Pet Practice Startup- A Successful Model
Omer Mohi U Din Sofi*
*Assistant Professor, Department of Veterinary Parasitology, International Institute of Veterinary Education and Research, Bahuakbarpur, Rohtak, 124001, Haryana
India is the fastest-growing pet care market in the world and the pet population is of an estimate of 28-29 million, with dogs making up the bulk of pet ownership. The rising pet ownership has led to the growth of the pet care eco-system comprising retail chains, pet nutrition pharmaceuticals, grooming, toys, clothing, diagnostics, and clinical practice. The pandemic of Covid-19 has a significant impact on the Indian economy; and the pet industry has seen a steep growth during the pandemic period. Isolation and anxiety during the lockdown led to many restorations to adopt furry companions. The veterinary graduate has a lot of opportunities, and it depends upon the individual as to what sector the student wants to pursue. Employment opportunities include diverse areas such as clinical practice, teaching, and research, regulatory medicines, public health, wildlife specialist, or lab animals. Depending upon the interest, one can start exploring options to work for the pet industry and join the Veterinary pet practice clinical.
To start a pet practice business, one must wear two hats i.e. one as a good clinician and the other as a businessperson. It is important that one has to prepare themselves and develop an interest in clinical practice and be more comfortable with Veterinary medicine. Besides, developing clinical skills it is important to have marketing or business skills too. Once both Veterinary and business skills are developed, it’s time to start some research and do some background work.
– Develop a business plan: Initial planning may take time and a good business plan will have a clear set direction for running the clinic. Identify the client base, identify staff, train your staff to deliver a quality customer experience.
– Competition Research: Before starting the practice, it is important to know about competition and to have knowledge of nearby clinics, the offer they are providing, and how different will be your clinic.
– Financial planning: It is imperative to have good financial planning. Understand what the cost would be to set up the clinic and operational cost. Assume, a no-profit period of 4 to 6 months and keep sufficient finance to run the clinic need.
– Legal formalities: Understand legal compliance obligations and necessary registration required. State Veterinary council registration is compulsory. If diagnostics like Ultrasound or X-Ray are placed necessary approvals will be required.
– Build a team: Build a dedicated team
A veterinary clinic can be a small clinic setup, polyclinic, or a hospital. A small clinic can be a small setup and is usually managed by a single doctor with a limited staff, a polyclinic is a larger setup with more diagnostic facilities while a hospital can be a large setup with multiple departments including inpatient dept and providing service 24×7. There may be different facilities a private clinic set up may have, like as below:
– OPD area: A clean, spacious OPD area to cater to multiple cases at a time
– Diagnostic facility: Diagnostics improve the effectiveness of treatments and avoid long-term complications. A Veterinary setup may have its diagnostics or laboratory facility or outsource it. Various laboratories collect the sample from clinics, and a tie-up with such laboratory will be helpful for the setup.
– The facility of Ultrasound and X-Ray: Having aUltrasound and X-Ray at the same setup is always good as it is convenient for the pet parent not to run from one clinic to another diagnostic center. It is, however, important to understand the certification that will be required for establishing these facilitiesand train oneself to use thisequipment.
– Other facilities may be a microchipping facility, dental scaling, ECG, pet store, and medicines, wellness center
– Grooming facility: Pet grooming industry is growing at a fast pace, and the pet parents want their pets to feel fresh and keep them tidy. Pet grooming is also necessary for early identification and treatment of skin infection. A proper grooming center will have a bathing tub with a good water facility, and a powerful dryer to dry up the pet hair.
The Pet industry is growing at a fast phase and as per India Pet Care Market Overview, 2021-2026 it is expected to grow at a value of INR 7500 crores by the end of 2025. Hence, Veterinarians have a huge scope to enter clinical practice and be an entrepreneur.
PROCEDURE TO START VETERINARY STARTUPS IN INDIA & TOP PET RELATED STARTUPS BY INDIAN
