Most owners find out what their practice is worth the same way: a buyer calls with a number, and they react to it. That is the worst possible position to negotiate from. The number on the table becomes the anchor, and everything after that is you arguing down from someone else's starting point.
Getting your own valuation before anyone calls flips that. You walk in already knowing what a fair range looks like, so you can tell immediately whether an offer is strong, weak, or insulting.
A real valuation gives you three things: a floor you will not go below, a story built on revenue quality and margin and trend, and leverage, because a buyer who realizes you already know your number negotiates differently.
Buyers price on a narrow, mechanical set of questions. Is the earnings number clean, once one-time expenses and owner perks are backed out to a true EBITDA? How much of this depends on you personally versus documented systems? How concentrated is the revenue across referral sources? Is the trend line up or down?
Prepared practices sell for more. The ADA 2024 Practice Transition Survey put successful sales around 1.1 times gross revenue, with fee-for-service practices near 1.3 times and troubled practices as low as 0.6 times. Current DSO multiples run above 2024 levels. On a $1.2M practice, the difference between prepared and unprepared can be $600,000.
This matters even if you are not selling this year. The moment you know your real number, you stop making decisions in the dark and can start closing the gaps a buyer would flag years ahead.