Board Certified Plastic Surgeon Rachel Walker, MD shares her experience with purchasing a medical practice, covering everything from finding a business broker and securing financing to navigating health care regulations. Tune in for the intricacies involved in purchasing a medical practice, tips for entrepreneurial success in the health care industry, and legal considerations for different types of M&A deals.
To learn more about Dr. Walker and the services she provides, visit www.cosmeticsurgerydallas.com.
Listen to the full episode using the player below, or by visiting one of the links below. Below is the episode’s transcript which has been edited for readability. If you have any questions or would like to learn more, email us at info@byrdadatto.com.
Transcript
Intro: [00:00:00] Welcome to Legal 123s with ByrdAdatto. Legal issues simplified through real client stories and real world experiences, creating simplicity in 3, 2, 1.
Brad: Welcome back to another episode of Legal 123s with ByrdAdatto. I’m your host Brad Adatto with my co-host Michael Byrd.
Michael: Thanks, Brad. As a business and healthcare law firm, we meet many interesting people in various stages of their business.
Brad: Yep.
Michael: This season we get to focus on the high stakes implications of selling a business or buying a business.
Brad: Yeah.
Michael: This season’s theme is The Hitchhiker’s Guide to M&A. We will be guest-heavy and bringing in different professionals to offer their experiences and perspectives in M&A.
Brad: Yeah and then for those who don’t know, the vocabulary word M&A, it stands for mergers and acquisitions. What does that really mean? So legal jargon for buying and selling a business or buying and selling all the assets of a business.
Michael: Good job, Brad. Thank you for not embarrassing yourself or me with your definition.
Brad: Well actually I [00:01:00] don’t feel like I’ve done anything to embarrass myself lately, but I think it’s time, Michael, maybe for you to be very vulnerable and talk to our audience and tell me about your issues of being a picky eater.
Michael: Brad, it’s not that I’m a picky eater. The issue is condiments.
Brad: Fine, Michael. Confess to the audience, your relationship with condiments.
Michael: Well, it’s not so much a confession as a public service announcement, mayonnaise is the spawn of Satan.
Brad: All right, Michael, tell us how you really feel about mayonnaise.
Michael: Well, it’s not just the mayonnaise. My relationship with condiments is kind of both simple and complicated. At the simple level, I can’t stand condiments. It gets more complicated because I’ve added exceptions over the years.
Brad: Oh, okay. So which condiments do you like?
Michael: I like gravy and barbecue sauce, for example.
Brad: I don’t think gravy is really in the condiment family, [00:02:00] but you do know that barbecue sauce is made up of mustard and ketchup right?
Michael: Exactly, Brad. That’s what I meant by complicated.
Brad: Okay.
Michael: I can’t stand mustard. I can’t stand ketchup is probably a little strong. I don’t like ketchup.
Brad: All right.
Michael: For some reason, I like barbecue sauce and I actually still am carrying some stuff against my Uncle Jimmy, because when third grade Michael was at a big family 4th of July barbecue my uncle was making the Byrd family barbecue sauce. I discovered that this barbecue sauce that I loved, how it was made. I saw him squeezing mustard and ketchup into a bowl, and I was significantly scarred. I could barely eat it that day, but I made a business decision that day, Brad. It was like, okay, I know I like the taste of this already, we just gotta suppress it and forget how it’s made.
Brad: So I guess if we’re doing mathematics here, or science, so two negative condiments, [00:03:00] make a positive condiment. Are there any other weird, I mean, complicated scenarios where you like condiments?
Michael: I don’t mind eating condiments if it’s in something cooked. So especially if I don’t see it being cooked in it. So I know there are lots of dishes, I know my wife makes lots of dishes that have sour cream and cream cheese in them, and that’s fine. I’ve learned to accept it kind of like barbecue sauce. Like it tastes good and I just don’t think about how it was made.
Brad: Hey, Riley, do we still have any gold stars for Michael? I mean, I’m so proud of you that you will eat condiments that are cooked into the meal.
Michael: I’m glad you’re having fun with this.
Brad: Yes.
Michael: Yeah and we won’t even get in, well, we’ll move on. Let’s turn the tables a little bit because you have, not nearly as weird as that, but you, on the other hand, have to have three square meals a day.
Brad: Yep.
Michael: I mean, so much [00:04:00] so, and we’ve known each other for forever now, I know that at all times you have snacks readily handy in case there’s a threat for a meeting to extend into a meal.
