Clients for sale

Q. I'm going to sell my list of 1,300 active clients to a practice located about five miles from mine. How much should I charge?

"Your client list is worth more than you might think," says Tom McFerson, CPA, an accredited business valuator and partner with Gatto McFerson in Santa Monica, Calif. "Assuming the clients go to the new practice, and assuming this practice has the staff and capacity to handle them, these clients represent increased revenue with only marginally increased expenses." Some practices will pay 70 percent, 80 percent, even 90 percent of your annual service revenues for the patient records, if the selling doctors work with them for a period of time to make a smooth transition, he says.

"To figure a price, compute what your clients spent on services last year, and then multiply the total by 75 percent," says McFerson. "That'll give you a ballpark price. For instance, if your clients spent $400,000 on services, your records might be valued at $300,000. You would need to work hard to make sure those clients moved to the new location, but if most did, the buyer should be happy."

Tom McFerson