Business

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.

Publicly document all those freebies.

How business owners must balance the rights of smokers with those of nonsmokers.

This veterinarian will be testing for a black belt soon.

Use this questionnaire to help employees assess their roles and performance in your practice.

A few tweaks to your paperwork and front desk, and refill annoyances will be a thing of the past.

Some remarks from clients and colleagues can deflate your enthusiasm. Here's how to respond the next time their words make you ready to pop.

Dr. Hazel Holman was one of 34 veterinary practices targeted by Massachusetts environmental regulators in a medical-waste compliance crackdown.

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.

According to Readex Research, pinpointing the factors that guarantee an effective ad is difficult but one way to improve an ad's potential for success is by adding color.

This Texas hospital is anything but modest and can boast the client growth to prove it.

The six principles of adult learning provide a framework for building a protocol for ongoing client education.

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

Here in the Midwest, it's been a stormy season. Some states have seen record numbers of twisters, and we've had to kennel our dog during thunderstorms so many times this year we've stopped counting. If you've ever lived in an area where tornadoes are common, you know the chill the tornado siren sends when it starts to moan.

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

Can I question my employee who's revealed a history of mental illness and prescribed medications to control it?

It's time to face facts. you've spent years dreaming of the perfect veterinary facility, but your pockets are only so deep.

"The waiting area smelled of urine and pet odors." "The surroundings were dirty and depressing." Don't let these comments be from your clients.

The colors, textures, proportions, and "mood" all work together in a place to communicate something about what you're supposed to experience there.

It's a jungle out there. With so many different species of practice owners running around, how are you supposed to know how to interact with them?

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

This Texas hospital is anything but modest and can boast the client growth to prove it.

It wouldn't surprise me if a certain percentage of readers who merely scan this month's piece do so because they don't see what relevance the topic could possibly have to the practicing veterinarian. I understand completely because, at first blush, it doesn't seem possible that any "investigations" would need to be carried out in an animal hospital and, even if one did need to be done, how complicated could it be?

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

Let your manager know what you expect him or her to do.

Men use banter, joking, and playful put downs to establish authority. Women try to maintain an appearance of equality, downplaying their own authority while taking the other person's reactions into account. These rituals play out with both positive and negative outcomes for veterinarians.

We've been talking a lot here about how women talk.

You are perfectly positioned to benefit from change. Here's how to make the most of three key management decisions.

Veterinarians worry about the economic future according to a DVM Newsmagazine poll. Is it worth it? One expert believes so.

I'll never know for sure which cat first brought the disease to my clinic. But I know where I saw it first.