ALL the information; they were not helped to get finance; nothing gets to the buyer because the seller is too busy; or the process for the buyer all seemed too hard. Then it all falls through wasting everyone’s time and you have lost, potentially the one real buyer!

The problem then is that the practice has then been on the market for some time and not sold. So people think there is something wrong with it. It is essential to get it right the first time.

If presented well, marketed well and followed up well  you will ALWAYS get a price that is well above any extra brokering costs. In fact I will GUARANTEE you will more cover my cost! Best of all it ACTUALLY GETS DONE, and done properly, and with the least amount of stress for the seller.

Please don’t waste your precious time and money.

I am always happy to chat about any questions or concerns, please give me a call now on 0407 988 544

FREE HPB GUIDES:

1. HOW TO VALUE A VET PRACTICE
2. HOW TO SELL YOUR PRACTICE YOURSELF
3. 10 THINGS TO DO WHEN YOU ARE READY TO SELL
4. 10 THINGS BUYERS WOULD LIKE TO SEE WHEN THEY ARE LOOKING TO BUY
5. 12 THINGS TO DO WELL BEFORE YOU CONSIDER SELLING

Email me if you would like any of these guides.

TESTIMONIALS & FEEDBACK

Nick Tan Govets  – Sold to Corporate

Thanks again for everything, and good to see you in person the other day.
I would like to pass on a huge thank you to Rob for all of his hard work in helping us achieve our practice sale. 
As somebody who was fairly inexperienced in this field, Rob took what was a daunting task and made it a straightforward, understandable and stress free process. 
We achieved our goals quickly and couldn’t be happier with HPB. Would highly recommend it for anyone thinking of moving on from practice ownership. 
What did you find most helpful?
I think the most helpful was just being given a list of information (financials, clinic pics, equipment, etc) that we needed to compile to get the process started.
I really didn’t even know where to start, so just having that initial guidance as to what we need to do, and start putting together to get the appraisal was most helpful for now.
What things saved you time and/or money?
The best time saver was just allowing you to take the information provided, and put together a profile and sort the marketing also.
Was there anything you found invaluable or that you could not have done yourself? 
I think understanding the financials, and coming up with a realistic price/valuations based on all the different models was the one thing I never would have been able to achieve alone.
If I had a client in a similar situation, would you be ok to chat with them? Sure, no worries at all.
Hope this finds you going well, and all your other jobs going smoothly 🙂

March 2020 Alan Kelly – Cannington Vet – Sold to Corporate

I would like to thank Rob for his valuable assistance in selling Cannington Veterinary Hospital. I can’t imagine that we would have had such a good outcome in a relatively short period without his intimate knowledge and experience both as a broker and previous veterinary practice owner.
The sale was desired because after 22 years of ownership in a successful and equal partnership, Trevor and I found ourselves diverging in our interest and contribution. I was approaching the traditional retirement age and wanted to reduce my clinical work, whereas Trevor was still motivated to continue in active practice. Inevitably over time this was creating a stress.
Although we considered selling to either a private or corporate buyer, we had several thoughts in mind including:

• We didn’t want an overly drawn-out sale as it would be a constant distraction from running the practice.
• We preferred a “silent process” that didn’t involve prospective buyers being visible to our clients and staff. That meant not advertising on the open market. This was to avoid exposing our staff to the stress of knowing we were selling without knowing when that might happen or who might be the new owners.
• After many years of hard work and the risks associated with running a successful practice, we wanted a good return on our investment.
• We wanted our legacy to endure, both in the style of practice for our clients, and continuity for our staff. Neither of us were comfortable with the idea of a Greencross, Petstock or Vetwest style of rebranding and corporate culture.

Rob was able to take all this on board and find us the right buyer with minimal fuss, despite it being a difficult market due to Covid. Furthermore, he was able to recommend an excellent lawyer to assist in the legal aspects of the sale negotiation, business conveyancing, and drafting of a suitable lease agreement (the buyers weren’t interested in owning he property).
I would be very happy to recommend Rob to anyone contemplating the sale of their practice.
Kind Regards
Alan Kelly
Partner
Cannington Veterinary Hospital

Positives:

• Finding a buyer
• Excellent sale price
• Relatively short period from engagement to completion (5 months – Oct to Feb)
• Suggesting an excellent lawyer for legal compliance, negotiation, contracts, conveyance, lease agreement
• Guidance in our expectations and the process of selling and how to engage with buyers without putting them off (pointing out the mistakes with our approach to VetPartners)
• Approachable friendly style and confidence
• Prompting us to confirm the correct ownership structure for our business and property resulting in Matthew correcting the ABN entry on the registry.
• Initial written guides on selling (“10 things buyers like to see when buying a vet practice”; “10 things to do when you are ready to sell”; “How to value a veterinary practice”…and so on)
• Being locally based and very experienced in understanding veterinary practices and ownership

