Episode 12 – Strategies for Growth and Leadership in Modern Veterinary Practices
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In this week’s episode
- Creature Comforts: Get a sneak peek into how Russell’s new venture, Creature Comforts, aims to revolutionize veterinary services with a blend of technology and physical clinics.
- Healthy Competition: Russell shares his unique perspective on competition within the industry, suggesting a novel approach that could change the way we view rivals.
- Efficiency vs. Expansion: Russell dives into a surprising strategy for growth that doesn’t involve constantly seeking new clients. Discover how focusing on a specific aspect can lead to remarkable results.
- Corporate Strategies: Russell compares the fascinating strategies of different corporate veterinary groups, discussing the pros and cons of rebranding versus maintaining original clinic brands.
Tune in to this episode to explore these topics and more, as Russell Welsh shares his visionary insights on the future of the veterinary industry.
Additional Guest Spotlights
- Brian Faulkner’s Amusing Tale: Brian shares a humorous story from his first day as a vet, involving a racing pigeon and a mix-up with its owner’s location.
- Molly Fiander’s Locum Challenges: Molly discusses the challenges of becoming a locum, including the unexpected responsibilities and the importance of community and resources for veterinary professionals.
Show Notes
- Out every other week on your favourite podcast platform.
- Presented by Jack Peploe: Veterinary IT Expert, Certified Ethical Hacker, CEO of Veterinary IT Services and dog Dad to the adorable Puffin.
- Jack’s special guest was Creature Comforts, Russell Welsh who spoke to us about strategies for growth and leadership whilst giving insight into corporate strategies.
- Many thanks to Russell, Co-founder and COO of Creature Comforts for his resource recommendation’s; Book – Chip War by Chris Miller and Podcast – Diary of a CEO presented by Steven Bartlett..
Transcription
Jack Peploe:
Coming up on modern veterinary practice.
Russell Welsh:
I’ve seen change in the industry. I’ve seen corporatization has brought very good things to the industry, but it’s also, it comes with its baggage. They’re big machines, they’re difficult ships to turn around. And we’ve pulled a team together and we’re going to do something new. So excited. Bringing technology and physical bricks and mortar together, but owning the journey from end to end, rather than looking what else is out there and trying to hack it by making things work, we’re going to build it from A to B and control the whole ecosystem.
Jack Peploe:
Welcome to the Modern Veterinary Practice Podcast. I’m your host and veterinary IT expert, Jack Peploe. In this episode, I’ll be welcoming Russell Welsh to the podcast. He will talk to us about his journey through various roles in the veterinary industry, his experience in business and development, and the innovative approach he’s taking with his new venture, Creature Comforts.
Russell Welsh:
My name’s Russell Welch. I’m a qualified vet. I originally qualified in South Africa. I’ve been in the industry coming on 25 years now. Absolutely love the industry and I’ve touched many, many parts of different services within the industry. I’ve worked in the wildlife sector, I’ve worked in small animal, domestic pets. I’ve worked with large animals. I worked for the government for a period of time when foot and mouth broke out. I spent three years, unfortunately, helping the UK government with that. I’ve been involved in clinical roles, I’ve worked as a night vet. I’ve been at the coalface and I’ve also, I’ve been lucky enough to have opportunities to grow and build businesses.
So I was a partner in Village Vet, wasn’t the founder of Village Vet, but was with Village Vet for probably 12 years, 13 years. We helped build it to a 33 site clinic, primary care clinic with around about 350, 400 staff. We had 4 24-hour hospitals. We started London Vet Specialists. We then also, again, had the opportunity to exit. We exit to Linnaeus, who at that point was private equity-backed. And then exited to Mars. So I stayed on partly clinical, but mostly in an operational role or leadership role. So I was managing director of primary care and referral for a period of time. And then wisely or unwisely put my hand up during COVID to step into the chief operating officer role on the board, which was challenging, but extremely exciting. I had a lot of talented people around me, so I learned a lot from them too.
