This story is part of WTOP’s Small Business September coverage. Each week, WTOP will be highlighting small businesses across the D.C. region, along with financial, government and other organizations that help our small business community thrive.
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What’s better than working all day taking care of man’s best friend? Doing it every day with your daughter.
In this Small Business September installment, presented by EagleBank, WTOP visited a veterinary clinic in Bethesda, Maryland, where a father is now practicing with his youngest daughter.
“I’m here full time now, and I love it,” Sophia Benson told WTOP.
She graduated from the University of Florida Veterinary School in 2024 and after a yearlong internship, she started working at the family business this summer.
For her father, Randy Benson, the experience is a “kind of déjà vu.” Sophia marks the third generation to work at the family-run Benson Animal Hospital.
“I was in her position for a number of years with my father,” Randy said. “The circle has kind of moved on and now I’m taking his position, and Sophia is coming on board. So it all seems very déjà vu, very familiar for me.”
Sophia doesn’t take the fact that she is the third generation at this small business lightly. She described the “goose bumps” she gets every time when walking into an exam room to meet a longtime client and their pets that have seen her father for years, or maybe even decades.
“I’ve had a lot of people say they, as younger adults or even as kids, saw my grandfather, and then they saw my dad, and now they’re seeing me,” she said. “It’s really, really special, and I recognize that.”
“A lot of clients are relieved, because they were afraid I was going to retire and then there would be no follow up. And now, I’ve had so many clients tell me, ‘Now, I’ve got a third generation to come see,’” Randy added.
A family affair
Benson Animal Hospital was started in downtown Bethesda in 1953 by Albert Benson. During that time, the practice moved once, just across the street at Cordell Avenue, a few years after Randy joined the practice in 1985.
When it opened over 70 years ago, Benson Animal Hospital was a one-stop shop that would take on any case. The elder Benson said that during his career, he has seen the rise of specialty practices and the referral business.
They now focus on primary and urgent care for their clients, while still doing soft tissue surgery, such as spays, neuters and mass removals.
Sophia is especially enjoying the client education side of practicing.
“My job is to lay it all out and then have a discussion with the owner. I want them to have agency in their animal’s health,” she said.
Both Bensons said they are learning from each other: Sophia brings new techniques she picked up in college and Randy brings decades of experience practicing veterinary medicine.
“The only thing I have to offer her is experience,” Randy said. “I want to pass that generational information on to her.”
Both love the experience of walking into exam rooms, visiting with lap dogs, 100-pound hounds and friendly cats.
“The best serotonin boost you can get,” they both agreed.
While many who join the family business grow up wanting to go into that line of work, Sophia said when she was younger, she did not have a strong desire to become a vet. She initially went to college with the intention of becoming a physician, but it didn’t feel right.
“I felt like I was putting a square peg into a round hole. I grew up around veterinary medicine, so I was very privy to it,” she said. “In the end, animals and vet med is what drew me back.”
Her father emphasized that you can’t force your child into your career. They have to choose it for themselves, he said.
“My father told me years ago, you have to put on your pants every day to go to work, so make sure what you’re doing is what you want to do. You can’t force it on people. It’s just a recipe for disaster,” Randy added.
Both said they made the right moves with their careers.
“If you’re called to do it, it is one of the most rewarding careers out there,” Sophia said.
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