How To Build Your Dream Veterinary Clinic with Dr. Eva Evans

Real-world lessons on launching a clinic, leading teams, and shaping modern vet care.

How do you start and grow a successful veterinary practice from scratch?
In this episode of Vet Life Reimagined, Dr. Eva Evans, DVM, MBA gets real about her journey from veterinarian to multi-practice owner in Nashville, TN. The girl who thought general practice was boring learned over time learned to appreciate workplace culture, business strategy, and creating a practice you want to be a part of for a decade or more. 

Eva brings a masterclass in building and running a successful veterinary practice! Learn how to design a practice around your values, how to strategically choose a location, and even how to evaluate new technology responsibly. 

Resources:

• Episode on YouTube
• Alitura Veterinary Care
• Dr. Eva Evans on LinkedIn

Transcript

Eva Evans: [00:00:00] There are so many people that are affected by the function of a vet clinic, and the clearer your vision is, the easier it is to make a map. One thing that I think is really important is to realize that you will never be everything to everyone.

Megan Sprinkle: Welcome to Vet Life Reimagined. If you could start your own veterinary practice from the ground up, what would it be like? . What would it take to actually make that happen? It kinda makes me think of this episode of the children's TV show, bluey. I'm a mom of a 1-year-old to stay with me for just a minute.

Bluey is a cartoon show with talking dogs and the main characters are two sisters around the age of five named Bluey and Bingo. And they come up with the Dream House car, which has 11 burger shops, 20 bedrooms. 40 toilets and a spa on the balcony, and it's all driven by a crew of butlers. And there's even a science butler, Jerry Lee.

But anyway, it's fun to imagine this dream veterinary clinic. But today our guest, Dr. [00:01:00] Eva Evans, gives a masterclass on how to build a successful practice from the ground up. And the ironic thing is that she didn't even set out to become a practice owner right away. In fact, in vet school, she thought general practice was boring and tried to do anything but general practice.

But each step of her career path has taught her something vital about leadership, culture, and the kind of medicine she wanted to practice. So today she o wns two thriving practices in Nashville, Tennessee, including her most recent one that blends integrative care and modern business strategy in a rapid growing community in Nashville.

So Dr. Eva also gets very candid about what she's learned along the way from managing finances, building culture, and knowing what kind of practice not to buy. It's a very honest, practical look at what it means to design a career and a business around your personal values. And whether you're a veterinary professional or someone in the industry [00:02:00] trying to make solutions for veterinary practices, make sure you listen all the way to the end because Dr.

Eva shares an amazing answer to how veterinarians and practice owners should approach new products, especially AI driven tools in their clinic. So if you've ever wondered how to start something of your own or how to think more strategically about the future of veterinary medicine, you're gonna get a lot out of this episode.

So let's get to the conversation with Dr. Eva Evans.

when did you know you were interested in veterinary medicine? 

Eva Evans: I grew up on a farm and I, it was more like a nature preserve summer camp, so we had a lot of animals. We had horses and goats and rabbits and guineas and potbelly pigs. And so I was exposed to all of that when I was young. And, , my mom is an internal medicine physician on the human side, and so , I knew that I really loved. Medicine and biology and science and all of this [00:03:00] stuff, but I also was just obsessed with my animals when I was little, when I was a child. So that seemed like the best path, and I'm really happy that I did it.

Megan Sprinkle: Yeah, and so this was in Tennessee, right?

Eva Evans: Mm-hmm. Nashville.

Megan Sprinkle: Yep. Oh, and uh, so was it your dad who ran the animal side of of things or is just some a place that you spend a lot of your time?

Eva Evans: Yeah, so my parents or my grandparents bought this land in the 1950s in 1955. And uh, my dad grew up there. I was born there, I grew up there. All of my extended family, cousins, aunts, uncles, , grew up there and, you know, spent time there. I actually lived. On the Nature Preserve farm, summer camp. Yeah. My dad was the one that, that took care of all of that. 

Megan Sprinkle: So you were able to kind of mix the two together, the animals and the medicine aspect of it, which is, is pretty neat and I can only imagine [00:04:00] also, 'cause this comes up later in the business side of things, , maybe watching them having to run all of that as well, , maybe sparked a little bit of the entrepreneur side of you as well, is that you think maybe that comes.

As far back as that as well.

Eva Evans: Yeah. You know, most of my family on my dad's side is teachers, and on my

Megan Sprinkle: Okay.

Eva Evans: side was in healthcare. And my mom had her own private practice when I was young. , And my dad, you know, ran the summer camp and so they had their own small businesses. I wouldn't say that either one of them were, Particularly like business people, so to speak, but I think a lot of small businesses are people who want to create a life for themselves doing what they love, and so they become small business owners, not so much because they love business and not so much because they love the numbers and the strategy and all of that, but really more as a way to. Be able to do what they wanna [00:05:00] do. And , so that was something that was very evident with both of them when I was young. I guess that's where it comes from. 

Megan Sprinkle: that makes a a lot of sense, , Well, so when you were getting into vet school and, and I know you went to University of Tennessee for vet school, you had a lot of different experience.

Uh, and, and also watching your mom who was a specialist as well on the human medicine side, did you have an idea of what you thought veterinary life was gonna look like for you? And did that change throughout vet school?