Brad: Look, as a resident hobbit, we’re used to eating six to eight meals a day. I’m pretty proud of myself. I’m down to three squares a day, but yeah, if I miss one of those meals, yeah, I’m done for the day.
Michael: Yeah, I’ve seen it happen and you turn very mean.
Brad: I get very hangry.
Michael: Yes. Okay. Well you like lots of things, right?
Brad: Yes. Yeah.
Michael: Okay. Well, we’re going to put that to the test cause this conversation in our prep was inspired by an article I found.
Brad: Uh Oh.
Michael: With the top five worst foods according to the Disgusting Food Museum.
Brad: Are you like the founder of that?
Michael: I wish, but you would know I was the founder because mayonnaise would be number one of worst.
Brad: Is that true? Okay.
Michael: So you gotta, you know, brace yourself. [00:05:00] This is pretty disgusting. These are the top five worst foods. Are you ready?
Brad: I’m nervous. Yes.
Michael: Okay. You should be. Okay. Number one is something called gomutra, and I don’t know if I said it right. By the way, this is pure I didn’t look up how to pronounce any of these.
Brad: Okay. You’re good.
Michael: And they’re all foreign.
Brad: No one will know the difference.
Michael: But I could tell you what gomutra is. This is cow urine from India and drinking gomutra has been practiced for thousands of years. And especially like the cow urine of a pregnant cow, is considered especially potent and has hormones and minerals.
Brad: Yeah. Okay, no.
Michael: Okay, the next one is called Ttongsul. And this is going to sound good to you at first, it is a traditional Korean medicine with 9% alcohol content.
Brad: I like it so far.
Michael: Okay. The feces of a human child between the age of four and seven is refrigerated for several days mixed [00:06:00] with water and then fermented. Through a continual and disgusting process, the drink is made to kind of taste sour, kind of similar to rice wine, and the most disturbing part of what I read about this was that it can leave a poo smell on your breath.
Brad: What?
Michael: I know.
Brad: I’m not going to respond to that one.
Michael: Okay. Baby mouse wine. Yes, this is a drink in China where at least a dozen baby mice are drowned in rice wine. And the mice must be blind and hairless, and the brew has to mature for at least a year before drinking. And the mouse wine is drunk cause of health tonic for asthma and liver diseases.
Brad: Yeah.
Michael: It’s a good thing we have a doctor in the house because we’ll be able to test whether that’s a real therapy for that. The fourth is monkey brain, which we’ve all kind of heard of. It’s kind of a, potentially, just a [00:07:00] legend. We don’t, no one knows for sure if this is actually a thing, but according to legend, waiters at a restaurant would feed people monkey brain and the monkey would be alive. Like they’d have it affixed under the table. And then finally, Brad, and I know you’re going to like this one, virgin boy eggs. Young boys’ urine is collected in buckets, and then the eggs are boiled in the urine. The eggs are then cracked and continue to boil so that the urine can soak into the eggs. The golden eggs smell strongly of urine, but the taste has been described as delicate, salty, and addictive.
Brad: Yeah, I’m pretty disgusted by you right now.
Michael: You just said you could eat anything.
Brad: I, you know, I always thought I was very adventurous. I mean, when I traveled to other places, I’ll try anything generally speaking. I’ve had haggis, I’ve had snails, and I’ve had live shrimp that was staring at you as you ate its body. So I’ve tried lots of [00:08:00] different dishes, but everything you described so far, I a hundred percent am out.
Michael: Yeah.
Brad: But, you know, we have our guests or those watching us on YouTube are probably wondering why we have this really gorgeous person sitting next to you and we were talking about all these disgusting things.
Michael: She didn’t leave.
Brad: She didn’t leave. That’s good. Yeah. Okay.
Michael: Okay, good.
Rachel: I thought about it.
Brad: Fair enough.
Michael: And what’s weird is that mayonnaise would still be number one on that list. Like, it’s crazy. Okay. We’re bringing Rachel Walker in.
Brad: Yes. Thank you.
Michael: Okay, so Rachel’s a friend and a client and we all just got a little bit closer because of that conversation. Rachel is a board-certified plastic surgeon. She’s the owner of the Plastic Surgery Center of Dallas. She purchased this practice in 2019. She was born and raised in Oklahoma. Went to the University of Oklahoma Medical School, residency at the University of Missouri and did her fellowship with the Wall Center in Shreveport. And, [00:09:00] not ironically, she is a dog lover, but ironically she is a foodie after what we just talked about. Thank you for joining us today, Rachel.
