Business Schooled: Vetting The Options - YouTube

(gentle music) - So there was a lot of people

just desperate for veterinary care.

They really felt, you know, I know everybody

was throwing around the word heroes right now,

but they really did feel like heroes

because they were,

we kind of went from like a regular, you know,

hospital that sees wellness appointments

to like an emergency clinic.

- Over the past two seasons

of "Business Schooled,"

we visited companies across the country

to hear their stories of growth and change.

Now, as things change faster than ever,

we're checking back in with them

to see how these incredible entrepreneurs are adapting.

I'm Soraya Darabi,

and this is "Business Schooled: Changing Course,"

a series by Synchrony.

My guest today is Dr. Lisa Aumiller.

She started HousePaws Mobile Veterinary Clinic,

which quickly ballooned into a network of services

in just a few years.

When the pandemic hit in March,

Dr. Lisa had to figure out

not just how to keep her people employed,

but informed, safe, and reassured.

I'm chatting with her about how she did it,

from keeping employee morale high,

to launching new ways to work.

When did you first realize

that the pandemic was going to affect your business

and how did you prepare your staff?

- Actually, what happened was,

is we laid off my husband first,

just so everybody knew that we weren't going to be,

you know, picking at people.

We let go of a few part-time workers,

and then we had voluntary furloughs.

- And I'm sure it was hard to keep morale high.

- Well, in the office,

we really tried to let the team know

that they're appreciated almost every day

and letting them know that they were appreciated,

not only for making sure

that other people had a job to come back to,

but that clients really needed them right now.

A lot of local practices shut down or cut their hours,

so there was a lot of people

just desperate for veterinary care.

So they really felt, you know,

I know everybody was throwing around

the word heroes right now,

but they really did feel like heroes

because they were,

we kind of went from like a regular, you know,

hospital that sees wellness appointments

to like an emergency clinic.

- I'm curious, you just said

it felt more like an emergency clinic.

Why was that?

- So we were literally seeing, you know,

everything from ear infections to like dog fights,

to hit by cars, like anything.

- It must have been hard

to see nothing but sick patients back-to-back.

- It was very hard,

but very rewarding at the same time,

'cause you know they wouldn't be getting served,

you know, as well, if we weren't there for them.

We're lucky 'cause we do house calls

and it's the perfect time of year

to do "al fresco" appointments.

So we literally just started advertising

that we were doing, you know,

instead of curbside, which sounds kind of,

I dunno, not as fun, we would say, like,

"al fresco" appointments in your yard,

you know, and - (laughs) Al fresco.

so we were seeing a lot of patients

in their backyard or at the hospital

we have a koi pond,

so we called it koi-side.

Pets love being outside for their vet visits,

they don't even think about it as a vet visit,

so I think there'll be a number of people

that still want us to have backyard visits.

We love it, the pets love it,

so I hope that continues.

- Did the coronavirus pandemic

accelerate your investment

into what we call the future of work?

- Probably the things

that changed the most for us

was we did roll out telemedicine a lot quicker

than we had planned on doing

and that worked well for us.

We have an education program,

so we started doing teleclasses.

This is Bella, she's one of my rescue dogs,

and Bella's going to teach us

how to brush your dog's teeth.

We did a Zoom CPR lecture and got like over 115 people,

people got like blocked out, they couldn't get in.

- Wait, I would take that Zoom in a heartbeat.

- I know.

- And I'm curious, you know,

what does the future hold for you now?

- Honestly, we had our best month ever,

like in history, this past month,

our entire team minus three people

are back working with us now,

and those people will be back by the end of the month.

So we have three new vets coming on board

by the middle of next month.

So we're still on track.

- Last season on the podcast, we talked about

how you're really changing veterinary medicine.

- So it's definitely a dream

that one day there will be a mobile vet

that will become a national brand,

whether it's us or someone else.

I think the way that veterinary medicine is going,

that's what people want.

They want high tech and high touch,

and I think that's what's gonna happen.

My lawyer had said, "Everything should be about money."

And I disagreed 'cause I was like, for me,

it's about having the potential

to change veterinary medicine,

having the potential to make veterinary medicine better.

That's so cool.

People just trust us, and that feels really nice.

- Dr. Lisa, what you're doing is so important,

you really touch the lives of so many of your patients

and your clients to that end.

We're gonna play a video for you right now, Lisa.

- Okay.

- Hey, Dr. Lisa, it's Jenn.

Thank you for all the safety measures

that HousePaws took during the coronavirus pandemic.

I know it was a difficult time for a lot of us,

including small businesses,

but we really appreciate the time and effort

that you guys put in

to keeping us safe during the pandemic

and providing us excellent service

from car-side pickup and to some appointments outside.

We really appreciate those procedures

that not only helped us keep our

pets healthy during this time,

but also ourselves.

Thank you.

- Oh, that's awesome,

I saw her a few times during the pandemic.

That's great, and I love their family.

- Dr. Lisa, talk to me about the lessons from all of this.

- Everybody needed their morale lifted,

including clients, as well as our team members,

so I think creativity was important.

And then just the importance of internal communication.

When the world's falling apart,

your clients realize that your team is,

like, hanging in there, and that we're working together

as a single force.

- I think what's similar about your story

and other businesses I've spoken to recently

is that it's really important to be nimble.

And so you were so smart

to allow some of your employees to work remotely.

You were so smart to focus on, you know,

leveraging the technology that is at your disposal.

- Aw, thank you.

- [Soraya] Keep watching to see how other business owners

like Dr. Lisa adapted their businesses.