Sandstone Animal Hospital | Application Preview
Sandstone Animal Hospital is applying for government grants to address financial challenges stemming from the Covid pandemic, employee shortages, and rising inflation. The funding will be used to relocate to a more efficient and smaller space that will reduce rent costs, ultimately enhancing profitability and attracting new staff. Despite being a skilled veterinarian and owner, the applicant recognizes the need to improve business acumen and has joined a Practice Management Group for training in leadership and financial management, although this will incur ongoing expenses.
The business plan focuses on delivering compassionate veterinary care in a low-stress environment while utilizing the new building’s design to boost productivity. The owner aims to hire locally trained graduates as they enter the workforce, which will also create additional job opportunities for veterinary technicians and support staff to meet growing client demand.
The applicant emphasizes resilience and dedication to community wellness, sharing personal challenges, including overcoming health issues and managing her practice solo after her husband’s departure. With her daughters becoming more independent, she is ready to invest time and resources into building a thriving veterinary practice for future generations.
Sandstone Animal Hospital competes with corporate veterinary chains that charge high fees, positioning itself as a woman-owned, single-doctor practice that prioritizes personal service. The applicant highlights a significant shift in veterinary practice ownership trends and the increasing demand for pet care, while warning that a lack of accessible, affordable veterinary services may become a reality if small practices continue to struggle amidst corporate competition.
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General Information
Business Registration Number: 2112206
Location: Berea, OH, United States
Length of Operation: 11plus
Number of Employees: 1-10 Employees
Annual Gross Income: $1M to $10M
Annual Gross Expense: Less than $100k
Open to Loans: YES
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Funding Usage
Sandstone Animal Hospital has felt the financial strain of Covid, lack of qualified employees, and inflation. However, we have a plan to become stronger than ever. We are planning to use the funds to expand our business while decreasing our rent. We will move 1 door over to a smaller leasehold that will be set up in a more efficient way. This will allow us to increase our profitability and attract new employees. As the main veterinarian, I have been well-trained in medicine and surgery. As 100% owner of the practice, my business skills have been lacking. I recently joined a Practice Management Group that will require training in the areas of leadership, financial statement analysis, and business management. There are ongoing costs with this group including membership fees, travel, and paying another veterinarian to work in my place during our monthly meetings. The information and networking in this group will be invaluable to the future success of Sandstone Animal Hospital.
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Business Plan
I plan to continue to offer quality compassionate care for dogs and cats in a low stress environment. I am moving my practice to save money on rent. The new building has a much better floor plan and will increase my productivity. I have mentored multiple students over the last 11 years. Three of those students will be graduating with a degree in veterinary medicine in the next 2 years. I hope to hire at least one of those local candidates as an associate. An additional veterinarian will need additional veterinary technicians, assistants, and receptionists and will allow us to accommodate the waiting list of new clients. I am a strong-willed survivor who cares about my profession, my community, and the success of my employees. The years of 2018 to 2021 started with my husband getting arrested for domestic violence and abruptly leaving for rehab. All of the sudden the man who had gotten his MBA while I finished my DVM was no longer running my business. I bought my own house and moved out. I got a divorce. Then I felt a lump in my breast. A month later I had a double mastectomy. My mother and I share the breast cancer gene. I have taken her for multiple surgeries and rounds of chemotherapy. When she developed uterine carcinosarcoma, we both got our ovaries surgically removed to prevent ovarian cancer. We are both cancer-free today! Now that my two daughters are in high school and college, I am poised to invest the time it takes to create a veterinary hospital that will flourish for generations to come.
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Self Identified Competition
Corporate practices like VCA, VetCor and Banfield. Sandstone Animal Hospital is a single doctor, woman-owned business. We are competing with large corporations buying up smaller practices and then charging clients outrageous fees for yearly prevention like vaccines and heartworm tests. If this continues, veterinary care will only be available to the wealthy. In the past, there was a law that only veterinarians could own veterinary hospitals. When that changed, some of us were happy to work for business-oriented owners who took away the stress of management and let us focus on the medicine. There has been a shift in the profession from retirement-ready men working 80 hours per week to new -graduate women working part-time. At the same time, pet ownership has increased dramatically. There are not enough veterinarians to care for all the pets. There are not enough veterinary schools in the United States. The graduating veterinarians are accepting large signing bonuses from corporate practices instead of applying to privately-owned practices. Unfortunately, we are now in a position that the days of personal service at reasonable prices from your family veterinarian may become a thing of the past.
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Contact Applicant
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