📈 Practice growth vs burnout risk? Take this 3-Question test

Some weeks it feels like your practice is bursting at the seams. The phones never stop, consults spill over, your team is slotting “just one more” into an already full schedule. A landlord hints about the vacant unit next door, a consolidator around the corner has just added a wing, and clients keep asking whether you offer more services. On paper, expansion looks like the obvious next step. More rooms, more vets, more hours… surely that will ease the pressure and grow revenue. Rarely do we contemplate the opposite, where growth comes first and the planning comes later, and the result is longer days, thinner margins, and a tired team trying to hold it all together.

Growth in a veterinary practice should feel intentional, not reactive. Before you sign a new lease, invest in another piece of equipment, or start sketching a second location, you need a simple way to test whether this move will make your operations smoother, your client experience better, and your profit more predictable, or whether it will quietly increase stress for everyone. Think of it as a 3-question test you run with your leadership team. If you can answer those questions with clear, honest confidence, you are likely on the path to smart, sustainable growth. If you cannot, you may still grow, just in a different way and on a different timeline. Here is how to run that test before you expand, so you can grow smart instead of growing stressed…

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Growth Is Not A Strategy: Why “More” Is Not Always Better

You already know what busy feels like. Diaries packed, phones constant, teams juggling clinical work with everything else. The real question is not “should we grow” but “what happens to an ordinary Tuesday if we add another 20 percent of demand”. Growth does not fix what is fragile. It simply makes your current systems, habits, and gaps bigger and more visible.

Every version of expansion carries hidden operational weight. A new consult room changes how patients move through the building, how reception is covered, and how many nurses or techs you need on the floor to keep things safe. Adding a new service brings protocols, stock, training, and follow up that someone has to design and maintain. Longer opening hours demand fresh thinking about rosters, pay, fatigue, and what “fair” looks like for vets and nurses who already give a lot. None of this lives in a spreadsheet. It lands in the middle of your team’s day.

A simple way to think about any growth idea is to run it through three filters. Within the next 12 months, will this move:

• Make a normal day feel more manageable for your team

• Give clients a smoother, clearer, more consistent experience

• Improve the predictability and quality of your profit, not just top-line revenue

If you cannot see a believable path to improving at least two of those three, you are looking at a stress multiplier, not a growth strategy.

It also helps to name the type of growth you are actually considering. Most plans fall into one or more of these buckets:

• Physical footprint: more rooms, a remodel, the unit next door, or a second site

• Service mix: rehab, imaging, exotics, behaviour, urgent care, grooming, daycare, and similar

• Hours and access: evenings, weekends, walk in capacity, telehealth, home visits

Each option can be powerful if it fits your operations, your clients, and your team. The 3-question test you are about to use is there to show you which ideas genuinely strengthen the practice, and which ones would simply add volume to a day that already feels stretched.

Try this: Before your next leadership meeting, pick one live growth idea and rate it red, amber, or green against each of those three filters: Team, Clients, Profit. If you have two reds, treat that idea as “not yet”, not “never”.

Sometimes we were so focused on filling the empty space next door that we forgot to ask whether our current way of working could survive almost doubling our capacity – Megan F., Practice Manager, Seattle, Washington, USA

Question 1: Would More Volume Improve Or Break Your Current Day?

Before you commit to any kind of expansion, you need to know how close your current set up is to its limits. If you took a typical day in your clinic and quietly increased the workload by 15 to 25 percent, would things feel smoother because you are using capacity better, or would they fall apart faster. This is the operations stress test, and it matters more than any business case or landlord incentive.

Many practices feel “full” for two very different reasons. In some, the diary is genuinely at capacity, the team is efficient, and the only way to meet demand is to add more space, people, or hours. In others, the same sense of overload comes from workarounds, unclear handovers, and constant interruptions. On the surface both look busy. Underneath, the solutions are completely different. Expanding the second type without fixing the basics simply multiplies the chaos.

There are a few simple signals that your current system is already creaking:

• Consults routinely start more than 10 minutes late, even on days without major emergencies

• Nurses and technicians are frequently pulled off clinical tasks to cover phones or reception

• Overtime has started to feel normal rather than exceptional

• You rely on one or two “heroes” who hold everything together and who cannot easily step away

• Client complaints cluster around wait times, mixed messages, or confusion at discharge or billing

These signs show you have an operating model problem, not just a square footage problem. In that case, your next growth step is to improve the way the day runs now, so that any future expansion sits on a solid base.

