Running an Animal Osteopathy Business

Animal osteopathy has grown steadily in the UK over the last decade, particularly within the equine and canine sectors. Owners are increasingly seeking integrated approaches to performance, rehabilitation, mobility, and long-term holistic health. This is in no small part due to the work of the London College of Animal Osteopathy and the tireless pursuit of promoting the industry. For practitioners, this creates opportunities for flexible and rewarding careers — but success depends as much on sound business structure as it does on clinical skill.

Structuring Your Animal Osteopathy Business Around Your Goals

Myself, I have evolved my business to suit me and created a balance between clinical practice and academic work. The beauty of working for oneself is exactly that, you can create the work life you want. Of course it’s not as easy as just deciding “this is how I wish to work” and expecting the patients to just fall into your lap…

There is certainly a mindset within some industries that you have to hustle every spare hour to really make your living, but the word “making a living” will mean different things to different people. There are various ways to align yourself: working full time for yourself as an Animal Practitioner; working part time as an Animal Practitioner and also having an employed position in a related or different industry; part time clinical and part time academic (teaching, continued professional development provider); providing special discounted services for animal shelters and charities. And the list could go on depending on your individual circumstances.

The reality is that every animal osteopathy business is different because every person working in the industry is different — that sounds very Osteopathic doesn’t it?… Just another example of how Osteopathic philosophy can explain all sorts of things.

Start With What You Need to Earn

So how much hustle does each variation need? Well this depends on your goals. The most important thing to start with is to establish how much you need to earn from animal business. It is much easier to set your targets when you work backwards from there.

A good way to find out how much you would need your animal business to make is to establish the mode in which you want to work as listed earlier. Clearly if you want to work part time or you also have another part time job, you won’t need to chase every single lead. There is actually a power to that position as you can curate your client list.

By “curate” I mean that you can be comfortable with a smaller catchment as you will have another source of income to support you. That way you can decide to work within a smaller radius of your home, work with a more specific patient group and limit your working hours to support a good work life balance.

If you plan on working full time as an animal practitioner, you need to write out a business plan that goes over your weekly/monthly/annual outgoings, budget for holidays, treats and socialising and this will allow you to see what your earning requirements will be. Remember that most people starting out or changing careers, still need to support themselves while the business builds, and this may require working in another role while you build your business.

Building In a Financial Safety Net While Your Practice Grows

Personally, I diversified into therapeutics (Osteopathy and Sports Massage — Human and Equine) whilst I was working as a freelance horse trainer and riding instructor. This allowed me to switch up the ratio as my practice grew but also meant that if the therapy work was a little slow, I could supplement by teaching more and vice versa. The important thing is not to jump head long into the new work without some kind of safety net.

Animal Practice Pricing: Do the Maths First

So, you have gone over your business plan and now you know what you need to earn (and what you want to earn — equally important). So now you can do the math to see how many patients a week/month that translates to. Remember that a good business plan should account for tax, overheads and marketing cost. Your initial goal should be the “need to earn” figure but the “want to earn” figure needs to remain in your sights as this creates the life you want to live and therefore it’s just as important. Clearly we need to be realistic because clinical work is “time for money” and this can lead to burnout if you aim too high.

But, there are ways — within your business plan, your “want to earn” figure may require some creative thinking. Offering treatment plans as opposed to one offs can increase retention, providing owner education courses/days, running continued professional development for practitioners, teaching, writing — all of these can create a semi passive income compared to the direct clinical work.

How to Value Your Services Without Underselling

Do some market research to see what other practitioners in your chosen area are charging. This doesn’t mean you need to charge the same, often that is actually the wrong thing to do. Other practitioners might come from different disciplines or use different techniques to you, so you can’t just compare directly. When doing this market research, one of the biggest mistakes is undervaluing your services. Staying at exactly the average price for your area can limit your income and if others try to undercut you then it becomes a race to the bottom, many practitioners don’t understand this. Undercutting the average begins that race to the bottom and people will not value what you yourself do not value.

One should be confident in valuing their services, see yourself as unique and an expert in your field. If you place a good value on your work, owners will tend to see it the same way. Although slightly different, look at the impact of high end brands in clothing or electronics on buying patterns, despite often being no better or higher quality than cheaper products — people gravitate to the valued products. Not only are you looking to meet your business plan figure, you are paying off the investment in your education, this needs to be understood.

