We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Desiree Riniker a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Desiree, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Veterinary medicine is an unusual industry in that we do all the things regular doctors and nurses do, but for MUCH less pay and appreciation. Burnout is common, and suicide is rampant; in fact the CDC recently named veterinary medicine one of the highest risk industries for suicide, right behind military and police.

After 8 years of running a very successful practice with an amazing team of people. I myself suffered a pretty intense episode of burnout and it left me totally void of anything left to give to my team. I sadly left my practice in late 2019. During my time as a practice manager for this corporate veterinary hospital, I learned a lot about managing effective teams and how taking care of people produced largely measurable results. I ran my hospital a bit different, in that its people were the forefront of what we did, rather than profits. Based on my own experience with burnout, and on my experiences managing my staff, I saw great gaps in how as an industry we tackled the issues our teams face. Wage disparities, toxic work environments, increasingly hostile clients…ALL of them are contributing to the disease we face in our industry and it is costing us our professionals at an alarming rate. Today, we run our entire business on the premise of people over profits, while tackling some of these challenges, and in so doing, have found great success in meeting our industry needs, but in also caring for our hardworking people.

I came up with the idea for Charleston Veterinary Staffing Solutions as a answer to some of the issues facing our professionals and our veterinary hospitals. The model we use is a fresh, new approach to our industry challenges. At CVSS, We face those challenges head on by offering work life balance, a livable wage, and absolutely NOT tolerating hostility from those we work with and those we serve.
There is a lot of chatter with the national #nomv (not one more vet) initiative, which is an initiative designed to help veterinary professionals in crisis. However, in our regional area, there seemed to be a lot of talk, but a lot less action. We started CVSS as an actual solution to some of these problems we face. We let our hardworking people be in control of the who, the where, and the when, and we pay them well for what they do. We noticed it is beginning to shape and change our local markets. Hospitals are learning they have to do better or people will not work for them. Staff shortages already run rampant and run hand in hand with our burnout rate, but our model tackles that by creating an environment for which people actually want to work for us, and work hard they do!!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?

I have always had a passion for animals and this passion is what drove me to veterinary medicine. I have always been a problem solver and a doer, so working to resolve some of our industry’s issues just came naturally for me.

We provide our client veterinary hospitals something that really has not ever been done before in our demographic, and that is a robust, talented team of professionals at the touch of a button standing ready to help answer the call to the staffing shortages plaguing our industry. I like to describe this service as “travel nursing for vets”…and so far we have had mass success with our model. Together with my partner, Rachel Stewart, we work hard to provide our hospitals with solutions they cannot find anywhere else.

The thing about our company that I am most proud of is its team of people and the partnership Rachel and I have created. With Rachel as our chief of staff, together we carefully develop and care for our people. We cultivate relationships with client hospitals that they can depend on, knowing we will be there to answer the call for staff even if its late at night or into the early hours of the morning. The staff work REALLY hard for our clients, and it is rare that we have a complaint. We believe that really taking the time to care for our staff is what has motivated them to work so hard, and to help us establish a reputation for reliability and professionalism. Our client experience is designed to be tailored to the clients individual needs…and our team works willingly to meet our goals of exceptional client and patient care for every single animal hospital we walk into.

Rachel works really hard to recruit and attract top players in our field, and does so by putting individual care, assessments, and attention into each candidate she works with. We believe it is our team that makes us a success, and we work hard to cultivate a culture of respect, inclusivity, and core values that our clients look to us to bring into their veterinary hospitals. This can be different and refreshing, as many hospitals suffer under the burdens of toxic teams. We strive to come in and bring a fresh approach, hope, and relief from some of the burdens that cause toxicity.

How’d you meet your business partner?

I hit the partnership “jackpot” when I found Rachel. Rachel is a highly skilled licensed veterinary technician and was introduced to us by another staff member to work in our client hospitals. However, Rachel quickly stepped up and into a leadership role. From the start of her work with us, Rachel brought ideals and talent we needed…but she also “owned” her role straight away. As a tired and stressed new business owner, Rachel brought much needed help and relief for me. After about 6 months of working with her, I knew she possessed the qualities and leadership I was looking for in a potential business partner. She expressed interest in the partnership. and the rest is history. While we talked about and considered the move, she quickly took even more ownership (if that was even possible) and walked the walk and talked the talk before the partnership was official. She matched my work ethic and abilities. Today, CVSS would not be what it is without her!!

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

Owning a small business, especially one where the model has never really been done, is HARD. We have had so many “close calls” in the beginning I am not really sure how we managed. Early on, payroll was a challenge. Our model relies on quick payment from clinics, so I had to really get creative about how to make sure client hospitals paid on time so that we could turn around and pay our people on time. I believe the core of running a business is paying your people well and on time, so this was something we could not afford to mess around with. I was tactful but firm in my communications with client hospitals regarding payment. In an industry that relies heavily on payment from its patients to succeed, most hospitals understood that and have been timely in payments. We have had several close calls, but have worked really hard to accrue working capital to prevent this from happening in the future. Building working capital is essential to prevent payroll mishaps, and only comes from careful management of the company’s funds. I haven’t always been perfect at this, but I have learned A LOT.

In the early part of this past year, our business slowed so much I feared everyone would quit for greener pastures and the business would die. We solved this challenge by sending Rachel, along with some of our best and brightest out to meet practice managers and introduce the company. We worked to expand our market to the Columbia area, and out of this work one of our largest accounts was produced. We had a couple really scary months, but that lesson was valuable on how to insulate the business for the future.

Contact Info:

• Website: Charlestonvss.com
• Instagram: @veterinarystaffingsolutions
• Facebook: @Charlestonvss