The Community Pharmacist Blog

Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”  This concept is very important as it pertains to owning and operating a community pharmacy (and executing an exit strategy). 

There are three primary options for a pharmacy exit strategy.  They are sell to an insider, sell to an outsider or liquidate.  Each one of these options has its positives and pitfalls.  An insider could be family members in the business, a junior pharmacist or another employee/employees.  An outsider could be another independent pharmacist, family members not in the business, a chain store pharmacist looking for independent direction, a conglomerate of pharmacies/pharmacists or a chain store

The whole idea of succession planning and exit strategies is becoming almost a cliche in our economic environment at this point.  The reason for this is the transition occuring with the baby boomers.  They are slowly beginning the to retire and sail off into the sunset.  This is being compounded by the state of the economy in the world right now as well.  The pharmacy world is no different and the beginning of a huge transition is starting to happen.  Below are some extremely unique tips that we think can help you being executing your exit strategy.

There are numerous ways a pharmacist can exit his or her pharmacy.  They range from bringing in a pharmacy junior partner to, as we say in the south, going out with your boots on.  No matter which path is chosen, there are some common issues that need to be planned for before a pharmacy exit strategy can be executed.  The tips below are designed to address some of these common issues.

1. Determine the correct definition of money - money means different things to different people.  Waypoint believes that money equals life energy.  If you believe this, then you can start to determine how much life energy you want to spend building wealth.  Then you can determine how much is enough and come up with a game plan to achieve that.

2. Don't be like Lucy from Peanuts - the story of Lucy consistently fooling Charlie Brown by pulling the football back as he is about to kick it is a great analogy to what happens with pharmacy exit strategies.  You must prepare yourself mentally and financially to exit your pharmacy.  If not, you will get to the day you have in your mind and nothing will happen.  We have even heard stories recently from some young pharmacists about the senior pharmacists not living up to their promises.  These young pharmacists feel like Charlie Brown when this happens.

3. Money doesn't grow on trees - there is a great commercial out right now depicting a guy made of money riding a motorcycle across the country.  The catch line says since no one is actually made of money, call us today and we can save you some.  You must work with the person looking to buy your pharmacy.  Almost all pharmacy transactions have some form of owner financing component built into the transaction.  You may be the lucky one that doesn't have to do this, but you must be prepared.