Eva Evans: Yeah. Yeah, it changed a lot. You know, I grew up with horses and we, , bred horses and showed horses, and so I thought, I'm gonna be an equine vet, you know, obviously, what else would I do with my life? And then I got into vet school and I, I remember being a first year and thinking to myself, well, I will never do small animal general practice because. That sounds boring. And then that's what I ended up in. And so I went through this [00:06:00] transition of, , initially wanting to do equine then I got introduced to industry. , And I was very drawn to the idea of industry because to me at the time, there was a lot more space for creativity and being different and, , coming up with new and innovative ways to introduce people, especially veterinarians.

If you're in industry, you're, you're basically working for pharmaceutical company or food company to. Place those products in veterinary clinics and help vets implement them. And so that's something that I always found very interesting, and I thought, okay, that's what I'm gonna end up doing. then I got outta school and. Found out that you need to have three to five years of general practice, essentially before industries wanna take you because they want you to understand what it's like to be working in a practice because you can't really relate to people that work in a practice if you've never worked in a practice. I started a small animal, [00:07:00] general practice job when I first got outta school. And I have to be honest, hated it. I thought, oh my God, I've made a huge mistake. I don't wanna be a vet. I don't like this. This is not for me. Um, what I did not realize was, one, it takes a little while before you get good at it.

And I'm one of those people that if I'm not good at something, I don't want to do it. I think there's a lot of, there's a lot of people like that in the world, especially us vets. And, um, it was challenging. It was challenging to be in a new environment and to be. still learning. You think you learn so much in vet school and then you get outta school and you realize that you have a foundation, but you really just don't, you don't have any experience, and the experience is what makes you good, good at medicine, and good at communication and good at efficiency. Your skills. You have to develop your skills and that just takes some time.

Megan Sprinkle: Yeah. And you talked about being in a new environment, right? Because you [00:08:00] went to Vegas. Vegas, right. For. This position, which, well, a little bit different than Nashville, Tennessee. having lived in Nashville for a little while, I, it, it's a little bit of a different culture. So how did you even find the job out in, in Vegas?

Eva Evans: So I, I actually did an externship with the AVMA , I did their, , GRD Government relations Division externship that they provide for students in Washington DC And that was another thing, 'cause I was so set on not doing general practice. That this is not for me. I wanna do something different, I wanna do something exciting.

General practice is boring. You know, those were kind of the the things that I came out of school thinking, but having no, like real world experience as a vet, you know, I just. I didn't really know. , So I, I was doing the GRD externship and, , they happened to have the A VMA pac, the Political Action Committee was having their annual [00:09:00] meeting in Washington DC during my externship.

And so we were invited and encouraged to be part of the meetings and, attend the events and the dinners. And one of the PAC member board members who was the chair worked in Las Vegas. And so we were just chatting at dinner one night and I was talking about, you know, oh, I need another externship, but I'm doing this GRD.

And I think, and I actually really thought I wanted to do the AVMA, fellowship, , in Washington dc which is, you know, they only take one or two people a year into their fellowship. You work on Capitol Hill, you work in politics. And that appealed so much to me and it just sounded so fun. And, um, I almost went that direction. , He said, why don't you just come out to Las Vegas and do an externship? This was 2011 and I came outta school in 2012. So we were in the recession. It was really hard to find a job, and this externship was not only gonna provide me with housing, but it was also gonna provide me with stipend. [00:10:00] Which no externships back then did. And I was like, okay, I can go to Vegas for two weeks and like, have my all expenses paid, externship and just go have some fun and enjoy it. And I got out there and I was exposed to, , the owner, uh, of these practices owned practices. And so we just rotated through. The different practices every day to see teams and the different ways of doing things. And , I realized like, you know what, this is actually probably a really good opportunity for my first job. And I'd been living in Tennessee my whole life from Nashville growing up to Knoxville for undergrad and for vet school. And I was ready to move out of Tennessee and go do something different. And I thought, okay. It's a recession, it's hard to find a job. And I got offered a job out there and I just thought, all right, I'm gonna take this and we're just gonna see what happens. And that kinda launched my private practice career. 

Megan Sprinkle: Well, while you were [00:11:00] there, even though it was not the experience that you, you, you loved, you kind of realized, oh, maybe this is not exactly the direction I wanna go. Were you able to watch that individual b e a, a practice owner was, were there things that you were watching and, and maybe kind of start to put together?

I know this may, maybe not as proactive in the moment, but maybe in reflection that you kind of were observing that you took forward.

Eva Evans: Yeah, absolutely. Um, you know, one of the reasons why I did wanna go to Vegas is because of this organization, because , I saw what was possible to be a business owner and , managing a practice, running a practice, practicing veterinary medicine. The owner was practicing there still in one of the many clinics. , And it was a fantastic opportunity and I am very grateful for the experience. , I definitely did a lot of observing of just how [00:12:00] practices function, culture, teams, efficiencies even down to like inventory management. And I did have some very good mentors out there that kind of showed me though they weren't the owners. Showed me what matters, not only on the business side, but on the medicine side too. I mean, obviously you're not gonna be a very good practice owner if you, , can't do good medicine. So medicine comes first and then the rest.

