320. He Bought a 3-Chair Practice With ZERO Patients on Day 2 — Now It's Doubled | Dr. Eric Palmer

Five and a half years ago, Dr. Eric Palmer bought a three-operatory dental practice about 20 minutes outside one of the most competitive dental markets in the United States. The practice had no insurance verification process, no real treatment plan presentation, and a hard credit check on every new patient. Today, that same practice has doubled its production and collections on the same three chairs, runs on a three- to four-day clinical week, and is being built out to eight operatories to support a future associate hire.

In this conversation, Eric and Steve walk through the entire arc: discovering practice ownership through a podcast episode during residency, finding an off-market practice through direct mailers to retiring dentists, navigating a financing gap when a home sale fell through days before closing, fixing broken front-office systems in the first weeks of ownership, and building a billing strategy that profits inside a low-fee-allowable PPO state using CEREC same-day dentistry.

Key topics covered:

• Finding off-market dental practices for sale through direct outreach
• Bridging a financing gap with seller financing during an acquisition
• Fixing insurance verification and treatment plan presentation as a new owner
• Managing staff transitions and turnover after a practice purchase
• Billing profitably as an in-network PPO practice
• Using CEREC technology to improve Class II procedure outcomes and reimbursement
• Planning an 8-operatory build-out for future associate or specialist hires
• Defining your lifestyle vision before choosing a practice ownership path

Connect with us:

• Take our FREE lifestyle and practice assessment: https://thelifestylepractice.com/practice-assesment/
• Learn more about 1-on-1 coaching: https://thelifestylepractice.com/coaching-services/
• Get access to TLP Academy: https://thelifestylepractice.com/coaching-services/
• Get the TLP Student Academy for $20 (lifetime access): https://the-lifestyle-practice.teachable.com/p/studentacademy
• Subscribe to The Lifestyle Practice Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tlp-podcast-for-dentists/id1476544801
• Email Derek at derek@thelifestylepractice.com
• Email Matt at matt@thelifestylepractice.com
• Email Steve at steve@thelifestylepractice.com