Like many of our customers, we are a small business. This has been a tough year for small businesses in America and in the Veterinary industry especially.
Our industry is very unique. It’s not really comparative to the human health industry and it’s not comparative to a pet store. Unless you’re actively in the Veterinary industry, you just can’t really understand the challenges we face. When the economy started circling the “bowl”, we were surprised to note that the animal care industry didn’t really seem to be affected. Around the office we started telling everyone from our suppliers to the UPS guy (Will, the best UPS guy there is!) that our industry must be recession proof. However it seems we were not recession proof, it just took a little longer to affect us. We’ve all tightened our belts, looked for ways to save money and continue to grow our businesses and look for ways to become more efficient, but I’m inspired by local businesses in our community and by friends and associates who are not in the animal care industry. When we were busier than a one-armed paper hanger they were struggling to find business. Now it seems they are getting busy again, returning to economic prosperity, even getting bonuses again. Common sense tells me that if they’re getting back on track, we cannot be far behind. Here’s to 2012!