Is your vet practice growing?

As each year comes to a close for your practice, it’s time to review the year and plan for the next. The best place to start is by looking at your strategic plan. Ideally you have in place specific, measurable goals and a method for measuring performance. Ask yourself, which areas of your practice performed best? How did your veterinary practice software boost your business efficiency?

If you achieved all your goals, you are in great shape. Planning your next set of goals for a new year is a critical step for ongoing practice growth. Setting up your next strategic plan — and sticking to it — is the key to a successful year.

How to grow your veterinary practice

Here are three success-driven ideas that can have a big impact on your practice to consider as part of your planning:

Boost inventory management success with better margins and greater staff efficiency

Have you looked at your inventory fee schedules lately? Most practices look at fee schedules on an intermittent basis, often only once per year, and don’t maintain them on a consistent basis. Most owners fail to realize that a high percentage of their inventory products are set to fixed pricing. That means they are not updated when inventory costs change—and the practice could be losing money as a result.

Let’s take a closer look. For example, if a practice spends around $75,000 in products per full-time doctor per year with 60% set at fixed prices and the e practice employs 2.5 full time doctors, this adds up to $187,500 in consumables for the year. And if 60% of products are set to fixed pricing, the loss of a typical 14% markup on those products can result in a loss of almost $16,000 in the first year, and a three-year compounded loss of nearly $50,000.

Utilizing the inventory management tools within Avimark or Impromed veterinary software can make this an easy fix. By setting up variable pricing, many practices have saved thousands of dollars annually without losing staff time. This has allowed practices to keep consistent margins while also using employee time more efficiently to focus on practice growth and patient care.

Assess the need to replace or add hardware to keep your systems in top shape

Many veterinarians believe that hardware lasts 5 to 7 years. However, add on long hours, limited ventilation, and pet hair and dander that can cause overheating and damage, and in reality, practice hardware will likely only last 3 to 5 years, the industry standard for replacing a computer. After that, the cost to repair goes up considerably—to 50% of its purchase price and more after four years— and your system may not be able to keep up with newer software.¹

A generally accepted benchmark for small and medium organizations is that 3-5% of revenue is spent on IT infrastructure (hardware, software and services) each year to keep businesses running smoothly. We recommend implementing a rolling replacement plan that replaces one or two of your oldest computers each year. This will help you avoid unexpected hardware failure and keep you in control of your finances.

Wondering whether any of your hardware is nearing its end of life? We offer a free hardware analysis for your Avimark or Impromed system, so you can know for sure and plan accordingly.

Review staff performance and develop a training program for greater profitability

According to Garth Jordan, CEO of the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA), “the average annual turnover rate among veterinary team members is 23% and increasing each year.”² On the flip side, companies that invest $1,500 on training per employee can reduce turnover and see an average of 24% higher profit margins than companies that invest less.³

Any business that doesn’t believe in training and enhancing employee skills is paying a much steeper price than it realizes. Fortunately, we live in a digital era that enables us to complete training courses from anywhere. Yet we still seem to push aside training and professional development to work on other immediate needs. Studies show that training increases worker productivity and improves employee satisfaction and motivation.

We offer numerous ways for staff to take advantage of Avimark and Impromed software training, as well as continuing education credits through web-based training and certification. Well-trained staff waste less time, money and resources and produce higher quality work.

Strengthen your online reputation to build client loyalty and attract new customers

Negative reviews can hurt your business, but positive reviews can mean more patients! The internet can have a powerful impact on a veterinary practice’s success since it’s the first place most prospective clients go when seeking out a new practice. In a survey conducted by BrightLocal, 91% of consumers aged 35-54 and 86% pf consumers aged 55 and older read online reviews before making a purchase decision. The same applies to veterinary services. A pet owner is likely to read online reviews before selecting a new vet or even deciding on treatment options for their pet. Reviews on social media sites like Facebook, X, LinkedIn, TikTok and Instagram are overtaking word of mouth as the best source for practice recommendations, so practices today simply can’t afford to be complacent about their online reputation.

A Harvard Business School Study showed that a one-star increase in online reputation can result in a 5 to 9% increase in revenue.⁴

It’s important to know your social ranking. With Covetrus Comms, you can see how your practice’s marketing score compares with the scores of local competitors. Now you can see everything in one spot—your reviews, ratings, visibility score, listing on top sites, how many likes your practice has on Facebook, and the number of visitors going to your social sites.

To summarize, it’s important to build on the momentum from your previous planning, focusing on areas that equal the highest return for your business and staff. With some strategic planning that takes advantage of continuing advancements in technology, your next year can be your best year yet.

1. When should you replace your computer? Geeksonsite. N.d. https://geeksonsite.com/knowledge-base/computer-mobile/computer-repair/when-should-you-replace-your-computer/
2. Study: Fair pay, appreciation for work top factors in employee retention. AVMA News (May 2, 2024). https://www.avma.org/news/study-fair-pay-appreciation-work-top-factors-employee-retention
3. Why Training Your team is the Best Investment You Can Make. INE (14 August 2019). https://ine.com/blog/why-training-your-team-is-the-best-investment-you-can-make
4. Luca, Michael. Reviews, Reputation, and Revenue: The Case of Yelp.com. Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 12-016, September 2011. (Revised March 2016). https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/12-016_a7e4a5a2-03f9-490d-b093-8f951238dba2.pdf