A guide for owners — use it with anyone
Ten questions to ask any buyer before you sell.
Selling your practice is one of the biggest decisions of your career, and most owners only do it once. Whoever you talk to — Arcs or anyone else — these are the questions that separate a real partner from a roll-up. We’re glad to answer every one of them.
1. What actually happens to my staff?
What to listen for
Listen for a commitment, not a maybe. “Offered to stay” with roles intact is very different from “evaluated for fit.” Your team is why patients come back — a serious partner protects them from day one rather than treating layoffs as “efficiency.”
2. Do my patients keep their clinic and their clinicians?
What to listen for
Ask exactly how continuity is preserved. The honest answer describes a transition built so patients keep the same place and the same faces — not one that quietly routes them to a call center or consolidates them into a distant location.
3. Does my name stay on the door?
What to listen for
Your name is the reputation you spent decades earning. A partner who values it keeps it. Be wary of anyone who plans to swap your brand for their platform name — that usually signals you’re a unit being absorbed, not a practice being preserved.
4. Who makes clinical decisions after closing?
What to listen for
The answer should be: you and your clinicians, full stop. If a management company can override how medicine is practiced, your autonomy is gone no matter what the brochure says. Get specific about who controls protocols, staffing on the floor, and patient care.
5. Is there a five-year exit clock?
What to listen for
Private-equity roll-ups typically buy to flip you to the next owner in about five years. Ask directly: will I be sold again, and to whom? A long-term partner has no countdown and isn’t optimizing your practice for a quick resale.
6. Will debt be loaded onto my practice?
What to listen for
Some deals finance the purchase by putting debt on the very practice being bought. Ask how the transaction is funded and whether your clinic carries new debt afterward — it directly affects the clinic’s health and your retained stake’s value.
7. Can I keep practicing at my own pace?
What to listen for
A good partner lets you choose: stay a day a week, mentor, or retire gradually. Ask how “stepping back” is actually structured. If the only option is a hard exit on their schedule, that’s an acquisition, not a partnership.
8. If I keep an ownership stake, how is the buyback set?
What to listen for
Where you retain equity, ask plainly how and when it’s valued and bought back, and who sets that price. You want clear language, not acronyms. Anyone unwilling to explain the mechanics simply is a reason to slow down.
9. How long do I have to decide — and is this confidential?
What to listen for
There should be no pressure and no clock on your decision, and your first conversations should be confidential with no obligation. If you feel rushed toward a timeline that isn’t yours, that itself is an answer about how they operate.
10. Can I talk to an owner who already sold to you?
What to listen for
This is the most honest signal there is. A confident partner will gladly connect you with someone who’s been through it, so you can ask the hard questions of a peer instead of a salesperson. Hesitation here is telling.
Ask us all ten.
The first call is with Jon — an operator who runs clinics — and it’s confidential, with no obligation.
Talk to Jon