And then sort of more interested in the growth aspects of the business. So I moved into a business development role on the board, and that involved all of organic growth, inorganic growth, new opportunities, and I think by doing that it re-spark my love for doing it for myself really, or with a small group of people. So I had no problems in the business I was in. I really enjoyed it. And like I say, I learned a lot, but I think my heart, it’s an entrepreneurial spirit. And I saw opportunity, an opportunity came by and then started Creature Comforts or co-founded Creature Comforts. So almost a year in now. I left an Linnaeus pretty much to the day a year ago and started Creature Comforts the following day. And yeah, we are opening our first two sites within the next six weeks with plans to roll out somewhere between, I don’t know, 20 to 30 in the next three to five years, but also really just excited by that opportunity. We’ve seen a gap. I’ve seen change in the industry. I’ve seen Corporatization has brought very good
things to the industry, but it’s also, it comes with its baggage. They’re big machines, they’re difficult ships to turn around. And we’ve pulled a team together and we are going to do something new.
So excited bringing technology and physical bricks and mortar together, but owning the journey from end to end rather than looking what else is out there and trying to hack it by making things work. We’re going to build it from A to B and control the whole ecosystem.
So I’ve also, coming from South Africa, I’ve also just recently been appointed to the Board of Pets for Africa. So we are a veterinary rollup, where consolidation in the African market is not really existent. There’s a few small rollup opportunities there, but really want to bring what’s happened in Europe and the experience and what I’ve learned to the roll up opportunity in South Africa. So the pitfalls I’ve seen, how consolidation has grown, how it’s changed, we can enter into the South African market and bring something new. So yeah, excited by that as well. Still yet to make our first acquisition, but pipeline’s there. And we’ve got a lot of interest in it. And I think it’s a market that’s ripe for professionalization, for cash injection, and for giving people opportunities similar to what I’ve had.
So yeah, I mean, I’m also a brand ambassador for Queen’s Park Equity, which is a private equity company. So they were the original owners of Sovereign who started Linnaeus, so invested in their fund. And do some advisory work for them when they’re looking at acquisitions. So yeah, busy time at the moment.
Jack Peploe:
I was going to say, is there anything you don’t do, Russell? That’s amazing.
Russell Welsh:
work anymore, unfortunately, but that’s coming my way, I think, when the first practice opens.
Jack Peploe:
Well, look, it’s great to have you on the Modern Veterinary Practice Podcast. How are you doing today, anyway?
Russell Welsh:
Good, thanks. Well rested. I’ve just come off a week of skiing. So just before the storm hits with opening these sites, so no, good, very good. Thanks. Yeah.
Jack Peploe:
And came back without breaking anything as you said.
Russell Welsh:
Exactly. I tried my best to break something, but luckily it didn’t happen.
Jack Peploe:
Right. Well, today we’re diving into strategies for growth and leadership in modern veterinary practices. Now with your remarkable journey from a clinical vet to A COO and Co-founder of VC-backed start-up, you bring a wealth of experience to this conversation, so I’m really excited to talk with you around this.
Now, Russell, you played a pivotal role in the growth of Linnaeus and Village Vets. Can you share some insights into the strategies you employed for both organic and inorganic growth in these organizations?
Russell Welsh:
I think within Village Vet, because it was a very small privately owned company, looked for opportunities and we were, I would say, more cautious about where our growth and where we expanded into. We did
do some inorganic growth. So at the time, along with when Medivet had started out, we picked up a small few practices, but our model was really the hub and spoke model. Smaller practices, which then feed into your larger 24-hour sites. That works, but it’s limited. Your growth opportunities are limited in how you can do that.
So when we were running our own business, we looked at different avenues for growth. So one of those avenues was charging correctly, making sure that growth can come organically. So it can come from what you’ve got. If you look at what you’ve got, you look at how are you’re going to make those growth, are you going to make them grow through price increases? So if it costs 10 pounds to do today and you charge 15 pounds to do it next year, you’ve got growth in your business. Or you look at inorganic where your business doesn’t have that growth opportunity at this point in time, and you either go out and you acquire it to bolt it on, or you look at other revenue streams. So looking at, it could be technology based, it could be nutrition based, it could be supplement based, it could be going into referral services.
