It is the time of year when 4th year veterinary students are making the transition into their career, and starting to think consider their career path. Over the twenty plus years of my career I have been focused on helping veterinarians achieve their goal of ownership, and have experienced first had the financial impact of ownership. A veterinarian who is a hospital owner will create both annual income from their salary as a veterinarian and a return on their investment in the hospital in the form of distributions. Hospital owners receive the annual income in addition build long term wealth through the value created in the hospital and possibly real estate. The additional income opportunities create earning potential that is 3 to 5 times greater than that of someone working just as an associate. In raw numbers the average veterinarian can increase their lifetime income from approximately $3MM to $10MM or more. I would encourage all veterinarians to think of this and even consider the benefits of minority ownership to maximize your opportunity in veterinary medicine.
Career Development
Rob Trimble
May 1, 2023
Responses
That extra earning potential makes ownership or even partial ownership extremely enticing. Thanks for sharing Travis!
Jack glad this was insightful…..it is a very exciting time for veterinarians as their are many new models that allow veterinarians to align their personal goals with the right ownership model. I would enjoy discussing this further with you if you are interested please feel free to reach out to me anytime.
Hi @travis_york! I have become incredibly interested in practice ownership and find that the extra earning potential makes ownership even more enticing! In your opinion, how long do you suggest practicing post-graduation, before considering ownership?
Hi Lauren,
Great question but there isn’t a stock answer, as you can imagine. Realistically, you want to feel like you have seen just about everything you would expect to encounter as a Vet so that you can be medically sound before you make the leap into practice ownership. To be fair, we are surprised every day, even as tenured veterinarians, by new medical challenges, but you really want to have a strong fluency in your medicine so that when the challenges of ownership are being faced, you are not too strung out with stress from difficult medical cases. I wouldn’t recommend any sooner than 2-4 years out of vet school before becoming a practice owner. I waited 4 years before my first hospital, and I’m glad I did for the medical maturation to take place.