Veterinary Clinic Feasibility Study in New Hampshire

Ordinary tickets with a few very large ones

New Hampshire animal hospitals show a split personality in the SBA files. Over the decade of records, New Hampshire clinics received 28 loans, adding up to $26.9 million, yet the median loan is only $289,000, or 0.47x the national median for the class. A few large financings clearly carry the dollar total. Elsewhere on the page the state is ordinary: 38 of 53 among states, 14 of 39 among New Hampshire classes, and a location quotient of 0.91x, close to the national share. We found no metric that stands apart from both parents, so the size spread is the thing to notice.

Two programs in real balance

Unusually for a small-practice class, SBA 504 plays a large part here: 11 of the 28 loans used it, with 17 under 7(a). That points to practices that bought or built their buildings. The middle half of loans runs from $151,500 to $1.4 million, a very wide span. No loan in the record went to a franchise brand, since the share is 0.00%. Annual counts ranged from none in FY2023 to 5 in both FY2021 and FY2025, the latter worth $8.3 million, which suggests one or two building projects can define a year.

Lenders, counties and outcomes

Two lender tables are printed. Under 504, Granite State Economic Development Corporation holds 9 loans worth $3.3 million; under 7(a), Live Oak Banking Company holds 7 worth $12.8 million, the biggest dollar figure on the page. Both tables reflect the holder SBA reports for each loan today, and nothing in them describes lending practice. Rockingham County has 7 loans, Hillsborough 6 and Strafford 5, with Carroll, Merrimack and Sullivan at 2. The outcome rates for cancellation and for charge-off are not published here; the cohorts are too small, so a reader should not mistake the blank for zero.

Questions for a Granite State clinic plan

The plan should begin with where the animals are: household density around the site is thin outside the southern tier, so catchment radius matters more than in a city. It should test whether the practice is buying its building, in which case the real estate appraisal and the practice valuation are two separate exercises with separate risks. Revenue per veterinarian, support-staff cost and the supply of licensed vets willing to work in the region are the usual pressure points, and coverage of debt service should be shown with a conservative client ramp. Because the median loan is far below the average, a borrower should compare itself with the typical deal, not with the largest ones in the table.