Megan Sprinkle: , so you did decide to go back to Nashville, after a couple of years there in practice. Did you, I'm sorry if this question is weird.

Like did you go with a plan? Did you get a job in, in advance or were you like, I'm just gonna move and I'll figure it out when I get there?

Eva Evans: Yeah, so when I knew that I wanted to move back home, I missed Nashville. I missed the people. I missed my family, I missed grass and [00:13:00] rain and green trees. Vegas is beautiful. It's a beautiful place. It's a fantastic city. But it's a very different climate, uh, and a very different culture than it is in Nashville.

So. I found a job, before I moved and secured that before coming back. And I worked for a year at a, emergency clinic here back before they were all corporate. This was a privately owned er and that was also a great opportunity to learn from the owners , of the er.

Megan Sprinkle: Yeah, and I think, if I remember correctly, you, you actually really enjoyed your ER experience.

Eva Evans: I love emergency medicine. I loved the cases, I loved the challenge, I loved the pace. What I found really interesting that I really grew a lot in was learning how to get people to trust you quickly because you don't have a rapport with these clients. They don't know you personally. They're grateful that you're there on a Sunday [00:14:00] night or a holiday when no one else is open.

But. There was definitely a learning curve of how do I get this person who doesn't know me, who's never seen me before, how do I get them to trust me very quickly and be able to communicate with them and walk them through options and prognosis and cost , and then, and be able to also run a team to be able to perform everything that we needed to do, because the ER that I worked at, there was only one doctor each shift. So , there were no other doctors to kind of like help you out. It was very much like, you've gotta kind of run the show. And I really enjoyed doing that. There were definitely challenges. I'd say the biggest challenge I had in ER were the hours and, , I struggled to do overnights and eventually after a year working overnights and every weekend was just not the type of life that I [00:15:00] wanted.

And so I was ready to shift back into day practice so that I could have a bit more of a stable schedule and be able to see my friends for brunch on Sunday and be able to see my family, you know, for dinner in the evenings instead of being up all night and sleeping all day.

Megan Sprinkle: Yeah. So is that where you discovered relief work? Mm-hmm.

Eva Evans: Yeah, so after the ER I moved into doing relief. Right before I left the er, I had already made up my mind that I wanted to open a practice. And

Megan Sprinkle: okay.

Eva Evans: things that I had heard from other vets in the past, A lot of them said that if you wanna open your own practice, then doing relief work is a really great stepping stone to that because you're gonna get exposed to different softwares, different products, different procedures, different processes, different teams, different types of clients, and you are going to be able to go in and see like, what do [00:16:00] you like, what works, what doesn't work? What do you wanna avoid? What products do you not wanna carry? What softwares do you not wanna work with? And it gives you the opportunity to just see so many different ways of doing things, then from there you can take what you've learned and you can pick and choose what worked well at these different places you worked, doing relief, and create what's gonna work best for you owning a practice.

Megan Sprinkle: I have heard similar things too. And, and one of the things you also said to me was one of the big inspirations was around I.

Even more of a culture aspect of things like the way that staff were treated and how that interaction was, that was also really inspiring to you. So what were some of the things that , after all these observations, what were the things that you wanted to pull out when it came to culture and [00:17:00] building teams and working within teams?

Eva Evans: Yeah. So one thing that, , my mom always told me when I was in school, when I was like, I don't know if I wanna do equine, or if I wanna do industry, or if I wanna do policy. Or I don't know, you know, and when I was on clinical rotations, I was like, oh, I'm gonna hate surgery. And then I did it and I was like, I actually really like this. And what my mom would always tell me was, the easiest way to know what you want is to first know what you don't want. And so when it comes to teams and managing people and culture being in, I think I worked in probably. At least 10, maybe 12 different practices around Nashville for a couple of years. , And obviously the more you work in these practices as relief, the more people get to know you and the people that work there. mean, our industry is transparent and the people working in our industry are honest people. And so they would, they would tell me like, this is what I love about working here. is what I don't love about working here. , This is [00:18:00] what we wish we could have. This is what we're so grateful to have.

And just being able to kind of observe which teams worked more efficiently and had a higher level of functionality versus dysfunction was very helpful to kind of decide like, what matters, especially to your nurses and your, , assistants, kennel staff, front desk. They have a very different working experience than vets do because they have a different job description. And what goes well for somebody that's a CSR might not be the same way that a nurse or a vet tech wants to to work because they're just different jobs. And so it was really helpful to see different cultures and different ways of managing teams to kind of figure out. What works the best and what works best for me?

Megan Sprinkle: Well, I, I really applaud you in. Listening to those things too. 'cause I, I think [00:19:00] sometimes we can come in, I'm like, I'm just gonna do my job and clock out. And it's like, oh, okay. I'm just gonna focus on what I do. But you were very, and maybe this goes back to you, you said one of the things you appreciated learning was, was building.

Trust quickly. And I think that's also something that relief veterinarians really need to work on because you're, you come into a brand new environment, another whole hospital, and, and not only are you having to build trust with clients, you're having to build trust with a brand new team. And, and so I think that's a really valuable skill that, uh, it sounds like you, you acknowledged and, and worked on.

