Veterinary Clinic – Dr Marty Greer – Checkout Veterinary – 1 Year Later

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You have found Authentic Business

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Adventures,
the business program that brings you

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the struggles
stories and triumphant successes of business

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owners across the land.

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We are locally underwritten
by the Bank of Sun Prairie.

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My name is James Kademan, entrepreneur,

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author, speaker, and hopeful coach to small
business owners across the country.

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Today we’re welcoming/preparing,
to learn from

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Dr. Marty Greer, the owner
of Checkout Veterinary.

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And I got to say, even though
it’s equity, this is pretty cool.

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Thanks.

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It’s essentially a drive through
or drive in veterinary clinic.

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Either way, it works.

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How about you tell us about this?
Sure.

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So we developed this concept about six or

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seven years ago, I was at a veterinary
meeting and listening to the accountant

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that was presenting to us talk about
veterinary clinics and economics of them

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and over building too many facilities and
decided that at that point that a wellness

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center would make a lot of sense,
just basic wellness care.

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But to the convenience
of the client and the pet.

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So we really haven’t changed how we

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deliver veterinary services since James
Harriett started practicing in the wow.

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Okay.

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At that point, people had horses and cows,
and then they had dogs and cats,

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and the dogs and cats would be brought
to the surgery to the veterinary clinic

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and would have the procedures and care
provided there. And it made sense to me

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to start looking at it from the client’s
perspective instead of the veterinarian

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perspective and to say,
what is it that would appeal to a client

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and appeal to the pets to make veterinary
care more comfortable, easier,

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more convenient, more accessible
than what we have now?

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Nice.
So you have four bays here.

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We do.
Which is amazing. And I guess how about

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you tell me the idea
of how the floor works?

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Sure.

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So we have the opportunity to expand to
four more bays when we get busy enough.

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Wow.
We positioned the building on the property

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so that we can build another
four bays out that direction.

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Because I anticipate that we’re
going to need more space.

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So the flow works that you
can call for an appointment.

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You can email for an appointment.

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You can text us for an appointment or
you can come in without an appointment.

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And when you arrive, we have
people pull up to the doors.

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We have one side that people pull into,
and then they pull into the garage,

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and then they will pull all the way
through at the end of their appointment.

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So there’s no backing up.
Okay.

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We don’t want anybody backing
into important parts of the building.

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Exactly.

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So one way through,
like an oil change, like a car wash.

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The American public has kind of fallen

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in love with doing
business in their vehicle.

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Sure.

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They go to Walgreens
for their prescription.

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They go to Walmart and Target and sit

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in the parking lot, and people
come out with their packages.

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They go to McDonald’s.
They go to the bank.

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They go to wherever and we don’t even get

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out of our cars for a lot
of things anymore.

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Right.

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So instead of expecting people to make
an appointment, come to the veterinary

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clinic, walk into the building,
have to stand in the lobby,

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be accepted into exam room down the hall,
past the Rottweiler that’s lunging at your

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cat and worry about the concerns
with anxiety and stress and other things.

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People just pull directly
into the garage Bay.

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They’re private Bay.

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So there’s only one client, one set
of pets in the exam room at a time.

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So the garage Bay is
essentially the exam room.

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I was just going to ask you that.
Okay.

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So you don’t necessarily transport
the pet to another room.

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You can do it all here.

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If it’s a cat or a small dog,
we have an examiner because I’m concerned

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about them being difficult
to manage in a large space.

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So we have an adjacent exam room that has

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glass windows so that you can
see directly into the exam room.

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So if you wish to stay in your vehicle

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and you have a cat or a small dog and we
want to go into the exam room,

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you can stay in your vehicle and see
what’s going on or stay with your vehicle

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and see what’s going on in the exam room
or if it’s a large dog,

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then we have an exam table in each garage
Bay so they can come out or for some pets,

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they’re most comfortable
staying in their own vehicle.

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So if the minivan and SUV one of those
kinds of vehicles and the pet is anxious,

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nervous doesn’t really like the whole
idea of getting out of the car.

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They can stay right in the vehicle.

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And we have pets that do that.

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We have even Labradors
that are like, you know what?

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I’m just going to stay
right here on the seat.

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Wow.
You do whatever you need to do with me,

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but I’m not leaving the security of being
in my minivan, so it works really well.

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That is pretty cool.
Yeah, it’s really cool.

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We have a sensor on the asphalt so
that when you pull up,

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the garage door goes up automatically,
just like when you go to the Subaru

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dealership, you pull in, the door goes up,
and then we put the doors down and then we

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secure them so that the
door doesn’t go up.

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If somebody from next door
drives across, it got you.

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And then you can just stay
right in the exam room

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so in the summertime,
we just use the regular weather.

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In the wintertime, we have overhead heat

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like you would at a car wash or
oil change facility.

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So it’s comfortable in the vehicle.

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It’s comfortable in the garage Bay,
so we can turn the vehicle off.

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If you have kids with you,
the kids can stay in their car seats or

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they can get out and run
around the garage bay.

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Right.

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Because we don’t have to worry
about them touching all this stuff.

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Parents are like, don’t do that.
Be quiet.

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Don’t touch that.
Come back over here.

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And so the kids are pretty much okay with,

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like, there’s really not much
they can do in the garage Bay.

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So they’re in here with whatever
number of pets they bring.

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And we do have people that bring one pet.

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But we have people that bring
twelve pets, I bet.

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Yeah, they love it.

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So they bring the whole family,

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they load everybody up,
they come in, they unload here.

