Entrepreneurship and Veterinary Medicine, a Match Made in Heaven
As a profession, we’ve been historically hesitant to throw around the “E word”, even though many veterinarians truly are entrepreneurs. Business ownership, including small business ownership, IS entrepreneurship! There are countless opportunities for veterinarians to utilize their veterinary medical degree to pursue entrepreneurship.
Your veterinary degree gives you a leg up over other entrepreneurs
Out of the vast sea of aspiring entrepreneurs, there is a common thread that ties together many of the successful ones: They usually have multiple skills that form rare intersections. Having a veterinary medical degree already puts you in a small circle of people who have that same valuable set of skills and knowledge. From there, any further skills (including talent for business management) that you add to the mix means that there may only be thousands, potentially only hundreds of people in the entire world who possess that specific blend of knowledge, skills, and abilities.
Having the right founding team mitigates risk
My first entrepreneurial venture was unsuccessful. I make a point of not calling it a failure, because the lessons that I learned during that first venture have directly translated into my ability to contribute to launching AVP and walking away with those ingredients for future success was anything but a failure. The most important thing that I learned from that experience was the importance of having the right leadership team with the skills, drive, and knowledge to turn a bold vision into reality. It’s hard to imagine AVP charting its current upward trajectory without anything less than the original “core four” of the AVP Success Center of Dzmitry, Cody, Tedd, and myself. Why go it alone?
We’re looking for business partners
AVP is on the search for entrepreneurial veterinarians to partner with. At AVP we are introduced to a lot of interesting/exciting clinic opportunities that are one motivated clinician away from becoming something awesome. These opportunities range from co-ownership in our own AVP partner clinics, co-buying opportunities with AVP into existing small clinics with retiring owners, and "clinic restart" scenarios where a shortage of clinicians has forced a clinic to temporarily close.
These opportunities to co-own a clinic with AVP usually fall into the following categories of opportunities for you to obtain a stake of ownership:
1) No cost (less common)
2) Below fair market value
3) Fair market value (this usually applies to becoming a partner at our existing partner clinics)
Buy-in for our clinical partners can be structured as an earn-in or financed through AVP if you are unable or unwilling to buy-in up front.
AVP is a vet-founded, vet-operated, non-private equity backed group that forms equal financial terms partnerships with excellent clinicians. Great business partnerships are fair, honest, and symbiotic, and that’s how we approach our relationship with our clinical partners. You take care of your patients (including a written guarantee of clinical autonomy) while we handle the nuts-and-bolts of the business. AVP offers true ownership opportunities, not stock options or profit-sharing schemes. This is direct equity in the practice that pays you equal-terms profit distributions and carries very lucrative exit scenarios.
If you're interested in joining our entrepreneurial veterinarian mailing list to hear about these opportunities as they arise, please email me at bill@associatedveterinary.com with the following info:
1. Name
2. Location and what level of geographic flexibility you have around opportunities
3. Any other details you think are worth knowing
If you’re interested in talking with me in person about the various opportunities for clinicians to explore entrepreneurship with AVP, come find me at Booth 2835 at VMX Orlando next month!
Come see why the “core four” will change the way you think about partnerships.
From all of us at the AVP Success Center, we wish you a relaxing and healthy Holidays and a happy New Year!
Dr. Bill