So really when I into Linnaeus, with them acquiring the number of practices that they did, and a very clever strategy in having a large proportion of referral and a large proportion of primary care, there were huge amounts of organic growth opportunities and also inorganic from acquisition. So I think in a bigger organization, a lot of your organic growth, you can’t just push price, price in a certain inflationary environment you can push, but there comes a point where is it value for money? Are you giving the best to the clients? Have you done anything new to generate that money? Whereas what you then looked at in these big organizations is, okay, if you look at your ecosystem and you see what you’ve got, where can you generate income? And a lot of it comes from being more efficient. If you look at, just even looking at your diary, looking at your diary utilization, how many consults, how many procedures, how many revenue generating opportunities are there? And making sure that you’re maximizing those opportunities. You don’t have to put more money in. It doesn’t cost you more to do. What you’ve got is you’re maximizing what you’ve got.
So I think organically also, looking at this current estate that you’ve got, and this might be for bigger groups, it might be for smaller practices, you might have addition of a consult room, you might add a second theatre, you might add a different revenue stream, you might start up an orthopaedic service or get a CT. Those are all forms of organic growth. Where is buying your neighbour or acquiring your neighbour or looking at acquisition that comes your inorganic growth.
I think opportunity for inorganic growth at the moment is limited. And the reason is because there’s 60%, 62% consolidation in the UK market and the CMA is now involved. And they’ve looked and said, right, is this healthy? Can these big five continue to just acquire and acquire and acquire growth? So I think at this point, opportunities for inorganic growth are limited. There are those practices which have maybe held out and are in strategic positions. They’ve got no competition concerns who will command a premium. But I think the days of rapid inorganic growth at this point are limited. But what we’re now seeing is we’re seeing new start-ups. We’re seeing people coming into the business, reintroducing growth and different sectors and opening up new practices. So the cycle of inorganic growth will start. Within four or five years. The market will become healthy, you’ll have a lot more competition, and then you’ll see the private equity cycles of acquisition start again. So it’s a usual cycle and it’s good because that’s how businesses grow.
I never knew really how businesses grew until I got involved in all of this. And it’s exciting.
Jack Peploe:
Absolutely, and it’s an extremely exciting time to see the number of start-ups launching. I think I’m having conversations every week with a new start-up coming along, and it’s nice to have that very fresh and clean approach, that clean slate.
But on the inorganic side, one thing that I’ve noticed that’s not been done particularly well, especially with corporates, is sort of that acquisition process and the process of integrating these new practices or these existing practices into a larger group while maintaining their unique identities and ensuring they’re aligned with the overarching vision and values of the organization. Could you walk us through what that process, what you feel the right process of doing that is?
Russell Welsh:
It really depends on what the business model is. Because in a pure inorganic growth, bolting on acquisition cycle, you look at where a lot of the corporates are now and how that matured to where they were potentially 10 years ago. There was a need growth, I’ll buy growth, the clinic not really understanding the nature of the clinic, how the clinic worked, what happens in that clinic. I would buy it. I would buy it at X amount of money because I know in five years time I consolidate X plus Y because I’ve got that growth. So it really depends on what the strategy and who the owners of those business were.
So if I have a look at the private equity owned companies, generally their strategy would be I’m going to grow from, call it 100 practices to 500 practices, and then there’ll be a bigger private equity company that will come and buy us out. We’ll all make money from it. They’ll take those 500 and grow to 2000. Then someone else bigger will come and buy it, or they can go with an exit via a public listing or a afloat.
So integrating takes time, integrating takes money, and when you’re moving in a very quick fast-paced environment, it’s difficult to do. There’s advantages and disadvantages of integration. So if you have a look, what integration does is it depends on whether you’re going to have an overarching brand. So you say, take a look at Medivet, most of the Medivet practices that are bought are rebranded as Medivet. So they’ve got belief in their brand, they’ve got strength in their brand. So they’ll go and they’ll put the Medivet sign above the door. Whereas if you look at someone like IVC or even CVS or even Linnaeus, generally the brand of the clinic is maintained with the parent brand, maybe above the door or proudly Mars or proudly CVS or whatever it would be displaying what that would be. So the strategies are quite different.
