You’ve made the decision – maybe even picked out the exact property – to build or buy a clinic. How do you sell your vision to a funder? Your veterinary business plan is the answer.
1. Summary/Proposal
What a funder specifically needs to know “at-a-glance”. In addition to the usual business plan items of business description, mission statement, leadership team summary, financial summary, overarching growth plans and how much you are looking to finance, you also need to include:
- Whether you are buying an existing practice, OR building a new clinic from the ground up
- Overall size and scope of practice
- High-level demographics/market potential summary
Having a strong proposal/summary sets the stage for potentially positive responses to a veterinary business plan.
2. Detailed Business Description
This is where you are going to dig in and describe your veterinary clinic and services in detail. How your organization is going to be structured and how you’ll serve your market:
- Leadership team and respective biographies, being sure to call out other DVMs
- Type of tax entity (single proprietor; LLC; etc.)
- Number/types of employees (and if buying an existing business, which ones are you inheriting/ keeping – or not) and the projection for salaries, benefits, etc.
- Build-out plans for either an existing clinic or the new one – including construction costs
- Who will be (or in the case of an existing clinic, who are) the clients – including details on whether small animal/pet practice and/or large animal practice
- What other revenue generating activities will be offered: pet food, products, etc. – and for existing clinic, contracts that may already be in place that might be valuable to continue
- Paint a picture with details that can help the funder see your vision realized.
3. Market Potential/Location Analysis
Veterinary practices serve specific markets both geographically, as well as demographically. You’ll want to provide details about the depth and breadth of that local market, both in potential clients – and for existing practices, current clients. Being able to answer additional questions about competition and your plans for optimizing your opportunity to earn that business is key.