Today's Veterinary Business

AUG-SEP 2017

Today’s Veterinary Business provides information and resources designed to help veterinarians and office management improve the financial performance of their practices, allowing them to increase the level of patient care and client service.

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52 Today's Veterinary Business Leadership During my senior year of high school, an in-depth career assess- ment test paired with a dazzling field trip to Eli Lilly's headquarters suggested I had little in common with a typical doctor's personality. My thinking shifted toward a career in veterinary pharmaceuticals. After a couple of years of majoring in chemistry and one soul-searching summer of horse wrangling in the Rocky Mountains, I recognized that lab and corporate life also wasn't a fit. By the time I finished undergrad with a business degree, I had worked my way into a management position at a veterinary clinic. Soon after, I joined a growing veterinary hospital in suburban Charleston, South Carolina. I furthered my education by obtaining my MBA and CVPM, and for the past decade I have been happily building upon my career in veterinary practice management. Got Plans? What is your story? Where are you now and what do you hope to achieve in your working life? If you are like me and hold a management role in a veterinary practice, your natural skill sets and career passions do not necessarily overlap with those of a veterinari- an. For that reason and others, I am happy to see practices of all sizes carve out positions for managers to take on various responsibilities, from tackling daily fires to building a strategic hospital plan. How much dedicated man - agement a hospital can support fi - nancially is straightforward. Typical benchmarks for management pay, including that of the owner if she is paid for business tasks, is 3 to 5 per- cent of gross revenue. A practice could begin to justify and afford employment of a full-time prac- tice manager once gross revenue reaches $800,000. Before then, hos- pitals typically call upon team leads and part-time managers to handle the most pressing daily issues. At the other end of the spec- trum, a practice surpassing Like the parade of preteens who shadow our doctors each summer, I too wanted to be a veterinarian at that age. Growing up in my parents' practice, where my mother was the owning veterinarian, my father managed the business and I pitched in wherever needed, I experienced the realities of the field. And unlike many of our preteen observers, after seeing those realities, I still liked it. Leadership TAKE CHARGE By Abby Suiter, MBA, CVPM Plot a career path in practice management Networking, education and certification can help with professional advancement.

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