Proof you should always ask questions

Dr Yin Min Hew never dreamt of owning a practice, but the right question at the right time, saw him buy the business he now owns.

  5.5 minutes

When specialist physician Dr Yin Min Hew arrived in Perth from the UK in 2015, he had a number of plans in mind. None of them, however, included owning his own practice. Malaysian-born Dr Hew, 42, had spent 18 years in the UK studying medicine at Belfast’s Queen’s University, before practising sexual health medicine in Newcastle. When he arrived in Western Australia with his wife May and their young daughter, his priority was finding a home to settle into and then finding a job in his speciality field of sexual health.

“There were not too many jobs around and I managed to get some casual work in the public system, and I just kept looking,” Dr Hew says. “In late 2017, I approached Dr David Millar at Perth’s Men’s Health clinic, and have been working here ever since. I was really happy to secure a job at such a great practice, but it was never my intention to buy the business.”

All of that changed a year later in late 2018 when Dr Millar announced he was keen to semi-retire and asked if Dr Hew was interested in buying the business. The question, he recalls, caught him by surprise.

To buy or not to buy

“This was not even on my radar,” Dr Hew says. “Buying a business was something I needed to think about and a decision I knew I would need some help in considering.”

Uncertain if this was the right time to make such a move, in January this year Dr Hew was introduced to BOQ Specialist’s Darren Tomlinson, who had previously worked with the practice. Even then, Dr Hew was still not convinced this was the right move.

“I had so many questions, as I wanted to be sure before committing to anything,” he says. “But I did know this was a very good clinic and also had a lot of potential for what we could still do for our patients.

“The best thing about working with Darren was he didn’t pressure me at all. There were things I still wanted to work out and what he did was present all the options so that when I was ready, I knew there was a variety of ways to approach this.”

Wanting to explore all his options, Dr Hew also spoke with a range of other lenders to see what additional loan packages were available on the market. Two key issues emerged, however, that made Dr Hew realise he was on the right track with Darren and BOQ Specialist.

“A few of them were unsure about lending to me as this was my first time buying a business,” he says.

“There were also so many conversations having to explain the things we do in a medical practice. With Darren, he was so knowledgeable from the start and as he had worked with this business before, we were talking the same language from the get-go. He never complicated the process and explained what was realistic. That made everything so much easier.”

Taking ownership

In May, Dr Hew became the owner of Perth’s Men’s Health clinic, taking on the responsibility of the business and its four other staff members.

BOQ Specialist provided a package which included a loan for the business and an overdraft facility. Dr Hew owns the business and continues to lease the premises in the Hollywood Specialist Centre in the Perth suburb of Nedlands.

“I just knew I would regret it if the deal fell through and I was not sure when an opportunity as good as this would come up again,” he says.

“I remember the first day I walked in and realised I owned this. It was a big step for me, but the process of buying it was actually very easy. There is so much you can do when you are your own boss and you can steer the business in the direction you want it to go.”

Thinking about starting or growing your practice? Click on the link to find out more about our tailored financial solutions for setting up a practice. Or ready to take the next step? Contact us to find out how we can tailor a practice finance solution for you, or call us on 1300 160 160.