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We take care of all their care.
We weigh them in here,

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we do their blood work,
we do their vaccinations, their exams.

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Everything gets done right in the garage
bay where they’re comfortable.

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It’s really cool.

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And this is big.

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I mean, you probably know the distance

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here, but there’s no
vehicle that’s over there.

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It’s too many vans long.

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Too many vans long.

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I actually have two clients
in here with their vehicles.

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And you could fit them
both in the garage space.

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So it’s large enough for the dog trucks.

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The doors are high enough for sprinters,

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because a lot of my dog people
have a sprinter with high roof.

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I have guys with dog trucks that have

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a trailer on the back so
we can pretty much fit.

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Just about anybody in the head is cool.

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So tell me when you thought of this.

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Well, I believe this is the first one.
That’s the idea.

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It is.
So have you told other vets about this?

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Actually, I have.
Okay.

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So we built the facility in the Myra

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that we have in 2008, and at that point,
we built a large clinic.

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And then we had a garage, one garage bay,

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and then another building
that was adjacent to it.

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So it was a walk through garage that was
for our staff, for their lunch room

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and the doctor’s offices
and a sleeping room for students.

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That kind of stuff.

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So when we built that originally,
I just designed it with one garage bay.

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And as soon as they had dug the hole and I

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started looking at it, I called my
architect, and I said, He’s in Colorado.

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I said, I really want this
to be more garage space.

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And he’s like, okay, how many?
I said, three.

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He said, okay, but don’t
change my roof line.

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I’m like, oh, yeah.
Don’t mess with the roof line up

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an architect because that’s
going to change the whole event.

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I said, no, we can just make it.

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So we have three garage space there.

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And we’ve used that since 2008.

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So for the last 13 years, we’ve done that.
Wow.

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And we found increasingly
the clients really loved it.

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It was convenient if they
had a litter of puppies.

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If they had a sick dog,
if they had a surgery that was raining or

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cold or snowing, they wouldn’t
have to take their pet outside.

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When they get home,
they’d be in their own garage.

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So why would I make them walk
outside to go to their car?

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This is Wisconsin.

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It’s cold, it’s snowy,
it’s icy, it’s rainy, windy.

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So those other five days,
we don’t really need it.

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If they’re injured,
they wouldn’t have to get them out.

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And even some of the euthanasia’s as sad
as they are, we’ll sometimes do those

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right in the vehicle because
the pet is more comfortable.

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At that point, their mobility
is pretty severely compromised.

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So it’s just a lot easier on them than it

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is to pick them up and move them
around and do all those things.

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So we found the convenience
of the garage to be really great.

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And like I said, I was sitting at this

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veterinary meeting, and I was listening to
one of the top accountants for veterinary

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clinics in the country talk about
the impact of overbuilding and the kind

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of facilities that we don’t really need
that much duplication of certain things.

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So to just scale it back,
I wanted to just do wellness.

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So I decided sitting in that meeting,
that’s what I wanted to do.

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And my husband picked me up
from the meeting, and I said,

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we have to stop at Starbucks,
and he’s like, we don’t drink coffee.

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I said, I know, but we
have to stop at Starbucks.

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He’s like, what I said,
I need for you and I to have

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a conversation about
exactly what I want to do.

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So I sat him down and he’s like,
He’s not a fast decision maker.

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He’s a veterinarian, too,

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but he’s very much fact finding oriented,
and he’s not a fast decision maker.

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And he’s like, yeah, we can do that.
All right.

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So that’s when I made the decision this

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past week, I was at a meeting with some
of the very top high producing,

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forward thinking, progressive
veterinarians in the country.

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And I shared this concept with them,
and they were all just fascinated by it.

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They used the word genius.

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They said, the clients
are going to love it.

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And indeed, our clients really do love it.
Wow.

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So it’s met really well with not just
clients, but with other veterinarians

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that think that this is just
a really great concept.

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And if you add to that the whole fear free
movement that we’ve seen coming up

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that Marty Becker has developed and taken
Sophia Yin’s information from we’ve seen

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a real groundswell of veterinarians
that are working very hard to reduce

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stress and anxiety levels for pets
coming to the veterinary clinic.

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And I can’t think of a better way to do

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that other than not having a traditional
veterinary clinic,

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having this style of veterinary
clinic for the outpatient needs.

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Now, obviously, we’re not set up to do X

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rays and surgeries, and it was
never intended to be that way.

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Right.

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So anything that requires more extensive
diagnostics or treatment or surgery or

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hospitalization would be done in a more
traditional veterinary hospital.

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But for routine care that pets need
maybe a couple of times a year.

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Right.
It’s probably the majority.

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It’s much easier on them to not have
to get in and out of the vehicle and down

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the hall and into the lobby and then into
those little exam rooms where they might.

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I have some dogs that are very
claustrophobic and exam rooms.

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And actually, we have a couple of exam
rooms that have a glass sliding door.

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That’s a whole glass wall.

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And they’re much more
comfortable in those rooms.

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So very quickly, we start to figure out
who does better in certain settings.

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Interesting.
Yeah.

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It is really interesting.

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So the veterinarians have really thought
that this is a great plan,

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and it’s working because
the clients really love it.

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So are there others that have
popped up in the country anywhere?

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Not yet.
Because I got a patent on this.

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We are really lucky that March of 2020,

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we got a patent just before COVID,
because pretty sure, if Kavan had happened

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first, they would have been a lot less
likely to say that this was a non obvious

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solution to a problem, which is
what’s required for a patent.