Rachel: It’s my pleasure to be here. Thanks for the invite.
Brad: Yeah. Well, Rachel, this season we’re really concentrating on The Hitchhiker’s Guide of M&A and that’s our theme. And you know, I guess before we really get into this, as Michael says, you’re supposedly a foodie, but of those top five worst foods that Michael just mentioned, are any of those ones that you would eat?
Rachel: Absolutely not.
Brad: Fair answer. All right, Michael, I think you know, for our audience, maybe you can, everyone knows you love context, give a summary of, in different seasons of businesses that you eventually get into the potential M&A phase and talk to everyone about that. Just giving them a reminder, a recap.
Michael: Yeah. I mean, this is hopefully helpful to orient everyone and why we’re even doing this season.
Brad: Yeah.
Michael: And how, you know, the conversation we’ll have with Rachel and what her journey has been, will be applicable for those that at some point will be affected by M&A. [00:10:00] So every business is in, you know, one of four seasons. They’re in the building season. Think of it like creating the infrastructure for your business. Often at the beginning that’s part of it, but it comes around at different points. The operating season is the day-to-day stuff. Think of processes. This is times when you know your crisis comes up. That’s a big part of the operating season, the unexpected issue that arises. And then there’s a season where you’re scaling your business. You may be adding people, you may be adding locations, you may be adding services, but there is this intentional reinvestment or investment into the scaling of your business. And then the final season is the buying and selling of a business. And that’s kind of where we’re camped out today, although the other seasons have an impact on M&A for sure.
Brad: Sure. Yeah.
Michael: When we talk about M&A, we always talk about the five phases. We’re really just condensing this timeline of [00:11:00] the M&A process, but the M&A, you know, process, these five phases start with a letter of intent or the LOI. We’ve talked about that on prior episodes and due diligence, which we’ve talked about, and that’s the heavy stuff. Then we get into the definitive agreements. That’s the actual stuff that we do in writing and negotiating contracts. Then we go to closing, the big champagne toast. And then the post-closing cleanup that happens after an M&A deal. For today’s show, we’re going to spotlight Rachel’s story and lessons learned as someone who bought a business as a way to start a practice.
Brad: Yeah. So Rachel, again, thanks for being here, but let’s get into your story. You know, how did you become, or what drove you to become an owner of your own practice right out of fellowship?
Rachel: I’ve always had a really specific idea of what I wanted my practice to look like so I knew I wanted to treat patients a [00:12:00] little differently and provide a more luxury experience and that can be difficult to do within another person’s organization or within a hospital. I have absolutely zero business background, so I wasn’t a hundred percent sure I wanted to open my own business and honestly, it came down to I was looking at real estate in Dallas to maybe just rent a clinic space, not go big. And it was impossible to find a building with sinks and good parking. So I decided to branch out and that’s when I found a few practices for sale. And I thought about it, I was like if I can learn how to operate on people if I can learn to put a finger back on a hand, I can definitely learn to run a business. And if not, what’s the worst that can happen? In my mind, I decided the worst that could happen was bankruptcy because I wasn’t going to die if my business failed. I wasn’t going to do anything else worse than bankruptcy. And I was pretty confident that I still had employable skills if I did fail. So at the end of the day, I chose [00:13:00] to go in on my own and purchase a practice.
Brad: Yeah, going all in with bankruptcy being the worst-case scenario. That’s pretty good.
Michael: Well, and I’m sure of course, you know, we were there with you at that time and it is, you know, for the audience to understand, it is a unique way for someone to start most of the times when doctors do what Rachel did. They’ve been in business for some degree of time. You know, talk about what that experience was like for you when you were, you know, kind of, you found this practice for sale and what was that process like for you?
Rachel: Well, I found the practice and then it was a matter of what would this practice do for me. Or what am I actually buying? And at the end of the day, this practice, one thing I knew I was buying is eventually I wanted the building and I wanted the location. So I knew I had that at the end. So as long as I could keep things going so that I [00:14:00] could buy the building, that was my endgame. I looked at online presence reviews and how patients were coming into the practice and it had great traffic and it had great visibility. In my mind, if I worked hard and really poured myself into the business I would be able to grow it to the point that I could use that wonderful building to be as good as it should be. So I think that was kind of my thought process.
Michael: Yeah. So you went through it, you closed, and now all of a sudden you have the keys to a business. Talk about the experiences and lessons you learned after you started operating your own practice.