You can get a clearer picture of your true capacity in a single week with a light-touch audit:

• Track how many minutes late the average consult actually starts

• Count, each day, how often a nurse or tech is pulled from their primary task to handle admin or reception

• Note how many appointments are pushed more than 7 days into the future because you “cannot fit them in”

• Capture how many genuine emergencies arrive and how disruptive they are to the rest of the list

Patterns appear fast. Practices in the USA, UK, Australia, and New Zealand see the same themes, even if the details differ. If your data shows a consistent pattern of delay, interruption, and overtime, then expansion is unlikely to fix that. If, on the other hand, your workflows are tight and the main constraint is raw space or headcount, then growth starts to look more like a sensible next move.

Start here: For the next two weeks, track your actual consult start times every single day, religiously, then bring that one number to your next leadership meeting and ask, “Would more volume improve this picture or break it.”

We were so busy saying yes to every appointment that we did not realise it was our workflow, not our walls, that needed more space first – Daniel L., Lead Veterinarian, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Question 2: Is There Real, Profitable Demand For What You Plan To Add?

Once you know whether your current day can handle more volume, the next test is simple: are you growing into real demand, or just into a good story. It is easy to fall for a new service, a shiny piece of equipment, or the idea of a second site. It is harder to be honest about whether clients, in your area, at your prices, will use it often enough for it to pay its way.

Genuine demand shows up in patterns, not one-off comments. You can separate signal from noise by looking at three things:

• What clients regularly ask for

• What they actually book

• What they pay for without constant discounting or debate

Across the USA, UK, Australia, and New Zealand, the same theme appears. Clients may talk about advanced imaging, rehab, exotics, or urgent care. The services that quietly drive profit are usually things like dentistry, senior health programs, and well-structured wellness plans, because uptake is steady and the value is easy to understand.

You can map demand in a few weeks without a big project:

• Ask reception and nursing teams to keep a simple tally of reasons for every enquiry

• Note every time a client asks for something you do not offer, or cannot provide soon

• Call three nearby clinics as a normal client and ask about wait times and pricing for the service you are considering

Then put a basic one-page view around your idea: likely case volume per week, average fee in your postcode, consumables, extra staff time, and the start-up cost. In some US communities, pet insurance uptake might support more advanced services. In parts of the UK, fee sensitivity may push you to deepen core services first. Across many regions, ongoing workforce shortages may be the real limiter, no matter how attractive the service looks on paper.

The aim is to choose growth that fits what your clients already trust you for. If you are known for dentistry, building a stronger dental offering may beat buying a brand new modality. If your reputation is for calm cats or thoughtful senior care, extend that strength rather than copying the 24/7 hospital down the road. Growth lands better when it feels like “more of what you already do well”, not a random bolt-on.

Start here: For the next two weeks, pick one potential new service and ask at least five clients a day, “We are thinking about adding X here, is that something you would actually use.” Write down their answers and any hesitation. If the enthusiasm is lukewarm face to face, treat that as a warning light before you invest.

We nearly bought a very expensive toy because it looked like the future, but our enquiry tally showed clients were begging us for better dentals and on-time appointments instead – Laura P., Practice Owner, Manchester, UK

Question 3: Do You Have The People To Grow Without Risking Team Burning Out?

Even if your systems are solid and demand is real, every step towards growth has a people factor that has to be taken into consideration. Every extra room, new service, or added location creates more handovers, more decisions, and more “can you just help with this” moments. If you do not think carefully about people first, expansion simply leans harder on the same vets, nurses, and techs who are already giving a lot. That is how good teams slide from proud to exhausted.