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So we were able to get a patent on this.

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And I am now looking at sharing this
with other veterinarians,

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whether it’s through a franchise
or through other methods.

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But is it patented?
Wow.

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Yeah.
That’s incredible.

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It’s pretty cool.
You’re not exactly.

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So the first one is here in Sun Prairie.

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That’s cool.

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Our parent company name is
Innovative Veterinary Practices.

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Okay.
So when I went to the city

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Planning Commission and said,
this is what I’d like to do.

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And they talked about it and they said,
innovative veterinary practices.

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This is really innovative.

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And some Prairie really likes to think

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of themselves as being
progressive and innovative.

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And they were super excited.

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The city Council,
the Zoning Planning Commission,

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was super excited to have
this as their first location.

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Nice.
And I like the idea of it being here

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because Madison is
a progressive community.

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It is forward thinking.

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And we have a vet school.

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We have a vet tech school.

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We have a lot of real advantages
to having a business in this location.

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So we were very happy to find this really
nice piece of property

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and a great builder and a great banker
that we’re willing to support us.

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Nice.
You’re right off the highway.

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Right off the highway.
Like, very convenient for Woods.

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Woodmans is my front yard.

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Yeah.

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Your grocery shopping or whatever.
Exactly.

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I mean, you can drop your pet off,
do your grocery shopping, come back.

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Everything’s taken care of.

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It’s all very convenient.
Very nice.

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Yeah.
So we’re in a super location.

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Costco Cabela.

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We’re right here where there’s lots
of activity, and it’s just nice.

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Visibility is really quite good here.
Yeah.

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This place is exploding.

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What have been some of the challenges

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with putting this together
that you didn’t necessarily force?

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It probably the biggest challenge
was getting my builder on board.

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The banker that I use is
Thoresta State Bank in the Theresa.

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And the gentleman who owns the bank was

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one of my husband’s dairy clients,
who my husband did large animal practice.

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And when I conceived of this and wanted

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to buy the property, I went to him,
and my husband said, you go by yourself.

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This is your idea.
So I went in.

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And of course, Tom knew me.

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So I sat down and explained
to him what I wanted to do.

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And he’s very solemn as
a banker, very solemn.

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And he’s looking at his desk and he’s
kind of fiddling with his pen.

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And he looks up and he says to me,

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I don’t want you to build one of these.

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I want you to build three.

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I’m like, okay, so we’re off.

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So Randy Martin is a personal and family

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friend of his, and he insisted that I use
Randy Martin because he trusted Randy.

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And, you know, you’ve got to be careful
with who you use for contractors.

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So I contacted Randy,
and it took me close to two years to get

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Randy kind of on board
with this because he was busy.

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He was building homes.
He was doing a lot of other things.

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And he finally hired
a gentleman named Brad.

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And Brad had done commercial buildings,
including hospitals.

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And when he got there,
he was going through the files and he

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pulled out this piece of paper because I’d
actually gone to Randy’s house because I

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wasn’t getting a phone
call back from Randy.

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And I left a handwritten note on Randy’s

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door, and it said,
this is what I want to do.

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Please give me a call.
And he pulled this handwritten note out.

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And it’s still in my file
at Martin Construction.

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And he said, what is this?
And he said, I don’t know.

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Some lady wants to build this thing,

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and he’s like, Well,
then that’s what we need to do.

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And I kept telling Randy, I said,
It’s just a garage, Randy, it’s easy.

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It’s not complicated.
It’s not a hospital.

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You don’t have to pipe in oxygen.

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You don’t have to worry about Xray

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and radiation and exposure
and all those things.

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I said, It’s a garage just to build it.

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You can do a garage.

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So Brad finally kind of got a handle on it

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and said, That’s it
we’re going to do this.

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So unfortunately for us,

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this wasn’t built until after COVID we
would have loved to have had it up before.

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But because of all the delays in getting

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things to happen, it didn’t
really happen that way.

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But once it did start,
man, things really rolled.

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And I just have been so happy

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with the progress of this and how
fun it’s been to get open.

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So a lot of people think this is
because of coping, and it really isn’t.

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It really isn’t.

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We hired Darlene six years ago, we bought
the property four years ago, financing.

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So all those things have happened
pretty far ahead of COVID,

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but it took that long to just get things
up to speed and running at this level.

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It’s funny you say that because I have

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worked with a lot of clients that just
trying to build something, get a sign,

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put up dealing with whatever
jurisdiction that they’re in.

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There seems to be people that feel like
their jobs are little progress, whatever.

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This city could be any city, right.

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I don’t know if I phoned anywhere.

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There’s not someone in the way just
for the sake of being in the way.

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And I understand that because this is the
third veterinary hospital that we built.

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So we’re not new.
Yes.

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We built one in 87.

[00:16:16]
We built one in 2008,
and now we built this one.

[00:16:19]
And you’re right.
There tends to be people that are

[00:16:21]
naysayers that say we don’t want to do
that in our community for whatever reason.

[00:16:25]
But Sun Prairie was great.

[00:16:26]
They were absolutely welcoming

[00:16:28]
and interested, and they found this to be
a really attractive project for them.

[00:16:32]
So I’m really very blessed,

[00:16:35]
because a lot of veterinary
clinics do have that struggle.

[00:16:38]
We don’t have any overnight
hospitalization or boarding or any

[00:16:41]
of those things which tend to be some
of the hurdles that people need to cross.

[00:16:46]
We’re all outpatient care.

[00:16:47]
So they didn’t have to be
concerned about that.

