Building the Modern Veterinary Practice: Smarter Growth, Stronger Teams, and New Models of Care

Angie:

Welcome back to the Veterinary Business Podcast.

Today, we’re talking about what it really takes to build and grow a modern veterinary practice in a changing industry.

For many practice owners and aspiring owners, the big question is no longer simply, “How do I open a practice?” It’s, “How do I build a practice that is operationally strong, attractive to clients, sustainable for the team, and prepared for where veterinary care is heading?”

That is exactly why I’m excited about today’s conversation.

Our guest is Charlotte Weir, Vice President of Partnerships at Roo. Charlotte is a Houston-based veterinary business leader, founder, strategic advisor, and senior consultant with extensive experience in veterinary startups, practice management, operational growth, and emerging models of care.

Over more than a decade in the veterinary industry, Charlotte has helped build and scale innovative veterinary businesses. Her experience includes leading operations and integrations at PetWell Partners, supporting Roo’s expansion, and advising The Vets on the development of a scalable at-home veterinary care model.

She is also the founder and co-owner of 2525 Sunset Veterinarians, where she combines strategic business insight with a commitment to exceptional pet care and client experience.

Today, we’ll explore how veterinary practices can think more strategically about growth, operations, team development, market expansion, and the future of veterinary care.

Charlotte, welcome to the show.

Charlotte Weir:

Thank you so much for having me, Angie.

Angie:

Charlotte, when you look at the veterinary industry today, what do you think practice owners and aspiring owners need to understand about building a practice that can truly grow and adapt?

Charlotte Weir:

For me, the biggest mindset shift is realizing that veterinary medicine isn’t simply changing—it’s evolving. It is also evolving at a much faster pace than it did before.

The practices that are going to succeed are not necessarily the biggest practices or the oldest legacy practices.

I think it will be the practices that remain curious. They question procedures and policies, look for ways to improve, and maintain open communication with the team members who experience the work every day.

Communicating with clients is also extremely important. You need to understand what services you can offer that would make life easier for them and their pets.

That might include at-home or mobile services, pickup and drop-off options, or allowing clients to drop their pets off at the practice.

All of that begins with culture and creating a culture that is open to change.

You cannot build a great business on unstable relationships. Communication, trust, and a shared mission must come first.

At my practice, every decision comes back to one question: “Is this what is best for the pet in front of us today?”

When your team understands that mission and believes in it, they make better decisions—even when you are not in the room. As a leader, it is important to empower them to do that.

The second piece is being willing to challenge the idea that, “This is the way we’ve always done it.”

Technology, AI, flexible staffing, telemedicine, and new ownership models are not threats. I know that all these changes and new models can feel uncomfortable, especially when people are accustomed to doing things a particular way.

It is about opening yourself up to these changes, embracing them thoughtfully, and applying them in a way that works for you and your practice.

These tools can allow you to spend more time doing what only humans can do: caring for people and their pets.

I also think we sometimes confuse growth with getting bigger. Growth should be more about building a resilient practice that can continue improving and innovating—not necessarily one that simply continues expanding.

Angie:

That’s such an interesting answer.

You’ve worked across startups, integrations, partnerships, and practice operations. What are some of the most important operational foundations a veterinary business needs before it can scale successfully?

Charlotte Weir:

That’s an interesting question because we always talk about scaling. Again, we tend to talk about getting bigger.

I think the discussion should focus more on stabilizing first.

I’ve learned this from both sides of the business: integrating practices with PetWell Partners, helping build Roo from the ground up, and then putting my money where my mouth is by starting my own hospital.

We always want to talk about scaling, but stabilization must come first.

If communication with your team, clients, doctors, and leadership is inconsistent, you are not ready to scale.

The same is true if your processes live on sticky notes instead of in clear standard operating procedures, remain inside people’s heads, or depend on one individual’s approval.

In those circumstances, you are not scaling. You are multiplying chaos.

Before you consider adding doctors, locations, or services, ask yourself a few questions.

Can every team member clearly explain our mission?

Are the systems we have implemented repeatable?

Does every member of the team know what success looks like?

It is also important to use data to make decisions. Are we measuring what actually matters inside the practice?

At my hospital, I focus on creating systems that support people rather than replace them.

AI can feel frightening because people worry that it will replace their roles. However, it should be used to empower people.

Stable practices are not built around heroic individuals. They succeed because we create environments in which ordinary people can consistently do extraordinary work.

Standard operating procedures do not remove personality. They remove uncertainty.

Building that stable foundation and establishing clear communication are what allow you to begin scaling the model.

Angie:

As veterinary care continues to evolve through models such as at-home care, flexible staffing, and new partnership approaches, how should practice owners think about client experience and market positioning so they remain relevant and competitive?

Charlotte Weir:

That is a multifaceted question.

Clients have changed. We all have.

Think about Amazon. Today, you can order a product and have it delivered to your doorstep that same afternoon. That level of access is real.

Clients are also more informed and busier, and they expect the same convenience from healthcare that they receive everywhere else. They now expect that convenience from veterinary medicine as well.

What hasn’t changed is the need for relationships. Those relationships must be built on trust.

I don’t think technology can replace relationships in any way, but it can strengthen relationships when used correctly.

Take AI scribes, for example. I use CoVet in my hospital. Our client discharge notes are now incredibly detailed because we can process the information with CoVet and send it home with the client.