This question is not only about headcount. It is about leadership bandwidth and mentoring capacity. You need to know who will design, launch, and stabilise the new thing, and how much time they truly have. Good intentions are not enough. Ask yourself:

• Who, apart from you, will own this project day to day

• How many protected hours they can realistically give it each week

• Which tasks you will remove from their plate to make that space real

Recruitment and onboarding also look different when you are growing. New vets, nurses, and techs do not arrive fully formed. They need time, feedback, and support to work safely and confidently inside your way of doing things. Before you expand, be honest about:

• How long it took to hire your last vet or senior nurse/tech

• How many months it took before they felt truly independent

• Which senior people are already carrying a heavy mentoring load

Then look at your roster and non-negotiables. Growth that quietly eats lunch breaks, pushes finishing times later, or makes leave harder to approve will cost you in morale and retention. As a leadership team, be clear on:

• Which boundaries are non-negotiable for your clinic (for example, protected breaks, no rosters beyond a certain number of late finishes)

• How expansion will affect those boundaries in the first 6 to 12 months

• What extra support you will put in place to protect your core team while things bed in

When you can name the people who will lead and support growth, and you have a believable plan to protect their energy and boundaries, expansion starts to look safer. If, instead, your answer relies on “everyone just pitching in for a while”, you are looking at a burnout risk, not a growth strategy.

Start here: Take one sheet of paper and write down the names of the three people who would carry the most extra load if you grew. Next to each name, write how many protected hours per week they actually have available. If that number is close to zero, your next step is freeing their time, not adding new projects.

We thought we were planning a building project, but what we really planned was asking the same four people to stretch even further, and that nearly cost us two of them – Jenna R., Medical Director, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Turning Your Answers Into A One Page Expansion Plan

Once you have worked through all three questions, you will probably see a pattern. Some ideas look clearly safe and useful. Others start to feel more like stress multipliers. The goal at this point is not to create a thick business plan. It is to turn your answers into a simple, honest one page view that guides your next move.

Start by deciding which of three categories your current growth idea sits in:

• Green: Operations are solid, demand is real, and you have people who can carry the load

• Amber: Demand is there, but you need 6 to 12 months of preparation in operations or people

• Red: The idea would almost certainly increase stress more than it improves profit or client experience

For green ideas, your one page plan is about clarity and execution. Write down:

• What you are actually doing (for example, “Add a third light surgery space and build a stronger dentistry service line”)

• When you plan to do it, broken into phases such as preparation, launch, and bedding in

• How you will measure progress in those first 6 to 12 months, using a small handful of metrics you already track

For amber ideas, treat the one page as a “prepare then grow” roadmap. You are not saying no. You are saying “not yet, and here is what needs to be true before we say yes”. That often includes:

• A specific operations target, such as average consult delay or overtime hours, that needs to improve

• A people milestone, such as hiring or developing another team member who can lead

• A simple demand check you want to complete before committing

For red ideas, resist the urge to bury them. Capture the reasoning in plain language. This protects you from future “it looked so good at the time” pressure and gives you something you can revisit later if circumstances change. A clear written “no, for now, because…” is surprisingly powerful.

Bringing your team into this does not mean handing them every financial detail. It means sharing the broad picture of how you are thinking. When your vets, nurses, and techs can see that you are weighing growth against their day, their clients, and the clinic’s stability, trust deepens. That, in itself, makes future growth easier.

Try this: Draft your one page plan for a single growth idea, then explain it to a senior nurse or practice manager in under three minutes. If they walk away clear on what will change, when, and why, your plan is probably ready to use. If not, tighten it until they can.

Putting it on one page forced us to admit what we were really signing up for, and in two cases out of three, the answer became “not yet” instead of a rushed yes – Oliver S., Practice Owner, Portland, Oregon, USA

Closing Thoughts: Choosing Growth That Fits Your Practice

When you strip away the noise, growth in a veterinary practice should serve three things: better days for your team, better experiences for your clients, and healthier, more predictable profit. Anything else is decoration. The 3-question test is simply a way to slow the decision down long enough to see whether an expansion idea genuinely strengthens those foundations, or quietly puts more strain on them. Saying “not yet” after walking through operations, demand, and people is not a missed opportunity. It is you protecting the practice you have already worked hard to build.

The clinics that feel calm and confident about growth are rarely the ones that chase every chance that appears. They revisit these questions regularly, especially when a landlord calls, a supplier offers a deal, or a competitor announces something shiny. They ask, “Would this improve our Tuesdays, or just make them busier.” You can do the same. Treat this 3-question test as an annual checkup for your plans, not a one time exercise. Your team does not need you to just be the biggest practice in your area. They need you to choose the version of growth that keeps the work quality sustainable and the practice thriving at all levels.

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