Each country has different numbers, different economies, cultures. All these reflect into your business. Benchmarking is to compare your company to others. Veterinarians in general are afraid of doing this. They rarely reveal their numbers, and that is a shame, because all practices could grow if we could compare our numbers and learn with each other.

KPI are key performance indicators. They show how we are doing in our business.

The first one can be the total revenue, all the money that gets in. Then our expenses, and subtracting of from the other, we have the profit. In the US, the average clinic income is around 12% to 18%, which is probably similar in many other countries.

How much do you spend in inventory? In vaccines? In rental? There are maximum costs to be spent for each of them!

You can split these KPIs, such as in exactly what items are you spending your revenue? How much do you pay as salaries? You should pay a maximum of 20% of the amount of revenue a vet does in your practice. No more than that. Of course, all taxes included. By the way, running a practice under the law is another KPI, once good companies do so and have a bigger value if the practice is to be acquired. Another KPI is the EBITDA (earning before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization). Most of the M & A (Mergers and Acquisition) processes take it in consideration.

Other non-monetary KPI are important, such as absenteeism, satisfaction of clients, death rate, lost client, new clients during the year, etc.

For most of the practices around the world, with rare exceptions, the veterinarian does not know his basic KPIs. This is fundamental for a practice that wants to grow, and provide best quality of life for the vet, his tram, and his family.

For your sake, start to write everything down and reflect on your numbers. Talk to others.