The lobby before renovation. Courtesy of Patty Khuly.
In my last column, I promised to offer ideas on how to buy a veterinary practice when you're the kind of person who never wanted to be a practice owner in the first place. In particular, I'm hoping this piece inspires those of you least interested in ownership with some off-the-beaten-path recommendations on how to make practice ownership work—even those of you who owe $200K-plus, and feel constitutionally ill-suited to ownership.
First, let me recap the many reasons why you might just want to rethink your assumptions about practice ownership—especially those that steered you away from the possibility way back when you were a fetal veterinarian floating in your vet school's womb:
- Because sometimes the best way out of debt is to take on more debt. I learned this the hard way and now, five years after buying a practice, I'm finally out of debt (as of last week, as a matter of fact). It wouldn't have happened this quickly were it not for doing what I said I had no interest in ever doing (e. owning a practice). Okay, so I still owe on my mortgage, but my net worth is an actual positive number for the very first time in my life. (This is even better than having no debt!)
- Because it doesn't have to be as hard as you think it is. (It's way easier than vet school, that's for sure!) Plenty of ownership opportunities require no more than an extra handful of hours a week—if that.
- Because if you don't own a practice there's more room for non-veterinarians to own one. This means someone other than a veterinarian is not only making decisions about how you do your job, they're probably getting paid more than you are, too. Always remember: As a veterinarian, there's no one better qualified to own a practice than you.
- Because there are so many more ways to own a practice than you may have thought possible, many of which require no greater business acumen than you currently possess.
- Because you're worth more to yourself than anyone will ever pay you. Indeed, there's no reason why anyone with the ambition and smarts to get through vet school should deny themselves the financial upside of practice ownership. I'm not saying you'll be rich, but it's very unlikely you'll be less well-off in the long run.
Get with colleagues and build a coalition
Financially savvy new grads often share homes, apartments, and even cars. Why not band together to build or buy a practice? This arrangement isn't as common as it once was, and yet it's more necessary than ever. Everything's way more affordable when two or more can pool resources—and that goes for the resources between your eyes, too. One of you is likely to have more business acumen while another is the bookish clinician wiz. Throw in a people person (and a good location) and you've got the recipe for a stellar practice.
Expand your definition of veterinary professional partner
When looking to build or buy as a team, consider that veterinarians aren't the only veterinary professionals to choose from. Recognize that office managers and technicians have also dedicated their lives to this profession and, as such, are completely capable (in most states) of becoming practice owners (though sometimes only as minority owners). God knows more of them should be!
