Don't wait until you don't have a choice

Your exit plan assumes a buyer exists.

Baby boomers are roughly 40% of the veterinary workforce.

They're retiring across the next 15 to 20 years, and the number of practices for sale climbs every year they do.

That's supply. Now look at demand.

Younger veterinarians are less likely to own than the generation before them. Women are nearly 70% of veterinary students and 36% of practicing vets, and ownership hasn't kept pace.

Meanwhile 40% of the class of 2025 graduated owing $200,000 or more.

More sellers every year. Fewer buyers. And the buyers who exist are carrying debt that makes lenders flinch.

Most owners plan the exit as though a buyer is a given.

Price the practice. Pick a year. Retire.

But you're not competing with other sellers for a buyer's attention.

You're competing for a buyer who can actually get financed.

Those are different problems. Only one of them is solved by lowering your price.

There's a harder version of this too.

A practice's value erodes fast when an owner suddenly can't work and there's no plan. Clients drift. Staff start looking. Goodwill built over thirty years thins out in a few months.

Your practice is worth what someone can pay for it, on the day they're able to pay.

Not what you think it's worth on the day you decide to leave.

Have you identified an actual buyer — or just a retirement date?