Managing Travel in a Mobile Animal Osteopathy Practice

For many people the majority of animal practice will involve traveling to different locations. Working primarily with horses, I travel from stables to stables and while I myself quite enjoy the changes of scenery, some may prefer fixed locations.

If your preference is for animals to come to you, it would generally entail limiting yourself to small animals. Owners could bring their animals to your own location or you could team up with a veterinary surgery to provide onsite services. It is essential however to ensure you hold the appropriate insurances for any locations you use.

Reducing Travel Costs with Smarter Scheduling

When traveling to a client’s locations, it is important to account for your travelling costs. Using a radius based system is often useful as this helps to group locations that are nearby together and reduces overall miles covered.

Some people who work with horses will offer packages for entire yards/barns. This usually includes a slightly discounted rate on your usual one to one. It allows for a practitioner to see multiple horses in one location and thereby reducing overheads making the discount doable. Offering a discount for even small multiples at one location can really create loyalty and usually means you can establish a regular weekly or monthly visit. If seeing horses as individuals on a stable yard, always consider the travel costs and it pays to be logical with your booking — put individuals in slots where their location is on route to another or home again.

Protecting Group Discount Agreements

There is however a problem with large yard visits with discounts; if one or two horses move, pass away or the owner drops out of the group, the others may not be happy about a fractional increase in fees. You can end up doing the same discount but for fewer patients. A way to safeguard yourself from too much loss is to write up a very clear offer and agree to it with all clients concerned prior to working. If they are well aware at the outset that your visit discount will be counted on the number of patients then the group will often endeavour to ensure there is a higher number of horses to see to claim their savings.

Scheduling for Animal Welfare in Outdoor Settings

If working outside, you may also try to consider the climate where you work and how to structure the day to ensure both animals and your own welfare. If you are working during a heat wave or in a very hot country, animals may become irritated or less receptive to treatment at peak temperatures. Being able to structure your day to provide earlier or later appointments can really show best practice in animal welfare.

Maintaining Professional Boundaries With Clients

Many that choose to work with animals are themselves owners or heavily involved with animals. Some have large networks of friends and acquaintances within a local equine community or group of dog walkers. It is vital that when offering professional services to any of these people, that they understand the boundaries. Any special treatment you give a friend will often look bad on you professionally. Particularly in closer groups like canine agility classes or riding clubs, showing preference to someone will paint you with the colours so to speak, of that person or clique. Ensuring parity between clients will show those who don’t know you that you are fair and neutral and shows those who do know you that you value your services highly.

Building a Professional Network as a Self-Employed Animal Osteopath

To avoid isolation, form networks professionally. Running your own business can be a lonely experience. One might think that it couldn’t be lonely because we are visiting people all day. However, the owner and patient are very different and the relationship is distinct. As the practitioner, you are often alone in your decision making, clinical reasoning and you may not have that moral support. It is vital to create a network of professional colleagues, mentors and associates. This provides you a way to enhance your knowledge, create effective referral pathways and fulfil continued professional development. All client details should be anonymised but case discussion with colleagues is a very good way to boost your skills but also ensures best animal welfare. It is easy to become “stuck” with a particular case when you only have your own thoughts to consider. I have often benefitted from an alternate opinion and I would say its essential to keep our egos in check.

Niching Down: The Case for Specialising in One Area

A good network will also allow you to target your marketing. We can make our networks reflect the area, specialism, species or sport we want to focus on. It can be a lucrative decision to become an expert in a certain area of practice. General practice can also be lucrative but may require more personal and professional flexibility. I have focussed my equine career towards dressage and classical training giving me a huge amount of specialist knowledge. Using this I both work with the type of client I prefer and have become the “go to” practitioner for classically trained horses. For practitioners considering the range of career directions available, our guide to becoming an animal osteopath covers many of the routes in more detail.

Your network can act as your workplace for want of a better term. It helps to not feel alone, good support and collaboration can reduce burnout. Pick your network wisely as once started in a direction, the network tends to grow organically.

Of course part of your network can be the staff and alumni of the London College of Animal Osteopathy if you graduate with us. It is also worth knowing just how much the demand for animal osteopathy has grown in recent years, with our own supportive social media and alumni professional association Animal Osteopathy Worldwide, we are there to support your journey to a fulfilling career.