Entrepreneurs to watch: Animal Attraction

May 14, 2009

Dr. Anne Chauvet is head of Sarasota-based Veterinary Neuro Services, one of the few animal-based neurology and neurosurgery practice on the Gulf Coast and one of about 10 in Florida.

The business of pets is one of the few industries not being totally ravaged by the recession. Anne Chauvet has grabbed a tiny piece.

When Dr. Anne Chauvet was six-years-old growing up in Gabon, a former French colony on Africa’s central Atlantic Coast, she liked to sit under an avocado tree with her Siamese cat Attila and daydream about the future.

Attila actually bit Chauvet once, forcing her to get duck embryo-based rabies shots in her abdominal muscles — an experience she called brutal and painful. But her lifelong love of animals rooted in those times under the tree.

“I decided then I was going to be an animal doctor,” says Chauvet. “And I never strayed.”

Since then, her veterinary career has taken her from Gabon to Canada, California, Illinois, Wisconsin and eventually, in 1999, to Florida. She now runs her own Sarasota-based medical practice that focuses on treating brain, spinal cord and neuromuscular conditions in animals, mostly dogs and cats. 

The practice, Veterinary Neuro Services, is rare in two ways: First, it’s the only strictly animal-based neurology and neurosurgery practice on the Gulf Coast and one of about 10 in Florida. Chauvet herself is one of only about 150 veterinarians in the country to specialize in animal neurology.

But through Chauvet’s leadership and penchant for risk, the eight-employee practice is also rare in another way: It’s growing revenues and using the positive cash flow to reinvest in the business. The practice surpassed $1 million in annual revenues in 2007 and Chauvet is projecting it will reach about $1.5 million in 2009.

Chauvet invested in a $500,000 makeover for the practice late last year, which culminated with buying an in-house and high-end veterinary MRI machine that was flown into Sarasota from Italy. She also added a surgical table, exam rooms and expanded the laboratory.

Chauvet is especially proud of the new MRI machine. “It’s luxurious and long overdue,” she says.

Even before the upgrades, Veterinary Neuro Services was a busy practice. Chauvet sees about 700 pets a year, most of which are referrals from general practice veterinarians. Some surgeries, such as spinal cord operations, can cost as much as $5,000.
Treatment for cancers and brain tumors can be costly, too.

“We don’t see a lot of repeats here,” Chauvet says. “We see a patient once and hopefully they don’t come back.”

Chauvet still feels the impact of the recession, despite the company’s growth.

And that experience has taught her two valuable entrepreneurial lessons.

For one, she has had to cut prices for some customers, to the point where she does some procedures for no profit. She has also maintained her customer promise to never charge more than an estimate, covering any additional cost out of pocket. 

Chauvet says that philosophy has allowed her to build market share and positive customer experiences — a crucial element in such a specialized field. “We definitely offer discounts,” Chauvet says. “But to help a pet walk again, that is OK.”

The second lesson — love thy banker — runs counterintuitive to the current banker-entrepreneur relationship, where the focus has been on loan rejections.

But Chauvet says nurturing a good long-term relationship with her bank has been a key to the company’s success because her loan agent has been able to help her through some business-issues she wasn’t familiar with. Chauvet’s banker, who has moved to three banks in Sarasota over the last few years, has stayed loyal to her and her practice too, another positive contrast to the current environment.

Says Chauvet: “I got trained to be a veterinarian, not a businessperson.”

And the veterinarian side of the practice is what continues to drive Chauvet’s passion.

While she says it’s tough to be like an oncologist and deliver bad news to families sometimes, the joy of saving an animal’s life is hard to replace.

“I feel privileged to work with the animals,” says Chauvet. “It’s wonderful to me that we make a difference. It’s why I do this.”