[00:16:49]
But not in my backyard.

[00:16:52]
Sort of thing is what a lot of people

[00:16:54]
think, but it’s commercial property,
and we’re in a really great location.

[00:16:58]
We’ve gotten really lucky.

[00:17:00]
So I’m trying to picture this area four

[00:17:02]
years ago, it was probably calls
on call. This stuff was Cabello’s here?

[00:17:08]
No.

[00:17:09]
And all the stuff around Cabello,
the movie theaters here.

[00:17:12]
Target, the movie theater.
Right.

[00:17:14]
And I imagine Target.

[00:17:15]
I think, was first because when we first

[00:17:18]
started driving through here,
my sister and I used to live

[00:17:20]
in Cottage Grove,
and so we come down on Thanksgiving,

[00:17:23]
we came down and we’re driving
on the way home from Thanksgiving.

[00:17:26]
I said, we need to get off
at this exit and drive around.

[00:17:28]
We started checking this out when Target

[00:17:31]
was literally Target was
the only thing out here.

[00:17:33]
Pizza Ranch, all those other things,

[00:17:35]
the dental clinics, all the other stuff
that’s built up around here wasn’t here.

[00:17:39]
So, yeah, we’ve been

[00:17:42]
working on this project for a long time,
but being the first one of this type

[00:17:45]
that we’ve done, it took us
a while to get up to speed.

[00:17:48]
But when we designed it and built it

[00:17:50]
and developed it, everything has
been documented and laid out.

[00:17:55]
So that when we do the next and the next

[00:17:57]
and the next, whether it’s us or someone
else that wants to do a franchise of this,

[00:18:02]
it’s all set up and ready to go so you
can make some regional differences.

[00:18:06]
We wanted it to look fairly
agricultural, like a barn.

[00:18:09]
I noticed that because we have four bays.

[00:18:11]
She was showing me around
to be a pig cow goat.

[00:18:14]
A missing one.

[00:18:17]
So we wanted it to be agricultural.

[00:18:18]
We wanted it to be a barn.

[00:18:20]
We wanted the corrugated galvanized steel.

[00:18:23]
We wanted it to look
that agricultural look.

[00:18:26]
But if you were going to build this

[00:18:27]
in Colorado, where in Florida,
you would put a different kind

[00:18:30]
of different story twist on it so that it
looked more regionally appropriate.

[00:18:35]
But in Wisconsin,
that’s what we do is all the way.

[00:18:39]
That’s right.
Interesting.

[00:18:41]
So tell me, how did you figure out the
layout of the building, the parking lot?

[00:18:46]
Because it sounds like a lot of this.
It’s all new.

[00:18:49]
It’s new.
Right?

[00:18:50]
And you put up a building.
It’s not like.

[00:18:52]
Hey, can we move that 10ft that way?
Exactly.

[00:18:55]
Once you’re committed, you’re committed.
Yeah.

[00:18:56]
It’s in there all the time.
Right.

[00:18:58]
So the architect that built our building
in 2008 did the first sketch for me.

[00:19:04]
I’ve called him one day,
and I said so, Mark, I have this hair.

[00:19:06]
Brain.
The idea that I want to build.

[00:19:08]
And he’s like,

[00:19:11]
That’s pretty interesting.

[00:19:12]
So he did the first sketch for me,

[00:19:13]
and it was just two garage bays,
very much just a very casual sketch.

[00:19:18]
But one of the architects that worked
in the firm, it was Anne Animal Arts,

[00:19:22]
took that project and then developed it
further into what was almost what we had.

[00:19:29]
But then he moved to Australia.
Pretty good.

[00:19:33]
I know, wouldn’t you?

[00:19:34]
I mean, if somebody gave you a job
in Australia, how would you?

[00:19:40]
He left the project.

[00:19:42]
But the architect that built our first

[00:19:44]
building worked for the
firm that we built.

[00:19:47]
The first one in 87,
actually is here in Sun Prairie.

[00:19:51]
Oh, wow.
And is still an architect.

[00:19:53]
The older gentleman that he worked for has
passed away,

[00:19:55]
but he’s still doing veterinary clinics
and veterinary clinics,

[00:19:58]
humane societies and shelters and kennels
all have very specific design needs for

[00:20:04]
noise control, for ventilation,
for cleaning, for a lot of aspects.

[00:20:10]
So it’s really most helpful to use
a veterinary design firm that understands

[00:20:15]
the aspects of what you want
the veterinary clinic to be so that it

[00:20:19]
stays clean and odor free
and minimizes noise.

[00:20:22]
All those things.

[00:20:23]
So this was an architect that clearly
had a lot of experience.

[00:20:26]
So I contacted him and he’s like, sure.
So because he’s in Sun Prairie

[00:20:31]
and my builder’s in Sun Prairie,
we just sat down and started tweaking some

[00:20:35]
of the things, figuring out how big does
the garage Bay needs to be with wise,

[00:20:40]
so that if a big pickup truck pulls
in and both doors are open,

[00:20:44]
how wide does it need to be? And how long
does it need to be in,

[00:20:46]
how high should the door be? And what do
we need for commercial doors versus

[00:20:51]
what you’d have in a residence
for a garage door?

[00:20:53]
And what do we need for the walls so
that they’re easy to hose down and keep

[00:20:57]
clean? And how does the floor stay clean?
And where does the snow and the ice drain

[00:21:01]
to when you pull in in January
and you’ve got that big under?

[00:21:06]
I used to be a mechanic.
I know all about that.