Now, did you, were you just really good at building trust and people felt comfortable sharing? I have heard that some. Relief vets, uh, have found that because you are an technically an outsider, some people feel more comfortable sharing things with you. Um, or did, were you also, maybe, maybe this is a both, uh, proactive in [00:20:00] asking what they liked about working, .

I'm just kind of curious how you were able to do that. 'cause again, I think it's very easy just to like, clock in and clock out and not really appreciate everybody else's perspective.

Eva Evans: Yeah. Well I think that, first of all, both. Yes. I think that's something that a lot of relief veterinarians that haven't been doing in a long time don't understand is that this is not your hospital. This is their hospital and you come in and you mold yourself to fit their hospital and their protocols and their procedures in the way they do it.

And if you don't like the way they do it, then you don't pick up shifts there anymore. And that's kind of how it goes. But it's not as a relief doctor, it's not for us to come in and have the entire team and the entire hospital change to work around how we do things. So I think a valuable relief doctor understands that.

It their job to come in and be the one that has the flexibility and kind of fits into the way the practice already is. And another thing [00:21:00] that, , has always made sense to me just because of, you know, economics and the way businesses work and the way money works, is that as a relief doctor, your job is not only to take care of patients, not only to take care of clients and to treat the team well and to represent the hospital well, but it is also to make the hospital money. And if you are not doing a good enough job to justify you being there, the hospital actually do better to just not have a doctor there than to lose money on a relief doctor. And I saw that sometimes with some relief doctors that were very rigid. , And they were like, no, it's my way or the highway.

I only do it this way. When they walked into a practice that they're just, their team isn't trained that way or the te they, they don't practice that kind of medicine. And there's, there's a whole spectrum of how we practice medicine, depending on the individual culture and clinic and the, the clients in the area and all of that.

And I worked in practices that were in very, , different neighborhoods. Some very urban, some [00:22:00] very rural, some suburban, and they all just. Function differently. And I think it's important that not only we come in, we are guests as a relief doctor, you're a guest in the hospital and in some ways you're right, they do tend to treat you very well as a relief doctor because you're a guest.

And I think it's really important to remember that you're a guest and uh, To treat the team and the clients and the, I mean, every veterinarian I hope is gonna treat the patients well. Like I think that's across the board at what everybody's gonna do and hopefully treat the clients well. , But also remembering that your function there is to keep the hospital up and running so that the owner can. Be on maternity leave, be on vacation, take some time off, spend time with their family. And if you're not doing a good job and you're costing them money or headaches or stress or time, they won't have you back. And that's just the function of the economics of [00:23:00] business. 

Megan Sprinkle: I think that's an excellent point. , I still remember chatting with you before. It's, you had the mindset of , how can I make you money? It's like the, the reason why I'm here is so you don't lose money. 

. And then in addition to the yes, not be a burden , on the staff, , from a human perspective, but also from a financial perspective. So. Again, I think it reflects a little bit on your, your business mindset that you're able to bring and it's so, so crucial to have that medical aspect, , the relationship building aspect, but then also be able to.

Create a business 'cause you have to survive, right? There's no good if you can't keep your business running. So , you were already thinking, I want to start my own practice. And I know this is not like a just, you know, it just happens one day that you open the doors. Like this is a process.

So. For someone who may be thinking this as well. [00:24:00] And do you mind just sharing your journey, at least the first Timewell

Eva Evans: Yeah.

Megan Sprinkle: alert, you're gonna do this again, but, but from the first time, like how did you go about, like, starting to think of all these elements of opening your own practice, forming on like what did you wanna do, what was your practice gonna be like?

who was your target audience? All of those things. Like how did you kind of start and, and puzzle piece it all together?

Eva Evans: Yeah. You know, I think there are a lot more resources now than there were 10 years ago when I started this process. , So back then. I was on the internet a lot, reading articles. I was reading books, basic business books. I, minored in business and then I did an MBA, , when I got out of vet school. So I did have a little bit of background there as far as like economics go. , And I think that, , it is. Just important to, to do your homework. And the clearer your vision of why you're doing it, [00:25:00] what you're doing, how you're gonna do it, who you're doing it for. , Who are you, your stakeholders in this? Like, who are the people that are gonna be affected by your business?

It's your clients. It's your patients. It's the neighborhood, it's your vendors. your staff, it's your family, your friends. I mean, there are so many people that are affected by the function of a vet clinic. And the clearer your vision is, the easier it is to make a map. And so the first thing I started with was, why do I wanna do this?

, What's my goal here? You know? And my goal wasn't just, I just don't wanna work for somebody else. It's not, it's, it's not that simple. So I, I defined who my ideal client was and who I wanted to serve and what kind of a team I wanted to have. And, a lot of that I think that people miss out on, , or don't consider is [00:26:00] the feelings and emotions that go into the finished product. So I, envisioned in my head for a long time, it took me about two years from the time of concept to like, okay, I'm gonna do this. To, the time we opened was 23 months. So just shy of two years and understanding, okay, what emotions do I want my clients to feel?