When you’re integrating, and we’ve done it well, and we’ve done it very poorly. Because I was in the acquisition team and I led the acquisitions. It is very difficult to say to people, some people really want change. So the reason they’re selling their business is going, I really want things to change. I want someone to help me with my HR. I want somebody to help me with my finances. I need somebody to help me with my buying power. So those people are very eager to join a larger group because of the benefits of what comes with that scale. Everyone wants change until change happens.
So they say, well, I really want people to do this, this, and this, but when you actually come in and say, right, it’s now time Jack to go do this, A, B, C, you do tend to find people become quite resistant to it. So it’s getting that balance. The reason clients go to particular practice, the reason staff are at a particular practice is generally because they believe in the leadership at the practice, they believe in the culture, they’re happy to join that practice. So you’ve got to be very, very careful in going in there and stripping that out.
But the problem that you have is the benefit of being part of a larger group is being able to say, oh, I’m part of Mars and the benefit of this is I get access to this education. I get access to this level of equipment. Part of the benefit of being part of Medivet is I can work in 10 different practices. If I move to a different area, I can work in that practice that’s in that area. So there are benefits. But the problem that you have is, people like leaders in the business, they like people they know, they respect, they want to work for somebody that they know. And a lot of times, and I mean it happened with us at Village Vet is the leaders in the business move on, they sell, they get another opportunity, they retire, they go do something different, and the practices do change.
So you then need to integrate those businesses to enable them to be led properly by maybe a regional leader or a managing director. So there’s a period of transition, and that transition can happen very quickly in some practices because desperate for it to happen, or it can be really, really difficult because people still miss the old leader or that Jack always did it this way, or Russell used to do it that way. So it’s a challenging situation, but integration has got far, far better. And different corporates do it at different levels.
I think what we’re seeing now is the majority of the corporates are moving to one unified practice management system, whatever they choose, but it used to be, well, we’ve still got 18 different systems. You start to move to one type of payment system, you move to one type of payroll system, one type of supplier for your stationary, your supplier for certain medications. And once people get over that hurdle that you’re not doing it necessarily for financial gains, you’re doing it for operational reasons, it’s easier to run 150 practices if you’re all using the same system. Once you get to 500, 1,000 practices, you need to have the same system. And I think that’s where corporatization has got better. And I think the integration processes have got better. It’s not just, Jack, I’m buying your practices. I’ll leave you on your own until you get sold again. And I think exits for the larger private equity owned companies now is further than they originally thought. So if you’re talking about growth, initially, growth would’ve come from what you call arbitrage. So I buy something at 500 pounds, I can make a thousand pounds worth of savings, and then I can sell that business with the savings at two times more than I paid for it. And effectively that’s how the private equity models make money.
But now what’s happened is costs have gone up, debt, the cost of debt has gone up, the competition market authorities got involved. So those exits where a lot of private equity companies were going, I can buy at X and sell it at two times X, that’s looking further down the horizon. So they’ve now got to look at integration at managing systems, at productivity, at using what they’ve got in order to get growth. And it’s a good thing in one way because it starts to bring process in, it starts to bring systems in place, and it also starts to bring investment in because that start looking, okay, now we actually should add that dental theatre to this practice to get growth, or we should go and open up a new site in that area to get growth. And that’s how you starting to see a lot of vet partners, CVS, IVC are starting to open Greenfield sites, open new practices because they’re investing in the state that they’ve got to get growth from that. So long-winded. Hopefully that makes sense.
Jack Peploe:
No, that’s cool. So I want to touch on the leadership side and specifically transitioning from a clinical vet to an executive role obviously comes with its challenges. What advice do you have for vets aspiring to take on more of a managerial or executive position within their practice?
