In nearly every job posting you see today, there is some mention of work-life balance. This isn’t just in veterinary medicine, but rather any line of work. We should have opportunity to escape the stress of work and step into our hobbies, family life, or relaxation. Being able to escape and decompress allows us to hopefully step back into our work roles with greater energy to then perform at our best. When I talk to veterinarians or students, a common reason there is no interest in business ownership is because of the misconception that when you own a practice, your life is consumed by that practice. I am here to dispel this myth, and tell you that when you own the business, you can create the epitome of work-life balance.
Work-life balance isn’t achieved simply by hanging your shingle and opening a business. It will undoubtedly take extensive effort, time, and energy to get your practice to a point where you feel successful and ready to enjoy some rest and relaxation away from work. The hard work you put into setting your practice up for long term success will pay off, but regardless of whether you are doing a startup or purchasing an existing practice, it will take time.
My Wake-Up Call
Business success is not just about the top-line revenue and profit margins. It’s about building an organization that you own, not one that owns you. When I entered one of my first partnerships, and one where I was running a hospital alone, I admittedly had a practice that owned me. I was always answering questions, taking calls when I was at home, working six or seven days a week, and was exhausted. Even though I felt energized in being able to build something that was mine, I knew that the schedule I was working was not sustainable. My wakeup call was when I had to go into the hospital only four days after the birth of our second child to handle an HR issue after fielding numerous phone calls from the hospital. The work-life balance scale was tipped far towards work. I knew something had to be done.
Step One: Hiring the Right People
Work-Life balance will never be achieved as a practice owner if you do not hire the right people. Interviewing is a skill that takes time to develop and undoubtedly has a steep learning curve. It is important to screen individuals not by desperate need, but rather by how they fit with your culture, mission, and vision. When you, the practice owner, hire for fit, you are bringing individuals into the hospital that embody what your practice is. To get the new team members on board, you will need to make your mission clear and live that mission yourself. This will set the heartbeat of the hospital and give the team clear rules on which to work by. Protect this mission and vision as testament for anyone that works within the practice.
Step Two: Empower Leadership from Within
If the only leader within a business is the owner, work-life balance will never be achieved. As a business owner, I have embraced empowering others to be leaders. Whether these are veterinarians, a practice manager, or shift leads, there must be other individuals the team can go to for guidance. Empowering leadership among the team allows you, the owner, to get out of the weeds of the practice and focus on the vision, take time away, or give undivided attention to the clients you serve.
Step Three: Learning to Delegate
Make yourself replaceable, even as the business owner. If the practice revolves solely around your decision-making powers or the medical skills you possess, the practice will never thrive without you in the building. When learning how to do surgery, we talk about the “see one, do one, teach one” method when mastering a particular procedure. The same can be applied for any task within the practice. As the owner, once you have mastered a skill, start training other members of your team to handle those skills. Whether that is training an associate in orthopedic surgery, empowering a technician to practice to the extent of their license, or having a practice manager handle payroll, removing some tasks from your plate will allow growth of the practice and the team.
My Definition of Success
Fast forward five years from the time the practice was running my life. I had implemented appropriate hiring, empowered other leaders, and learned to effectively delegate. The practice now had six doctors and over 40 support staff. While there were still stressors within the practice, I felt I was in a place where I was able to focus on working towards the vision of the practice rather than being stuck in the weeds.
My family and I love to travel, but I was always stressed about leaving the practice for extended periods of time. However, we had an opportunity to go on an international trip that we couldn’t pass up. Even though I was going to be gone for two weeks, I felt the team had the best interest of the practice in mind. During my two weeks away, I received zero phone calls, zero text messages, and zero emails from the team. Upon returning to the hospital two weeks later, the practice was operating as if I never left. The financials were the same, the medical procedures that were able to be done were the same, and the team members were the same.
The freedom to escape for two weeks knowing the practice would continue to thrive without me is when I knew I had achieved work-life balance as an owner.
Call to Action
Practice ownership is hard work and, no doubt, will have stressors. However, using these three steps as the foundations will lead to a healthy work-life balance. The scales will be tipped towards work at the beginning, but surrounding and supporting those around you will allow the scale to tip towards life. When you are the owner of your practice, you set the tone and make the rules. You control when you take vacation, but you want to ensure that the practice will still produce in your absence. When you embody and empower leadership and practice effective delegation, work-life balance will be better than any associate position can promise. I encourage you to consider practice ownership as your means to creating balance.