2022 Duncan Hargest – Mundaring Vet – Sale to a Known Buyer

Good Morning Rob,
Regarding your services we are very grateful, as mentioned we had a couple of previous half hearted  efforts   to sell but little idea of how to go about it.
I think your presentation of the business to the buyer clearly validated the value of your services, and that of the business, and was critical in us achieving our price. Your insistence to put all communications through yourself certainly contributed to maintaining good relations between us and the buyers..
Overall your help was essential to us, from our initial conversation  some  about 18 months ago when you offered very useful pre-sale advice…, through to the final settlement.
I would be very happy to contacted by any future client if it is helpful to you/them
Anne said the Moet was very nice.
Many Thanks,
DUNCAN

Sue Joubert – Owner of Kenwick Vet – Sold Internally to employed Vet – 04/2021

I have learned a lot especially about the different services that are offered around and would recommend yours without hesitation.
First communication – I actually had my initial call answered and spoke to a real person. Very easy to communicate with and a good listener. Listened with empathy & understanding as he came from a veterinary background and had owned  & sold a veterinary practice. Explained the difference appraisal vs valuation.  Explained the sales process very clearly and the timeline involved
Assisted with organising accurate P&L statement with accountants  who clearly had no experience with preparing accounts for sale of a business.
Was very economical with the use of  legal involvement.
Kept the negotiations rolling  along and seemed to have a real sense of when to push or back off.
The communications were transparent for both seller and buyer, preventing a legal smorgasbord occurring.
I had done all the business courses preparing for an eventual sale but failed to realise that sale of business is all about profit margins, nothing about work culture and development of lifestyle.
Basically I had no idea about how to proceed and  I could never have gotten to organise a  sale .
I didn’t know of any suitable legal firm , conveyancing firms. Suggestions proved very efficient, capable and economical.
There was no way that I would have gotten to first base. Rob helped with an initial appraisal and then proceeded to do the negotiations on my behalf, discussing each procedure as it occurred. This enabled me to remain at arms’ length from the negotiations. This was important as the potential buyer was an employee of the practice.
I was very happy with the price achieved.
Was great to find someone who actually wanted to do a great job.
The advice regarding accounts, licences & permits transfers was invaluable and the handy hints on how to avoid disruption to business at change-over were very much appreciated.
Best wishes  Sue Joubert

Steve Baker – Seller of Maylands Vet

Thanks for the opportunity to give feedback on the sales process with yourself.
I would talk anybody into using your services if asked but a warts and all tell all could be useful to you and HPB Brokers generally … otherwise feel free to relegate my feedback to the “deleted” bin as you see fit 😂

Most certainly your services were helpful. It was far more challenging selling the smaller practice this time around compared to my previous experience with a larger practice sale a number of years ago. The target market was completely different .. I had had a small queue of individuals who wanted the opportunity to purchase the larger one previously. Not so this time around with what could have been perceived as just “another smaller suburban city practice” this time round.

Your advice was concise and succinct. It was helpful where you related to your own experiences when you sold your practice and provided your own previous “hands on” guidance. The combination of email, texts and timely phone calls were appropriate at each occasion.

Being aware that I had spent a year attempting to sell my practice myself (after my first success with a much larger practice sale several years earlier which lulled me into a misguided sense of confidence that I would do it again 😀), in hindsight I now believe the time I’d invested in these attempts were merely good training for being more prepared in sourcing the information required for when I made the decision to use your broker services. So, whilst I ended up with a significant delay (at least a year) before having yourself represent my practice for sale I’ve taken the positive from my own experience to know how to quickly source information to assist in keeping your ball rolling for interaction with prospective purchasers (and tyre kickers).

As just mentioned above, and for the benefit of any potential future sellers that may have the opportunity to read my comments, screening prospective purchasers should not be underestimated as this was a big part of the time spent in that year I spent “not” selling my practice.

Rob’s communication was agreeable, succinct and I particularly like his dry sense of humour. Don’t confuse this with being abrupt or even standoffish ….. I suspect some people may interpret this in a different light. I like dryness and compact communication that is straight to the point … it saves a lot of time. I do know that Rob was 100% keen, patient, determined and committed with my practice sale throughout the entire process even though a couple of times I felt like not continuing when renewing the broker’s contract …. I am 150% glad I persisted as it can be an exhausting journey which influences our own perceptions and emotions of the process along the way. Having a broker as a stabiliser and for guidance was always reassuring. Thanks for sticking with me to sell my practice Rob.

Also be mindful that my selling experience with HPB Brokers had encompassed the entire commencement of the Covid pandemic whereby the world shut down and he’d only just sent out marketing emails and a hard copy flyer; this brought everything to a grinding halt just as the exciting process started …. almost 5 months later we picked up where we left off.

Were there things you found invaluable or that you could not have done yourself?
Firstly, access to an up-to-date database of potential purchasers is something that you can’t buy just up the road at the corner store. It is something that is clearly researched and built up over time. This is a huge part of where a brokerage service earns its keep to draw attention to an individual practice that is going to be sold.

