S9E7: The Two Numbers That Decide Whether Your Practice Makes It, with Jonathan VanHorn, CPA
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Show Notes
He was fired after his first tax season, in the middle of the 2008 crisis. Fifteen years later he runs Tooth and Coin, one of the best-known dental CPA firms in the country. So what did Jonathan VanHorn actually know about running a business before he started one?
Less than you’d think, and more than he gave himself credit for. He’d never run payroll for his own firm. He had run it for a hundred clients. That gap, between what you’ve never done and what you’ve already done a version of, is where most associates get stuck.
In this episode of Practice Purchased, Brian Hanks and Jonathan get specific about the financial side of feeling ready: where new owners actually fail, what a dental CPA should cost, and why the spreadsheet is almost never the problem.
One thing worth noticing: Jonathan says failure comes down to two numbers, patients seen and revenue per patient, and in most practices it’s obvious which one is off. If you can figure out which one, you can fix it.
In this episode:
- How Jonathan went from fired first-year CPA to founding Tooth and Coin
- The associate’s “I’ve never done that” list, and what’s actually on it
- The two numbers that explain almost every practice that struggles
- Why startups should obsess over new patients, and what a healthy count looks like
- The acquisition mistake nobody sees coming: buying a practice whose treatment philosophy doesn’t match yours
- What a dental CPA should cost in year one (and what you get for it)
- Brian’s one tip on how to be a client your CPA wants to keep
Thinking about owning someday? Get Brian’s free Ready Kit for the steps leading up to buying a practice: https://www.dentalbuyeradvocates.com/ready
More resources
About the guest Jonathan VanHorn, CPA, is the founder of Tooth and Coin, a dental-focused CPA firm serving practice owners across the country, and host of the Tooth and Coin podcast. Before founding the firm he worked in public accounting and as an assistant CFO for a manufacturing company. https://www.toothandcoin.com/
Practice Purchased is hosted by Brian Hanks, MBA, CFP, founder of Dental Buyer Advocates and author of How to Buy a Dental Practice.
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