[00:21:09]
Yeah.

[00:21:09]
You’ve got eight inches of stuff
hanging out from underneath the car.

[00:21:13]
So how do we need to do that?

[00:21:14]
So we can keep it clean and make it
manageable and make it warm

[00:21:17]
and comfortable for the staff
and the clients and the dogs.

[00:21:20]
So there was a lot of discussion.

[00:21:22]
What kind of finishes do we need on the
doors and what kind of doors do we want?

[00:21:26]
We have the half doors, the Dutch doors.
Yeah.

[00:21:28]
Those are beautiful.
Love those.

[00:21:30]
We have them in the practice that we’re
in now, and it’s fabulous because you can

[00:21:33]
close the door and the dog and the cat and
the owner and the kids stay in the room.

[00:21:38]
But you can still have communication,

[00:21:40]
and you can see because
there’s a window in the door.

[00:21:42]
There was a lot of do we want
a complete wall or a partial wall?

[00:21:45]
And how do we want this to look
and where should the windows go?

[00:21:48]
There’s a lot of that back
and forth in detail.

[00:21:52]
So it took us a while
to tweak things and modify them.

[00:21:56]
And so I have a couple
of doctors that work for us.

[00:21:59]
I had, of course, Darlene, my manager, my
manager, my other practice, my husband.

[00:22:03]
So a lot of us sat down and just kind
of threw around ideas and continued

[00:22:08]
to tweak it until we got
exactly what we wanted.

[00:22:11]
Right?

[00:22:12]
So that once we built,
we were really comfortable in saying we’ve

[00:22:15]
got what we want so we can expand
to two more exam rooms if we need to.

[00:22:20]
We’ve got the expansion
for four more garage bays.

[00:22:22]
So we’ve tried to think through the whole
process of what happens with this

[00:22:27]
building, what happens with the next phase
of it and what happens when someone else

[00:22:31]
wants to duplicate this and provide
this kind of care for their clients.

[00:22:36]
And it could be an addition onto
an existing veterinary clinic.

[00:22:40]
It could be a freestanding
veterinary clinic.

[00:22:42]
It could be something that a new
veterinary graduate that doesn’t have

[00:22:45]
a lot of resources, but they want
to start their own practice.

[00:22:48]
Could do as a starter.

[00:22:49]
So we’ve got a kind of modular

[00:22:53]
system figured out so that it would be
easy for someone to go forward with this.

[00:22:58]
This is cool.

[00:22:59]
I really like the glass.

[00:23:00]
The volume is just something you can see.

[00:23:03]
Other rooms, the glass Bay doors.

[00:23:06]
I think that really helps.

[00:23:07]
It certainly makes it a place feel open,
even though it’s already a big space.

[00:23:11]
Yeah, it’s very comfortable.

[00:23:14]
But you feel safe in it.

[00:23:16]
So, you know, when the doors
are down, you’re safe.

[00:23:18]
You know, that nobody else is
going to be in there with you.

[00:23:20]
You know that you have
your own private space.

[00:23:24]
And, of course, Navajova,
that’s everybody’s big concern.

[00:23:26]
Is it clean?
Is it safe?

[00:23:29]
Is it okay for me to be in there?

[00:23:30]
How far away am I going
to be from somebody?

[00:23:32]
Am I going to be picking
some touching something?

[00:23:36]
All the things that people are dealing

[00:23:38]
with now that two years ago,
we never thought of, right?

[00:23:42]
Yeah.
It’s interesting.

[00:23:43]
I’m just trying to picture my veterinarian

[00:23:46]
that we go to that exam room is
eight by ten.

[00:23:51]
I’m trying to think if I lay it down

[00:23:56]
with the big table in the middle,
in the countertop, it’s pretty small.

[00:23:59]
Yeah.
Not that I feel unsafe in there,

[00:24:02]
but I could definitely see
a cluster phobic thing, right.

[00:24:04]
And that one strip of window on the door.

[00:24:07]
But outside of that, you’re in prison.

[00:24:09]
And we do have dogs that are
claustrophobic and clients.

[00:24:11]
I mean, we have clients that just can’t

[00:24:13]
bring themselves to sit
in the room for 15 minutes.

[00:24:15]
But that hasn’t happened.
And here.

[00:24:17]
We’ve got the exam table that’s
freestanding, and so we can move it where

[00:24:20]
we need it, or the dog
can get on and off of it.

[00:24:22]
So it’s just a lot more

[00:24:25]
friendly to kind of everybody’s
spatial needs right now.

[00:24:30]
Nobody wants to be crowded.

[00:24:32]
You go to any kind of an event or
any kind of a store and you feel.

[00:24:36]
You know, it’s funny because
I’ve never really liked Crown.

[00:24:41]
I consider myself mostly an extrovert, but
sometimes go to a concert or something.

[00:24:46]
It’s a little tight.

[00:24:47]
I want space for a game.
Oh, gosh.

[00:24:50]
I need to go to games, because that’s just
I don’t want to sit sideways for 3 hours.

[00:24:55]
I don’t know who they built those
chairs for, but it’s not human.

[00:24:59]
No, they managed to fit as many into a
smaller space, sort of like an airplane.

[00:25:04]
There’s not a lot of extra room,
so you better make yourself fit.

[00:25:08]
So that’s what’s nice about this is it

[00:25:10]
just gives us that open, free feeling,
and the dogs love it like they’ll come

[00:25:15]
out, they’ll wander around,
they’ll lay down on the floor.

