featuring Sarah McFadden-Palmer, DVM, MBA, CVA, MS | Blue Heron Consulting In this webinar, Dr. Sarah McFadden-Palmer breaks down the fundamentals of veterinary finance—from understanding your profit and loss statement and balance sheet to organizing your chart of accounts and identifying key performance benchmarks. Whether you're a practice owner, manager, or aspiring entrepreneur, this session [...]
By Stith Keiser | Blue Heron Consulting This article was written for and featured in Today's Veterinary Business. Do you remember when you first wanted to be a veterinary professional? Most of you do, and that goal became a calling that carried you through school and to where you are today. Once out in the [...]
By Stith Keiser | Blue Heron Consulting This article was written for and featured in Clinician's Brief. During my recent presentation on veterinary medicine compensation models, a Michigan State University student asked why 25% of production is used as a rule of thumb for compensation and benefits. “Why not a higher percentage?” he asked. I [...]
By Stith Keiser | Blue Heron Consulting This article was written for and featured in Today's Veterinary Business. As a consultant, I get nervous butterflies each time I prepare to review a veterinary hospital’s valuation with a friend or client. The video calls summarize the individual’s ability as a practice owner to build a legacy [...]
By Stith Keiser | Blue Heron Consulting This article was written for and featured in Today's Veterinary Business. I will never forget my first staff meeting as the new owner of a rural mixed-animal, one-doctor practice. To this day, I can still feel my nervousness and excitement. I vividly recall walking into the hospital’s small [...]
By Stith Keiser | Blue Heron Consulting This article was written for and featured in Today's Veterinary Business. I’ve been fortunate to wear various hats in my career — hospital manager, veterinary association business manager, adjunct faculty member, consultant and small animal practice owner. The first one, which I’ve never removed, is the now-weathered, dusty, [...]
By Stith Keiser | Blue Heron Consulting This article was written for and featured in Today's Veterinary Business. It’s 3 in the morning, cold, dark and rainy. I’m 3 or 4 years old and sitting in the backseat of my dad’s truck as he heads out to deliver another calf or fix another prolapsed uterus. [...]
By Stith Keiser | Blue Heron Consulting The waves lapped at a pink hued sand beach in the Bahamas while two actors, presumably grandparents, frolicked with their grandkids. The next scene focused on a similarly aged couple leaning over the balcony of a glistening river cruise ship with the Rhine, adorned with European architecture, drifting [...]
By Stith Keiser | Blue Heron Consulting This article was written for and featured in Today's Veterinary Business. In case you missed my previous article, “Uneasy Street,” I examined the difference between flying by the seat of our pants as practice owners versus leveraging financial statements and key performance indicators (KPIs) to make educated, intentional [...]
By Stith Keiser | Blue Heron Consulting This article was written for and featured in Today's Veterinary Business. Daggers were shooting out of the eyes of the four veterinary hospital partners. You could have cut the tension with a butter knife. I was there as an impartial facilitator after the partners discovered through a professional [...]
