We have good friends who are veterinarians. You can sell property such as a clinic building, but the practice itself is so dependent upon the personal interactions of the clients with the vet, that it isn’t a commodity. No one *owns* a client base. About all a professional can do is grow into a corporate practice and then sell out to the remaining practitioner partners, assuming all that growth was actually successful or not so stressful as to almost not be worth it. A sole practitioner really has nothing to sell.
That's exactly what he did, and also (now that he's thinking about retirement) what he's now attempting to do. No one wants to step into his role as the "owner / manager".
He could sell to competitors (I think that he entertained an offer at one time), or close the practice completely (approximtely the same thing, only he makes $$$ with the former) ... but this evil, greedy, capitalistic so-and-so (/sarc) feels a responsibility to all of the people who work for him, and frankly, the patients, too. He doesn't want to put several dozen people out of work, esp. in a market like this.
So, he keeps on going. He's removed himself from a lot of the day-to-day - his people seem to have no problem with making decisions, so long as they don't accept responsibility to go along with them. :-) His attitude is, more-or-less, "Meh, I'm still making money, but don't really care one way or the other. Retirement is paid for, Kid's college bills are paid for, now I'd just like to get my own time and enjoy the grandkids." But the current environment, and his sense of responsibility, won't let him.
And don't get the guy started on Obamacare. Never mind the business side, he says that his medical training is going to come in handy for himself and the rest of his family, later.