What emotions do I want the pets to feel that's gonna dictate what color paint we use? That's gonna dictate what kind of flooring we have, like what do we want the pets to, to experience? What do I want my team to experience? What do I want myself to experience? And I, I knew that if I was gonna have to go into work every day for potentially the next 10 or 20 years, , or more with my own practice, it was very important for me to create an environment. Aesthetically as well as functionality that would be conducive to me being happy, [00:27:00] and that included like our hours, what kind of services we would provide, what kind of services we won't provide because one thing that I think is really important is to realize that 

you 

will never be everything to everyone. And so rather than trying to be everything to everyone and failing because it's just physically not possible, focusing more on, okay. For my own mental health, emotional health, , physical health, financial health. What am I trying to build here? And then once I had that concept, then I asked a bunch of questions.

I found mentors. And some of them were my doctors that owned these practices that I was doing relief at. A lot of them were female owned and they were, you know. Very successful practices, and they tended to be on the smaller side, you know, one to three doctors. , I was doing some relief for some corporates, but for the majority of them, the mentors that I sought out were these established practices, and I just went to them and said, Hey, I wanna own [00:28:00] a practice.

We weren't anywhere gonna be in competition with each other location-wise. They were all so happy to help me, were like, here, here's what I did. Here's the mistakes I made. Here's this bank for a loan. going through the process of, first of all, get your financing. 'cause if you can't qualify for financing, then there's no reason to keep going. You need to get your finances in order first, which is easier than most people think. I think a lot of veterinarians have this idea that because they have student loans, , or they have debt, that they can't buy a practice or own a practice, and that's definitely not true. , And I just started kind of collecting people that were outside of the veterinary industry, that were helpful. Financial planner, accountant, . Website developer, all, all of these things. , And , I figured out, okay, what can I do? How much money can I get? You know, what, how much is it gonna cost me?

I had no idea how much a veterinary clinic costs to build. , It just went stepwise and it, it took me two years. And it, it does, it's a long process. Buying a [00:29:00] practice is definitely shorter, a shorter path that did not appeal to me because I wanted to stay in Nashville. I had just bought a house.

My family's here, I grew up here. I didn't wanna move outside of Nashville. At the time, there were almost no practices for sale. This was, you know, 2000. 15, 2016 Before the boom of everyone selling out to corporate. , So there weren't really any practices that were for sale. And the one or two that were for sale were not well run.

And another thing that I saw from all my experience in practice was if you buy a practice, you're buying a location. You might be buying the building, you're buying the brand. You're buying the client list, you're buying , the way that that practice runs, the procedures, the processes, , the protocols you are buying the culture. , That was one thing that I elected not to buy a practice and [00:30:00] to start my own was as hard as it is to start a practice. To me it was gonna be more challenging to buy one and, and then change the culture to fit me. , And not everybody does go that route. I mean, there are lots of people that buy practices and I was told by, a practice consultant that, I was not very smart to start my own practice. , and I would be much better off buying another practice. But to me. The most valuable thing about my practice , is our culture and our service and the way that we show up for clients and, and the medicine that we practice. And it would have been more challenging for me to buy a practice that was not on par with what I wanted to do and then go in and revamp it and change it and update it. You know, basically you have all these clients been going there for 10 or 20 years and they're like, oh, I don't we, Dr. So-and-so who sold you this practice? He never did blah, blah, blah. We never did blood [00:31:00] work. We never did a heartworm test, you know? So I decided at that point in my life that it was going to be more in line with my success to start my own.

Megan Sprinkle: Yeah, , I'm sure financially it's very different, , but you're, from what I hear too, banks tend to like veterinarians, they see that all of your schooling is actually an asset. I've heard good things about veterinarians working with banks for loans, so that's a good call out too.

, And then you, you said you had no idea what it, what it costs to do this, and one of the big differences that, at least I still remember that you said from your first practice to your, your second one is that you did. A lot of it yourself. You mowed the lawn, you, you did the bookkeeping, all of the things.

Eva Evans: I did all my accounting. I did my website. , Because at the time, I mean, it was. [00:32:00] I had a bank loan, but it was bootstrapping, you know, 1 0 1, and it was like, okay, well there's this amount of money and I have to pay this much to the contractors because I can't do the plumbing here. But the things that I could do, . I did on my own. And you know, now that that practice has grown and we have a second practice, I mean, we didn't even have an IT person for the first few years and every time something wouldn't work on the computer, it was like, oh my gosh, here we go again. Like, let me go Google how to fix this printer.

, You know, now we have an IT service and we just call them and they fix it, which is great. But I think it's important to realize you don't have to have everybody. for you to start a new practice. I mean, when I opened my first practice, we didn't have a dental x-ray at the time. There were not a lot of practices at that time that did have dental x-ray.

I mean, now it's like very common and I, you know, would hope everyone has one. But, we didn't have enough [00:33:00] money to buy a cold laser. We didn't, I didn't have enough money to, , buy, , a cautery unit at the time. , Very much we're just like not cutting corners at all, but also taking into account that when you have a limited budget, you have to pick and choose like, what are the most important things that you need? What do you need to get open? What do you need to pass your facility permit? W hat's required by your state? Every state is different. it was also important to me that for me to, to buy a building and have a small practice to start with because I didn't have collateral. You know, I didn't have the collateral to have a $2 million build out practice, which, you know, if you do have that, that's amazing.