Rachel: I learned a lot. I got kicked in the teeth several times starting out. I opened November 1st, 2019, had zero patients. I had one employee that was remaining from the previous surgeon cause he had kind of really leaned things out for his final [00:15:00] years and she was also eight months pregnant. So I knew that I had to find somebody pretty quickly before she went on maternity leave. And I spent the first month of practice answering phones, pretending to be Laura, the pregnant employee, and really trying to figure out how to make things work. I bought QuickBooks for Dummies so I could learn to run payroll and really spent all of my time before I had patients trying to learn the business. And then I also decided to remodel the practice because I wanted it to look like my practice and not like the previous surgeon’s practice. So I started a remodel in about January, finished it up in March, and had this beautiful facility. At this point, I had hired two wonderful employees and we were feeling good about ourselves. Phones were ringing. I was starting to get some traction. Well, then Covid hit and got completely shut. And at this point I had not even paid myself. So looking at a PPP loan wasn’t really an option because I had two [00:16:00] employees who were on hourly wages and then me who was getting paid $0. So that was a definite speed bump for me.
Michael: Oh my goodness. And so you had Covid hit and then was the winter freeze the next year after that?
Rachel: Yes.
Michael: Oh my goodness.
Rachel: February and March have historically not been very kind to me. So yes. A year after my remodel was completed the winter storm hit Dallas and flooded my practice not once, but twice. So in 36 hours, it got flooded. I lost all of my 11-month-old floors and my 11-month-old painted cabinets. So my team had to go through the remodel again, which was an adventure and a costly adventure, but luckily I had great insurance. So, in terms of the remodel cost at least I didn’t have to eat that again.
Brad: I guess the first question is in 2024, is your practice going to be [00:17:00] closed the month of February just to like hedge your bets?
Rachel: I mean, I kind of think about it, I’m like, maybe team trip to Aruba and just hang out.
Brad: Yeah and you just wrap the entire building to make sure it’s safe.
Michael: Bubble wrap?
Brad: Yeah, bubble wrap.
Rachel: Yeah, I saged the building this year in February and March.
Brad: Well, I mean, so coming out of your fellowship, you’re figuring out how to run your business, you run into Covid, you run into a freeze that had to be really hard on yourself. Obviously, you were the face of the practice, so your employees were looking to you for help, but, you know, what did you learn about yourself during that timeframe?
Rachel: I learned that you can always learn something. At the end of the day just because you don’t know, you have to just execute and you will learn along the way. So I know more about plumbing. I know more about electricity. I know more about getting people to show up for a job than I ever thought I would know. I think just knowing that you can do hard things is important and luckily my team felt the exact same way. [00:18:00] Like there were times when my practice manager and patient coordinator Madison, was sitting in a hallway with a laptop in one light, checking patients in with paint fumes around and we knew we could still provide a great patient experience, even though our building said that we were really kind of sketchy people because it didn’t look great, but we still treated patients the same and knew there was light at the end of the tunnel. I think not letting obstacles take you down is super important and I’ve kind of picked up this really depressing mantra that life is pain and I’m actually a true optimist, but it makes it a little easier when these hard things happen. You’re like, well, I mean, at the end of the day, there’s things that happen and you just have to figure out how to get past them.
Michael: Sounds like a Ted Lasso quote. Yeah, I love it.
Brad: So, it sounds like you enjoy it though. I mean, you really enjoy being your own boss.
Rachel: Yes. It’s been fun. It’s fun to create, and it’s fun to grow with people. It’s fun to grow with your patients, and grow with your team. I mean, that’s something that I [00:19:00] didn’t even know that I would love as much, but learning to grow team members within your practice and helping other people reach their goals has been a lot of fun for me.
Brad: And going back to, well go back into history, when you were moving to the Dallas area, trying to find a practice, you weren’t looking to be your own boss per se, right?
Rachel: Correct. I was not, I did not want to be my own boss. I was like, oh, it’s intimidating enough to just go out and operate and be the own boss of your patients much less your own boss of you and your employees. I started listening to a lot of business podcasts, which I think helped me, and reading a lot of business books I think I was just really dogged in learning how to do it right and wanted to improve every day, which kept me going cause it was like you were trying to climb a mountain, but honestly, in business ownership, I don’t think you ever get to the top. You just have new goals. The mountain just keeps getting higher.
Brad: Yeah. Well, that’s great that you’re a constant seeker of knowledge. I mean that’s so helpful [00:20:00] because if you weren’t, you know, a lot of doctors are happy seeing right below them, which is the patient in front of them, and then they’re done for the day they want to go home, but that doesn’t sound like you at all.
