“By not making our own plan for our life, we may fall into someone else’s, and guess what that person does for us? Not much.”
Jim had been a veterinarian for 20 years and his veterinary practice was not doing well. He couldn’t figure out what the problem was. The animals all seemed to be healthy and he did everything exactly like his colleagues did: the same marketing, the same research; even taking on some of their more difficult cases.
Jim always felt a little left out when he attended the monthly veterinary practice meeting. Nobody ever said anything about being in financial trouble but there were more and more remarks from colleagues that they were struggling enough to keep up with the expenses of running their practices.
It was hard for him because his colleagues had been doing it for so long, so much better than he could. He had some ideas about how to make things work, but he didn’t know where to start or if he tried, if he would be accepted by his peers anymore.
None of them seemed interested in listening to him these days anyways-they all seemed drained and frustrated, as if they just wanted everything back the way it used to be before all this new competition came into town.
At one of their vet reunions, Jim knew that somebody would eventually get up and talk about how they were having financial difficulties because of competition among veterinarians – it always happened at these events after too much wine had been consumed – but it never occurred to him that this time it might happen to be him!
“I’m sorry, but I can’t do that,” he said to Jessica. “We could lose the friendship of our colleagues!”
And then he walked away and left her there in the middle of a crowd. It was late at night and they were all waiting for service to arrive with their drinks. After he had left.
She looked around the room, trying not to let her embarrassment show. Every single person was looking at her and she could feel it in the way they were all talking about things that had happened while she stood there. They were wondering what had made him so mad this time, why he hadn’t said anything to her before just walking away like that.
She wanted to scream ‘I don’t know!’ but instead she forced herself to keep smiling even though it felt like someone had stabbed her-slowly-in the stomach with a knife.
She couldn’t get out of here fast enough because every moment seemed like another chance for someone else to say something or shout or laugh at her for being such an idiot who got everything wrong again…
They just kept looking around or talking among themselves about something else entirely.
All this time she had been trying so hard to please him, doing everything right so that it wouldn’t happen again because the last time…well, who would want another scandal like that?
She felt defeated, crushed by shame and disappointment as well as a strong sense of anger,
anger at herself for
She watched him walk away, knowing he had never really been committed to making their veterinary practice stand out and thrive.
The feeling of rejection was so intense she felt it all the way down to her stomach.
She could barely see through the tears that clouded her eyes and she tried unsuccessfully to blink them back.
He had left without a word; just turned on his heel and walked away with no goodbyes or anything else of that nature.
All he wanted was to be part of the group. Do things exactly the same way as the others did. To mot be noticed. To be accepted. To gossip and to scheme with the. As long that the scheme was against somebody else it was at least not against him…
However, for some time now, competition among veterinarians was rising. Their veterinary practices were not growing as they should.
Nobody at the vet reunions was saying that they were experiencing difficulties, but there were here and there more and more remarks concerning financial difficulties.
Colleagues started arguing more often and even some would stop talking to each other. Like in couples when finances are strapped, arguments arise.
Jessica wanted Jim to try another marketing approach. One that had worked in similar situations.
Because she knew that being an ordinary veterinarian and marketing in an ordinary way will only get us ordinary results. Expecting otherwise is what’s called denial.
We need to do some marketing to get out of this pickle! Now here’s the problem.
A quick Google search shows that DANGER is close at hand
The Rules of the game have changed. Marketing as we used to doesn’t work anymore and the cost has skyrocketed.
- Followers and likes on social media are not necessarily a sign of success for our veterinary practice. Most social media engagement does not translate into sales, and often, it does not affect sales.
- The cost of marketing on Google, Facebook, and Instagram as well as on all the other important platforms has doubled in a year and will probably continue to increase.
- Our ad costs may exceed what they generate in revenue!
How do we move forward from here?
In order to help colleagues who tend to stay in this rut, I have put together a free workshop for veterinary business owners who spend too much time at work to help them clarify & prioritize their focus so that they can make more money and work a lot less.
By joining my Facebook group, you can access my online workshop for FREE: TheSwissVet: Upgrading Your Veterinary Practice