But people that are starting off, especially if you've only been outta school for a few years, banks are not going to lend you more money than you can pay back and. One thing that I learned from this whole process [00:34:00] was, uh, on the banking side, banks do love veterinarians because we are very honest and we pay our bills, and that's not the case in every industry.

So, um, there are some banks that have. Veterinary specific lending programs and I would definitely encourage people to apply with those. Absolutely apply with your local bank, your local credit union, see what they can do. You might get good terms and good rates. , I found that the local banks could not compete with the ones , that had a veterinary practice lending program. And another thing that I learned in this process was the default rate for a veterinary practice loan. Is less than one half of 1%. , And that's only, , practices that are 60 days late on their payment. That's not practices that go bankrupt or go under. And that is very encouraging because , when you look at like, "wow," everybody else is doing [00:35:00] it and making it, and they're making their payments and they're paying off their practices and they're not going bankrupt. It gives you a lot more confidence to realize like, okay, well if 99.5% of practices pay their mortgage or their bank loan every month on time, chances are I will be able to as well.

Megan Sprinkle: The odds are in your favor. Yes.

Eva Evans: Yeah.

Megan Sprinkle: Well, it just to, to jump ahead a little bit, but I think it might be helpful because it also. Allows you to do a little bit of a comparison. , Going through starting a second practice , and I'm sure that there's a lot of recall from how you did it the first time and how you'll implement it into the second one.

, The second one, . You wanted to implement a little bit more integrative medicine. And the other thing that I really, really admired listening, , to explain this on our pre-call, was how much due diligence you did [00:36:00] into selecting the location of this practice. Like you, you started telling me the history of like the street and the town, and it, it was just really impressive.

It was like you did your research. You knew this community. You knew your audience and, and you matched it with this desire of a way to practice , so do you mind sharing a little bit about like, why did you decide to do a second practice? What did you wanna do a little bit differently and some of that, uh, uh, as well as really doing your research into the community that you were going to be part of?

Eva Evans: Yeah. Um, you know, again, I'm from Nashville, so I've seen the city change. Incredibly in the last 20 years, um, we had the TV show Nashville, that was such a popular show, we became the bachelorette capital of the world. , There are more bachelorette parties in Nashville than there are in Las Vegas now. And so, I've seen [00:37:00] this rapid development since 2018 basically, , of different neighborhoods.

And before that, I mean, there were rapid developments of different neighborhoods before that as well. you know, I'm in a city, so I'm in a pretty urban area, and where you are, this may not, this is not gonna apply to everyone. If you're in , a rural setting and you're the only vet in the county, like that's a completely different kind of subset of choices and decisions than if you're in a city where there are, you know, 30 vet practices.

So. , One thing that was really important for me was, I mean, location is huge. If you're gonna be in a city or in the suburbs, location is huge and you definitely want to take a look at the population statistics. All of those things are free online. I basically just got on Google and started looking up, , different neighborhoods, population of different neighborhoods. Google Maps you just put in, like "veterinarian," and it'll [00:38:00] populate where all the clinics are. You, you ideally don't wanna put a clinic right next to somebody else's clinic. , So what I did with both of my practices was I chose a neighborhood that was an up and coming neighborhood with development that I knew was going to, because we're urban, was going to become more and more high density. , Hide density housing, so apartments, condos, town homes. , Obviously nobody could predict COVID. , And nobody knew that we were gonna see such a boom in the, you know, pet population around COVID. but I wanted to find a neighborhood that did not already have a vet, that people were going outside of their neighborhood to get vet care. And I wanted to find a neighborhood that I knew was going to grow. Because , your new practice when you start, you have zero clients, you have $0, you have no revenue, you have no money coming in on day one and day two, hopefully you got like $200 coming in, you know, and, , maybe [00:39:00] the first month you do $10,000 in revenue and, and then you grow and you grow and you grow. . And I think it's really important if you're gonna be in an urban setting to choose an area that you like, that you appreciate, that you value, um, a neighborhood that's also in line with who you are and , what your values are. , And everybody's different. So what worked for me is not gonna work for everybody.

And, and other people might say, oh, I wanna be in the suburbs. Which is fantastic. There are amazing opportunities in the suburbs. There are amazing opportunities in rural areas. , For me, living in the city, I wanted to be in the city , so I chose. For the second practice, I chose the Wedgewood Houston neighborhood in Nashville because of its explosive growth in population. , And that is really what's going to fuel the growth of your practice. It's a lot harder to start a new practice in a developed neighborhood where there's already a couple of vets because. [00:40:00] Those people are probably pretty happy with their vet. Maybe not. I mean, you will get people that are unhappy, , but they've been going there for, you know, 10 years, 20 years, whatever. , So for me, for what I wanna do and my clientele, 'cause we do integrative medicines, we do acupuncture and laser and herbal medicine and lots of diet therapy, as well as all of the regular general practice. I wanted to be in a neighborhood that was mostly millennials. I am a millennial, so I understand millennials the best because I am one. , and for me it was a, it was an easy choice. , There were a couple of neighborhoods that I looked at, , and it was all about finding the right, building the right spot. Did it have parking? Was it on a main road? was the visibility, , where were the areas that were going to be developed?