Russell Welsh:
I think it’s a different skillset, but I don’t think people are always born with that skillset or necessarily have that skillset. What you’ve got to do is, and this is where one of the challenges has come in is, a lot of the mentorship and a lot of the experience and the leaders that were in those businesses that have now sold or moved out, that experience has been lost. So somebody that’s in a younger vet or a younger person in a practice, and it could be a nurse, it could be a receptionist who wants to take on a leadership role, really needs to find a mentor, really needs somebody that they can actually learn from that they can challenge questions to you, that they can learn how to deal with certain situations. The way I ran and what I thought was leading practices 15 years ago is very, very different to how I do it now. I think you’ve got to learn about yourself, you’ve got to do courses and courses can’t teach you to be a leader, but they can teach you a little bit about your leadership style. They can teach you about your personality traits, they can teach you how to manage situations that you’re not necessarily comfortable with.
Your MBTI reports, all of these types of things. It’s just learning about yourself and it’s putting yourself in situations where you’re going to have challenging conversations. You’re going to have difficult situations that you deal with and not being scared to do it, not being scared to ask.
If you can and you can afford it and your practice encourages it, asking for a coach, getting one of the more senior leaders in the group or the practice, and this might be even where corporates come in and are beneficial because there’s so many people that you can learn from in those situations is putting your hand up and asking people for help. And not being afraid to get it wrong and learning from it. Feedback. Feedback’s a gift. Until you know how you’re doing and people really tell you how you’re doing, you just don’t know. You can walk in there thinking you’re doing the greatest job and everyone going, oh no, here comes Russell again.
And I’ve had those before, so it’s really important and it’s not personal. If you open up those conversations with your team and you show that you just as vulnerable as them, that you just have the same challenges as them, I think people start to respect that. People want to be led by people they like. I think it’s really important. And not all people can do it. And I think that’s also important. Sometimes people step into these roles and are scared of failure. They get imposter syndrome, they realize this isn’t actually what I want to do. And maybe they leave the industry or maybe they feel they’ve failed. You haven’t. It’s the same as doing a procedure or an operation. You’ve got to learn to do it. And some people don’t like doing orthopaedics, some people don’t like to scanning. It’s a skillset that you learn. And I think sometimes if you’ve written off more than you chew or you try it and you don’t think you like it, that’s fine. I think it’s really, really important. Some people are born clinicians, some people are born academics. Some people are more encouraged to do things in a different way.
So I don’t think anyone should be scared of doing it, but don’t put your hand up and do it blindly because it’s difficult. And I think you will be surprised at sometimes how difficult it is. Ask people, learn from people, read books and do some courses. I was lucky enough to do several leadership courses. Sometimes you sit there and think what a load of nonsense, but actually, the situation comes up at some point where you go, “Ah, I remember that they said in this situation, try this.” Listen, keep quiet. Show people you understand. Show people you actually really are listening and understanding and caring. And it makes a big, big difference.
Jack Peploe:
Yeah,
Russell Welsh:
Coaching. Coaching as well. If you practice or support it, get a coach. It’s somebody that just you can talk to and say, I had this situation at work today. I dealt with it this way. I don’t think I did it right. What should I do? And it’s important. It’s really, really important. Especially when you’re stressed.
Jack Peploe:
It’s interesting with coaches because they don’t necessarily tell you what to do. They talk you through and they work with you to come to resolutions, which I think is fantastic. It’s a different style, isn’t it?
Russell Welsh:
It is. And a coaching style, there’s certain, and you have to practice it. You have to do role play, you have to. I practice it on my kids, I practice it unsuccessfully, but it’s sometimes just listening or throwing questions out to people, asking their opinion and stopping and let them talk and listen. In our profession, I think we interrupt a client if you’re consulting within the first 15 seconds, it’s consulting skills, sit back, listen, take it in, question. But it’s hard to do. You have to train yourself to do it. It’s like learning to do a TPLO. You have to train yourself to do it.
Jack Peploe:
One thing I’ll never be able to do, but there we go.
