Planning your own practice is exciting – independence, flexibility, your name above the door. But here’s the truth: running a veterinary business isn’t just about clinical excellence. It’s about understanding money, people and systems from the very beginning.
You will already have come across the normal things on how to plan a business: how to create a business plan, getting appropriate advice and support, such as from an accountant, ensuring that each premises is visible and has good parking, etc. However, there are several other practical, and sometimes surprising, tips that can make the difference between a thriving practice and one that struggles before it’s even out of the gate.
1. Price properly from the beginning
The first thing most start-ups get wrong is pricing. Many new owners nervously copy a friend’s fees or check what the nearest practice charges, assuming “that must be right”. But your costs are not their costs. Are you aiming to be a high-end practice where each “vet surgeon unit” serves 650 active clients with 20-minute consultations, or would you like each vet to look after 900 active clients?
Whatever service you’re aiming for, each will need to be priced accordingly
Perhaps you’re doing your own out-of-hours, or you’ve invested in a CT scanner, or your lease is pricier because of your location. These differences mean your cost base is unique. Whatever service you’re aiming for, each will need to be priced accordingly.
Before you even open, work out what it costs you to deliver an hour of consulting. Include rent, staff salaries, equipment finance, consumables, insurance – the lot. Once you know your true cost per hour, you can set fees that are realistic and sustainable. If you don’t, you’ll find yourself haemorrhaging money from day one. Clients don’t thank you for being the cheapest; they thank you for being reliable, trustworthy and good with their pets.
| Handy tip: Build a pricing model before launch. Even if you adjust later, at least you’re starting from numbers, not nerves. |
2. Cashflow is king – and it plays tricks on you
The early days can feel deceptively comfortable. You’ve got a bank loan in the account, turnover grows 10 to 20 percent each month and you always seem to have more money coming in than going out.
But take caution: in year one you don’t make a profit – which means no corporation tax. Then years two and three arrive, and suddenly the taxman wants a slice. Add VAT quarters, a payroll jump when you hire a new nurse and an equipment bill, and you’ve got a cash crunch. Remember to add 20 to 25 percent to the salary you offer a new team member for what it will cost you in national insurance contributions, pensions, holidays, sick leave, etc.
| Handy tip: Treat tax and VAT as fixed costs from the start. Ring-fence money each month. Your future self will thank you when the brown envelope drops! |
3. The PMS trap – choose wisely
Your practice management system (PMS) isn’t just software. It’s the nervous system of your practice. Everything runs through it: bookings, billing, reminders, notes, stock.
Changing later is expensive and painful: £10,000 to £20,000 in migration, training and downtime. Worse, many PMS platforms promise “integration” but in reality refuse to play nicely with dashboards like GeckoBoard or client apps such as PetsApp.
| Handy tip: When shopping, ask: – How easy is it to export my data? – Which integrations actually work today? – How quickly does support respond when things break? |
The best thing to do is find a vet who actually uses it day in and day out and ask them about the great things and the frustrations
Don’t fall for shiny demos. This is a long-term commitment. Although each provider will tell you how open their API interface is so you can talk to all the other software companies, the best thing to do is find a vet who actually uses it day in and day out and ask them about the great things and the frustrations, and how well it actually communicates with external companies.
4. Profiling and people – know your strengths (and theirs)
Your practice will only thrive if your team does. That means understanding personalities as well as CVs. Tools like emotional intelligence frameworks or Contribution Compass reveal more than just strengths – they show how people behave under stress and how they learn.
Some staff vent loudly when stressed, while others bottle it up and leave without warning. Knowing who’s who helps you manage better.
Profiling also highlights complementary strengths. Analytical “refiners” may not speak up first in meetings, but they’ll compare 20 X-ray machines and stop you wasting £20,000 on the wrong one. Outgoing “activators” keep clients happy, but glaze over at spreadsheets. Both are valuable – in the right roles.
If you’re opening with a partner, profiling is doubly useful. You don’t want a clone of yourself
Just as importantly, once you know your own strengths, you’ll also see your blind spots. If you’re energised by clinical work and the buzz of growth, but the thought of contracts, VAT returns or registering with HMRC bores you, that’s not a moral failing. It’s simply not where you’re wired to shine. The trick is to recognise it early and fill the gap deliberately with someone else in your team, or contract to an outside person/company – there’s no shame in it. You’ll have to do this in many areas as you grow. That might mean finding someone in your team who loves detail and compliance. Or it might mean outsourcing to an accountant, bookkeeper or HR adviser who takes that responsibility off your plate. Either way, you stop the “boring but vital” tasks falling through the cracks.
If you’re opening with a partner, profiling is doubly useful. You don’t want a clone of yourself. You want complementary skills and a clear-eyed understanding of who covers which responsibilities, and what areas you will clash in.
| Handy tip: In meetings, don’t start with the detailed-refining type personas. They will tend to jump straight to the nitty gritty detail of how the project may or may not work – it can appear very negative to everyone else and can shut the whole new idea down before everyone else has a say. |
5. Technology and AI – build them in, don’t bolt them on
The big advantage of starting a practice now is that you can make technology and AI part of your fabric from day one. Established practices often struggle to retrofit – you can embed.
