Dr. James Huseman - The biggest thing for buying the practice was having somebody to look over the documents. I fix teeth, I don’t look at contracts. I don’t know what some of the language means and so having somebody look it over, someone to make sure that I was getting a fair deal on that was impportant. I’ve had contracts in the past that I’ve looked over and don’t know exactly what I’m reading. And then you come to find out that it’s not in my best interests; it wasn’t a 50-50 kind of situation.
When Four Quadrants was able to take a look at the agreement that we had with our corporate entity . . . they were able to determine that it was fair. There were a couple of things that we negotiated back and forth, but the confidence of having Four Quadrants on my side was an enormous relief.
Getting financing for the practice purchase was big as well. I don’t know one bank from another that’s why I could’ve just gone to the bank down the street and asked them. Four Quadrants was able to locate a bank that’s got a good rate for us, got a good program and will approve us.
Four Quadrants handled most of the application process for us, all I had to do was sign my name where they told me to. Again, they made sure that it was a fair deal. And then once we did make the purchase, Four Quadrants followed up with us on a month-to-month basis tom ensure that things are going correctly; that the bank account balances are where they should be; making sure overhead is where it needs to be. So working with Four Quadrants from day one has been a very beneficial experience.
What was something new that both of you learned in working with us about the business of dentistry. Maybe something that surprised you, maybe something that reversed your thinking on something that maybe went against your instincts?
Dr. James and Michelle Huseman - We saved money prior to our relationship, but not like we do now. But the interesting thing is that it’s money we don’t even think about missing. We put it into the brokerage account and we just don’t miss it. And despite that, our lifestyle hasn’t changed at all.
Dr. James Huseman - Before (we brought the practice) we had a paycheck, we put some money away but we didn’t have a long-term plan in place. It’s not something we would have thought about. Now we have a regularly occuring amount that goes in savings automatically and it’s not something we missed because we never really saved consistently anyway. Now it’s being stockpiled away for us.
Michelle Huseman - From the practice side, working with Four Quadrants has taken a lot of the stress away from Jim. They take care of so much behind the scenes for him. And that gives him more time to focus on the dentistry and not think about it when we get home. He’s not stressed out about numbers, because someone else is watching them.
Dr. James Huseman - I will tell you we worked with just the managing side of Four Quadrants for a while because we had our own accountant. Prior to going with Four Quadrants’ accounting, every single day I’m on QuickBooks entering stuff in there, and then my accountant is coming over to take a look at it, and messing with it and still at the end of the year we get a huge tax surprise! All that work and we still make costly mistakes.
So having taxes done by Four Quadrants now is such a time-saver, and I don’t have to worry about it. Then at the end of the month I get my P&L’s and the balance sheet is laid out for me exactly like it needs to be. So that’s enormous, having somebody entering the numbers on a daily basis, and making sure they are jiving and making sure that things that are forecasted are actually coming to fruition.
Is there anything else either of you want to add?
Michelle Huseman - Just that there’s a peace of mind knowing that someone else besides us is keeping an eye on everything and always doing the right thing. Our lives are a lot easier since Four Quadrants came into it. Like we talked about earlier, the financial stress isn’t there. I know a lot of couples argue about that especially couples that work together and that’s one topic we never even discuss.
Dr. James Huseman - Yes, money is not a conversation or argument that we have ever had.
Michelle Huseman: And I think the money that we’re saving for our kids future, I know that wouldn’t have been done on our own; we would’ve been saving, but it wouldn’t have been the amount of money that we are saving for college now.
Dr. James Huseman - There’s no way we’d be in the position we are right now as far as from a savings standpoint, without Four Quadrants’ guidance. It just wouldn’t have happened. We just don’t know enough about saving about brokerage accounts about managing an UTMA account for kids. That’s totally foreign to us, and so without their, again, guidance as far as where to put it and how it all works, it wouldn’t have happened.