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Life as a Vet Student:

The VBMA and My Future Success

Annie Brodmerkle - Western University - Class of 2008

Business skills are essential to a productive veterinarian even if one does not want to become a business owner. Through the Veterinary Business Management Association’s local chapter at Washington State University (WSU-VBMA) I have learned that the successful veterinarian knows how to manage money and finance projects, supplies, and equipment. He or she also knows how to utilize marketing skills to enhance production. These business skills ensure client and personnel retention, and provide the veterinarian with financial stability and confidence. As the VBMA’s mission statement says, this club is a student driven association dedicated to increasing business knowledge for the advancement of the veterinary profession.

Since becoming a VBMA member, I have realized how deficient the curriculum is in these important life skills. We spend the majority of our time learning how to be a veterinarian, but no time learning about how to survive as a veterinarian. I certainly don’t want to end up at my first job not knowing enough about marketing statistics to base a decision on production pay verses salary, or lacking leadership skills so I can’t delegate well to the technicians because I didn’t have the opportunity to fill such a role while at veterinary school. Being a team leader requires good communication, and the VMBA has offered several lectures on leadership development and communication skills for both client and personnel interactions. The VMBA has put together this excellent certificate program that goes beyond the standard noon hour club meetings. This certificate program entails three-hour interactive sessions in the evenings with veterinary experts and professionals who base their careers on these attributes. By the time I graduate, I’ll have a certificate to show that I took the extra time, an additional thirty hours, to learn about veterinary business management and what I need to be successful in this field. This is all information that I would not have otherwise obtained in the traditional curriculum.

This club has also changed what I thought about budgeting, saving, and borrowing. Everyone knows that we need to keep our debt load as low as possible, but what about after graduation? Should we buy into a practice? What’s a good deal? How do we fund it and/or how do we fund new equipment? Speakers that have lectured to our club on these subjects have left their business cards and their home numbers so that when I graduate, I can call them up (for free!) and ask for some valuable professional advice. This is very reassuring to me, because I know I won’t have to make a lot of uniformed decisions as a new graduate. I’ll have the experience of many consultants, veterinarians, and business leaders at my fingertips. Additionally, these speakers have taught me how to write a business plan and how to use marketing statistics and economics for my benefit. Before I joined the VBMA, I didn’t even know where to look for demographics much less why I would need them!

Even if I wasn’t planning on becoming a business owner, business skills are important for good personal finance and job satisfaction. Of all the clubs offered at WSU, the VBMA is the only one that gives me talents and ideas that will enhance my life so that I can go out and enhance the lives of others. Being a member of the VBMA has presented me with new ideas and abilities that, in hindsight, I recognize as essential for a satisfied veterinarian and fundamental to a profitable business. If you are interested in starting a certificate program or VBMA chapter at your school, or if you would like more information, please feel to contact me at annie@vetmed.wsu.edu. I wish you success in your future veterinary field!

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