Vet Clinic Ownership 101—Tips from OVMA’s Darren Osbourne

Hey Future Vets! 
 
This month, I had the opportunity to speak with Darren Osbourne, the Director of Economic Research at the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association (OVMA). He conducts economic research and analyzes data to improve the working lives of veterinarians across the province. The OVMA strives to support veterinarians so that they can thrive professionally and personally; Mr. Osbourne’s work helps to make this vision a reality. In addition to studying economics, Mr. Osbourne has also conducted research on stress in veterinary medicine to better understand its impact on veterinary professional performance.  
 
Read on to learn more about career options on the business side of vet med, the business curriculum taught in the OVC, and advice for pre-vets who are considering opening their own clinic one day. Enjoy! 
 
(This article is a follow-up on the October interview titled “Balancing Medicine and Management”. Mr. Osbourne provides some alternative opinions to provide you with multiple perspectives.) ​

Q. Can you please introduce yourself and talk about your role as the Director of Economic Research at the OVMA? Can you talk about your journey to this position? 
A. “ It all started when I was in graduate school getting a degree in Economics back in 1991. During this time there was a recession in Ontario, so job opportunities were few and far between. I was planning on completing a PhD after grad school, and wanted to get a job in the summer between this transition. So I started knocking on professors' doors asking for opportunities, and a professor that I used to be a TA for gave me one. He was in need of a Head Analyst at his consulting firm, which provided financial advice to dental, human and veterinary medical practices. I worked there for 5 years as the Senior Analyst of dentistry practice, and the project lead for veterinary clinics; my largest client was the OVMA. I was making much more money in this job than I would have made after getting a PhD, so I never pursued that goal. This role involved a lot of travelling, but I had a family with young kids who I wanted to spend more time with. That led me to apply for a job at the OVMA, and I got hired as their Director of Economic Research. In this role, I provide economic consulting to all veterinary clinics across Canada, and even some in the USA. This entails providing financial statement info, wage reports, projections for the profession, and a fee guide for all veterinary services. In return, the vets receive an annual feedback report to compare their clinic metrics to those of the top performing vet clinics in the province. I am still in this role 35 years later, doing the same job but with significantly advanced technology, and I think it’s the best job in the world.” 
​ 
Q. What are some of the biggest challenges new veterinarians face when opening their own clinic and becoming a new business owner? 
A. “I believe that the biggest challenge for new clinic owners is the development of confidence to operate independently, without an experienced vet to help guide them. It is very rare for someone to graduate from vet school and open their own practice right away. Most new grads work at a practice for 5-10 years to gain experience and get good at what they do first, then they may buy their own clinic. However, it is possible for a vet student to buy into a practice while still in school, I’ve seen it with my own eyes; however, you should partner with an experienced vet to do this successfully. The OVMA has resources for vets wanting to open their own practice. We provide study groups for these vets to teach them about this topic and help them gain confidence in themselves and their business skills.” 
 
Q. What non-medical skills would be the most useful for helping a vet succeed as a new clinic owner? 
A. “Communication is the most important skill that a veterinarian needs to succeed as a new clinic owner, and to succeed as a vet in general. I think that the OVC students are very lucky, since one of their professors named Dr. Jason Coe is a world-leader in communication for veterinary medicine. He has conducted amazing research on effective client communication, particularly in discussing treatment costs. He found that clients want to know how the treatment is going to improve the future health and wellbeing of their pets.  

For example, a standard dental cleaning procedure typically costs $1000; vets should explain to their clients that by doing this treatment it will help prevent other diseases from developing in their pet, rather than telling them the cost of the equipment used. Due to this, I think that effective communication skills are more important than clinical skills. Anyone who graduates from the OVC is going to be a great vet and is expected to have proficient clinical skills. What differentiates a vet is their ability to communicate more effectively than other vets, which is why it is such an important skill to continuously develop.” 
 
Q. How could a vet ensure that their clinic is creating the profit it needs to survive while also choosing what is best for their clients?  
A. “Usually profitability and high-quality care go hand-in-hand, since good medicine is profitable. If a vet is providing evidence-based medicine, running diagnostics, and charging appropriately for their services, they will be profitable. Hospitals that are not profitable usually do not charge appropriately for their services, or they are assuming that a client can’t afford a service and therefore don’t offer A-level care. I am a big fan of the spectrum of care, meaning a vet should recommend different treatment options based on the client’s willingness or ability to pay. However, vets must always share the limitations of the cheaper options, as they are often not the best course of action for the pet. A lot of clinics fall short of their true potential because they feel bad charging a client the full price for their services, so they often discount the price or not offer the more expensive treatments at all because they are afraid the client will say no.” 
 
Q. What is the most important thing to understand about managing the financial side of a clinic? 
A. "I am a big fan of budgeting, and this is one of the services the OVMA offers to veterinary practices. I will meet with vets monthly to help them monitor this budget by comparing their revenue with their expenses and ensuring it stays within the set spending rate. A budget allows you to see into the future and forecast your clinic’s total income for the year. You consider how many clients you expect to see, the revenue per client, total revenue for the year, and the expenses associated with this. After looking at this, you need to see if there is still enough money to pay yourself and your staff. If there's not, you need to trim expenses, see more clients, or increase the revenue per client.  

The great thing about a budget is that it can help reduce stress in clinic owners, so they aren’t kept awake at night wondering if they will have enough money to pay the bills. Many veterinarians are very grounded and frugal people, so they can still succeed without budgeting. However, I still recommend it to everyone and think it's the most important thing you can do to manage your finances.” 
 
