There are many reasons veterinarians get into practice ownership; sense of autonomy, financial rewards, leaving their mark on the profession, etc. But at the end of the day, a practice is a business, and presumably an asset that provides a return on investment to the owner. Wall Street/MBA types and venture capitalists that start, buy, and sell businesses for a living do not purchase a business without a clearly defined exit strategy to ensure they can sell their business for a handsome profit.
As a CPA and co-owner of four veterinary practices in Florida, my business partner and I have really embraced the challenge of making each of our hospitals not only successful day-to-day, but viable as a future asset. Our exit strategy is simple: make our hospitals attractive for a future buyer. To attain this, we have medical and business goals to achieve. Achieving these will take years of hard work from our team, daily management and support from us, and a focus on doing the right thing for the Pets in our care.
As managers, we keep the goals in sight by having clearly defined roles and responsibilities and investing in great training for each of our hospital teams. Together, as time goes on, we are building highly functioning, highly profitable veterinary hospitals that will ultimately be an attractive investment for potential buyers! On the contrary, if we didn’t have goals and an action plan, I, my partner, and our hospital teams would probably do a great job of managing our practices day-to-day, but wouldn’t be moving toward anything. We’d find ourselves years down the road and wonder what do to next.
In my opinion, if you are veterinary practice owner without an action plan, it will be difficult to ever meet your goals and your business asset is actually a liability. The closer you get to setting (and working toward goals), the greater flexibility you have when it comes time to retire or get out of veterinary practice ownership. If you own a practice and don’t have an exit strategy, it’s a good idea to follow the experts’ example and consider putting one in place now!
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