So, most cities, , Nashville included, have, population studies and they, they will publish data on not only like the current population, but the expected population in different zip codes. And Nashville has a program [00:41:00] where they do these ten year plans and they say like, in the next 10 years, we plan to put in. You know, , the bus line here and a railway line here. And, we're gonna be developing this area that has historically been commercial warehouses. We're gonna be turning those commercial warehouses that are all falling down and, we're gonna tear those down and turn those into a ballpark and, , mixed use coffee shops and, and boutique shops. And, you know, I want us to be in a neighborhood that also had things like a dry cleaner and a daycare facility because I wanna be in a neighborhood where people also are going to be like actually living and not just kind of transiently moving through. so looking at what other businesses are in the area or what other businesses are planned for the area, and where the majority of the money in that city is going to develop those areas is a great way to choose what parts of town you wanna be in. [00:42:00] Some people they wanna be in whatever place they're in, and this is where they live and they don't want more than a five minute commute.

And there's nothing wrong with that. , That wasn't the way that I went because where I live in Nashville, I live quite far out in the suburbs. I live in a very low density population way far out on the very edge of the county. Very sleepy little community out here. Um, very quiet. Not enough people to sustain a healthy business. And. There may be at some point, but right now there are very few local businesses in my area. We have a coffee shop and a Mexican restaurant and a McDonald's, you know, but we don't really have more than that because there's not enough people here to invite other businesses to come in.

Megan Sprinkle: That's really insightful to kind of dig into the city planning, because you're right, like if they have a 10 year plan, you really can start to be strategic and. Even when you said daycare, I'm like, ah, daycare [00:43:00] probably means millennials because what's the age group that needs the daycare?

Um, I'm a millennial too, and I'll be looking for daycare care. So that like super, super insightful. So stepping back a little bit and just. You know, from a personal perspective, looking at your career this far and, and literally you just opened this practice, uh, maybe a few week,

Eva Evans: Month ago.

Megan Sprinkle: a month ago.

Uh, yeah. So super, super new. You, you're doing pr you said you were on the news to spread the awareness , reflecting back on your career journey, what are the things that you, you've been really grateful for, , career-wise that helps you know what you want today and may maybe even, um, it sounds like you're a planner, so, so thinking out like what are your career goals for the next couple of years with, you know, opening this brand new practice and, and whatever else about your personal career.

Eva Evans: That's a great question. Um, I would say something that I'm [00:44:00] grateful for are people that are outside of our industry. Having a different take on business, having a different take on how things work, because the veterinary industry is very specific. And that's something that I learned as I've been going through building these two practices, talking to contractors and architects and, it people and you know, people like lawn care services, everybody kind of. They serve all these other businesses that are all people oriented businesses and they are missing these very unique parts of the veterinary way of doing things. I'll just give this one example. When I was, building out the first practice, um, it was a very old building and we needed to redo everything down to the studs, and HVAC system was underneath the crawlspace 'cause it was, it's. This building is 105 years old. , The architect, I said, okay, we need to move the air [00:45:00] return vent up on the wall. 'cause the air return vent was on the floor and the architect said, oh no, no, it's okay. They make these covers and that way little ladies high heels don't get stuck in the air vent covers.

Like, so we can put that down. And I was like, first of all, do I look like I wear high heels to work? Second of all, I'm not really concerned about that. I'm concerned about the dog that vomits on the floor or pees on the floor or has diarrhea on the floor and then it's in the HVAC system forever. So we

Megan Sprinkle: cannot.

Eva Evans: Have an air return on the floor, like, and we just can't because you don't ever have to worry about somebody vomiting on the floor, having diarrhea on the floor, in the office building where all the people work, but where we work, this is like a very critical detail and just. There were so many parts of this where people were just like, oh my gosh, I've never actually considered from the animal's perspective or from the pet owner's perspective. And I'm like, yes, we are a very different industry. So we tend to get tunnel [00:46:00] vision as, a profession where it's like, this is how we do it, this is how we've always done it, and we kind of stay in our lane and we don't really gather different ways of doing things from outside of our own industry. And so one thing that I have been really grateful for is, being part of organizations. I'm part of the Entrepreneurs Organization, which is eo, it's a worldwide, business owners group. And other, you know, other people I've met along the that are like, they might be in marketing, they might own, , a lending company or a manufacturing company, and they're like, oh, well. We do it this way, you know, and it's, and so that kind of unique view from outside of what vets do has also been really helpful to get me to kind of think outside the box because you don't know what you don't know.

Megan Sprinkle: I think that's excellent advice. , And also because you, you've done everything really recently and you had that opportunity to kind of assess what's out there [00:47:00] because technology and AI and, and all these fancy things that are coming into our industry right now. Was there anything that you had the opportunity to.

Look into that you're kind of excited about and maybe interested in implementing going forward.