[00:25:18]
Even the cats will just come out and lay

[00:25:20]
down, which is not typical for what
you see at most veterinary clubs.

[00:25:24]
Most of the time, they’re kind of guarded

[00:25:25]
and they’re sitting and they’re kind
of waiting for something to happen.

[00:25:28]
But here they feel a lot more at ease.

[00:25:30]
They just have the space.
And like you said,

[00:25:33]
the glass and the visual,
it just makes it feel a lot less scary.

[00:25:37]
Yeah, it’s interesting because I think

[00:25:42]
how much thought had to go into this
place before it was built.

[00:25:45]
You guys really had a lot of forethought.

[00:25:47]
Well, but we also had the opportunity

[00:25:49]
to have the garage space that we
built into that property.

[00:25:53]
So that gave us sort of a prototype.

[00:25:54]
It wasn’t the exact intention at the time
we developed it, but it has evolved,

[00:25:59]
and it has given us a lot of insight
into what was going to work well for us.

[00:26:03]
Okay.
So before we started even the design

[00:26:06]
process, we knew what we liked
and what we didn’t like.

[00:26:09]
So that was a great opportunity.

[00:26:11]
But if you haven’t, I mean,

[00:26:12]
most veterinary clinics don’t have a
garage, even the large animal practices.

[00:26:16]
They may have a hole in facility

[00:26:18]
for the cows or the horses,
but they don’t have a garage space.

[00:26:22]
So it really was designed
similar to what we did there.

[00:26:26]
And that’s with a complete drive through,

[00:26:28]
not a drive in and back out,
like your home garage, because

[00:26:32]
we’ve seen too many people back, too many
things, even with cameras in the back.

[00:26:37]
I’ve seen them hit trees and
posts and all kinds of things.

[00:26:41]
So I didn’t want there to be any chance
that somebody would

[00:26:46]
accidentally back into something
purely in one side out the other.

[00:26:51]
And as long as traffic flows all
the same direction, it works.

[00:26:54]
Great.
So we’ve got enough parking.

[00:26:56]
We’ve got enough space.

[00:26:57]
Of course, the city wanted to know what
our impact would be on traffic flow.

[00:27:00]
And so all those things were taken
into account when we were designing

[00:27:05]
the space in the building and the parking
lot and all those aspects.

[00:27:08]
At some point, it’s mostly
speculation, I imagine.

[00:27:10]
Right.
It is because you don’t know until you’re

[00:27:13]
there best guess exactly the animals
that you service here. Is it cats up

[00:27:19]
to horses or just cats
and dogs? Just cats and dogs?

[00:27:22]
Yeah.
Well, I mean, we’ll sometimes do some

[00:27:24]
other little furry creatures,
but dogs and cats, primarily,

[00:27:30]
we don’t do any horses.

[00:27:31]
We don’t do any cows, sheep, chickens.

[00:27:35]
Those are outside the name of the Bay.

[00:27:37]
Exactly.
All right.

[00:27:40]
So other than that, we don’t
really identify with any of those.

[00:27:44]
But there are people that do call.
All right.

[00:27:47]
I bet there are a lot of animals around.

[00:27:49]
I totally understand.

[00:27:51]
So your husband, he eventually came
on board or he did this right away.

[00:27:57]
No, it took him a while to come on board,

[00:27:59]
but like I said, he’s kind of
slow in making decisions.

[00:28:04]
I’m pretty

[00:28:06]
much all over the place,
and he’s pretty steady.

[00:28:09]
But he finally said to me one day,

[00:28:11]
I know you’re not going to be happy
retiring until you do this project.

[00:28:16]
So we might as well just get it done,

[00:28:19]
yank off the band, get it done.

[00:28:23]
And it’s been a lot of fun.

[00:28:25]
It’s been really great opportunity
and just a lot of fun to have

[00:28:29]
the opportunity to give people
another way to receive services.

[00:28:34]
And currently, veterinary clinics are so

[00:28:36]
far behind on wellness
visits that people really?

[00:28:39]
Oh, yeah.

[00:28:40]
We are three and four months behind
on getting people in for wellness care.

[00:28:44]
I had a client that drove down last week

[00:28:46]
45 miles to get a rabies
vaccination because no one.

[00:28:50]
She called 14 veterinary clinics and no

[00:28:52]
one could get her in in the time
frame that she needed.

[00:28:55]
Holy cow.
Yeah.

[00:28:56]
Veterinarians.

[00:28:57]
There are 38% more pets now
than there were two years ago.

[00:29:02]
38% more in people’s homes.

[00:29:04]
Yes.

[00:29:05]
I feel like those animals had to be made.

[00:29:10]
Rescues.
Breeders.

[00:29:12]
All right.

[00:29:12]
I mean, breeders stepped
up their game really?

[00:29:15]
When it started,
and the shelters all emptied out because

[00:29:18]
they didn’t want to have people
coming in to take care of the pets.

[00:29:20]
So they put them all into foster care.

[00:29:21]
So foster Cares took them.

[00:29:23]
Rescues and shelters brought them north.

[00:29:26]
Breeders stepped up their game

[00:29:27]
for the people that wanted a purebred
dog instead of a rescue dog.

[00:29:30]
So, yes, there are 38% more pets there’s,

[00:29:34]
I think, 22% more pet owners and 38%
more pets in homes altogether.

[00:29:41]
And those are statistics from this week.

[00:29:43]
So it’s very current.
That is the reality.

[00:29:46]
And so when people call and then,

[00:29:47]
of course, staff has been increasingly
difficult to get because tell me about it.

