Pulse - June 2022 - 15

TOOLS FOR SUCCESS
Transitions & Retirement in House
Call Veterinary Practice
Part 3 of a 3 part series on House Call & Mobile Vet Practices
Eve Harrison, VMD, CVA
Transitions
Making transitions in your house call or mobile practice is not
something to be afraid of. In fact, roughly half of my House Call
Vet Academy students successfully switched from one type of
house call practice to another.
We have folks who started with IHE but are now building concierge
services! And we have folks who thought they were going
to start with a wellness mobile clinic, and now their IHE-only
practices are absolutely thriving!
The thing about house call practice is that it's all about FREEDOM
and FLEXIBILITY. I can't tell you how many times I've
seen established mobile veterinarians (myself included!) change
directions.
House call vets change paths all the time! And it's really delightful
to see how fluidly we can change, adapt, and pivot. That's the
beauty about house call practice. We can do whatever we want!
As long as you have your foundations, you can transition and
pivot easily. And pivoting and transitioning in a business is a very
GOOD thing.
Retirement
As solo house call and mobile veterinarians, it's crucial to look
into our retirement options sooner rather than later because
in most cases... it's very difficult to sell a house call practice as a
means of retirement (UNLESS you're willing to make a deal with
one of the non-vet-owned corporate house call practices).
If you sell to one of these corporations, you'll likely have to
work for them for much longer than you intended, and on less
than ideal terms. You'll earn less and LOSE your freedom. And it
can be really tough to transition from having full freedom to giving
it all away, suddenly having to make quotas, and working twice
as hard as before on a schedule you no longer have control over..
" I had a corporate group who pursued me for quite a while about
buying the practice and said they were fine with a transition period,
but in the end they wanted me to stay on the whole time for not
much more pay, and much higher production, " one vet (who wished
to remain anonymous) told me. " I failed to see the value of working
twice the days just to give most of the money to them. "
The reality is most solo practices don't have equity to sell other
than their client list. And unfortunately, " client lists are worth
nothing these days. It's just a tough market to sell a small house
call practice right now. No one [starting up] needs a client list. Just
say you're a vet, and you'll get a ton of calls the next week. "
" I've been trying to sell the entire practice since early last fall,
but was not able to get a buyer, " one mobile vet confided to me.
And IF you're able to sell your equipment or fully outfitted
mobile clinic ... it will likely go for much less than you initially
invested.
PULSE
JUNE 2022
15
So with regards to selling a practice as your retirement or exit
plan, my recommendation is: please don't count on it. While some
may have luck selling their practice, I am an advocate for the sage
advice to " hope for the best, and plan for the worst.
For mobile vets, your best bet is to invest in good business &
financial education and/or a financial planner to help you maximize
and save WHILE you're practicing... instead of planning on " cashing
out " like the owner of a brick and mortar might do.
But if you still don't want to give up on the possibility of selling
your practice just yet... I recommend trying to connect with an
attorney and a practice valuator. That way, you can make sure you
completely understand the terms of the sale, and you're not getting
blind-sided by a corporate practice that is focused on acquisitions
at the expense of all else.
Keep in mind that practice valuators & attorneys can be
REALLY expensive to work with... but still not as expensive as
losing everything you've worked so hard to build. P
Dr. Eve Harrison is a full-time concierge house call veterinarian in Los Angeles.
She is the founder of the online CE course www.TheHouseCallVetAcademy.
com & offers coaching to help veterinarians nourish not only their patients, but
themselves... guiding them to find freedom by building profitable & sustainable
house call practices of their own. Contact Eve at info@dreveharrison.com.
http://www.TheHouseCallVetAcademy.com http://www.TheHouseCallVetAcademy.com
Pulse - June 2022

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