Consolidation in Veterinary Medicine: Why Isn’t Patient Care Getting Better?
2 - 24 - 2024
There are many supposed benefits of consolidation that are touted as being a reason why the corporatization of veterinary medicine might not be, at least wholly, a bad thing. Most of these benefits relate to improving the financial health of consolidated practices. At least in theory, better financial performance translates [...]
Read MoreThe Crystal Ball Part 2: More Predictions for the Next Decade of Veterinary Medicine
1 - 04 - 2024
Veterinary medicine has gone through lots of changes over the last decade. We sit at an interesting inflection point for the veterinary industry, facing issues such as rapid corporatization and consolidation, an acute labor shortage, declining rural veterinary care access, exorbitant veterinary medical student debt, and an ongoing crisis of declining mental health within the [...]
Read MoreVeterinary Market Trends – October 2023
10 - 25 - 2023
The veterinary industry has enjoyed a long trajectory of growth, but never more so than in the period from 2018-22. After a strong and relatively steady bedrock Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 5-7% in the preceding decades, pet health spending dramatically increased to a CAGR of 10.9% from 2018-22. [...]
Read MoreDr. Bill and Dzmitry on Axial
7 - 20 - 2023
Dzmitry and I were thrilled to sit down with Peter Lehrman of Axial last week to record an episode of the Masters in Small Business M&A podcast. This episode gives a window into how our unique approach to partnership, as well as the values of our founding team, helps set [...]
Read MoreIt’s Not Just Burnout: “Moral Injury” and How it Affects Veterinary Professionals
7 - 12 - 2023
Warning: This blog post talks about issues related to suicide, depression, and mental illness. Anyone having thoughts of suicide are encouraged to contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline immediately at 1-800-273-8255 (TALK). If you are a veterinary healthcare worker who is seeking crisis help or other mental health support, resources [...]
Read MoreAntitrust Enforcement: More Important than Ever in Veterinary Medicine
4 - 04 - 2023
Antitrust laws are designed to promote fair competition and prevent monopolies and anticompetitive practices in various industries. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enforces antitrust laws through the enforcement of the Sherman Antitrust Act and Clayton Antitrust Act. By ensuring that companies provide their services in a [...]
Read MoreWhat Lessons Can Veterinary Medicine Take Away from the Silicon Valley Bank Failure?
3 - 21 - 2023
The news has recently been dominated by the failure of Silicon Valley Bank, a financial institution whose clients disproportionately included venture capital-backed startup companies and founders. The bank’s management made irresponsible decisions regarding the investment of the bank’s deposits that limited the bank’s liquidity. When rumors of the state of [...]
Read MoreYou Forgot to Make an Important Resolution this New Year!
1 - 10 - 2023
As each year passes to the next, we often set resolutions to accomplish in the new year. Whether small or large, there’s a common theme of trying to get something done this year that we wish we’d done last year: “I’m going to go to the gym more often.” “I’m [...]
Read MoreThe State of Veterinary Medicine, December 2022
12 - 02 - 2022
As your veterinary partner, I'm always keeping an eye and an ear out for trends around the veterinary medical profession to keep you informed. Here’s some of the latest news: It is unclear if a recession will happen in the US, but it is an important possibility to think about. [...]
Read MoreExpense Management: Conquer the Middle of Your P&L
10 - 25 - 2022
The Profit & Loss statement of a veterinary practice is intimidating at first glance. There’s a lot of information on that one document, but it can generally be simplified into three main components: Top, Middle, And Bottom. The “top line” of the clinic is the total revenues collected over the [...]
Read MoreWhy Are There So Many Veterinary Corporations?
9 - 23 - 2022
Over the last decade, the number of veterinary corporations has absolutely skyrocketed. Depending on where we cut off the definition of “corporate”, by our count there are at least 60+ veterinary corporations operating in the US, and more are cropping up. Just this week while scrolling through LinkedIn, I came [...]
Read MoreWhere Have All the Veterinarians Gone? Part 2 of 2: Finding Answers
8 - 22 - 2022
As your vet partner, in my opinion the profession’s response so far to this crisis has been “too little, too late”. Given the significant lead time that it takes to expand the veterinarian workforce, the recent efforts to increase the number of accredited veterinary medical schools and increase class sizes [...]
Read MoreWhere Have All the Veterinarians Gone? Part 1 of 2: The Problems
5 - 02 - 2022
There is an acute and growing crisis of access to veterinary care in the United States. This access crisis is being driven in large part due to a shortage of providers (veterinarians), although we will also discuss in this article how a parallel shortage of nursing care (credentialed veterinary technicians) [...]
Read MoreQuality of Revenue
4 - 04 - 2022
In my last two posts in our series on veterinary practice financial performance, we discussed the financial metric EBITDA and a broad overview of strategies to improve EBITDA at your practice. Previously I mentioned a concept called “Quality of Revenue” which will be the focus of this article. The final [...]
Read MoreLearning to Unplug
3 - 12 - 2022
Last month I took a vacation. In many professions that wouldn’t be noteworthy, but for most veterinarians (especially those in ownership or leadership) it unfortunately is. Veterinary medicine is a passion profession, which makes it a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the passion and commitment of veterinarians is an [...]
Read MoreImproving EBITDA at Your Veterinary Practice
2 - 04 - 2022
In my last blog post we discussed the financial metric EBITDA and how it has become the core metric in contemporary veterinary practice sales. The rise of this metric as the barometer for the equity value of veterinary ownership raises a logical question: How does one improve EBITDA at their [...]
Read MoreWhat’s the deal with EBITDA?
1 - 04 - 2022
Anyone who has explored the process of buying or selling a veterinary practice in the last couple of decades has likely encountered an acronym that isn’t taught in most veterinary medical schools: EBITDA “Multiple of EBITDA” has become the prevailing core metric by which veterinary practices are valued, largely supplanting [...]
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