An owner gets sale-ready by working the operational numbers a buyer prices, starting 16 months to 3 years before going to market. GME Dental Professional Services does this work for orthodontic and dental owners: a read on where value is leaking today, a roadmap built against what a buyer pays for, and quarterly check-ins through the runway to market.
The late push makes sense. You want the numbers looking their best when you go to market. The value a buyer pays for was built long before the LOI, and the last 90 days only polish what is already there.
Recurring revenue, write-off percentage, documented add-backs, and whether the practice runs on systems or on you. Those trends take 18 to 24 months to build and show clean. None of them turns around in a quarter, and you will not win them back at the table.
These are the thresholds a readiness engagement works toward. Each gap between where you sit today and where these land carries a dollar figure, and that figure is what a buyer would otherwise take off the price.
*Scales with location count and complexity. Travel billed separately at cost.
Everything a buyer rewards is something you can build while you still run the practice for yourself. An owner 16 months to 3 years from a sale has room to move a recall number, clean up an aging report, document the add-backs, and hand a system to the team so the practice stops depending on one person.
Closer in, the honest answer is different. There is still value in knowing exactly where you stand before a buyer tells you, and in fixing what can be fixed inside the timeline you have.
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As a sell-side broker she brought practices to market, many of them practices she had already helped build on the operations side. She went on to design the operating model behind a franchise-like orthodontic concept, and since 2025 has run operational due diligence for buy-side clients of an investment banking firm. She knows what a buyer discounts, because she has sat in that seat too.
Gretchen leads every engagement. Specialists join based on what the work needs.
16 months to 3 years. The trends a buyer prices, recurring revenue, write-off percentage, and how much of the operation depends on the owner, take 18 to 24 months to build and show clean. An owner who starts 90 days out is polishing what is already there rather than changing it.
How much of the revenue repeats, what you write off against production, whether your add-backs have documentation behind them, and whether the practice runs on systems or on you and one long-tenured team member. Those four decide the price more than the headline production number does.
The Snapshot is a first read. A practice management system data pull and analysis plus a short discovery and readout call, no on-site observation, starting at $3,900. It surfaces the issues most likely to cost you at the table. Transition Readiness is the roadmap build, starting at $9,250, translating your numbers into a value-readiness plan with quarterly check-ins through the runway. The full Snapshot fee credits toward Transition Readiness if you sign within 45 days.
No. GME does the operational work that decides what a buyer will pay. Listing the practice, running the process, and negotiating the deal belong to your broker or advisor, and this work runs alongside them. Gretchen spent four years as a sell-side broker, which is why the readiness work is built around what actually moves price rather than around a checklist.
The honest answer changes. At that point the value is in knowing exactly where you stand before the buyer tells you, and in fixing what can be fixed inside the timeline you have. Tell us the timeline and we will say plainly whether the work is worth doing.
GME's Value Gap Snapshot starts at $3,900 and Transition Readiness starts at $9,250. Both scale with location count and complexity, and travel is billed separately at cost. Quarterly check-ins through the runway are priced separately.
Start with the free Sale Readiness Self-Check. 7 numbers, one page, scored green, yellow, or red, with the target for each one and what a buyer reads into it. Separate versions for orthodontic and general dental.
Get the self-check