September 27, 2022 | Last Updated on: July 6, 2023
Business financing is essential for any business, and your veterinary practice is no different. Find everything you need to know to get one step closer and acquire your business loan with this article.
As a veterinarian professional, your number one concern is, understandably, your client’s pets. But as a business owner, your number one priority is the survivability and success of your veterinary practice.
The number of pets inside U.S. households is now higher than ever. During the Covid pandemic, the world experienced a pet adoption boom with more and more people seeking company during isolation. And those numbers aren’t going down.
As the new majority of pet adopters in the U.S., millennials and Gen Z tend to require the best possible treatment for their pets. They don’t look at means to ensure their best friends have the best quality of life possible. That’s where you and your veterinary practice come in.
As you saw above, the number of households owning pets in the U.S. has increased these past few years, and pet owners require the best for their pets. So you must provide the best service possible as a veterinarian.
That will require investments, and a great example is acquiring a business loan and improving your veterinary practice. Or, if you’re a new veterinary business just starting, it can make the difference and help your practice stand on its own two feet.
But on the other hand, these past two years also saw a tremendous drop in veterinary practice abandonment. There are many factors contributing to the drop in the veterinary practice workforce, and the U.S. American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) it’s still hugely concerned today.
That means that there’s a gap, and more veterinary businesses like yours can seize the advantage. If you’re an established veterinarian business owner that has withered the storm, this is the time to take your veterinary business to new heights. And for new veterinary practice owners ready for the challenges and eventual rewards, you’ll find all the information you need about the best financing options and loan programs available.
As a new practice, acquiring business funding might seem overwhelming, as many lenders require extensive creditworthiness and business statements. As a new veterinary practice owner, you might not have all the requirements needed for the approval process of, for example, an SBA loan.
But although your practice might be new, it doesn’t mean that you cannot opt for getting information about bank short-term loans or SBA loans. Although they prefer already established businesses, many banks like Bank of America or Live Oak have programs specifically designed for veterinary practices worth researching.
If you’re an already established veterinary practice, you’ll likely have an easier time with more established lenders for your business loan — which means better repayment terms. But that doesn’t mean it’s guaranteed, and that doesn’t mean that you’ll have better repayment terms just because of years in practice.
Although lenders look at the age of the business, that’s just one factor. They are more concerned about other factors that can put your application process on the ground. For lenders like banks or the Small Business Administration, You must have the best possible eligibility factors. These factors include a high credit score, polished credit history and bank statements, a healthy cash flow on your current practice, collateral, and possibly more.
To improve your chances and options for acquiring your veterinary practice financing — as a new practice or existing one — here you’ll have some ways to improve your loan request in the eyes of lenders.
There are a lot of steps that go into your application process, and there are also a lot of steps lenders take to pass through a loan application — and veterinary practice loans are no different. Without further ado, let’s look at how to increase the likelihood of acquiring your small business loan as a veterinary practice.
For many small business owners looking for funding, bank loans are probably the first type of lender that comes to mind. For a veterinary practice, some banks also facilitate the loan application process and allow veterinarians to apply for various business loans. These include term loans, working capital loans, business practice acquisition loans, and more to expand their practice however they see fit.
Bank loans offer some of the most attractive loan terms and interest rates of any lender, including loan fixed rates. But to achieve those, bank lenders also tend to require a significant exchange on the part of the borrowers. They tend to require good creditworthiness, good cash flow reports, and might also require collateral, like commercial real estate, that can come in the form of your veterinary clinic.
Looking from this end, if you have a new practice, it might seem that bank loans are out of your reach. But as said above, some banks offer special loan programs for new veterinary practices. It’s worth going to a bank lender and getting to know more about it.
One of the favorite types of loans amongst many small business owners, the SBA 7 loan program offers some of the largest amounts of money of any loan. Depending on the type of loan, it can go from $5.000 to $5.000.000, with repayment terms up to 25 years — and some very competitive interest rates too. From around 5% to 12.75%, depending again on the type of loan and repayment terms.
