Hiring a manager for your veterinary practice

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Fritz Wood explains the right time to hire your first practice manager.

You can't pinpoint the perfect time to hire a practice manager, but the sooner the better, says Fritz Wood, CPA, CFP, owner of H.W. Wood Consulting in Lake Quivira, Kan.

"If a practice manager frees up the doctor to see just one or two additional clients each day, it makes good financial sense," Wood says. "Practice manager compensation is often in the 3 percent to 4 percent of gross income range, so a practice does need some critical mass in order to justify the expense."

Think of all a practice manager can do for you. According to the Veterinary Hospital Managers Association 2012 Practice Analysis Results, the most important jobs for practice managers are:

> Handling recruiting, interviewing and hiring

> Managing training and development

> Scheduling and daily work assignments

> Conducting staff meetings

> Organizing employee performance reviews

> Mediating internal disputes

> Disciplining or discharging employees

> Managing employee benefit programs

> Maintaining confidential employee records and personnel files

> Creating and updating job descriptions and manuals

> Managing staff continuing education and licensure.

Once you have hired a practice manager, the doctor can delegate those tasks to the capable manager over time and see more patients, therefore creating more revenue for the practice.

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