Q. What resources could a vet use to educate themselves on the business aspect of running a clinic? 
A. “The OVMA has study groups to teach people how to start their own practice and perform financial projections for their startup. We also offer classes taught by bankers, accountants and people in human resources to teach people about what they need to do to achieve success, and the pitfalls they can avoid. We have a very hands-on group of people at the OVMA who are experts in many different fields of managing a veterinary clinic. We have a reference point for every single question one may have about all aspects of managing a vet practice. We can give you advice on how big the practice should be, how many staff to hire, a fee guide for treatments, how many appointments you need to book, and more. All of our research is done in-house, so we do not need to use any external consultants, which helps us develop a more personal relationship with our clients.” 
 
Q. During vet school, what are students taught about running their own practice? Is there anything you would like to see improved in the curriculum? 
A. “I teach 8-10 lectures at the OVC in a course called the Art of Veterinary Medicine in the third year. In this, I teach vet students basic economics, how to read financial statements, how to read a profit and law statement, and how the Fee Guide is developed. We try to present this information in a way that is relevant to the students at the time. Once a student or veterinarian is actually preparing to open a clinic, we can give them more detailed and specific instructions to help them succeed.  

Also, many veterinarians will be associate vets their entire career, and they will still be very successful. The COVID pandemic actually increased associate veterinarian wages. In two years, associate vet wages went up by 25% due to the high demand for veterinary services. Before this change, the average vet in Ontario was making approximately $85,000 per year; now they make about $140,000. This caused the financial incentive to own a practice to lower compared to before this change.” 
 
Q. What skills or experiences should pre-vets focus on now if they want to eventually run their own clinic? 
A. “Working or shadowing at a veterinary hospital is very beneficial because it allows you to get a sense of how a clinic is managed. This also gives you a chance to think about whether you actually want to pursue a career in vet med, as it is a time-consuming and expensive journey to get there, although very rewarding. I think being a veterinarian is an amazing profession, and I would recommend it to anybody; you get to do work with animals, do surgeries, potentially run your own business, and work with people.”  
 
Q. I also understand that you have given presentations about stress in the veterinary profession. How can new veterinary clinic owners reduce stress in their practice, both for themselves and their staff? 
A. “I once gave a lecture called ‘Metrics for Managing Mental Health’, and I looked at data to determine some of the key identifiers of significant stress increases within the vet profession. For example, you can look at the number of euthanasias being performed at a vet hospital to be an indicator that clients have less money to spend on their pets. But I like to look at it as an indicator of higher stress levels in the staff at that clinic, and that needs to be addressed. While you can’t control the number of euthanasias happening in a clinic, you can offer counselling for staff to help them cope. 

My advice to all new clinic owners is to create an environment that is sustainable for both you and your staff. This is conducive to whether you have a family, as you would want to ensure you can spend time with them to reduce work stress and maintain a work-life balance. A great thing about veterinary medicine is that there is a very strong classmate network from vet school. Since your former classmates are also vets, they understand the stress of the job and can provide support and advice.” 
 
Q. What advice would you give to a student who would like to pursue a career path similar to your own in economics? 
A. “I think I have the best job in the world! If you are interested in stats and numbers, then it's a perfect job for you. I also think that there is a huge advantage of being a veterinarian and having my role, since it gives you a deeper understanding of how a clinic runs. I do research on some aspects of veterinary medicine, but I don’t fully understand it because I’m not a vet. Let me give you an example: one of the carryovers from COVID is that the average vet sees fewer clients per day. The reason for this is because the appointment times are needing to run longer. Now vets must talk to owners about more aspects of their pets' health such as parasites, vaccines, dentistry, nutrition, and animal husbandry which wasn't always the case back in the day. Also, research shows that vets are more successful if they develop a relationship with their clients, which requires a longer appointment time as well. I have been trying to come up with a way to help vets see more appointments without adding additional stress to their life. Adding extra appointments does increase profit, but it comes at the cost of added stress to the vet. Because I’m not a vet, I don’t fully understand the nuances of a longer appointment time. Because of this, I try to get out of my office and into the field to observe appointments to help me better understand. When you are in vet school, and you are loving the math component of it, know that there is an opportunity for you to pivot and become an analyst for veterinarians. There are so many ways you can use your DVM degree that don’t involve working in a clinic. It's such a diverse field, there's so many things you can do!” 


On behalf of everyone at the FVC, I want to say thank you so much to Mr. Osbourne for giving up his time to answer my questions thoroughly! It was such a pleasure to speak with him, and very enlightening as well. After reading this article, I hope you learned:  

• To put yourself out there, you never know when an opportunity will present itself 

• The biggest challenge for new vet school grads and clinic owners is gaining confidence in yourself and your abilities (so be confident, you got this!) 

• Communication is the most important skill for a veterinarian to become successful in general, and especially as a clinic owner 

• Budgeting is a skill that is very beneficial for clinic owners to develop; it allows them to plan their expenses and revenue for the year, and reduces stress 

• Working/shadowing at a vet clinic is crucial for pre-vets so they can see the inner workings of a clinic, and decide whether vet med is the career for them 

• Veterinary medicine is such a diverse field with many career opportunities that don’t involve being a clinic vet, such as being a financial analyst for vets like Mr. Osbourne  

Thank you so much for reading! 

Sincerely, 
Sophia Di Adamo, Senior Editor