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What is your intellectual knowledge worth?by Mark Opperman, CVPMVMC, Inc. Evergreen, CO 80439 This time of year I have the privilege of lecturing at many of our veterinary schools throughout the country. I really do consider it an honor and in many respects believe it is one of the most important things that I do. I believe that if we are going to make a difference in this profession and help our future veterinarians utilize excellent management concepts it has to start at the university level. Dr. Jim Wilson and I teach at 20 of the veterinary schools. An interesting fact is that this program is solely funded and sponsored by VPI (Veterinary Pet Insurance); I guess they understand the importance of this activity as well. Anyway, the reason I bring this up is that recently I was at Virginia Tech speaking to the students. One of the questions I always ask is, "You are going to be graduating in a year and will have to charge for your 'intellectual knowledge', all that you learned in veterinary school. How much are you going to charge per hour for your services?" Would you like to guess what the consensus of opinion was among the 100 plus students? $200.00 and hour? $300.00 an hour? $150.00 an hour? No, not even close. They determined that they should charge $35.00 an hour for their professional services! Does that not blow your mind? When we then took that figure of $35.00 an hour and, based on the fact that they wished to get paid $60,000 a year, we figured out they would have to work 6,857 hours. ($35/hour x 6,857 hours = $239,995 x 25% = $59,999) At $35.00 an hour it would take more than 3.3 years of working a 40 hour week to see $60,000-or one year of working 132 hours a week (with no vacation)! We then spoke of other professionals - human medical doctors, lawyers, accountants and dentists - and what they charge an hour for their time and services. I could see the lights coming on. The class agreed that maybe they do need to charge more for their "intellectual knowledge". By the way, the average student also will have a an average debt load of $80,000 to deal with, as well. This problem is not limited to one school. I ask that question at every school and get basically the same answer. Why is this? Why do veterinarians think they are worth so little? I do believe it is a problem of self-worth and self-image that spills over into the practice. If veterinarians do not believe they are worth the fees they charge, then we have a big battle ahead of us. Managers and practice owners, have this discussion with your associate veterinarians. Ask them what they think they are worth an hour for their intellectual knowledge and see what they say. If they undervalue themselves, walk them through the calculations. Using 18-25% of the hourly rate they come up with, let them calculate how many hours they will need to work to make their salary. It might be an eye opening experience. |
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