Rachel: No.
Michael: Well, and I can’t help just listening to your story, I don’t even know if I’ve said this to you before, but the inspiration for us to finally take the leap and start ByrdAdatto was seeing our clients like you over the years who would take that leap and take the risk and see and hear kind of that passion, even though there was pain no doubt, and we experienced ours along the way too, but I still, even after starting our own and thinking, why didn’t we do it sooner love hearing our continued clients who take that leap.
Brad: Yeah. And I’m always impressed with, for me and we cheat a little bit because we feed off each other, you’re on your own. I mean, I have to teach him a lot. Everybody knows anyway, but having that partner to [00:21:00] be able to talk to, did you have certain advisors that you surround yourself with besides ByrdAdatto Law firm, but did you have other people that you’re like, hey, how did you doc, how did you handle this? Who are those resources? Or did you have those resources?
Rachel: Early on, I really didn’t, but I was super blessed in my training that I had great mentors around me. Particularly, my fellowship mentors, the Walls. They have been a great sounding board for me and connected me with like-minded people, so, even though in Dallas I’m largely alone and I spend my day alone without a partner next to me. I have people to reach out to and commiserate with, which is really therapeutic at the end of the day, but also helps you see problems outside of just your little tunnel vision and it helps me think about it in a different way. So now I think I just keep building community and it’s nice. Like I love doing things like this podcast or speaking at the residence meeting because you meet more people who are wanting to do the same thing and maybe they’re younger and have [00:22:00] better ideas than me, or they’re older and they’ve been doing it and so, of course, they are a lot wiser than I so have great tips for me. So those connections are super valuable.
Michael: That’s awesome. Well, as we near the end, I’d love to kind of get your words of advice you would have for our physicians in the audience who are maybe thinking about purchasing their own practice.
Rachel: I think to make sure you’re looking at all of your options. I looked at a couple of practices prior to purchasing this one, and this one had a great reputation and it had great bones. I mean the bones of the building. I didn’t have to worry about hopping locations. It had great web presence that was super useful to me. They had been there for a long time. A lot of people will say there’s no goodwill in buying a practice, but at the end of the day, there’s a lot of patients who are like, oh, 10 years ago I had my breast done at Plastic Surgery Center of Dallas and I was comfortable there. And there’s something comforting about coming back to that same practice even though it’s [00:23:00] different. And I knew in my heart of hearts that I could build a team and a practice that if someone just set their foot in the door, they would have a good experience and we could retain them. I also think just knowing yourself at the end of the day, if you don’t want to manage people, if you don’t want to really make your business your life, I think it’s probably not a great idea to start your own practice, buy your own practice, because you really have to be passionate about it, and you have to love the creation process. And you have to be willing to work when you’re not busy. So I think of all the times like when Covid shut down or just times I’ve been slow and worried, like, oh my gosh, am I ever going to have a business? And I’ve tried to find ways to make the practice better and I still show up to work and I still do all the things. It’s just what can make you different. And you have to have a very clear vision about what you are building so that you do have a brand because, without a brand, no one’s going to come find [00:24:00] you.
Michael: That’s amazing. As we wrap up for today, well first of all, I’ll just say thank you for joining us.
Rachel: Oh, thank you for inviting me.
Michael: We’re so grateful to have you and what we’ll do is we’ll go to break and then on the other side Brad and I will come back and have a little bit of a legal wrap-up.
Brad: Yeah. Thank you again.
Rachel: Thank you.
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Brad: Welcome back to [00:25:00] Legal 123s to the ByrdAdatto. I’m your host, Brad Adatto. I’m still here with our co-host Michael Byrd and those who are watching y’all will notice the gorgeous woman who was sitting next to Michael is no longer here, because now we’re getting into the legal aspects of it and the podcast and, you know, as a reminder, Michael, this season our theme is The Hitchhiker’s Guide to M&A. Today’s show, you know, really we’re concentrating on buying a practice. Dr. Rachel Walker who joined us had an interesting story that she was able to share with us and the ups and downs of running a practice and being kicked in the teeth a couple of times between Covid and water breaches and other things, but what are some recaps that you have?
