Finance

Be wary of quick-fix marketing strategies. Even the most creative gimmicks often produce few or no results.

Here are 15 marketing tips that will yield results for your veterinary practice.

Veterinary diagnostic testing is a growth industry, experts say. Find out how you can better put it to work at your practice.

A surprising number of principals in veterinary practices depend on themselves for their financing needs. With conventional financing increasingly more difficult to obtain, it's now the No. 1 form of financing used by small business owners. It's quick, doesn't require a lot of paper work and often is less expensive than conventional financing.

Keeping up during an economic downturn means focusing on smart business moves and making a few tweaks. What you might let slide in a normal economic climate-capturing all charges and providing great client service-will only be amplified and painfully obvious to you in bad economic times. Here are a few tips to keep in mind.

Practitioners in Michigan say their troubles are what the whole profession will see soon.

I invest, I earn a lot as an owner, and I plan to retire at a reasonable age.

Lakewood, Colo. - Associate veterinarians are jumping jobs faster than the average American worker, according to a new study, and salaries that don't keep pace with inflation could be partly to blame.

Here are some tips from Denise Tumblin, CPA, president of Wutchiett Tumblin and Associates in Columbus, Ohio, and a Veterinary Economics Editorial Advisory Board member:

Complete this quiz-and size up your salary smarts.

A wake-up call might be in order when we study the profit-and-loss ledger for the year. What might look like a 25 percent labor cost is really 33 percent. A huge difference.

In this age of disposables, many veterinary practices still pay substantial sums for repairs and maintenance. However, instead of allowing immediate tax deductions, the Internal Revenue Service increasingly is labeling repair and maintenance expenses as "capital improvements," making them recoverable only through depreciation spread over a number of years.

A hard-working solo veterinarian reaches 67 years of age and wants to sell his practice and retire after 25 years of building it up. It's a no-brainer - or is it?

As you build, consider making these six profit-earning purchases.

Help cat owners provide a pain-free existence for their feline friends.

Wouldn't it be nice to put more away for retirement? Don't you wish you had more to show for your prime working years?

Whether you're planning to purchase an equine practice, or sell one, you're embarking on a journey that will lead to one of the biggest milestones in your veterinary career. So where do you start? Right here, by keeping these essential tips in mind as you travel toward practice ownership or sale.

Technicians zero in on missed charges to increase revenue.

How do I sell my practice's goodwill to a practice that could benefit from the potential business?

So why do we have such poor self-esteem? Is it getting worse?

Track your progress and stay on top of key project deadlines with this list.

North Grafton, Mass. - For every 100 veterinary medical jobs in New England, an additional 59 jobs are created in related industries.

Discounts are a popular marketing tool to encourage clients and customers to pay faster. Many suppliers offer them to improve their cash flow. Like many professionals, some veterinarians offer a trade discount of sorts for immediate payment upon completion of services, but they may give little thought either to the cost of offering discounts or how much they might save by using discounts offered to them.

Dr. Melisa Hicks and her team at Blue Cross Veterinary Hospital in Long Beach, Calif., improve compliance by encouraging clients to prepay for fecal tests.

What you can do to get clients on board with your dental recommendations.

One tip: Offer giveaways printed with your Web site's address

"Oh, Doctor, how can we charge $18 for this service?"

I'm no longer feeling mellow about the Yellow Pages after its colossal mistake.