Posts Tagged Private Practice

What Do You Love?

What Do You Love?

What Do You Love?   As a private practice owner and health and fitness writer, I’m no stranger to the ups and downs of being an entrepreneur. I somewhat reluctantly took on this role back in 2003, when I first opened my private practice. I had been frustrated for months at my job in a busy rehab hospital, and thought that I could do better on my own. Without any formal business training, I sat down with a yellow legal pad and outlined what I wanted my business to look like. Now more than 10 years later (with four years in the middle working for someone else), I find myself thinking a lot about the good, the bad, and the ugly of self-employment. A few recent articles have caught my attention, and given me food for thought. The articles cover topics we don’t often discuss as business owners: the risk, the sleepless nights, the stress of an empty schedule or a phone that doesn’t ring. After talking with many business owners over the years, I know that we all share the same joys and frustrations, and I think that we need to talk more openly about our struggles in order to support each other. It goes against the grain for most business owners to talk about their struggles. After all, we take pride in our image. We want to appear in control and successful at all times. But this often comes at a great cost. This article discusses the psychological price of entrepreneurship in a candid fashion. It discusses the toll taken by lack of a steady paycheck, working long hours, risking security, and loss of time with friends and family. Several prominent business owners openly discuss their struggles with start-ups and failed ventures. The same article points out that […]

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PPS13 In My Shoes

PPS13 In My Shoes

PPS13 In My Shoes I just got back from PPS13 in New Orleans, and all I can say is WOW. What a spectacular time. Everything was top notch, from the programming to the closing party. I did a recap for WebPT here. While I made the point in my post for WebPT that PPS13 was all about connecting, I want to share more of the personal side of my trip here on my blog. I got to see old friends and made new friends, and I got to sit and talk with the leaders of our profession about business and life. What a rush to get together with other private practice owners who could listen, display empathy, get excited for my successes, and offer advice for the future. Here are some of the highlights from my trip: We got to meet up with a friend of mine before the conference started. He does a lot of work in NOLA in the fitness industry, and was able to give us a tour of the New Orleans Athletic Club. This place was absolutely amazing. It opened in 1872 and is one of the oldest athletic clubs in the states. Where else can you work out on an elliptical machine in a room filled with chandeliers?! Their indoor pool is open to the 2nd level, where they have a boxing ring! After our tour, we went to have lunch with some friends from Kentucky (shout out to Patrick @PatrickMyersPT), Brad (@MyPTapexbrad) and Nick (@NickAustinPT)). And then we made our way to the famous Pat O’ Brien’s for Hurricanes. In the rain. We had a few… Over Hurricanes, I met Quinn Worden (@PTsAreHeros). Quinn is an impressive 24 year old with a vision to change the supply chain for physical therapy products. Check out […]

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A #DPTstudent shares her views on marketing the brand of Physical Therapy

A #DPTstudent shares her views on marketing the brand of Physical Therapy

Thanks to Twitter, I have “met” some really forward thinking, dynamic DPT Students. During a recent conversation on marketing and branding, I was impressed by Melissa Dreger’s comments, and asked her to write a guest post for me. Melissa is a DPT student at University of Pittsburg. I think you will enjoy what she has to say, and I hope that we can stimulate some great conversation again here! Take it away, Melissa: Let’s face it, as Physical Therapists we’re always talking about becoming “more marketable” or “advertising to our clients,” but how many of us actually know how to accomplish this? How many of us even know where to begin? Well, here’s a simple step-by-step process that can get you started on how to better market yourself. Number one, we need to figure out our message. In other words, what’s our story? Some typical phrases thrown out there include “movement specialists”, “restorative specialists”, or “movement analysts,” but what do all of these have in common? It’s simple: we are pain managers and ultimately help to restore mobility and to decrease cost to not only our patients but to the healthcare system as a whole (taken from the APTA website at http://www.apta.org/AboutPTs/). There are many ways to twist and turn what Physical Therapists actually do – which leads us to the problem: If one of our goals as a profession is to be autonomous in nature, shouldn’t we have ONE consistent message? It is therefore our responsibility as a physical therapist and as private practice owners to determine what our message is. We can determine this in part by asking our patients directly or through a survey “What is the value of physical therapy?” Number two, we need to be make our message simple. There’s no need to include complex […]

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Brainwashed: Change requires starting with a clean slate.

Brainwashed: Change requires starting with a clean slate.

Brainwashed: Change requires starting with a clean slate This one’s for all the PT’s in the house. Most of the writing I do on my blog is for patients: to provide information, encourage, and teach self-care techniques. Today I’m writing for my peer group. I would like to preface this post by saying that I am not currently a member of the APTA. Before you leave this website or think that I have no right to have an opinion on an organization that I am not part of, let me explain to you the major reason that I am not a current APTA member: In October 2011, I left a job that was meeting all of my financial needs to pursue my dream of being a self-employed physical therapist. I took a risk, and the reward has been great. I opened my business without a single patient on my books. It was the scariest thing I have ever done; but, I believed that I had a unique service to offer and a community that would value that service enough to become my clients. In eight months, I have gone from zero patients per week to averaging twenty patients a week. Anyone who has ever run a business knows that this is no small feat. And, I did it without a small business loan, without six months of savings in the bank (I wouldn’t recommend anyone do this), without participating with any insurance providers, and without being in any way connected to a physician for referrals. I am proud of my accomplishments, grateful to my patients, forever indebted to my husband and children, and appreciative of the help of the other physical therapists I work in concert with on a daily basis. I believe that I have a unique viewpoint, and […]

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