E766 | Franchising A Cash-Based PT Clinic With Ariel Edwards
Nov 26, 2024
Revolutionizing Physical Therapy: Inside Fixxed Studios with Dr. Ariel Edwards
Building a physical therapy practice from scratch is no small feat, but Dr. Ariel Edwards, co-founder of Fixxed Studios, has taken it to the next level. With a unique business model blending clinical excellence and innovative services, Fixxed Studios is transforming how physical therapy is delivered—and it’s just getting started.
In a recent conversation on the PT Entrepreneur Podcast, Dr. Danny sat down with Dr. Ariel to discuss her journey, the formation of Fixxed Studios, and their ambitious vision for franchising. Here’s what we learned about this groundbreaking clinic.
From Side Hustle to Scalable Success
Dr. Ariel’s journey started with a simple idea: offering dry needling sessions at a gym owned by her now-business partner, Elise. What began as a side hustle quickly gained traction as clients saw incredible results. With Elise’s background in business (as a CPA and gym owner) and Ariel’s PT expertise, they realized they could create something much bigger.
Their shared vision led to the birth of Fixxed Studios, a cash-based clinic offering high-quality care with a modern, approachable vibe.
What Makes Fixxed Studios Unique?
At the core of Fixxed Studios are four signature services:
- Dry Needling: The most popular service, making up over 50% of their treatments.
- Dynamic Cupping: Combining cupping with movement for enhanced results.
- Graston Technique: Instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization.
- Assisted Stretching: PNF-style techniques for flexibility and recovery.
Clients can choose convenient 20-minute sessions or more traditional 1-hour PT appointments, making high-quality care accessible for a variety of needs.
A Strong Partnership Built on Complementary Skills
One key to Fixxed Studios’ success is the complementary skillset between Ariel and Elise. From the start, they defined clear roles: Ariel focuses on clinical care and education, while Elise manages the business side, including marketing, bookkeeping, and operations.
Even more importantly, they established a formal partnership agreement before seeing their first client—a step many entrepreneurs overlook but one that Ariel credits for their smooth collaboration.
Why Fixxed Studios is Embracing Franchising
As Fixxed Studios grew, Ariel and Elise realized the potential to scale their model and offer other PTs a unique opportunity to own a thriving business. They’ve now launched a franchise model, providing future owners with:
- A comprehensive operations manual
- Pre-built marketing materials and systems
- Detailed training programs for clinical and business success
This approach offers PTs a blueprint for opening their own Fixxed Studio, making entrepreneurship less daunting and more accessible.
What’s Next for Fixxed Studios?
In the next three to five years, Ariel and Elise aim to open 10 Fixxed Studio locations, expanding their innovative model to new markets. Their ultimate goal? To provide PTs with fulfilling career paths while offering clients top-notch care in a welcoming, efficient setting.
Get Involved with Fixxed Studios
Interested in learning more about Fixxed Studios, exploring their franchise opportunities, or even joining their team? Here’s where you can find them:
- Website: fixxedstudios.com
- Instagram: @fixxedstudios
Fixxed Studios isn’t just changing physical therapy—it’s redefining what a career in PT can look like. If you’re ready to think outside the box and take the leap into something new, Fixxed Studios might be the perfect fit.
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Are you a member of our free PT Entrepreneur Facebook Group? Join today!
Ready to elevate your practice? Book a call at the link below with one of our expert consultants today and start your journey to delivering unparalleled physical therapy.
Podcast Transcript
Danny: [00:00:00] Hey, real quick, if you are serious about starting or growing your cash based practice, I want to formally invite you to go to Facebook and join our PT entrepreneurs Facebook group. This is a group of over 6, 000 providers all over the country. And it's a pretty amazing place to start to get involved in the conversation.
Hope to see you there soon. Hey, are you a physical therapist looking to leverage your skillset in a way that helps you create time and financial freedom for yourself and your family? If so, you're in the right spot. My name is Danny Matei and over the last 15 years, I've done pretty much everything you can in the profession.
I've been a staff PT. I've been an active duty military officer, physical therapist. I've started my own cash practice. I've sold that cash practice. And today my company, physical therapy business helped over a thousand clinicians start growing scale, their own cash practices. So if this sounds like something you want to do, listen up, because I'm here to help you.
What's going on? Dr. Danny here with the PT. I'm from our podcast. And today we're talking to Ariel Edwards, uh, about her. Uh, cash P P Q clinic fixed, which is a really interesting model, unique model. We had a chance to [00:01:00] chat with you and your business partner. Um, what was that like a week ago, two weeks ago?
Uh, yeah, which is a great conversation. She's incredibly smart. I'm, I'm interested to dig into that, how that got. You know, uh, formed in the business partner side, but we had a lot of things we're getting to, we're going to get into how we started or how you started your cash practice. Uh, the partnership that you have, and even now that you guys are franchising.
