Exploring Life & Business with Eva Evans of City Pets Animal Care

Today we’d like to introduce you to Eva Evans.

Hi Eva, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I grew up on a farm in Nashville, TN riding, training, and showing horses. I decided that I wanted to be a veterinarian when I was 8 years old.

After completing my pre-requisites as an undergrad at The University of Tennessee, I was accepted into Veterinary School at UT a year early.

I knew early on that I wanted to work in business and enjoyed numbers, accounting, marketing, creating and growing a business, etc.

During my first two years as a Veterinarian, I completed my MBA from The University of Maryland which gave me a credible background as a business-minded veterinarian.

I moved back to Nashville after working in Las Vegas for a few years and took a position at a Veterinary ER practice for a year before moving on to relief work (similar to temp locum/1099 contractor) at several hospitals around Middle Tennessee. That gave me time and space to develop a business plan for my own practice.

It took nearly 2 years of planning, getting financing, finding a location, renovations, and prep work to open City Pets Animal Care, LLC in the Germantown neighborhood of Nashville. The practice opened in April 2017 and has added 2 additional doctors and employees 10 staff.

Last year I decided I was ready for expansion and a new project, so I founded Alitura Veterinary Care, LLC and closed on a building in Wedgewood-Houston (WeHo) neighborhood in April 2022. The new practice plans to open in 2023.

In the last 10 years since graduating from Vet School, I’ve been involved with the AVMA Political Action Committee, Scholarship Committee for the AVMF, locally organized veterinary medicine, and the Women’s Veterinary Leadership Development Initiative. Starting my own practice from the ground up has been a valuable learning experience, and I love the level of community I share with the neighborhood.

I also love being able to work with great nurses and doctors, interact with fantastic clients and pets as well as spending part of my time growing the practice as well as expanding to new locations. Being a business owner is stressful at times, but it provides me with immense freedom in my schedule, the freedom to choose who I work with, the direction of my practice, and our standard of care as well as financial freedom.

It certainly is not for the faint of heart, and sometimes being a business owner is extremely tiring and maddening, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Starting and running a business certainly has its own challenges.

Roadblocks and constant little difficulties in funding, coordination with architectural plans, construction delays, and staffing are always a challenge in building a new business. Starting out, you don’t know what you don’t know, so there’s a large learning curve to start.

At this point, the business is self-sufficient, but the greatest ongoing challenge has been staffing and training. COVID certainly forced us to adjust our model for client communication and patient care, but we have learned and continue to adapt to changing environments

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about City Pets Animal Care?
City Pets Animal Care is a full-service small animal veterinary practice in the Germantown/Downtown area of Nashville. We treat mainly dogs and cats, and we combine cutting-edge medicine with five-star customer service. We also practice holistic medicine including acupuncture, laser, Chinese herbal medicine, and massage.

I am most proud of the community support and love we receive from our amazing clients. We seek to stand out by offering and recommending gold-standard medical care along with enforcing good client communication to help our pet owners make the best possible decisions for their pets.

We are not the cheapest veterinary care, nor are we the most expensive. We serve a clientele of all socioeconomic backgrounds and our goal is to effectively communicate with and educate our clients to be involved with their pets’ healthcare.

Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
COVID has been a real challenge in regards to staffing as well as backorders and manufacturing issues with the supply chain just like so many other industries. As the COVID lockdown started, many people adopted new pets which drove up demand in the midst of a huge labor shortage.

The entire industry is understaffed and overworked; just like the travel and hospitality industry, we have also been plagued with an increase in abuse coming at us from a small subset of clients in the form of abusive language, disrespectful behavior, and generalized hostility that we did not see on this level prior to COVID.

We just want people to know that we are working as hard and as fast as possible, we are short-staffed (along with the rest of the world!) and demand has doubled since COVID, so please bear with your veterinary healthcare providers and remember to be kind and patient as we work to serve all those in need!

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.CityPetsAnimalCare.com
• Instagram: @citypets_Nash
• Facebook: City Pets Animal Care