Entrepreneurship
ENTREPRENEURSHIP FOR VETERINARY PROFESSIONALS
It's the most happening thing in the world right now. “Entrepreneur” is the word which attracts the young minds of the present or the so called “Generation X”. Everyone’s ready to face the big bad world out there as entrepreneurs. What does the world have in store for them? Is it going to be a cake walk or be like walking through a landmine field? Well… If I’d have my say I’d say that it’s like going to war against the other half of the world, who would rather be a “salaried” lot.
Though Veterinary Science is one among the many “Career-Oriented” disciplines, we are let loose into the wilderness only with a handful of notes and hopes. At the crossroads, I chose the path to self-employment (or the more elegant “Entrepreneurship”). The path was of course with rays of hope as well as many a moment of despair. There are many ways of self-employment for us vets, and we would be quite good in all our endeavours. This is because I believe that we are lucky enough to get acquainted with many fields including economics and commerce as we course through our 5 years at college.
Once having chosen to become an entrepreneur, we have quite a handful of options like becoming a free-lancing practitioner, setting up a business like meat or dairy processing, farming, animal products marketing, veterinary pharmaceuticals and biologicals manufacturing or marketing and so on and so forth.
I chose to become a free-lancing practitioner because that’s what came to me naturally, as I had planned way back in becoming so. Veterinary practice can be finely tuned into sole large animal practice or companion animal practice or a mixed practice. One can either go single handedly or join forces with a couple of other vets to set up a practice. Both have their own pros and cons. I was lucky enough to get a really good partner and this allowed us to do certain things like, for instance, performing surgeries, which would be difficult to do alone.
Beginning to practice veterinary medicine is not a thing that starts right after the day we graduate, but has to be planned well in advance starting from one’s student days. There’s a lot of difference in the perspective of studying to become an academician and a practitioner. Getting the resources to set up a practice is a tiring task and it really pays to have a lot of foresight while planning initially. Putting up a clinic at your home is a good start but it should not stop at that if you want become a hardcore practitioner.
Companion animal practice is supposed to be more lucrative than dealing with farm animals. I personally feel that tending to those poor farmers’ animals is a more gratifying experience, even though treating that beagle with those liquid brown eyes is nonetheless joyful. So having a clinic for the rich lady’s Yorkie fills your pockets and running around farms trying to catch feisty calves for an examination keeps you fit and happy.
My clinic is neither full of hi-tech gizmos nor has a grand elevation both up front and inside. This saves both my clients and patients from getting paranoid. But I make it a point to keep my place spotlessly clean and believe me, this is the single most thing that a prospective client observes to evaluate us in one glance. Anyhow, first impression being the best impression, it doesn't mean that we should have Spartan furnishings. All the basic equipments should be available and the general atmosphere should exude warmth and affection.
The world is moving at a very fast pace and even we vets have to keep up with the developments in the field that we are specializing in. It’s important to keep abreast of the happenings in the rest of the animal world or we’ll be hung up as relics.
Now, that was just one story about my entrepreneurship and there are yet many different kinds of entrepreneurs. It would be definitely better if other such persons describe about their experiences rather than me.
Be it any kind of business, one has to have passion for that business, to be successful.
K. Prasenna (1997 Batch)