Secondly, weeding out the time wasters and dreamers. If one ever tries to sell a practice because you think “how hard can it be …. I can save thousands doing it myself”, I never really appreciated just how much time is involved in passing confidential information to numerous prospective purchasers when so many are either time wasters or it just isn’t the practice for them …. one cannot predict this in advance.

Thirdly, it is challenging to be seen as credible and impartial as a seller when you are also your own self-broker. It can be done but it is far more challenging without a third party as a broker in my opinion …. I know, I tried.

Do you think you could have achieved the same result yourself?
I’ve probably covered this answer above but in simple term NO. To be perfectly frank, I had attempted already in the year prior to listing with Rob at HPB Brokers …. over a period of almost a year.

I distinctly recall having a conversation with another vet colleague as she knew I’d sold my previously practice. The individual was contemplating selling and was deciding whether to list with a broker or not but I had described to the person that whilst there was still a lot of work involved either way they chose (getting P&L’s up to date, pulling out up to date performance reports which had to be repeated as time passed, equipment list valuations and keeping it current etc etc) and that they shouldn’t discount doing it themselves.

Well, in hindsight, shortly after our conversation I noticed hers was listed with HPB when I received the mail out flyer for that persons practice and that it was subsequently under offer within a month or so then marked as “sold” a while later. I, on the other hand, did NOT succeed in selling my practice (fairly similar sized practice to the other persons) and over the remainder of almost a year of hard work and hassle of dealing with prospectives I relented and contacted Rob at HPB Brokers. I suspect it may be possible and even likely that some of those prospective purchasers may have been influenced to not have a second look as for some it would forever be marked with the taint of “what’s wrong with this practice as I see it still hasn’t sold”. It’s funny really as I recall over the years of seeing a couple of practices just like this that I would never have bothered looking at had I been in the market to purchase a practice and now I knew directly why.

What were the things I achieved for you?

• Access to a database of potentials
• Being the unbiased third party … I know there is a natural sales bias as this is how a broker earns the income, but a broker screens the information and fairly assesses the practice on so many levels (appearance, financial performance etc) to guide the arrival to a fair value to deliver to the interested market. I found Rob’s guidance here was completely fair and balanced and he was able to justify how he arrived at this guidance.
• Guidance of what information was most relevant …. a self seller can provide too much information or not distill it down adequately
• Organised a professional photographer for visuals for website and design a flyer (I think many people could think they could do it but having a succinct template format and a few known professional photographers to draw upon does help)
• Guided the potential purchasers
• Continued to guide THE purchaser through the buying process (eg seeking finance)
• Managing both buyer and seller to a successful settlement and smooth handover by managing expectations on both sides of the transaction – this can be more challenging than it seems when one is attempting to sell oneself.

Were you happy with the final price you achieved?
Yes…. no question.

Who wouldn’t be happy with a fair price for less hassle and you successfully matched up a buyer with the seller right through to a settlement … that’s 100% where the value was derived from using a broker because there are so many steps where failure could and more likely to occur if not using a broker. To be frank again …. a couple of years ago my likelihood of me using a broker were zero percent.

Having a broker who has owned and sold a vet practice previously gave credence to Rob’s value as a broker.

Were there extra services you did not expect?
No. Nothing exceeded my expectations other than my own stupidity of not using a broker in the first place for this practice

Would you use me again in the same circumstances?
Yes, 100% I would.

Would you recommend me to others?
Yes, 100% I would and I will.

Antonio Pescio – Buyer of Maylands Vet 4/2021

Very helpful, this is my first go at owning a business and I needed all the advice I could get.

Honest and impartial. I never felt I was steered in any particular direction, instead I was provided with solid information to make a decision.

Did this save you time and/or money?
I would say it did. It most certainly saved me time as I wasn’t finding what I was looking for on the east coast, and as we all know, time is money.

How would you rate my communication and service?
Excellent. All my questions were answered in a timely and accurate manner.

Were there things you found invaluable?
The advice.

How would you rate the value of my advice and the services?  10/10

Were there extra services form me that you did not expect?
Yes ! I did not expect your wife would offer to help when we were getting nowhere finding a rental property in Perth from interstate

Would you use me in the future to sell your practice?
If you have not retired by then I will most certainly give you a call.

Would you recommend me to others?
Yes, I would have no hesitation in recommending your services to another college.

I would also LOVE to hear anything negative about my service so I can improve for future clients. Honestly, nothing really comes to mind.

 

Philip Peters – Seller of Hammond Park Vet 3/2020

You were prompt in your replies. You cut to the chase when things got a bit “emotional” which is vital in such negotiations.

I could not have achieved this sale without your help

The extra services is the fact you not only having been a vet but one who has sold your practice so you know from personal experience whats involved

Yes I would use your services again would highly recommend you to others wanting to sell their practice