Russell Welsh:
And you will get it wrong. You’ll get a wrong occasion here, but you have to be prepared for that.
Jack Peploe:
Yeah, 100%. So I think I know the answer to this question because it’s going to be watching wait for Creature Comforts, but based on your experience in UK, Ireland, Europe and US, the world, basically, are there any unique challenges or opportunities in these markets that have influenced your approach to veterinary business?
Russell Welsh:
Yes. I mean there’s a couple of things. I suppose if I look at how we ran Village Vet to how a larger corporate works, I saw the polar opposites. I mean actually if I look back at what we were doing at Village Vet, we were winging it, really, we did very well. But it did get to a size where we started to think, well, this is now a big business. So I think what’s happened now is during COVID, and I saw this when I was COO, people were scared, people were overworked, people were really, it was a really, really challenging time. And I honestly believe a large proportion of the industry has been scarred by that.
And there’s some despondency in the industry now. It’s sort of people are looking and saying, well, what can I do? Where can I go? I don’t really want to open a practice or I’ve seen this opportunity, but I don’t really have the money to do it or how do I do it? So for me, I think the challenges come with just to rebalance how the industry looks at itself. If I go back 12, 15 years, we did everything for our clients. Clients were king. It was create raving fans. It was the client is always right. And that came at the detriment of the staff. Generally staff were always working, they were always pleasing, emotionally drained, emotional fatigue.
And then what you had was you had COVID hit. And what we had was, this is just my opinion is clients on the whole became almost a threat to us. They became an inconvenience. It was stay out, go stand under the gazebo, pass me fluffy, and I’ll treat fluffy inside. I think there’s still that perception that clients, because there’s now this wave of new clients and people aren’t getting necessarily the one-to-one attention that they would’ve had just because of the number of people. People are overwhelmed, their practices are often short-staffed. What you’ve now got is clients become an inconvenience. And you’ve now getting frustrated clients, you’re getting angry clients, you’re getting frustrated and stressed veterinary professionals. And I think there’s a bit of tension. And people are trying their best.
One of the things I always say is the level of care in the veterinary industry in the UK is exceptional. It just is. It’s never in doubt. If an animal goes into a practice, it’s going to get the best care that it could get. But I think it’s swung from focusing on the client to possibly becoming quite inward looking and focusing very much on the teams and going, what’s in it for us? I need to be paid more. I deserve more. Which is fair enough. I need this. This is the hours and the way I want to work. And I think there’s just this challenge. You’ve got a tsunami of clients, and you’ve got a workforce that is sometimes pushing those clients away.
So what I want to do and what we want to do with Creature Comforts is try and rebalance that. It’s just to say, everybody can win from this. If you’ve got happy, healthy staff, you’re going to have happy, healthy clients. You’re going to have a happy balance sheet and a happy bottom line. And it’s just trying to figure out how we can do that. And the way that we’ve looked at it is making things more efficiently, making things more efficient. So when you’re talking about growth, if I can get my vets to do what they’re trained to do and charge appropriately for it, that’s going to get growth. If I can take my nursing team and get them to do what they’re trained for, to do 20% of the work that’s currently been done by vets, which should be done by nurses who would love to do that level of work, to me that’s driven growth. And you haven’t gone up in team numbers. You’ve just made sure that people are efficient in making sure that access to veterinary care by clients is seamless. If they want an appointment, they should be able to book it at a time that suits them. They should see what their calendar availability is. They should be able to book. They should have access to the health professionals that they entrusting their care to.
There’s one way of doing that is technology to making sure that technology helps you with that. Making sure that the environments people are coming into are healthy, they light, they’re clean. Someone’s got somewhere that can go and sit and have a nice cup of coffee and have a proper break. And not in a back room where the carpet’s still the same carpet from when you started the practice 20 years ago. These are what people expect. And also limiting the number of interactions you have. I don’t think we always need to drive growth. If you go back to growth by seeing more and more and more and more people, you can drive growth by. It’s okay, in my opinion, to have a practice that reaches capacity, that’s a healthy practice, that’s a healthy environment. Why do you need to add another thousand clients or 2000 clients? Service those 5,000, 6,000 clients you’ve got in your practice well. Keep them on board, keep them on site, get them coming in when they need to. Treat them virtually when you don’t need to.