Clients can refer back to those notes, and that additional communication helps us build greater trust. It is an enablement tool for the practice.

Whether it is online scheduling, AI-assisted workflows, digital communication, or flexible staffing through companies such as Roo, these innovations should create more time for team members to have meaningful conversations with clients and build trust—not less time.

At our hospital, we don’t simply focus on fixing pets. We focus on partnering with clients and families throughout their pets’ healthcare journeys.

That means spending time educating clients, giving them options, explaining why we are recommending something, and making them feel as though they are part of their animal’s healthcare team.

Medicine builds trust with the client. Education builds loyalty.

Loyalty creates the long-term relationships that help keep your practice sustainable, healthy, and growing.

Angie:

That’s such an important point, Charlotte.

When we talk about positioning, client experience, and remaining competitive, it is not only about what happens inside the practice. It is also about how clearly the practice presents itself before a pet owner ever walks through the door.

A veterinary practice may have an excellent team, a strong culture, and a great client experience. However, if local pet owners cannot easily find the practice, understand what makes it different, or feel confident taking the next step, growth becomes much harder than it needs to be.

That’s why the Veterinary Business Institute offers a complimentary Marketing Strategy Meeting for veterinary practice owners.

During the session, Lila Stone and the Ekwa Marketing team review the practice’s current online presence and prepare a customized veterinary marketing plan.

The goal is to help practice owners understand where they stand today, improve their local visibility, strengthen their Google presence, attract more high-quality new patients, and create a more consistent flow of new-patient calls.

It is not about guessing what to fix. It is about gaining a clearer picture of the opportunities that may already be available to the practice.

You can book a complimentary Marketing Strategy Meeting at:

Once again, that is:

That leads perfectly into the next part of our conversation.

Charlotte, relief veterinary work has historically had a mixed reputation within the profession.

How do you see that perception changing, and how have you used relief work in your own practice to support employee retention, revenue growth, and your team’s well-being?

Charlotte Weir:

I love this question. Being with Roo, it is obviously near and dear to my heart.

Relief work has experienced one of the biggest identity shifts in our profession.

Years ago, relief was often viewed as a last option—something used to fill a hole in the schedule.

Today, I see it completely differently.

Relief provides capacity for your practice. It is a strategy for growth, a way to prevent burnout, and a way to support your team.

When we built Roo, we weren’t trying to build another staffing company. We were trying to solve one of veterinary medicine’s biggest problems: connecting incredible doctors with incredible hospitals that need greater flexibility without compromising patient care.

One of the hardest things to do in a hospital is tell a client that you cannot see their pet because you are fully booked or do not have a veterinarian available that day.

That can seriously damage the relationship.

At my practice, we use relief proactively rather than reactively.

If one of my doctors needs a mental health day, wants to attend continuing education, or simply wants to spend time with their family, I don’t want that request or decision to come with guilt. I want to have options.

Roo provides those options. It gives us peace of mind.

Financially, it can also be an excellent decision. Relief shifts allow us to continue seeing patients we might otherwise have to turn away.

They generate revenue, reduce appointment delays, and protect full-time doctors from burnout.

To me, relief does not replace culture—it protects it.

I have used relief as a significant growth mechanism for my hospital.

We have high-demand days on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. On those days, I add a relief veterinarian for a half-day.

I don’t do that because the entire schedule is already booked. I do it because I know that if the schedule is 75 percent full the week before, we will almost certainly reach full capacity and may exceed it by another 25 to 50 percent.

That is what the half-day relief veterinarian is there to support.

It allows me to say yes to clients, see those pets, retain that revenue, and build relationships with veterinarians we may not have worked with before.

Relief helps protect the team you already have, which is one reason the perception is changing.

More practice owners are realizing that flexibility does not lower the standard of medicine.

It helps build clients’ relationships with the practice rather than making those relationships dependent on one veterinarian. It increases veterinary capacity and creates a more sustainable future for the people working in the profession.

Angie:

Before we end this conversation, what do you believe will separate veterinary practices that simply survive from those that thrive over the next five to ten years?

Charlotte Weir:

I think the future belongs to practices that are adaptable.

Medicine will change. Technology will certainly change. Client expectations will continue to evolve.

Leadership must continue to change as well.

The practices that thrive will invest in people just as much as they invest in equipment and technology.

They will embrace data without losing empathy.

They will use AI without sacrificing human connection.

They will create flexible workplaces and view that flexibility not as a weakness, but as an essential part of building sustainable careers.

They will also stop relying solely on price as a competitive factor and instead focus on the client experience.

We have to build businesses that are compassionate, but they must also be sustainable for the people coming into the practice and the people working within it.

When you have a healthy team and create a healthy working environment, you can provide better care for pets.

That is the future I want to help build in the veterinary medicine industry.

Angie:

Charlotte, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your perspective.

This was an incredibly valuable conversation because you connected the major changes happening in veterinary medicine with the practical decisions practice owners make every day.

We discussed what it takes to build a modern veterinary business, why strong operations must come before scaling, why client experience and market positioning are becoming increasingly important, and how practice owners can begin taking practical steps toward sustainable growth.

For our listeners, the key takeaway is that growth does not happen by accident.

It comes from being intentional about your business model, team, operations, visibility, and the experience you create for clients and patients.

Charlotte, thank you again for sharing your insights with us.

To everyone listening, thank you for joining us on the Veterinary Business Podcast.

We’ll see you next time.