So, um, I thought this would be an interesting one for folks cause you, you dove into a lot of things and we can really kind of learn a lot from what you've done. So, um, first of all, you know, thanks for your time. I know you got a lot going on. Uh, why don't you tell us this, what you started your clinic by yourself, right?
So you actually started your practice by yourself before partnering with your current partner. Yeah.
Ariel: Um, no, actually we started the business together. Um, so my background is that, yeah, I, like many PTs, I worked in a bunch of different settings and I feel like I was just looking for a job that didn't exist, you know?
So I realized that what I was looking for wasn't something I was going to find. I was like, okay, I either need to do this on my own or be okay with staying in the setting that I'm in. [00:02:00] And when I first had the idea for this business, I was working outpatient, but I also started teaching group fitness for a rowing and strength studio called sweat fix.
Um, so that's where I connected with my business partner. So Elise, who's my business partner, she owns sweat fix, which has multiple locations. This one was in Boston and I just went up to her one day and I was like, look, I have this skill. I can do this thing called dry needling. What do you think about me just seeing a handful of clients?
On the side at the gym, just like I'll teach class. I'll see a few people and then I'll go to work and just, you know, just kind of saw it as a side hustle. Wasn't really expecting it to grow. Um, but just kind of wanted to see where when, and she fell in love with dry needling right off the bat. So that's kind of like the, the underlying pulse for fix and like what the business was based off of was dry needling sessions.
So it was cool because we got a, we had to, a chance to essentially like test out the model at the gym. And it [00:03:00] really just exploded. Like there were so many people that wanted to come see what this dry needling was about. I was helping them fix their injuries. It was helping out Elise because I was keeping her athletes.
It's healthy people who might have to take time off from the gym because they had Achilles issues or shoulder issues. They are able to work with me and be able to stay at the gym and stay long term clients. So, um, you know, we, we started to just brainstorm different ideas and it was a perfect fit because Elise has the business background, right?
I have a PT background. I didn't learn anything about business in school. So when we actually started thinking like, okay, what if this business could stand alone on its own and what would that look like? Then we started to think more big picture and how we could put our two skill sets together.
Danny: It's interesting because the, the formation of that.
Yeah. I mean, your, your partner's background is in traditional finance, you know, as a CPA, like that's, that's an incredibly good skillset. Most gym owners do not have that, you know, like that's just, she kind of has a separate career, which, which is [00:04:00] incredibly helpful, uh, at scale to understand all of that.
Um, but when, when the partnership started, like, so was it just, Hey, kind of handshake agreement. We'll do like a rev split of like, whatever I'm seeing. And then, uh, did it evolve from there? Or like, what's been the iterations on the partnership? Because I find that, uh, 1 of 2 things happens with, um, with these, with, with gym owners and potential partnerships is, is a, they have no idea what we do.
And they completely just are just like, yeah, you can have a room or you can submit it for like, uh, 200 bucks. And they don't realize that, you know, you can generate like, tens of thousands of dollars a month, just one provider. Uh, and then they kind of figure it out. And then, and then they start counting how many people are coming in.
And they're like, oh shit, we need to raise your, raise rent or whatever. And the other side is like, they see value in the provider. And, um, they try to figure out a way where it can work with the gym internally. Right. And that seems to be kind of what happened with you. So what's, what's been the iterations of that?
Like, how does it start? And like, how would, how would you say the partnership is, you know, kind of grown into the form that it's today?
Ariel: [00:05:00] Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, luckily, at least had been in business for four years before we ever had an idea for another business. So she kind of knew like coming on with a partner, we have to lay some of these things out right from the beginning.
Like we had an agreement, like legal documents, This is going to be our, you know, what each person owns. We are 50, 50 partners in the business. And this is what each of our roles is going to be. Cause we have very different roles, right? So I was head of treating clients and, you know, helping her develop wording for our branding, whereas she was everything on the backend.
She did all the marketing, all the accounting, all of our bookkeeping, like everything that was on that side. Business oriented was in her bucket. So we never had an issue with who was going to be doing what, and we worked really well together. I think because we did come from very different backgrounds, um, you know, I think it can be, it could be really challenging to work with another partner who has the exact same skillset and you both kind of lack in the same areas too.
So I feel like she saw things [00:06:00] from a slightly different perspective than I saw, but we had the same mission and that was always really powerful too. Like we wanted Fixed to be. as fun and as inviting as it is to go into like a popular fitness studio. You know, we want it to be like instagrammable, like you're going in, it's a really fun environment, everyone's having a good time, but also like it's really top quality care and like we're always pushing ourselves to be the best clinicians that we can.