[00:29:51]
Yeah.

[00:29:52]
So we won’t have to go
into the details of that.

[00:29:54]
But that thing is more difficult.

[00:29:56]
So veterinary clinics are overwhelmed,

[00:30:00]
trying to take care of wellness
and sick and injured pets.

[00:30:03]
So we’re trying really hard to meet
the needs of all of our clients.

[00:30:07]
And that’s been really challenging
with all the stuff going on.

[00:30:10]
Right.
Do you see that trend?

[00:30:15]
I think it will level out after a while,

[00:30:18]
but I don’t think it’s going
to drop precipitously.

[00:30:22]
A lot of people are working from home now,
so having a pet keeping a pet,

[00:30:27]
some of them probably plan
to have better than others.

[00:30:30]
But people are planning
on keeping those dogs.

[00:30:33]
The initial concern when the adoption rate
went up was that the shelters would be

[00:30:40]
inundated when they went back
to work and went back to school.

[00:30:43]
And they’d be worried.
What do I do with all this stuff?

[00:30:46]
But that really hasn’t been the case.

[00:30:48]
So people are holding on to their pets.

[00:30:50]
They’re loving working from home.

[00:30:52]
The dogs are loving it.

[00:30:53]
The cats are probably like,
Could you go back to work?

[00:30:56]
You’re messing up my schedule.
You’re in my face.

[00:30:58]
That’s right.
Go away.

[00:31:00]
But the dogs are loving it.

[00:31:01]
And I think part of it,
too, is people are home.

[00:31:03]
So they’re seeing things that their pets
are doing that they didn’t see before.

[00:31:07]
They see how much they’re scratching.

[00:31:08]
They know how many times
a day they’re going out.

[00:31:11]
Initially, we had people calling us

[00:31:13]
and saying, My dog is
having four stools a day.

[00:31:15]
What’s going on be like, Well,
how many times are you walking the dog?

[00:31:18]
Well, we used to walk them once,
but now I walk them in the morning

[00:31:20]
and then the kids walk them at noon,
and then my husband walks

[00:31:22]
in the afternoon, and then everybody was
home and the dog, like, four walks a day.

[00:31:26]
I’m exhausted.

[00:31:27]
So it really made a big difference
in people’s observing their pet’s habits.

[00:31:32]
So we were initially seeing things that I
know we wouldn’t have seen two years

[00:31:36]
before because they wouldn’t have
noticed that it was happening.

[00:31:39]
They weren’t at home work,
they were at school.

[00:31:42]
They didn’t see that the dog
was doing some of those things.

[00:31:44]
But as they became increasingly bonded

[00:31:47]
to their dogs and their cats,
they started to pick up on some subtleties

[00:31:51]
that really made a difference in the kind
of care that they were seeking.

[00:31:53]
So it’s been very interesting to see
the human dynamics and the pet dynamics

[00:31:58]
and how those have changed
over the last two years.

[00:32:00]
Fascinating study,

[00:32:03]
sociology, psychology experiments here
when you tell people about this.

[00:32:09]
What are some of the stereotypes that they

[00:32:10]
come up with or questions
that they ask where you’re like.

[00:32:13]
Oh, don’t you get it?

[00:32:14]
Well, the first thing is,

[00:32:15]
when people saw it being constructed,
they assumed it was another oil change

[00:32:18]
place because they could see the garage,
another valvein.

[00:32:23]
So they would see the garages in the bays,
and they thought that’s what it was.

[00:32:27]
But as they saw the sign go up and they

[00:32:29]
saw the involvement with the veterinary,
they’re fascinated.

[00:32:33]
I don’t think there has been that many
misconceptions on the part of the client

[00:32:38]
because they’re like,
wow, why didn’t somebody do this before?

[00:32:43]
This is so great.

[00:32:45]
Family with children,
families with older family members.

[00:32:49]
They can’t leave Grandma in the car.

[00:32:51]
She’s going to drive off,
and she’s not trustworthy anymore.

[00:32:56]
It’s been more accepting
than I was really expecting.

[00:33:00]
And even the veterinarians
are more accepting of it.

[00:33:02]
We have a couple of vet clinics that know

[00:33:04]
they can’t get pets in and the
amount of time clients need.

[00:33:06]
So they’re sending to us.

[00:33:08]
So that’s been really rewarding to see
that really open arm acceptance that we’ve

[00:33:14]
had because I wasn’t sure the speaker, who
I actually got the original inspiration.

[00:33:19]
He didn’t say to build a drive through.

[00:33:21]
This just happened when I was in a meeting

[00:33:23]
with him is when I started
to talk to him about it.

[00:33:26]
He said, You’ll need to do a lot

[00:33:26]
of advertising to make
sure people understand it.

[00:33:28]
And indeed, that’s the case.

[00:33:30]
And nobody needs pet care every day,
every week, every month.

[00:33:34]
So you eat three times a day.

[00:33:37]
But your pet doesn’t need
to see a vet that often.

[00:33:41]
So it takes a little while for people

[00:33:43]
to find themselves on the cycle
that they need to come in.

[00:33:46]
But heartworms being ticked,

[00:33:48]
minor health problems,
that little ear infection or I didn’t get

[00:33:53]
my heart and test done yet this
year or my vaccines are due.

[00:33:56]
Those things as they
rotate and are coming due.

[00:33:59]
Clients are finding their way to us,
and they’re super excited about it.