As it is a loan request secured by the Small Business Administration, lenders tend to facilitate the loan approval as the loan request is corroborated, but by no means it’s easy to apply. SBA loans are long-drawn and exhaustive, as they require extensive documentation. The SBA also demands a stellar credit score and credit history, polished business statements, good cash flow, and preferably two or more years of business practice.
If you’re an established veterinarian practice looking for more ambitious endeavors, have all the requirements necessary, and can afford to wait some time, then this is one of the best business loans you can opt for. On the other hand, for a veterinarian with a new practice, although not impossible, it’ll be very hard to qualify, and you might find better options with other business loans.
If you need to purchase equipment for your veterinary clinic, then an equipment financing loan can be a great solution. With this loan option, you approach the lender with a request for the equipment, he will then upfront 80-90% of the value, and you will only be responsible for a small down payment and the repayment terms.
Although an already established veterinary practice can benefit from this loan option, this business loan could be tremendously helpful for a new veterinarian that just opened his veterinary clinic. The loan terms and eligibility aren’t as strict as bank loans or SBA loans, and the equipment can work as collateral itself.
On the other hand, if you end up defaulting on your equipment financing repayment terms, the lender can move in and seize the equipment. Meaning that all your payments until that point will go to waste, and you will not own your equipment.
Any small business owner can — and most often do — benefit from a business line of credit, and veterinarians are no different. Similar to a business credit card, a business line of credit allows you to receive a lump sum of cash on your business bank account, up to $250.000, and only pay back what you end up using.
As a veterinary practice, you can see the benefits this can bring, like covering payroll, bills, stock inventory, and much more that your practice may need in a pinch. For a new practice, you don’t need to be overly concerned about the lenders’ eligibility standards. Business lines of credit are famously easy to apply, although good creditworthiness might help you secure a better loan offer.
But unlike other loans, business lines of credit can jump up to significantly high-interest rates — starting at 10% but can go as high as 99% in a few cases, with weekly repayments. For new practices, lines of credit from reputable lenders might be harder to apply but are worth the effort as repayment terms and interest rates tend to be better, which can be vital for your veterinary business. You can also hire specialized help on business lines of credit to get the best possible offer.
With the technological advancements the Internet made, it became a matter of time until parts of our lives turned digital. Nowadays, many of our jobs, services, and businesses are done from a simple laptop, and business loans are no different. A small business owner can now go to an online lender and get business funding — most of the time, much faster and easier than traditional institutions.
Online lenders offer loan programs designed for small business owners that sometimes traditional institutions can’t offer. As a new veterinary practice, you can eventually see your loan request denied due to your eligibility not being up to par with those lenders. Online lenders can offer you loan programs up to $500.000 or more in some cases without being overly concerned about your credit score, credit history, or annual cash flow. Their number one concern is that you succeed on the loan’s repayment terms.
Although you’ll have a much easier and faster time seeing your loan request go through, the downside of online lenders is that while working with a riskier pool of borrowers, they tend to have high-interest rates and shorter repayment terms on the loan requests.
You’ve chosen the veterinarian career path out of passion, but you’ve inherited the responsibility of a small business owner along the way. But if your veterinarian passion has outweighed the small business responsibility, why would business funding outweigh your passion?
If you have difficulties acquiring traditional funding, Biz2Credit will help you guarantee the loan amount you deserve to continue your passion! Get up to $500.000 on a term loan or up to $2.000.000 in working capital, with the smoothest application process, fast processing — no more than 72 hours — and repayment terms that’ll suit your veterinarian small business.
Reach out to our team and discuss with our small business funding experts the best option for your veterinary clinic, and guarantee it’ll thrive in the future!
Like Marie, State Pharmacy owner, did. When her business was affected by the Coronavirus, she applied for an SBA loan and didn’t receive what she needed. But thanks to Biz2Credit, she could maintain her business afloat until today. Do the same as Marie and apply today!