Examples of technology to build in include:
- AI scribes to transcribe consultations and draft notes, saving evening paperwork
- Meeting minute software (£20/month) to capture actions and stop things slipping through cracks
- Client communication companies to automate reminders, bookings and follow-ups, and to offer “chat” facilities
- Dashboards to track practice performance in real time, where data can be pulled automatically from your PMS, accounting software and social media accounts
- Custom AI advisors – for around £20 a month, you can build a small “team” of ChatGPT-style assistants tailored to your needs: one for HR queries, one for basic legal interpretation, one for marketing and copywriting. They’re not a substitute for a solicitor or HR consultant, but they give you a fast, inexpensive starting point, and can save you hours of googling
- Installing AI/roleplaying training from day one teaches the team your way of doing things from the start
Watch for pitfalls: GDPR issues with recording, phantom “integrations” that don’t deliver and subscription creep as small tools add up.
| Handy tip: Map your workflows first, then decide what tech can remove manual steps. Train staff properly. Don’t just throw software at problems. |
6. Hire for character, train for skills
At the start, your team will be small, which means one bad hire can knock the whole thing sideways. Don’t just hire for technical competence; hire people who fit your culture, share your values and have the right temperament for your clients.
A skilled but abrasive nurse can drive people away, while a friendly, adaptable receptionist can be the glue that holds everything together.
When we have zero experience we’ve all fallen into the trap of trying to give people the benefit of the doubt or hoping they’ll get better when, in fact, they’re just not the right fit – they’re not bad, they just don’t fit your company. This is even worse if you are someone who tends to avoid conflict. Over time, we learn that some people don’t fit your company and vice versa, and that’s OK. The sooner we learn this, the better. Also, remember that in trying to keep one person who isn’t the right fit, you will lose a couple of others who don’t like the culture or environment that a “mood sponge” causes.
7. Marketing and sales aren’t dirty words
We sometimes like to think of vet practice as unique, and that other business principles don’t apply in the same ways, but sometimes this can be an excuse. We are fundamentally providing a valuable service for a fee and have similar cost bases and issues to other businesses.
Most of us didn’t go into the profession to be salespeople, because we have an outdated view that selling means tricking people into buying widgets that they don’t want. However, recommending a procedure which can save an animal’s life, and which an owner asks you to do for the price you have advised, is a good and ethical version of “selling”.
Don’t be afraid to explain your service and prices to pet owners. Although people want value, they don’t necessarily want the cheapest. Imagine having human surgery that you had to pay for. Now imagine the doctor saying: “Don’t worry, I have got you the cheapest anaesthetist we have found – not very experienced, but the cheapest – and I’ve also found some old equipment and drugs which we’ll use because they are also the cheapest.” Does this inspire confidence and quality?
8. How many hours you will work in your own business
The temptation is to work 80 hours a week, fuelled by adrenaline and guilt. But exhaustion isn’t a business strategy. At the start you’ve got lots of energy, time and passion, but little experience and even fewer business management skills. Although there is lots of talk of working smarter and not harder (and working smarter is very important), the reality is that there will be times when you just have to work hard and a lot. Remember, it’s your business, and as it grows you will start to reap the benefit.
Go to a coffee shop and put some headphones in to block out the world and strategise: do your next 90-day plan and work on the business
Block out time every month (just half a day) to step back from the logistics and think strategically. Go to a coffee shop and put some headphones in to block out the world and strategise: do your next 90-day plan and work on the business. Call it “CEO time”. It feels indulgent, but it’s essential.
And don’t underestimate how lonely ownership can be. You’ll make mistakes – from forgetting payroll to finding the bank account frighteningly empty – and it’s easy to feel like you’re the only one struggling. You’re not. Every business owner, vet or not, has been there.
Even if networking isn’t your natural strength (and you’d rather hide in your hotel room than face the conference dinner), find ways to connect with other owners. Talking to peers, whether vets or not, can be invaluable. Join organisations such as BVA, BSAVA and SPVS, attend annual conferences, take part in business clubs and webinars. Sometimes you’ll get a practical solution; sometimes you’ll just hear: “Yes, I’ve done that too”, and that alone can be a huge relief.
9. Think exit, even at the beginning
You may never plan to sell. But structuring your business so that someone could take it over one day makes it stronger from the start. Talk to your accountant and lawyers to make sure that the company and agreements are in place for you to add new people or sell to another company, etc.
Document your processes, keep clean data and build systems that aren’t “just in your head”. Your future partner, buyer or even your own future self will thank you.
Final thoughts
Starting a veterinary practice is thrilling, exhausting and one of the best professional adventures you’ll ever take. But success doesn’t come from being the best vet – it comes from being the best entrepreneurial vet.
Get your pricing right, protect your cashflow, choose your systems wisely and understand your people. Build tech into your DNA, not as an afterthought. Find peers who’ll share the highs and the lows.
Because the practices that thrive aren’t necessarily the ones with the shiniest kit – they’re the ones with strong foundations, from day one.
