The Dentalpreneur Podcast w/ Dr. Mark Costes 2502: How to Prepare Your Practice for Partnership Part 2
May 5, 2026
Dr. Bill Keith, successful practice owner and DSI Black Belt coach, offers practical tips on cleaning up books, debt strategy, and team benefits. Dr. Ben Kakos, dentist and DSI Black Belt coach, covers accounting normalization, capital expenditures, and structuring practices for partnership. They discuss merchant fees, financing, separate entities, and selective equity or incentives for key team members.
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Using An Investment Banker To Run The Process
- Mark introduces process rationale: use an investment banker like PTS to produce an impartial valuation and package documents.
- PTS collects debt, banking, benefits, real estate, and overhead to present scenarios from walkaway to long-term partnership.
Clean Up Books And Separate Personal Expenses
- Clean up your books before entering a partnership process to separate personal and business expenses.
- Use separate credit cards, LLCs, and digital receipt tools (example: Dext) so CPAs and bankers can easily normalize P&Ls.
Use Two Credit Cards To Simplify Normalization
- Segregate spending by purpose using two credit cards: one for core practice expenses and one for mixed personal/relationship items.
- This makes line-by-line normalization far faster during valuation and reduces rework.