I hope you’re having a lovely holiday season! As 2021 winds down (I can’t believe I’m even writing that), I got curious about quantifying what we’ve accomplished over the last year as a community.
Our goal at Veterinary Care Logistics is to create an environment where conversations about how to establish inventory systems that support patient care can thrive. We believe that inventory shouldn’t detract from caring for our patients and that you shouldn’t feel alone finding out what works for your practice.
To create that environment, we host a dedicated community platform, a FB group, training webinars throughout the year, inventory guides, create inventory training curriculums, host an inventory podcast, and more.
Below is a rundown of the numbers from our community over the last year—but really, these are fairly superficial numbers. They don’t represent the hard work our community members put in serving their patients and clients, setting up and streamlining their inventory, and making progress in their practices.
That said, we still think these numbers are pretty cool!
Here’s how things stacked up over the last 12 months:
We hosted 65 events…
…including 24 inventory training webinars & workshops, 8 live question and answer sessions, 12 Coffee & Conversation calls, 12 vet-med related training webinars (the Introduction to American Sign Language was a huge hit this year), 6 industry-related live events & conversations, and 3 live training series (drawing not to scale—that’s 12 hours of living programming right there!).
We collectively started 2,537 conversations…
… and that doesn’t include the 30,274 comments contributed and 42,510 cheers/reactions from over 7,133 active members.
We got nerdy on podcasts together…
…including 11,965 downloads of the Inventory Nation Podcast. And listeners from over 75 countries and 6 continents tuned in! The most popular episode this year was Episode 45: How to Lower Your COGS (and Not Just Order Less).
We rolled out new features!
Just 12 months ago, we didn’t have budgeting worksheets in the monthly planners, the Inventory 911 Toolkit, specialized VIP Inventory Training packages, a host of free inventory guides, Inventory Ally, and plenty more!
Plus, we revamped the Pathway to Inventory Success so that you could take action and grow your brain no matter the time that you have.
We also welcomed Rachel, our Community Advocate, to the VCL team!
And we planted trees around the globe!
For every Controlled Substance Log Book that we sell, we plant a tree. So, thanks to you, we planted over 3,265 trees in places like the Amazon Rainforest, Malawi, British Columbia, Ghana, Tanzania, Mexico, India, New Zealand, Australia, and more!
Not only that, but we switched to marine algae-based inks on all our packaging and every bit of our packaging is now recycled, recyclable, and biodegradable.
One post, comment, event, or even attending one webinar can seem like a small thing.
But over the course of the year, it adds up to a culture of continual learning, a practice of improvement, and a sense of gratitude for progress over perfection.
And that’s really what developing our inventory systems and growing our practices together is all about. There’s no magic button, no sure thing, no “one size fits all” approach. There’s just the regular practice of learning, curiosity, sharing, and experimenting to find what works.
Here’s to 2021. Here’s to you. We’re improving our practices, helping patient care thrive, and showing others that inventory doesn’t have to be a nightmare… and I’m so glad you’re a part of our community!
As this year comes to a close, I am wishing the following for you…
I wish you time to be still and experience how resilient, compassionate, and incredible you are…
I wish you moments of joy, in even the smallest of ways;
I wish you slow evenings where you can take in the sunset no matter where you are;
I wish you the awareness to know YOU are something to celebrate…not just the things you’ve accomplished — I’m talking about you my friend – just as you are.
