Advice for vet practice start-ups from the Vet Practice Foundations group

Opening your own vet practice means making dozens of decisions outside your clinical training: bank loans, building surveys, network cabling, software contracts.

If you're a vet thinking about going independent, you've probably noticed how many of those decisions depend on each other. Your premises shape your fit-out. Your fit-out decides what equipment and technology you need. All of it sets your budget.

That's why the Vet Practice Foundations group exists. It's a network of independent businesses that each cover one part of opening a practice, and we work together from the earliest stage so new owners avoid expensive mistakes. I represent Lupa in the group, and my part is the practice management system (PIMS).

We recently ran a webinar that followed the order you'll meet each decision, from funding through to keeping the doors open. Here's what each of us said.

Who's in the group

• Medifinance arranges funding for vets opening or growing a practice.
• HiSpace is an architect-led design and build company for practice premises.
• Mullen Telecommunications sets up the data connection and network your practice runs on.
• Veterinary IT Services manages practice IT, accounts and security.
• Lupa is an all-in-one, AI-enabled practice management system.
• Pioneer Veterinary Products equips the practice and supplies it once you're open.

Jason Anderson, Chief Commercial Officer at Pioneer and one of the group's founding partners, said the aim is for the group to be the first place you go when you're thinking about opening a practice.

Choosing your practice management system

Your PIMS runs your bookings, clinical records, billing, payments and client messages. Spend time on this decision and get it right.

Three things matter most when you choose one:

1. It helps you make money in as many ways as possible, and it makes collecting that money fast and painless.
2. It fits the practice you could grow into, as well as the one you're opening.
3. It comes with outstanding support, before you go live and all the way through.

I'll focus on the first, because cash is tight when you open.

When you open, you may not have much cash. You may not have enough staff. You're still building your client base. So you need to keep the clients you win, earn well from each of them, and keep payments coming into your account so you make it to the next month.

A good PIMS helps you do that in four ways:

1. Get paid easily and fast

Give clients more ways to pay, and they'll pay you sooner. That means cash or card at the desk, a card terminal, or paying online, whichever suits them.

One of our start-up customers struggled to get payments in quickly on their previous PIMS. After they moved to Lupa, they used Lupa Pay, the payment system built into Lupa, and got paid faster. They put that money back into new drugs, new equipment, new services and new staff, and grew faster as a result.

Because Lupa Pay runs inside Lupa, you receive payments faster too.

2. Turn visits into recurring income

Each appointment is a chance to sign the client up to ongoing spend: a health plan, repeat prescriptions, or home delivery.

This income is powerful because it doesn't depend on your vets' time. Your software should make all of these services easy to run. In Lupa, you offer health plans, repeat prescriptions and home delivery through the same platform you use for everything else.

3. Bring clients back

Once a client walks out of the door, your software should handle the follow-up: automatic reminders, client messages and marketing campaigns, all running without someone building them by hand.

In Lupa, you can build an audience by filtering for species, age, location, medications or vaccinations. You could pick out cats of a certain age, for example, then send that group a campaign written for them. You create and send the whole campaign inside the PIMS.

4. Keep everything in one place

This works for your clients and for your team. Your clients get one app for everything they need from their vet, so you're always the easiest option. Your team gets every tool in one system, which saves time and money for everyone.

Bringing every tool a vet practice uses into one place is the reason Lupa exists.

Choose for the practice you'll become

My one piece of advice to anyone opening a practice is to think about what you'll need in 3, 5 and 10 years.

Your client base will grow. You may start seeing different types of animals. When your needs get more complex, you'll want software that can handle them and make money from every part of your relationship with each client. Keep that in mind when you pick your PIMS, even if your needs are simple today.

Meet us at London Vet Show

We're continuing the conversation at London Vet Show with a session called “What I wish I'd known”: Opening a practice, from the people who've done it.

It's on Friday 20 November at 10:45am in the Business Theater at ExCeL London, chaired by Vanessa Waite, founder, director and head of surgery at The Vet Station. Practice owners who have opened their own practices will join specialists from the group to talk about how long it took, which decisions they changed, and the problems they didn't see coming.

The panel will talk through funding, cash flow, finding and fitting out premises, getting your IT and software right first time, and keeping stock and equipment running once you're open. Whether you're planning your first practice or adding a second site, bring your questions.

Lupa will be at the show too, so come and say hello. If you'd like help choosing your PIMS, get in touch.