Um, so kind of having that same mission and having the same mission that We didn't want to do it small. Like we want fix to grow. We want there to be access to these services to everyone. Um, so having the same mission, but coming in with different skillsets, that's kind of how we developed that partnership early on.
Danny: So before you saw a single patient, you had a, you had a, uh, operating agreement structured and signed.
Ariel: Yep.
Danny: So that's like, basically, well, that's great because that's best case scenario, but that's very rare, you know, yeah, yeah,
Ariel: yeah. And I can see [00:07:00] how that can turn into an absolute nightmare if you don't have that in place, because then as soon as one partner starts to get unhappy, it's like, it could be a disaster.
So, yeah, we're, I'm grateful that she, you know, knew that we should do that early on, really.
Danny: Yeah, no, for sure. I mean, I think, and I'd love to, you know, maybe we can kind of just chat a little bit about partnerships and kind of lessons learned, because for a lot of people, I find they seek out a partner because they're kind of scared to do something on their own.
And, you know, sometimes they're also self aware enough to know they don't have a certain skillset. And, uh, and that's, that's a much better place to be than just like, I'm scared. I'm going to do this with my friend because it makes me feel better. But that is what a lot of people do. And those partnerships tend to, to really end up not working out well, um, because of similar skillsets and, uh, and also not really a clear idea of what anybody is doing in the business, you know, versus, um, I have two business partners in PT biz and I have my partner in life, which is my wife, which is, she's involved in everything that we do, you know, both as a [00:08:00] As a component part of the business, equity partner, everything, right?
So like, and but for us, we also have different skill sets of things that we know that we're good at and not good at, but it can take a little while to like, figure that out and to kind of hash that out. So how would you say that the partnership, you know, has grown? Are there certain areas that you found and I'm kind of more interested in this than I thought, or maybe she's, you know, more interested in other things and you sort of evolved your, I guess, the organizational chart and how you're breaking it up.
Ariel: Yeah, definitely. I mean, I feel like it's an ongoing conversation of like what's working and what's not working. And both of us kind of like rely on each other more heavily during different seasons of life, you know, um, like in the beginning it was just the two of us. So I was in charge of seeing all the clients.
She was doing everything on the backend, but then our roles had to change as we brought on more staff and we started working on different projects like developing our pelvic floor PT program because then I was going through, you know, different educational courses, learning a whole bunch of whole different skill sets.
So I kind of had to rely on her a little bit more during that time. And then, you know, [00:09:00] family things for Elise, she has two children. Um, so when she just had her daughter recently, it was like, okay, now we kind of like re divvy up everything. Who's taking charge of what? And it's an ongoing conversation.
There's times where it's not easy and you have to like ask the other person for help. But I think both of us have gotten to a place where we really trust each other. And we know that like each season comes with each person taking on different roles and we're both kind of okay with that. And we roll with it.
And our communication has gotten so much better since we first started. I think both of us just are okay with telling the other person exactly what we're feeling. And we know that we just have to get everything onto the table in order to move forward. And we can't let things linger for too long because we don't have time.
We have things that we need to get done and we can't have there be things between us, you know, that's bothering the other person. So we just have to talk it out and that's gotten a lot easier with practice.
Danny: It's so funny. I feel like, uh, what you just said essentially applies to any relationship. This could be, you know, friend, family member, spouse, business partner, you know, it's just, uh, [00:10:00] it, it's interesting that the communication side of things, I think it's so important to just be, to be honest with people, but not, not so, I think some people are like very direct and they're kind of, um, I don't know if the right word to put it is like, they're kind of an asshole about the way they say things and the information like the way they were the way they receive information when they give information.
It could be completely different in terms of what they prefer and that's a really interesting kind of thing. You have to learn with people in terms of how you communicate those and when and the way in which you position it. But, um, yeah, just being able to have somebody you can be like, honest with is so important because.
If you can't, then it creates all these like other variables that are just like, they get confusing. Um, so I think that's huge. Now tell me about the business model of fixed because it sounds like there's a couple of layers to it from the way you described it to me. It sounds like there's sort of a traditional, you know, PT visits that you're solving a problem that you have some pelvic health work that you're doing.
And then you have sort of this core concept of, you know, give us 20 minutes. Okay. And [00:11:00] we basically do, you know, some, some high level hands on, you know, work, whether it be dry needling or, uh, some sort of scraping or, or cupping or, or assisted stretching, like a number of different things that it sounds like that you're doing.
So, you know, where do those fall together? And, you know, what would you say sort of like the, the core mixture of services in the business looks like?
Ariel: Yeah, definitely. So, I mean, we have. Essentially when we started, I didn't do any traditional physical therapy until probably like a year in because I thought that I was burnt out of being a physical therapist and I wanted to do things differently.
