Why you might be more ready than you think to start your own PT practice
10 Reasons PTs DON’T start their own practices
(And why it’s time to reconsider)
You’re burned out, you’re tired of seeing too many patients, you want a higher salary, and you don’t feel you’re providing quality care to your patients. You’ve thought about starting your practice for a while.
You’re thinking it might be in your future plans, but for whatever reason, you haven’t pulled the trigger yet. Why not? You’re likely telling yourself one or more of these things… and they don’t have to get in your way.
1. It’s not the right time
It’s never going to be the perfect time. You will never feel 100% ready to jump into something like starting a business because there aren’t any guarantees. We can always find reasons that it’s not the right time to do something, start something, say something, end something - in any situation. Of course, some times are worse than others. But, how can we turn the present into the right enough time?
What if we think about the right enough time?
Does it mean having a clear niche, does it mean having enough money saved up, does it mean having a network of patients to draw from? Does it mean having the support of your friends and family? Figure out what that right enough time might entail and work toward that.
2. I don’t have a network of patients to follow me
Even if you think you have a large network of patients to follow you, often it doesn’t work out that way. Especially if you’re moving from an in-network to a cash-based model. But, that’s still not a reason to not get started. Networking and marketing are all about creating relationships with people.
When you start your practice, you are in a position to have time and energy to talk to the people who you want to become your community. For example, you can set your schedule so that you can go to the 5pm CrossFit class each day and meet people.
You will have the freedom to work on blogs and set up workshops. You will have to put in time and energy to create this network, but often the best way to make it happen is to just get started.
3. I don’t have any start-up money
It is a misconception that you need a certain amount of money to get started. This comes from a precedent that many traditional PT clinics have set: that all PT clinics need to look a certain way and that there are many barriers to starting up. In many DPT programs, you are given the assignment to design a clinic with the expectation that you’d take out a loan, hire administrative staff right away, buy expensive equipment, build out a new space, and spend money on website design and marketing. But, your practice doesn’t have to look that way. There are lots of ways to start a practice, including subleasing an existing space, starting small and with minimal overhead, doing all of your own paperwork, and building slowly.
4. I need a stable job and I’m afraid to give up my salary
Many people feel this limitation is the big one. They wait for a guarantee that their new business will be able to fully replace their income quickly...but unfortunately, that guarantee will likely never happen. It is a valid concern – you’re not sure how many patients you’ll see, and you might be afraid to lose health insurance and other benefits that come with a salaried position.
You don’t need to quit your full time job to get started.
Many physical therapists start their practice as a side hustle while keeping their salaried PT position. Others decide to go all in and get PRN work on the side. Coaching, teaching, writing, working in admin positions and working as a PT in other settings are all great supplements to income when you are first starting out.
5. I’m not clinically skilled enough to practice solo
It is generally a good idea to have some experience with a higher volume of patients before you go out on your own. But, it’s also not true that the best or most skilled clinicians make the best practice owners or entrepreneurs. There are still options for clinical mentorship and continuing education when you work for yourself. You may just need to work harder to find them.
If you’re really concerned about this issue as a new grad, you might consider going into business with a colleague with more PT experience, or to continue to treat on the side at a PRN job. Another option would be to consider owning your own practice but subletting from another PT office where you are around other clinicians and have more exposure to different practice styles. In fact, there are many collaborative offices or collectives where different healthcare providers work in the same space and even cross-refer but each owns their own practice.
6. We’re still in the middle of a pandemic
Yes, while a global pandemic isn’t ideal when we think about taking the risk of starting a business, it isn’t totally unreasonable either. Many PTs were laid off or asked to work in unsafe work environments this last year which resulted in several leaving their jobs and starting their own practices anyway. Being laid off or furloughed has also been the catalyst for a lot of PTs to finally start their own practice. The pandemic has also shown a lot of the benefits of working for yourself: being able to treat 1:1 and at lower volume, and being able to set your own policies.
7. I don’t know how to get started
Most people just Google “how to start a physical therapy business” - we both did. This is precisely why we created the step-by-step course: we wanted to streamline the process for folks. Talking about the logistics and legalities is really important to make sure things are done correctly.
But, often people can get stuck on things like logo design, coming up with a name, or making perfect social media posts. At some point, we need to just go for it and learn as we go. We can’t let little details like that hold us up - especially when those are things we can change or adjust later.
8. I’m not established yet in my area
You need to start in order to get established in your area. This is something that will take years to build, but the best way to begin to establish your reputation is to open your clinic and start treating patients. Of course it’s easier to start a practice if you already have a guaranteed following, but this just isn’t the case for everyone, and noncompetes can make this difficult anyway.
9. I don’t think people will be willing to pay
Is it a confidence issue, or does the market in your area not support a cash practice yet? If it’s a confidence or experience issue, learning to sell yourself and your clinic will just take strategy, practice, and specialization.
Will people pay?
If the market isn’t there, you can find an insurance contract that works for you until you’ve built your reputation and niche enough to go all in with the cash model.
10. I might fail
If you take a risk and start your own business, you will make mistakes and fail. The risk of failure will continue as long as you’re a practice owner. With the right strategy and mindset, these failures become opportunities for growth and opportunities to learn. Accepting and learning from failures that will inevitably happen, and going into practice ownership knowing that they will happen actually helps to set you up for success. By being okay with failure, you become ready to learn and pivot when you need to so that your business does NOT fail.
We often get stuck on the reasons not to start a practice. What if we focused on the reasons we want to get started instead?
