Doctor,

Most dentists I talk to don’t avoid exit planning because they’re careless. They avoid it because they’re busy, they’re productive, and things are working well enough. Exit feels like something you deal with later, when you’re tired, when you’re ready, when you’ve decided it’s time to move on.

That’s exactly the problem.

Because the moment you feel ready to exit is usually the moment your leverage has already started to slip.

Leverage in an exit doesn’t come from urgency. It comes from options. And options take time to create.

I’ve watched this play out more times than I can count. A dentist reaches a point where the work feels heavier. Maybe it’s burnout. Maybe it’s health. Maybe it’s just the sense that they’ve done what they set out to do. That’s when they start asking questions about selling. And that’s when reality sets in.

Buyers can sense urgency. It shows up in how flexible you’re willing to be, how quickly you want answers, how much uncertainty you’re willing to tolerate just to be done. The more urgent you are, the fewer cards you hold.

When you wait until you’re ready to exit, you’re negotiating from a narrow position. You may still get a deal. You may still get a good outcome. But the leverage, the ability to choose between paths, to wait, to say no, to structure things on your terms, is already diminished.

Contrast that with dentists who start thinking about exit years before they intend to sell.

They’re not emotional about it. They’re not rushing. They’re not trying to escape anything. They’re simply positioning the practice so that, when the time comes, they have choices. Multiple buyer types. Different deal structures. Flexibility around timing. The ability to walk away if something doesn’t feel right.

That’s leverage.

Leverage also changes how buyers treat you. When a buyer knows you don’t need to sell, the conversation shifts. There’s more respect for boundaries. More willingness to meet you where you are. More creativity in structuring a deal that works for both sides.

When exit planning starts late, those dynamics flip. The dentist becomes reactive. Deadlines start to matter more than terms. Certainty becomes more valuable than optionality. And buyers, quite naturally, adjust their posture accordingly.

Exit readiness and exit desire are not the same thing. Desire is emotional. Readiness is strategic.

A dentist might want to exit, but the practice may not be positioned to support strong leverage. Or the market conditions might favor a certain buyer type. Or the practice might only appeal to a narrow slice of buyers, limiting competition. None of that means an exit is impossible. It just means the balance of power has shifted.

And here’s the part many dentists miss: you don’t regain leverage by waiting longer once you’re ready. Time doesn’t fix urgency. Preparation does.

The dentists with the best exits aren’t necessarily the best producers. They’re the ones who thought ahead. Who made small, intentional decisions over time that expanded their options. Who treated exit as a strategic outcome they were quietly working toward.

They didn’t rush. They didn’t wait until they were done. They positioned themselves early enough that “ready” and “well-positioned” happened at the same time.

That’s the sweet spot.

So if exit is even a distant thought, five years away, ten years away, it’s not too early to start thinking about leverage. Not in terms of selling tomorrow, but in terms of keeping your future flexible. Preserving choice. Making sure that when you do decide it’s time, you’re not negotiating from a place of fatigue or urgency.

Because the worst time to think about your exit isn’t when you’re curious. It’s when you’re ready. And the dentists who understand that early are the ones who keep control of the outcome right up to the end.

To your success,

Your Team at Everything DSO

If you want ongoing insight into how growth decisions today affect leverage and exit options tomorrow, I share that perspective each month in the Dental Growth & Exit Newsletter. CLICK HERE to claim your first two months for free.