Going It Alone: Do I have what it takes to start up a start up?

Starting up a veterinary practice is one of the most exciting things you can do, but it can also be challenging, all-consuming and lonely. Join a panel of five very different people who’ve taken the leap into practice ownership and can help you on the road to building a thriving, sustainable practice.

Claire Smith, Beacon Vets
Claire is a passionate first-opinion vet, who founded Beacon View Vets in 2019. With a remarkable launch just three weeks before the COVID lockdown, her journey is a testament to resilience and adaptation. Growing her team from 3 to 20, Claire has navigated rapid growth with valuable lessons learned. She champions independent practice, empowering others to achieve their goals and a thriving work-life balance.

Francesca Verney, Pet People Vets
Francesca is a clinical vet and partner at Pet People Vets, a multi-site independent in Southwest London. She qualified in 2012 and was in corporate practice with CVS and Linnaeus for a decade before opening her own practice with her business partners Ian Stroud and Aphra Brandreth in January 2022. Independent ownership has quite simply blown her mind, and she is a fierce advocate for the creativity and uniqueness of independents to solve the industry’s challenges.

Karmen Webbe, King Street Vets
Karmen went from part-time employee and mum of small boys to full-time practice owner (and somehow also still mum of small boys!). Having not experienced anything like this as she set up, she’s now excited to inspire other vets and show the positives of stepping up their career into ownership.

Natalie Morris-Webb, Malthouse Vet Group
Natalie is a small animal, first opinion vet based in Shropshire. Feeling particular miserable in her under-supported new grad job, she spotted an advert in the Vet Times for a job near home. Following working for her boss for 3-years, she took on the practice at the (practically neonatal) age of 27 in 2017 and last year became an Advanced Practitioner in Small Animal Medicine. Natalie can provide an honest appraisal of what it’s like to own a practice as a young vet.

Nick Taylor, Higham Vets
Nick is not a vet but is married to one. Whilst his initial involvement in Higham Vets was intended to be nothing more than a passive investment, the practice was so successful it eventually became his full-time focus. After 10 years, the business is thriving as they search for their 6th vet and are set to turnover £3m this year. He’s now starting up the free Vet Founders network to allow independent vets to unite around recruiting staff that prefer to work at independents and finding partners or even others who would buy their practice and keep it independent.

Learning Outcomes

This interactive panel session will be led by you, the attendees, but topics our contributors could help you with include:

• Understanding the mindset of becoming a leader and owner vs being an employee.
• Appreciating the financial implications and logistics of starting up.
• Facilitating practice growth and how best to achieve it.
• The options and models of practice ownership.
• Identifying your own goals – both personal and professional.
• The value in strategic planning.
• The significance of a practice vision and how to communicate it to your team.
• The impact of practice ownership on your personal life.
• Key mistakes to look out for and avoid.
• The fundamental impact of practice culture.
• The importance of building a support network both inside and outside of the business.