The Hurricane

Have you ever felt the force of a hurricane? An all-consuming, world shattering event that picks you up in one life and throws you down into another? I have now.

The last weeks and days preceding the sale of the clinic was the first half of the hurricane. Trying to wrangle every last account login, insurance policy and payment terminal agreement necessary in order for the business to close under one owner and reopen the next morning with a new owner with nothing but the soft breeze of the door for your clients to notice. The day of the sale felt like the eye of the storm - eerily quiet, high levels of anxiety palpable from both sides, and this mild euphoria of realizing a dream turned reality. That euphoria is quickly trampled by technical issues, synchronizing accounts and client turbulence - the second half of the hurricane ensues. Never would I ever have imagined I would also part ways with two clients in my first two weeks - unrelated to the transition - but a good reminder that no matter what else is going on, the business still requires you to do hard things, for the betterment of your team and your business.

All of a sudden you are thrust into a position that you have worked decades to prepare for; yet no one can truly prepare you for - being the boss. This transition reminds me of finally graduating as a DVM - another goal I had worked decades to achieve, spent my entire life force working towards, yet my first day as 'Dr. Gregoire' I was so terrified I almost called out sick. No one can truly prepare you for being the decision maker for your patients and neither can they prepare you to be the decision maker for a team of 15 individuals and thousands of clients. I believe that in the last 2 months since my transition, I have never been so productive in my life - maintaining a full time DVM client load while balancing hundreds of 'mini fires' I've resolved with the least amount of displacement for the business.

Even though my memory is a blur the first month, the clinic is finally settling in and cruising along smoothly. Luckily my clients have seen a miniscule portion of the dishevelment, while my team has been riding the choppy waves along with me, even bringing in two new hires as well.

I hope any prospective clinic owners are not scared by my hurricane experience; better yet I hope you become more enthralled with the opportunity to delve into your own hurricane. If you can shoulder the burden of vet school and being a clinical practitioner, you can handle running a veterinary clinic. The benefits for you and your family outweigh the additional demands of running a business. You can also mold your clinic into whatever you'd like it to be - the ultimate way to impact your destiny. I also am not alone in this endeavor - my clinic manager has been extremely insightful throughout the transition, my amazing CPA and financial team answers all my questions, the attentive IT team solves any minor issue and many company representatives work to resolve issues in a timely fashion. They say it takes a village to raise a child. I believe it also takes a village to raise a business.

This Gen Zennial Vet has marked herself SAFE from the first hurricane of business ownership. I'm sure there will be more, but every day I become more comfortable and agile in this role; the same as how I grew into the doctor I always wanted to be - day by day. I'm taking every day at a time, and excitedly laying out my goals for 1, 3, 5 and 10 years from now. Stay tuned and thank you for joining me on this journey!