Practice Profile: Paws Indoors Mobile Vets

Roughly 20 years ago, a change in family circumstances left Rosie Smith facing the daunting prospect of bringing up three young children alone, while juggling the exacting demands of a veterinary career.

In that position, a lot of people might have decided to pivot and look for another way to provide for themselves and their family, but Rosie loved being a vet so decided to explore her options – though she found those options limited.

Flexible working wasn’t as widely available in the veterinary sector as it is now and most vets were simply expected to put the long hours in and make their lives fit around work.

That institutional lack of flexibility meant working for someone else simply wasn’t on the table, while setting up her own bricks and mortar practice required the kind of capital Rosie didn’t have.

She did, however, have just enough cash to buy medicines and basic equipment, so she made the decision to go mobile and hasn’t looked back since.

Rosie said: “I qualified in 1991 and I worked in small animal practice for 10 years before my life changed, and I was left with three young children on my own.

“So, I decided to set up a mobile practice in 2003 and I just started over in a very basic way; I had a car, a drugs account and that was it really.

“My inspiration came from an article in Vet Times at the time about Canadian vets doing mobile vetting and it was something I thought I could do. And you know what? I could.

“There have been challenges doing this, but professionally it is the best move I could have made as it gave me the freedom I needed at that time and the practice has provided a very good living for myself and my family ever since.”

Stepping into the unknown

At the time of starting Paws Indoors, Rosie knew of only one other mobile vet in the UK, so her decision meant stepping into largely unknown territory.

But she had a hunch that pet owners in her corner of rural Norfolk would take to the idea, and that hunch proved correct as the business has grown steadily to the point where Paws Indoors now turns over more than £300,000 a year and employs six people.

At the start, however, there was just Rosie, and looking back she readily admits there were some challenging times – especially covering out-of-hours.

“I did this principally because I had three small young children at home and it allowed me to control the workflow, but it wasn’t always easy for me back then with no help,” she said.

“Back then I was doing all my own out-of-hours, so if I had an emergency call out, the only option I had was to sit the kids in the back of a car with a lollipop and get on with the job.

“But it was doable, I just needed my car, some drugs, and a few bits and pieces of equipment, and that was it.

People really seemed to like the idea, and I was always determined to do my best to manage the client base and not take on too much work, especially in the early days.

“And that has been key to it ever since, I have always managed the growth of the business so that it was manageable for someone working alone.”

Growing the business

And that was the way it stayed for the next 15 years, with Rosie working alone as a one-woman band, with the support of a local nurse April Caton, who would help out when needed.

There was some external support from a local practice, where she could perform more complicated procedures, but anything else that couldn’t be done in the clients’ home – such as bitch spay surgeries – was done in a basic theatre set up in a dedicated room at home.

But despite Rosie’s attempts to manage the workload, demand for the services of Paws Indoors grew and grew, not least for the practice’s home euthanasia service, which even now constitutes around 10% of business turnover.

And so, in 2017, Rosie took on her first employee Alison, who joined the business having spent many years working in the NHS.

Rosie added: “Alison has been incredible from day one and I think that her NHS background meant she understood the value of good customer relations, managing expectations and the importance of the various regulations that govern our profession.

“But of course, bringing in someone to answer the phone meant more calls and more work getting booked in – I was getting busier and busier, and it is really from that point that the business has grown quite rapidly.”

Two years after taking on her first member of staff, Rosie then employed a vet nurse before bringing in another former NHS worker Carla, to help on reception and run the dispensary.

These additions meant business growth continued to accelerate and also meant finding a static base for the practice – which, by this point, had almost 500 active clients on its books – was now becoming a real priority.

With the team up to four, Rosie needed somewhere for them to work and while 95% of Paws Indoor’s work was – and still is – done in clients’ homes, she also knew the practice would benefit enormously by having access to improved clinical facilities when needed.

As things turned out, a row of three garages converted for veterinary use by another local practice provided the solution. The site was perfect and no time was wasted acquiring and refitting the building which now houses a theatre and x-ray room, a large office space and dog kennelling, as well as a small but well-equipped laboratory, ultrasound, dental machine, and dispensary.

Rosie said: “We have had those premises for two years now and, for me, that has been amazing because we were working out of my house before and it has just pushed everything up a professional level.

“And I did it because I was struggling to recruit, and I realised people wouldn’t take me seriously – even though I have been going for 20 years – if I am working out of my front room.

“It also gives the office staff somewhere to work of course, and it also meant we could get an x-ray machine, which we didn’t have before.”

Finding the right fit

Despite adding to her team, Rosie remained the sole vet at the practice and it wasn’t until last year that changed.

Finding the right fit wasn’t easy as working for a mobile practice is not for everyone, as Rosie explained: “The first vet I took on just didn’t work out. So, until last July, I was on my own because you need a particular type of vet to do this kind of work. They have got to be self-reliant and confident enough to go into somebody’s house, work on their own and work out a plan of what they are going to do.

“But in 2022, I took on Jill, who is a receptionist, and Lesley Burgoyne, who is the other vet. They have worked out brilliantly for us and are just what we needed.

“I understand that a lot of vets – particularly the younger vets – want to work in a hospital where they have nurses running round them and they have all the equipment.

“We are very well-equipped, of course, but because our service is very bespoke and we still have a relatively low client base of around 500 active clients, we only see on average six to eight people per day.

“It is a more relaxed pace of work, but it does mean you are not going to see so many interesting things, just because we don’t have the throughput, and if you want to build your experience or be an orthopaedic surgeon, this is not for you.

“But if you want to develop those deep relationships with your clients, then this sort of work is perfect. There are other benefits of seeing pets in their own environment, too – for example, if I am called to see a cat with cystitis and the house is like a Swedish show home, I know why the cat is stressed and can explain this to the owner.”

Future plans

As well as a “more professional” static base for the practice, Rosie also decided to relinquish her out-of-hours, which is now covered by another local practice.

This was a wrench for a vet who had built her reputation on holding clients’ hands every step of the way, but it was something that had to be done to attract staff and maintain a good work-life balance for everyone.

She added: “We thought we might lose a lot of clients when we did that, but we just explained to everybody that is what the set-up is now and we haven’t had any issues.

“It has given me more time to focus on managerial stuff and grow the business, but at the right pace, which has always been my philosophy, especially being a mum to three young kids when this all started.

“Now the kids have grown up and left home, I have more time to devote to the business and look after everybody else.

“The plan is to find a third vet, if we can, as the demand is definitely there and then at some point, I want to turn the practice into an employee-owned trust – that is my philosophy and what sits with me best.

“It is such a unique proposition and the team is so lovely. I want everyone to have the benefits; everyone on my team is a mother and I want all of them to have what I had.”