According to Today’s Veterinary Business, “Profit is a necessary part of a successful business. A profitable business creates its ability to grow, hire more doctors, and secure financing for a new building or remodel. Profitability gives you a competitive advantage because you have the money to hire the best and brightest employees and afford the education and equipment required to offer increasing levels of care.”

Put simply: Increasing profits allows you to obtain new resources that increase capacity and empower greater care.

Below, we’ll cover five ways improving your clinic’s finances can help you increase quality of care.

1. Recruiting and retaining vets, technicians, and staff
2. Purchasing new equipment and updating your facility
3. Offering team wellness resources
4. Launching marketing campaigns
5. Investing in technology

Hiring and retaining well-trained clinicians and staff is key to providing quality care.

And your clinic’s financial health will have a dramatic impact on whether talented team members want to work there.

According to Hannah Perrin, Ph.D. in Vet Education, Group Manager at the Veterinary Management Group, and Writer for Improve Veterinary Practice, “A practice runs on its staff, so the employees of any organization will want to be reassured that their jobs are secure and that they will be paid fairly and when expected.”

Ensuring your staff feels supported and secure in their job should be a primary focus. Having a financially stable practice ensures employees have dependable benefits and feel comfortable asking for additional funding when needed.

“The financial health of the practice is of fundamental importance to all its employees,” Hannah added.

New and up-to-date equipment will empower your clinic to deliver the cutting-edge care many pets need.

“If you are not providing the very best services because you lack the proper equipment, your practice is vulnerable to those who made the best equipment investments into their practices,” says Today’s Veterinary Business.

Clients want equipment to make their time before, during, and after their appointment quick and easy. Having updated equipment will also help with customer compliance inside your clinic. As we stated in our previous blog, customer compliance is a huge must in a successful clinic.

Along with purchasing new equipment is ensuring your facility is up to date. No client wants to enter a facility that is run down and weathered. Maintaining a clean, modern look to your facility will keep your clients content with their place of service.

Making sure your employees feel like they have the resources to perform their best in their roles is another major factor in providing quality care — and employee assistance programs (EAPs) can help make that happen.

“EAPs are valuable resources that can help employees cope with issues affecting their ability to reach [their] potential. Marital and family problems, conflicts among co-workers and managers, depression, substance misuse, work-related stress, legal and financial issues, and child and elder care needs are just some of the concerns affecting employees’ well-being,” says the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) about managing EAPs.

Along with assistance programs is the importance of offering further education options for employees. In addition to improving care, offering education opportunities also helps with recruiting and retaining employees, as many clinicians and staff in the vet industry value professional development.

“Continuing education is critical for veterinary professionals looking to stay at the forefront. New techniques, research, and trends emerge constantly, and we look for CE that is relevant, convenient, and practical,” according to the AVMA.

Marketing campaigns can help you educate your market about the importance of regular checkups and following care plans.

By encouraging clients to bring their pets in for routine examinations, you can identify potential problems early on — when they’re easier to treat.

Marketing campaigns also help position your clinic as an authority, making it more likely clients will comply with your treatment recommendations.

Investing in the right technology can help you deliver an improved level of care.

For example, wearables can help you remotely monitor pets so you can identify potential problems much earlier than you would through regular checkups.

And platforms like Flow by Otto can provide clients with an improved customer experience and simplify communication, making it more likely clients will return for follow-up appointments and follow your treatment plans.