Mobile Veterinary Practice, 15-Year El Paso Operation

$1.8M

Revenue

$550K

SDE

3.0x

Multiple

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Full Editorial Writeup

This is a 15-year-old mobile veterinary practice serving the greater El Paso market, bringing core preventive care directly to pets and their owners through company-owned mobile units. The service menu centers on standard vaccinations, heartworm testing, microchipping, and spay/neuter surgeries, which are the bread-and-butter recurring needs of every pet household. With over 18,000 active clients built almost entirely through word of mouth (marketing spend under 1% of revenue), the practice has reached $1.8M in gross revenue and roughly $550K in SDE, a 30% margin that is strong for the category.

The model's biggest structural advantage is the absence of brick-and-mortar. No clinic lease, no facility maintenance, and lower fixed overhead than a traditional veterinary hospital, while the mobile convenience creates genuine differentiation in a market the seller describes as having little to no mobile competition. The business runs on two mobile units with a team of 12, including a Medical Manager, Assistant Manager, ten vet techs, and several relief veterinarians, meaning clinical and operational depth already exist below the owner.

The owner is a working DVM doing surgeries in the morning and overseeing vaccine clinics, so a buyer is either an owner-operator veterinarian or an investor who partners with a DVM medical director. The practice is operating near capacity on a four-day week, which is the headline opportunity: more operating days, additional units, geographic expansion into nearby Texas and New Mexico towns, and subscription wellness plans are all sitting untapped. SBA financing may be available, and seller financing is on the table.

Why we like it

Earnings quality is clean and credible: $550K SDE on $1.8M revenue is a 30% margin, and it was built with marketing under 1% of revenue, meaning growth came organically rather than from bought traffic. The asking price implies a 2.95x multiple on cash flow, which is reasonable for a healthcare services business with a loyal, returning client base.
The moat is the combination of 18,000 active clients, a 15-year reputation, and a mobile-only model in a market with little to no direct mobile competition. The no-brick-and-mortar structure keeps fixed overhead low and lets the practice meet clients where they are, which is a convenience advantage traditional clinics cannot easily replicate.
Pet veterinary care is genuinely recession-resistant: vaccinations, heartworm testing, and preventive care are non-discretionary spending for the roughly 18,000 households already in the book. Owners defer luxuries before they defer protecting a pet's health, which makes revenue durable through a downturn.
There is a real staffing bench already in place, including a Medical Manager, Assistant Manager, ten techs, and relief vets, so a buyer is not acquiring an owner-dependent one-person shop. An investor can plug in a DVM medical director and run this as a managed asset, while an owner-operator vet steps directly into clinical work.

How to improve it

Extend the operating schedule beyond the current four-day week. The practice is described as near capacity on four days, so adding a fifth or sixth day with existing staff and units could lift revenue meaningfully with minimal incremental fixed cost.
Launch subscription wellness and preventive care plans. With 18,000 active clients and recurring annual vaccine and heartworm needs, converting even a fraction into monthly membership plans would smooth cash flow and lift lifetime value per client.
Add a second or third mobile unit to expand geographic reach. The listing flags Sunland Park, Las Cruces, Chaparral, Tornillo, and Fabens as untapped nearby markets, and each additional unit replicates the proven low-overhead model.
Implement automated vaccine and annual-care reminders. A client base this size with no systematic recall program is leaking repeat visits, and automated SMS/email reminders are a low-cost lever to reactivate dormant clients and tighten rebooking.
Conduct a full service pricing review. The seller explicitly notes pricing upside, so benchmarking vaccination, surgery, and microchip fees against regional vets could add margin straight to the bottom line without adding volume.
Introduce higher-margin adjacent services: dental, after-hours/emergency care, on-site pharmacy, and lab services. These expand revenue per visit from an already-captive client base and reduce the number of referrals lost to full-service clinics.
Deploy modest targeted digital marketing. Spending under 1% of revenue today means the practice has grown almost entirely on word of mouth, leaving a clear runway to acquire new clients and upsell existing ones with even a small paid acquisition budget.

Diligence notes

Verify the $1.8M revenue and $550K SDE against tax returns and P&Ls, and confirm how much of the SDE depends on the owner's clinical production. Since the owner personally performs morning surgeries, quantify the cost to replace that veterinary labor with a hired or relief DVM, because that expense directly reduces real cash flow to an absentee owner.
Confirm the legitimacy and activity of the 18,000 client count. Request visit frequency, revenue per client, and the share of revenue from repeat versus one-time clients over the trailing 24 months to validate that the book is genuinely active rather than a lifetime total.
Assess licensing and regulatory requirements for mobile veterinary operations in Texas, including DVM licensure, controlled-substance handling, and mobile-unit compliance. A non-DVM investor must line up a qualified medical director before close, and any lapse in clinical licensure could halt revenue.
Inspect the mobile units and equipment condition, including the aging 2004 Ford F550 and 2011 trailer. These vehicles are the production capacity of the entire business, so capex for near-term replacement should be modeled into the purchase price and cash flow.
Evaluate team retention risk, particularly the Medical Manager, relief veterinarians, and ten techs the seller recommends retaining. Secure employment or retention agreements where possible, since the business model relies heavily on this staff running day-to-day operations post-sale.
Clarify SBA and seller financing terms before committing. Confirm whether a non-DVM buyer can obtain SBA financing given the medical-director requirement, and define the exact period and compensation for the seller's negotiable post-close transition support.

Source

Originally listed on BizBuySell. View original listing →