Michael: Yeah, I mean, again, kind of orienting this story to the broader picture of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to M&A is, you know, you have, Dr. Walker, Rachel was in the season of business of creating, starting from [00:26:00] scratch. She could start her own business and so she started kind of in that season of the buying and selling of a business because, you know, she had two choices. She could have started her own business and been kind of in that season of building your business, but she started to buy something that existed. And so, there is, as the story unfolds, she goes through that unique process and then is immediately hit with trial after trial in her first few years that you just mentioned. Yet, what we both know, and we probably should have spent more time talking with her about, but she wouldn’t have, maybe bragged as much as we can honor, is that her practice is thriving and she has a huge reputation in the Dallas market and so it’s a really cool story of taking a risk, perseverance and, you know, having [00:27:00] success.
Brad: Yeah. Well, you know, we talk about risk tolerance all the time, you know, those who are afraid to step out of the shower in the morning and those who jump out of airplanes. I think Rachel’s like just every day jumping out of airplanes the way she’s reacting because she said the worst thing that could happen would be bankruptcy. I mean, that’s a real entrepreneur’s perspective of go get it and as much as it’s hard to run a business, she was able to do it in such extreme situations, but I think what’s interesting about Rachel’s story, for our podcast listeners, is when we go to different trade shows, everybody wants to hear about PE, PE, what’s PE doing? Is private equity really coming into this market? What’s happening? What are the big sales like? Well, let’s back up just, you know, three to four years ago, the vast majority of sales were doctor to doctor, and those sales could be an outside doctor coming along and buying your practice or a bigger practice gobbling at your practice or maybe you have a younger doctor who’s been working with you for two to five years and you want to sell a piece of your practice to them. That has been the [00:28:00] way in which most practices grew or sold in that season. And so it’s interesting to have Rachel on, because when people hear M&A, they think of these big transactions, not that it wasn’t, but this was a doctor, doctor deal, ultimately at the end.
Michael: Yeah. I mean, there’s the sexiness to what we call the Wall Street deals, and yet we have main street deals happening every day. And it’s a small business or small business owner buying a small business from someone else. And from a legal perspective, there are a lot of similarities to the Wall Street deals, but there are also some differences. And it’s kind of easy to picture in a sense like you have a doctor in the fellowship who has no business savvy. Where do you even go to find a business? And then what do you do and where do you get the money to buy it? And these are real things that you don’t really think about on the Wall Street side of things. Of course, finding a business to buy is also a challenge there, but, you know, they have sophisticated mechanisms to finance or, [00:29:00] purchase a practice. Here you have, you know, Rachel and people like her are, you know, first, how do I find it? They go and literally hire a business broker and it may be that business broker may also be marketing a dry cleaner and other types of small businesses throughout the community. And you’re just looking through listings trying to find someone selling a plastic surgery practice. And it can be challenging. And there are some brokers who have a focus on healthcare, but that’s kind of the environment you see there. And so, it causes, when you’re the buyer, you have to understand that you may have a broker that doesn’t understand healthcare really and all the regulations we talk about in so many episodes. And so, you’re wanting to understand what you’re buying. All the stuff we talked about in the five [00:30:00] phases of M&A are still applicable, a different scale on a Main Street deal, but definitely still applicable. And then, you know, you’re going to a bank typically to borrow the money or going to get an SBA loan, and that adds to your timeline because going through that process of getting a bank to say, yes, we’ll loan you this money to purchase a business is a pretty unique experience for these main street deals.
Brad: Yeah. So we’re almost out of time today, Michael. So what are any final thoughts you have?
Michael: Well, these deals are all asset deals and we’ve talked about these in prior episodes, usually they’re asset deals. And that’s, you know, in M&A, you’re buying the assets and taking on certain liabilities, but you’re not just stepping into everything and so it’s really important you make sure that you exclude any mayonnaise that they have in their kitchen when you’re buying a practice like this.
Brad: Well, I, [00:31:00] you know, in all the years of practice, I’ve never heard that exclusion clause, but I could see you writing that in. Audience members, that’s all the time we have today. We will be back with you next Wednesday as we continue through our journey in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to M&A, where we take a deep dive into the dental market and understand what’s happening with that, with our good friend Mike White.
Outro: Thanks again for joining us today, and remember, if you like this episode, please subscribe. Make sure to give us a five-star rating and share with your friends. You can also sign up for the ByrdAdatto newsletter by going to our website at ByrdAdatto.com. ByrdAdatto is providing this podcast as a public service. This podcast is for educational purposes only. This podcast does not constitute legal advice, nor does it establish an attorney-client relationship. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by ByrdAdatto. The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. Please consult [00:32:00] with an attorney on your legal issues.
