The financial life of a mobile vet in Abu Dhabi

From a young age, I was taught the importance of being able to take care of myself financially. But I don't think my sense of self-worth comes from the amount of money I make. I have spent 16 years doing veterinary medicine. I arrived in Abu Dhabi from Canada in 2007 and in October this year, I opened a mobile veterinary clinic.

The most heartbreaking part of a vet's job is being faced with euthanising a patient they know they could heal because of the financial cost. Finances in veterinary medicine are very difficult. We want to help our patients. So to be faced with making a decision based on whether owners will pay for their animal's treatment is not easy.

As an employee in a clinic I had no choice, but having my own business now I have more leeway.

I visit patients in their homes. It's more convenient for the owner and less stressful for the patient.

But I still find at times that I care more about my patient than the owner does. Sometimes if the cost is an issue, I can get that person to sign the animal over to me and I can take responsibility, treat the animal and try to find a new owner.

I have adopted two dogs since moving to Abu Dhabi and look after foster dogs and cats on a regular basis. Luckily, my husband is an animal lover.

As a young girl, I dreamt of being a vet, but after high school I was encouraged to do something where I could educate myself quickly and get a solid job with benefits.

I studied nursing for about 18 months, but soon realised I was too dreamy and too much of an idealist to be a nurse, so I began a biology degree at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

As I worked through the course, I returned to my original dream. The letter accepting me to study veterinary medicine at the University of Saskatchewan was one of the proudest moments of my life.

The course took four years on top of the four years I had already spent getting a biology degree.

After completing the course, I worked in a small general practice with dental specialists in Vancouver. I learnt what I could, but I wasn't paid a lot and felt I was being used a bit, taking all the late- night and emergency calls.

It wasn't easy but it was valuable experience. After a year I packed up my dog and worked my way east across Canada. There are many, many vets in small towns in need of a holiday and a lot of locum work.

As a locum, you can tell people when you would like to work and what you would like to get paid.

This independence gave me a better sense of value in myself.

I reached Ontario and then moved back to the east coast, where I took a job in a small animal clinic serving a very low-income community, near Sydney, Nova Scotia. This was a very different experience working with people with financial limitations.

There is a real lesson to find the balance between what you have to charge and what people can afford to pay.

I met my husband when I was at university and we got together when I returned to Vancouver after Nova Scotia.

In January 2007, he was offered a job with the Urban Planning Council in Abu Dhabi. Soon after we arrived, I started doing some work at a local vet clinic. It was very busy and my enthusiasm for veterinary medicine started to fade.

When you work for others, you run by their rules and there's always a full waiting room. I left last January and almost straight away started planning my own mobile business. I found so many friends and family members able and wanting to help.

With this assistance, I was able to do my own website and marketing. I could probably have kept set-up costs down to Dh50,000, but I wanted to offer a quality service and my own laboratory, so I spent probably double that. All the equipment is very portable and I can take it with me whenever we leave the country.

Getting a business licence was probably the hardest part because expats are not permitted to run a business from home. I was told I could set up an operation as an offshoot of another vet clinic, so I linked up with one in Dubai.

It acts as my supplier with a slight premium and I get a legitimate licence to run my business. There was also an unbelievable amount of paperwork. I had to supply copies and translations of all my university and school degrees and grades. I almost came to a dead end when I couldn't find my official Grade 10 results.

The mobile clinic - called Dr Sandra - has been very well received (www.myvet.ae).

I advertise on Google AdWorks and on the abudhabiwoman.com website. And I have also put up flyers around the city. I always find it hard to charge fees. It would be nice to do the work for free, but I can't do that. However, with low overheads I can keep my fees comparable to a conventional clinic.

I think within a year, I should have recouped my start-up costs and will have an income I am satisfied with.

At this stage, it's not about money, but doing something that satisfies me. Having said that, there is comfort in being financially independent and in control.

* As told to Jane Williams

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Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa

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COMPANY PROFILE

Name: Kumulus Water

Started: 2021

Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid

Based: Tunisia

Sector: Water technology

Number of staff: 22

Investment raised: $4 million

The rules on fostering in the UAE

A foster couple or family must:

be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
not be younger than 25 years old
not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially

MWTC

Tickets start from Dh100 for adults and are now on sale at www.ticketmaster.ae and Virgin Megastores across the UAE. Three-day and travel packages are also available at 20 per cent discount.

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

The specs

Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six

Power: 510hp at 9,000rpm

Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm

Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual

Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km

On sale: Available to order now

Price: From Dh801,800

MATCH INFO

Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg
Bayern Munich v Real Madrid
When: April 25, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
Where: Allianz Arena, Munich
Live: BeIN Sports HD
Second leg: May 1, Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid

THE SPECS

Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine

Power: 420kW

Torque: 780Nm

Transmission: 8-speed automatic

Price: From Dh1,350,000

On sale: Available for preorder now

HOSTS

T20 WORLD CUP

2024: US and West Indies; 2026: India and Sri Lanka; 2028: Australia and New Zealand; 2030: England, Ireland and Scotland

ODI WORLD CUP

2027: South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia; 2031: India and
Bangladesh

CHAMPIONS TROPHY

2025: Pakistan; 2029: India

COMPANY PROFILE

Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed