March 15, 2020

Erin Sole, a fourth-year student at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, was named the winner of the National Simmons Educational Fund Business Aptitude Award in January during the annual meeting of the national Veterinary Business Management Association, an organization of veterinary students, in Orlando, Florida.

The $15,000 awarded is earned through an essay competition. Sole was selected from among 19 national and international candidates.

She won the award for resolving a case study focused on a business owner interested in selling a practice and a young associate veterinarian interested in buying it but with multiple high-value corporate offers also in play.

“For my solution, with the immense help and advice of members of the veterinary finance community, I presented a partial sale option in which the associate purchases 80% the practice, and, together with the owner, is able to grow the practice so that the value continues to increase,” Sole said in an announcement from the University of Florida. “Through the initial sale, combined with earnings for the retained 20% ownership over 10 years and final sale after 10 years, the owner is essentially able to recover profit equivalent to the top corporate offer.”