And when it’s at capacity, it’s at capacity and open another one or offer another. I just think you’ve got to be careful to focus on growth by growth just being, adding more, adding more, adding more. I think it’s going to come from efficiency. It’s going come from technology. It’s going to come from actually going back to looking after those good clients that you have. 80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your clients. It just does. You don’t need endless numbers of clients knocking down your door. It’s important. I think that’s a very, very important thing.
And technology, the exciting bits. I mean, that’s your space, you know.
Jack Peploe:
Love it.
Russell Welsh:
And it’s not my space. I sit, you’re talking like I’m a technophobe starting up a tech enabled business. But I mean, the team that I’ve got, and you’ve met them, these guys are smart, and they’re always challenging me. Why can’t you do it this way? Why do we have to use this? Why? And sometimes I’ve got to go, well, yes, why not? So being open to what’s out there, listening to people, looking at other industries, what’s happening in dentistry? What’s happening in human medicine? And what’s happening in optometrists? These are all things where people are testing different things. Look at what’s happening in other countries or look in the US, we can see what’s happened with Modern Vet and Modern Animal and Small Door and Petfolk and Dr. Treat. And all of these have challenged the norm and are doing extremely well. And I think you get a much healthier, happier workforce.
Jack Peploe:
It’s almost like, you are to a point, it feels like cheating because you can see what other people are doing and almost make that leap without having to go through the hard work. There’s obviously still a lot of hard work and you’ve got to challenge it further, but it’s a great way of working through it. Absolutely. 100%.
Russell Welsh:
It is. And I think that’s where my founder, Dan Attia, he’s good at that. He’s always looking and saying, “Guys, they’ve pivoted. Why would we want to go down the route that they’ve pivoted from?” And it’s so important to do that. Is to learn from other people’s mistakes and don’t see competition as a threat. See competition as complimentary to what you’re doing because if they succeeding and you can do the same, you will succeed. And then the new becomes the norm. Clients will then expect, okay, well this is what I actually expect from my veterinary practice. Or staff will say, this is actually what I now expect from the place that I work. And you start to get healthy competition, you start to get growth. You start to get change in an industry. And the corporates can do it. They’ve got the money, and especially the privately owned corporates, but it’s much harder to do because you’ve still got 200, 500, 1500 practices with different cultures that you’ve required, that you’ve partly integrated or haven’t. So they will, but it takes a lot longer.
And that’s why at this point in time, I think that a start-up, it’s a prime perfect opportunity. Lots of clients, lots of disgruntled clients, lots of youngish pets who are only going to get older and only going to pick up conditions, and a lot of disgruntled staff who want something different. I think timing wise, it’s a good time to look at doing something new. And tech, technology AI, everything. I get excited by it, I think you can see, but it’s daunting to me. I know how to run and operate vet practices, the technology that I’ve got my tech team to do that. But the stuff that if you’ve got the time and the money to do, it’s exciting. Veterinary will not look the same as it looks now in three years time.
Jack Peploe:
No, it won’t. I’m extremely excited about what’s going to happen with the industry, even the change that since COVID has been vast. So I see this as, like you say, a really exciting time.
But Russell, it’s been incredibly enlightening talking to you today. I literally could chat you for hours.
Russell Welsh:
Like I said, hopefully I’m making sense of it, but I do get excited by it. I really do. And I’ve said it before on numerous occasions. Other people is we are in such a privileged industry. Why do we talk ourselves down? People look up to us, they respect us. They want to be us. They want to work in the veterinary industry. So let’s make it fun. Let’s bring that fun back, that skip into work. Yes, it’s hard. It’s not an easy industry. It’s hard, but it doesn’t have to be horrible. You can enjoy it. And that’s what we want to do. And I want to try and make sure that we bring some of that joy back for clients, for staff, and innovate and see what the next five years holds. So be an exciting journey. And hopefully it is. I might be [inaudible 00:36:43].