Eva Evans: You know, I, I tend to be, , someone who is a little skeptical of new things coming out. I think for better or worse, pros and cons to all of that. When we talk about ai, AI is. Such a huge buzzword right now and what AI can do in five or 10 years from now nobody's going to even have a grasp or a clue what that's gonna look like. Right now, what I need when I'm looking at new technology, even new drugs, new pharmaceuticals, new anything, is I need to have whoever is selling that to me, able to show me how it's actually gonna work. [00:48:00] Because there are certain products and certain new technologies that, um, I mean we have like the AI images from Zoetis for our fecals. Super easy. We love it super fast to run. We don't ever have to do our own in-house fecals anymore. So something like that is fantastic. , It's a pricey piece of equipment, but the way that you implement it makes it worth it. There are also a lot of pieces of equipment especially, um, that are AI run, that are coming to market constantly. Um, and new pharmaceuticals that come to market that you're like, okay, but how are we gonna actually use this? Or is this actually effective? And there are a handful of things that come to mind that I won't say on this podcast that we either tried or we demoed and we looked at and I was like. This is not gonna make anyone's life easier.

You're not solving a, you're creating a problem that's not there, and then you're trying to solve a pro. You're trying to solve a [00:49:00] product to solve a problem that isn't a real problem. And so I think that it's important for people not to get lost in the, oh my gosh, this is the new latest and greatest thing.

It's really more about like, does it function? Is it reliable? If it breaks, can you get somebody on the phone to come fix it? Does it have a warranty? How much is it? Can I afford it? Is this actually gonna make my practice better? Do my clients want this? You know, like there are a lot of really amazing medical procedures and treatments out there that are extremely expensive to implement. And, you know, I-131 is a great example. Like to go through the process of getting. A radiation certificate from the city to be able to do I 1 31 to set up for. It's like if you can do it, I've got a friend in Pennsylvania who's got a rural practice out in the middle of nowhere. He does it. People come two hours, three hours for that because there's no one around that does it. But. We have a specialty hospital 20 [00:50:00] minutes away that does that. So it doesn't make any sense for me to implement some of these things that are either outside of the realm of, affordability for my clients, or like, oh, this is really cool, but we're only gonna use it once every year, you know, once every two years.

And so, um, think that I. Definitely enjoy seeing what's coming to market, but when you look at the history, especially on the medical side of all the things that come to market and then all the things that eventually die off and are no longer offered, like, oh yeah, I remember when that product came out and it was supposed to be the latest and greatest everything. And then whatever happened to that, nobody uses that anymore. So, it's important to say on top of things, but it's also important to remember like, how is this gonna make my practice better and is it gonna pay for itself? 'cause you can buy great equipment that does amazing things, but if you never use it or you don't have a client that can afford it, [00:51:00] then you don't need to have that because it's just a loss for your business.

Megan Sprinkle: Yeah. So everybody who is listening in the last five minutes, go back and listen to again, because that was really, really valuable. Everything from the industry perspective as well as veterinarian. finally, um, you know, I asked what something you're grateful for from like your career, business side of things.

But personally, when you think about like. You know, what actually really matters in life and, and like, what keeps you going? Like, what is something that you are really grateful for and, and just pops into your mind when I, talk about that.

Eva Evans: My team, honestly, like they are at work right now. , I'm at home, they're at my practice right now. My associate doctor, my relief doctor, I've got a new associate coming on next month. They are seeing the patients, they are taking care of business. They're answering calls, they're answering emails, they're, they're running the business so that I can be at home right now doing this, having this conversation with you.

And so my team [00:52:00] is, to me, the most valuable part of my business and arguably one of the most valuable parts of my life because I, it allows me. To do the things that I wanna do and invest my time in the places I want to invest my time, while also providing opportunities for them, for leadership, for growth, for expansion. , You know, if you're doing it right, then you hopefully have. Team members that stay a long time and love what they do and continue to progress and get better. hiring and firing is everybody's least favorite thing. So I won't pretend like it's easy, but if you invest in your team and you find the right people to put in the right positions for the right jobs that they love and that they're good at and that they want to do. That is arguably to me the most important part of your success. Obviously, you need to be a good doctor. You need to practice good medicine, have good communication skills with your clients, all of that. But if you don't have a team that has your back [00:53:00] and you don't have a team that you trust and can rely on, then it's really hard to run a practice. 

Megan Sprinkle: I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Dr. Eva Evans as much as I did. Her story is such a great reminder that starting something new, whether it's a business, a practice, or even a new way of thinking, it doesn't have to be perfect from the beginning. It's about learning as you go, staying true to your values and surrounding yourself with good people who share your values.

If you're a veterinarian dreaming about building your own practice. Does maybe an industry partner creating tools to support those who do. , I hope you found Eva's insights on leadership, finances, and innovation. Helpful and I hope you approach things both with curiosity. As well as context discernment.

Is this right for your practice, your people, your clients, and patients, while 40 toilets and a spawn on the balcony? Sounds amazing. Does it make sense for you? But I also believe dreaming should be fun and ambitious. So dream big, but take steady [00:54:00] steps. A big thank you to Dr. Eva Evans for sharing her wisdom and to Dr.

Kelly Cooper, who is ongoing support for the podcast helps make this podcast possible. If you enjoyed the episode, please share it with a friend or a colleague who may need a little inspiration in their veterinary journey. You can watch this and other great conversations on YouTube as well. So just search vet Life reimagined, or just click the link in the description below.

And remember, reimagining veterinary life isn't about doing everything at once. It's about taking the next steps towards what matters most for you. Until next time, stay curious, stay inspired, and keep reimagining what's possible in your veterinary life.