Written By This Author
Practice Ownership
A Piece of the Action
If you want complete control of a veterinary practice, own at least a majority share. Anything less is more affordable, but your influence wanes.
Finance
Your Cache of Cash
Every veterinary practice should have ready access to financing to cover shortfalls and for emergency use.
Finance
When Opportunity Knocks
A buy-in can be a win-win for an associate veterinarian and the practice owner.
Human Resources
Few Good Deeds Go Untaxed
You’re free to discount services and products as an employee benefit, but the government wants its cut at some point.
Practice Management
The Case for and Against Saturdays
Does your practice need to be open six days a week?
Finance
An Examination You’ll Never Forget
For both parties, due diligence is a time-consuming but fundamental step in the sale of a veterinary practice.
Finance
The Return to Normal
If business is slowing, or even if it isn’t, you can take steps to stay on the right path.
Do You Need a Veterinary CPA?
If all you want is a talented tax preparer, take your pick.
Practice Management
Checks and Balances
A spike in payroll to attract job candidates and please current team members might be within your means if you consider a few things first.
Finance
Inflation Considerations
If your pricing strategy is tied to inflation, then yes, a greater increase is needed now to counteract rising costs.
Practice Management
Who’s Your Go-to Person?
Practice managers should be encouraged to put their hard-earned skills to work.
Finance
Unpleasant Consequences
If you want the best price for your practice, it must be profitable without you.
Practice Management
How Average Are You?
Don’t automatically fear the worst if your practice defies industry benchmarks. You might have good reason to be where you are.
Practice Ownership
Your Ownership Choices
Single-doctor practices aren’t corporate magnets. Consolidators are more interested in larger, multidoctor practices.
Finance
How to Account for Your COGS
A chart of accounts is a framework for financial statements, similar to how the skeletal system is a framework for the body.
Practice Ownership
Ownership Is a Great Idea
As a practice owner, you choose the equipment to buy, the hours the clinic is open, the philosophy or style of practice, the mission and the core values.
Practice Ownership
Know When to Walk Away
Reputable consolidators want you to feel good about the offer. They will not balk when you need to confer.
Finance
How Much Profit Is Enough?
How you spend excess money is your decision, not your adviser’s, but make sure you set goals and have a path to attain them.
Finance
The Whole Picture
A cash stockpile can leave you with a false sense of security if you fail to scrutinize all the systems that keep your practice humming.
Finance
How Uncertainty Affects Valuations
Buyers of veterinary hospitals prize the stability of earnings over time and the seller’s ability to successfully deliver goodwill.
Practice Management
Aspire to Hire
Adding another veterinarian to a busy practice frees up time for you and other doctors to get more done on and away from the job.
Finance
The Value of Waiting
Should you sell your veterinary practice while prices are high, or does a better option exist?
Finance
Should you buy a no-lo practice?
Don’t automatically rule out a profit-challenged hospital. The problems, from a less-involved owner to poor inventory controls, might be easily correctable.
Finance
What are you buying exactly?
If you’re considering veterinary practice ownership, learn the differences between an equity purchase and an asset purchase.
Finance
Financial Disclosures
Sharing details about your veterinary practice’s performance builds trust in your employees and can help make your business even more successful.
Practice Ownership
Manage your expectations
A variety of factors helps determine what your practice is worth and what a buyer is prepared to pay. The market today isn’t all about consolidators.
Finance
Be a number cruncher
Analyzing income-to-expense ratios will help unlock profits. A detailed chart of accounts and benchmark reports are good starting places.
Practice Ownership
Your Fair Share
How veterinary hospital owners are paid — and how much — depends on the responsibilities they hold and the budgets and policies that are in place.
Practice Ownership
A place to call your own
Starting a veterinary practice represents a major investment that will reshape your entire professional career and your personal life.
Finance
Think twice
Before you put more money into your practice, evaluate how quickly the investment will contribute to the bottom line.
Finance
When selling to an associate makes sense
When an associate veterinarian buys the practice, the seller usually has a greater ability to negotiate the most important benefits.
Finance
The real deal
Getting a good deal for your hospital involves more than just the sales price. The sales terms could have an impact on your personal finances and lifestyle for years afterward.
Practice Management
Make it your business
Some states prevent non-veterinarians from owning a clinic. The opposition arises from a legitimate concern over animal welfare.
Practice Ownership
Value judgments
For hospital owners who plan to work for five years or longer, the rewards for selling today may be less than the earnings generated by the practice in the years before a sale.
Finance
A Budget Can Help You Reach Your Goals
A tangible spending plan is your vision for the future and is important for the financial health and success of your practice.
Finance
KPIs Leave out the Whys
Key performance indicators for veterinary practices help monitor the success of your actions, but they don’t explain the reasons for change.