Guides · opening a practice
Guides for opening a veterinary practice
Eight guides for veterinarians opening their first clinic, in reading order: the decisions, the money, the building, the software, the team and the first clients. Every number carries its source.
8 guides · about 91 minutes end to end · updated September 2026
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CalculatorStartup cost calculatorBuild-out, equipment, payroll and working capital, every line editable, printed for the lender.TimelineOpening timelinePick the month you open and get eighteen months of milestones on real dates, as a calendar file.
The guides, in reading orderEvery number sourced at the end of each guide.
- 01 · Decide12 minute readHow to open a veterinary practice: seven decisions before the checklistStart, buy or wait. Which model, which town, which building, how big. Most guides skip straight to permits and loans; the decisions that actually set your first five years come earlier. Here they are, with the published numbers behind each one.Read the guide
- 02 · Fund11 minute readWhat it costs to open a veterinary clinic, line by lineThe one published line-item budget puts a 2,000 square foot general practice at $803,500 before inventory and working capital; a 2,500 square foot example with six months of runway lands near $1.3 million. Here is where the money goes, which numbers are published, and which ones only a quote can answer.Read the guide
- 03 · Fund12 minute readHow to finance a new veterinary practice: SBA, practice lenders and what they underwriteStart-ups are financed at up to 100 percent by specialist lenders, or with a 10 percent equity injection under an SBA guarantee. Here is where the money comes from, what each lender actually tests, what it costs at today's rates, and the closing-day surprises the rulebook spells out.Read the guide
- 04 · Build10 minute readThe veterinary practice startup checklist, 18 months to opening dayOpening a clinic is forty-odd tasks that have to happen in a particular order, because each one waits on another: the lender waits on the lease, the DEA waits on the address, the hires wait on the date. Here is the order, phase by phase, with the rules that set it.Read the guide
- 05 · Build12 minute readThe equipment a new veterinary clinic actually needs: buy, defer or leaseEquipment is the line first-time owners overspend on and the one with the least published data, because most manufacturers quote instead of pricing. Here is a one-doctor opening list built from prices that are actually published, the safety rules that decide some of it for you, and what to buy used, buy new, or leave for month six.Read the guide
- 06 · Build12 minute readHow to choose practice software for a new veterinary clinicA start-up chooses its practice system once, with no data to migrate and no habits to unlearn, and then lives inside it for years. Here is who actually sells these systems, what the contracts say about your data and your price, and the questions to put in writing before you sign, including the ones you should put to us.Read the guide
- 07 · Open11 minute readThe first hires for a new veterinary clinic: who, when and what it costsA one-doctor clinic opens with four or five people, and the order you hire them in decides whether opening week runs or wobbles. Here is the team the published ratios support, what each role costs at today's wages, why the credentialed technician is the hire that pays, and the legal floor under all of it.Read the guide
- 08 · Open11 minute readHow a new veterinary clinic wins its first 300 clientsThe first 300 are the hard ones: nobody has heard of you, the reviews page is empty, and every client is won one at a time. Here is what the published data says works, what the biggest chains actually offer, and the numbers to watch each week until word of mouth takes over.Read the guide
Opening a clinic? Pay nothing until your doors open.
The New Practice Program sets the clinic up with you before opening day and starts billing on the day you open, not the day you sign.