[00:34:03]
They’re just really thrilled to have this

[00:34:06]
kind of availability and this kind
of facility that they literally just

[00:34:11]
opened the car door and let
the kids and the dogs.

[00:34:14]
That’s pretty sweet.

[00:34:15]
It’s all very comfortable.

[00:34:17]
When is the official
open date for you guys?

[00:34:19]
Well, we started seeing
appointments in April,

[00:34:25]
but our grand opening is
going to be September 25.

[00:34:28]
All right.

[00:34:28]
So we’re going to have
a kid’s best pet show.

[00:34:31]
So every kid that comes gets a ribbon,

[00:34:33]
whether it’s grayest eyes or longest legs,
they’ll get a ribbon.

[00:34:37]
We’ll have an ice cream
social for the kids.

[00:34:39]
We’ve got Sun Prairie Police Dog coming

[00:34:43]
and Sunproof Fire Department
coming with a fire truck.

[00:34:46]
So it’s going to be a very
family oriented kind of event.

[00:34:50]
One of the people that said something
to me, she said, Ice cream social.

[00:34:53]
I didn’t know anybody did
ice cream socials anymore.

[00:34:55]
I’m like, Well,
it’s great because the kids can spill ice

[00:34:58]
cream on the floor and we’re
just hose it down.

[00:35:02]
So it’s really meant to be a family event.

[00:35:04]
It’s a good chance for the people to come

[00:35:05]
in, see the facility,
understand how we do things,

[00:35:08]
what we do here and have their kids
get a chance to show off their pets.

[00:35:11]
So it should be a lot of fun.

[00:35:13]
We’ve done them in Lamara for many years,
and it really is a fun family event.

[00:35:17]
All right.
That’s cool.

[00:35:19]
Well, Dr.
Greer, this is incredible.

[00:35:21]
Thank you.
I’m impressed with this.

[00:35:23]
I know when you reach out to me or through
your channels and all that jazz,

[00:35:28]
I had to dig a little bit and say,
what am I looking at here?

[00:35:32]
It’s impressive.

[00:35:33]
They have drive through
for everything else.

[00:35:37]
Food, laundry.

[00:35:39]
I mean, just about anything else.
Exactly.

[00:35:41]
It seems the pet thing is almost.
I know.

[00:35:44]
Why do we do that?

[00:35:46]
Why didn’t somebody do this?

[00:35:47]
Because I know I’ve had carrying my dog
in before, and I thought this is dumb.

[00:35:50]
Yeah.
Well, when you think about the ice

[00:35:52]
and the snow and you have an older client
with a big dog, I don’t want somebody

[00:35:57]
getting pulled down in the parking lot
because it’s slippery

[00:36:01]
or the rain or whatever the inclement
weather happens to be,

[00:36:04]
we can circumvent all that by just having
people come in and close up the garage

[00:36:09]
and make it a safe,
comfortable place for them to be.

[00:36:13]
I love it.

[00:36:14]
Thank you.

[00:36:15]
This is cool.
I shouldn’t ask.

[00:36:17]
How can people find you?
What’s the address?

[00:36:19]
Website.
Good question.

[00:36:21]
Yeah.
The address is 7010 Prairie Lakes Drive.

[00:36:24]
We’re right across from Woodman’s at the
highway, mile marker 100 exit, on 151.

[00:36:33]
Right.
Our phone number is 608-318-6700.

[00:36:39]
Okay.
And our website is checkoutvet.com

[00:36:42]
checkoutvet.com.
That’s all one word.

[00:36:44]
checkoutvet.com

[00:36:45]
One word.

[00:36:46]
Awesome.
Incredible.

[00:36:47]
Well, Dr. Marty Greer,

[00:36:48]
I appreciate
you being on the show here.

[00:36:49]
Thank you.
Awesome.

[00:36:50]
Thank you.

[00:36:51]
This has been
Authentic Business Adventures,

[00:36:53]
the business program that brings you the struggles stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land.

[00:37:02]
We are underwritten locally by the Bank of Sun Prairie. If you are listening to this on the web or watching it.

[00:37:03]
You can do me a huge favor.

[00:37:04]
Like, subscribe, comment, share.

[00:37:07]
Definitely share with your entrepreneurial
and your pet owning friends.

[00:37:11]
My name is James Kademan
and Authentic Business Adventures is

[00:37:14]
brought to you by Calls on Call,
offering call answering and receptionist

[00:37:18]
services for service
businesses across the country.

[00:37:21]
On the web at callsoncall.com

[00:37:24]
As well as Draw In Customers

[00:37:26]
Business Coaching, offering
coaching services for entrepreneurs

[00:37:28]
looking for growth on the web
at drawincustomers.com.

[00:37:31]
And, of course, the Bold Business book,

[00:37:34]
a book for the entrepreneur and all of us
available wherever fine books are sold.

[00:37:37]
We’d like to thank you, our wonderful
viewers and listeners, as well as Dr.

[00:37:41]
Marty Greer, the owner
of Checkout Veterinary.

[00:37:44]
Can you tell us that
website one more time?

[00:37:45]
Sure.
It’s checkoutvet.com

[00:37:47]
checkoutvet.com

[00:37:48]
Ceah, a lot of people can’t spell
veterinary, so we want to make it easy.

[00:37:52]
I get it.

[00:37:55]
Past episodes can be found

[00:37:56]
morning, noon, and night. And the podcast link

[00:37:58]
found at drawincustomers.com
Thank you for listening.

[00:38:01]
We will see you next week.
I want you to stay awesome.

[00:38:03]
And if you do nothing else,
enjoy your business.