Jack Peploe:
I generally can’t wait to see how Creature Comforts evolves. It is going to be super exciting. Before we close off, can you tell us how the listeners can find out more about you and get in touch?
Russell Welsh:
I mean, reach out on LinkedIn. Our first clinic is going to be opening in about four weeks, so keep an eye on our website. So creaturecomforts.co.uk. There’s a lot happening that’s all being built. If you in the London area, reach out more than happy, come talk to us. The more people that get interested in these types of things, and like I say, I don’t see people as competition. I see them as bringing something new to the industry. Come and have a look at our practices. Once our app is out there, download it, play on it, see what it’s about. It’s great. It’s great. And happy to talk to people anytime, really. But easiest way is just reach out on LinkedIn.
Jack Peploe:
Amazing. Well, Russell, thank you so much. Really, really appreciate your time and great speaking to you.
Russell Welsh:
It’s a pleasure. Thanks, Jack.
Announcer:
Pause for laughs.
Jack Peploe:
Each episode we add a touch of humour by asking our guests to share their most amusing and unforgettable and all related mishaps or bloopers. This time we have Brian Faulkner, who takes us back on one of his most memorable veterinary adventures.
Brian Faulkner:
True story. Absolutely. On my very first day as being a vet in Leicestershire, 1995, afternoon, little kid from across the road brings in this racing pigeon, and the pigeon had fallen into his garden. His cat had been playing with it, trying to kill it, but he brought it in wanting to make sure that it wasn’t injured. And the pigeon seemed okay, but it was exhausted, racing pigeon. So I held out its wing, and on the wing there was a telephone number. So I called the telephone number and said, “Oh, hi, my name is Brian Faulkner. I’m a vet. I have a pigeon in my care with this telephone number on it. Does that make sense? Do you keep pigeons?” And the lady who answered the phone went, “Oh, okay. Oh, yes. Oh, right, right. It’d be one of her.” She held the phone off and she went, “Billy, your pigeon’s in Ireland.”
So Billy comes to the phone and he was all excited. And of course she heard this, and I hadn’t said where I was. And I said, “Oh, hi.” And she goes. I said, “Whereabouts are you Manchester? Okay. I said, well, I’m actually in Lester.” I mean, Ireland might’ve been closer to Manchester than Lester. So I said, well, actually, that’s fine. And we arranged and we got the pigeon back home by a courier and all the rest. But I always wish after that, that my Australian colleague had made that call. That’s what I wish had happened that day.
Molly Fiander:
Yeah. So as a locum, the challenges I faced is the unknown. So you are going, and what most people don’t realize is, and exactly the same as me when I first became locum, is you just thought, I can become a locum because I’m a qualified vet or I’m a qualified nurse. That’s the completely wrong mindset to go with because when you become a locum, you become a business owner. Whether you are self-employed, you’re a limited company. Even if you are employed through an umbrella company, you still have other responsibilities that you have no idea about, and you were never taught about in vet or vet nursing. And that’s where so many people fall short. I’ve had people get themselves into further debt than what they was. They’d get themselves into further burnout than what they was
Jack Peploe:
Coming up next week, we welcome Molly Fiander, a registered veterinary nurse with a certification in emergency and critical care. Molly shares her journey from qualifying as a nurse to becoming a locum, discussing the challenges she faced and the lessons she’d learned along the way. We delve into her passion for supporting the locum community, her innovative solutions for improving the locum experience, and the importance of community and resources for veterinary professionals. Tune in to hear Molly’s insights on navigating the local world and transforming the veterinary industry.
That’s it for this episode. All links and recommendations we talked about are in the show notes. Don’t forget to subscribe and share the podcast if you found it useful. In the meantime, thanks for listening and see you next time.
- Please send any questions, ideally in audio-form (or any other feedback) to jack@veterinaryit.services.
