We had worked together previously in Cambridge for four years as employees within a private practice and always got on really well together. As our careers progressed, it seemed a natural step to consider our own practice and doing it as a team gave us a lot more confidence and support when it came to finally taking the plunge.

As a Veterinary Surgeon and Veterinary Nurse partnership, we are able to give each other the right support, with Philippa free to concentrate on being a vet while Maria focuses on practice operations. We were also able to share the set up investment and support each other when it came to making key decisions, such as hiring new members to the team.

Our initial interest was sparked by seeing the Vets4Pets video and after that we also looked at a number of Joint Venture Partnership options. We chose Vets4Pets because from the first contact, we found the team to be very open and friendly and the approach to becoming a Joint Venture Partner was very positive and honest. Business support was really important to both of us because we had little experience in that area and the Vets4Pets partnership felt very well run.

We feel genuinely established and we’re very proud of the fact that we have grown the team ourselves. All the staff that have joined since we started the practice are still with us and all our new staff have come to us from personal referrals, which we see as a really positive sign of the culture we have worked hard to develop in the business. We’ve recently added our second full time veterinary surgeon and our second full time nurse, bringing the team up to six staff in total.

The partner network is invaluable when you first start up as it provides lots and lots of support from people who know exactly what you’re going through and have plenty of experience and encouragement to share. As we’ve become more established, we have developed strong ties with some specific partners and we find the network very handy for some of the rarer issues we face on both the clinical and the business side of things. With email, it’s really easy to just ask; “How do others do that?” and get back some really interesting and clever replies.

The support centre is a very important part of the overall partner set up and Vets4Pets have grown the support team in line with the number of practices. It’s very reassuring to know that we have access to ‘best practice’ information on everything from finance to HR and marketing. We also see our local operations manager every four to six weeks and he helps to keep us focused and also provides an experienced sounding board for any decisions we’re considering. The main point from our perspective is that you can take as much support as you need at a pace that suits you.

We aim to keep growing and our goal is to be able to add a third full time vet to the practice. That would be the ideal for our premises and also for our client base, so that size feels right for now. In terms of challenges, the main ones are to ensure that our team remain happy and motivated in their work and that we continue to provide a really personal and caring level of service to our clients so that they remain loyal to the practice and keep coming back to us.

If you would like to find out more about becoming a Joint Venture Partner with Vets4Pets, get in touch.