But then once the business was rolling, we decided to add the, the layer of one hour physical therapy. Um, and then we also have our physical therapy sessions in. Um, but the core business that FIX has been built off of is our four signature services. So a new client comes in, they have 40 minutes for their first evaluation and service so that we can do a thorough history.
We can collect their subjective. We can make sure that they're actually safe to be treated with some of the services that we offer, um, you know, and kind of educate them on their condition and [00:12:00] what's going on. And then we save time at the end to do one of the four services, um, which are those four dry needling, which is definitely our most.
It's probably about 50 percent of what we do, or even a little bit more, and then the other 50 percent falls into the other three. So, yeah, we use Grafen or instrument assisted soft tissue cupping, which our cupping program has developed a lot over the years, where we do a lot of dynamic cupping, movement with cups.
We do a lot of rehab exercises with cups on for like, almost like blood flow restriction. And then our assisted stretching program, which is essentially like PNF, like contract relax. For We're still doing the same assessments and reassessments every time that someone comes in. So when a client comes in for their service, we're testing what's going on, we're treating, we're retesting, and then we're always educating them on what things they can be doing at home.
So we have a, a YouTube channel that's built out for all of our home exercise programs. Um, So they get, they'll get a card at the end of their session where they can scan a QR code. It takes them to the YouTube channel and [00:13:00] they can see exactly what exercises we're recommending with our queuing over it, which helps with the, the piece of making sure that they're performing the exercises correctly, making sure they're still getting our cues when they're coming in for a shorter session.
So the 20 minutes, it's just so much more convenient for people. I find that when I was working in traditional PT, we were really the busiest, like before work and after work and kind of the middle of the day. And I guess it's changed a little bit since COVID and more people are working from home. But now I think that people just find it so much easier to fit a 20 minute appointment in than, you An hour twice a week or three times a week sometimes with traditional PT.
So, um, that piece has been really huge and people who come into our studio and they need more help than one of those four services, or they need more queuing, or they have something more complex going on, or they just want more care than they fall into the bucket of physical therapy.
Danny: Yeah. So what percent of, uh, people that you're working with are, [00:14:00] you know, Traditional PT.
Pelvic health, like kind of working on an active problem. They're like trying to solve a problem. And then what percent are people that are, are just trying to, you know, use this as a recovery service or as a proactive service. Hey, sorry to interrupt the podcast, but I have a huge favor to ask of you. If you are a long time listener or a new listener, and you're finding value in this podcast, please head over to iTunes wherever you listen to the podcast, and please leave a rating and review.
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Ariel: Yeah. I would say the majority of our clients come in with an injury. Like that's initially why they come to us. It's a lot of what our marketing is, is like, if you have a problem with knee pain, if you have a problem with plantar fasciitis, they're usually coming in looking for a solution for one of those problems.
So probably like 80 to 85 percent. Um, but [00:15:00] then a lot of our clients stay with us for the long term because then they're trained for a marathon or they are, you know, doing some other new type of workout or they just realize how good they feel when they're actually doing some of this mobility work and taking care of themselves.
So a lot of our clients, once they get through that initial injury, then they switch over to our membership program, which is cupping and stretching. It's a recurring monthly membership, which is great for us because we know that that Revenue is coming in every month. It's, you know, not having to go out and get new clients all the time, but we're keeping these people healthy.
They're able to continue to go to orange theory and to CrossFit. That's like a majority of the population that we see is pretty active and they want to continue to stay active.
Danny: Yeah. So every practice act is different in each state. Um, and I know in Georgia, like this would be really hard to do for, for a practice just because it's like, it's restrictive with, um, The way in which it's structured, uh, and certain practice acts are way better than others, right?
I'm assuming Massachusetts is like, probably [00:16:00] pretty decent in order to be able to have ongoing care, especially with like, dry needling and things like that. So, um, you know, with people that are in, you know, more restrictive. States do you think that something like this is even a viable option or is it really only better for practice acts that are that are a bit more open?
Ariel: Yeah, I mean, we've looked at this a lot when considering the franchise because yeah, there's certain states that right now we're not going to be probably attempting because we know that dry needling is such a heavy, uh. Portion of our business. Um, you know, and it's good for people to have the option to do all four of the services, even if they don't do dry needling every time.
We see that as like such a valuable piece of our treatment. Um, so there's places like New York where hopefully at some point it will change. And I think that. Each practice act is kind of developing it. We know that those like governing pieces and documents take time to change, but we have seen even in, you know, certain states that didn't allow dry needling in the past that now do, um, but there are certainly [00:17:00] ones that probably right now wouldn't be the best fit.
But as far as the franchise goes to, we, we want to open one, like, Close to us first, because Lisa and I, we have such personal investment in the business and we want to see it do well. And we want to be involved and, you know, be a true partner for the next person who opens a fix. So I think like New England, there's a lot of states where that do allow dry needling and have similar practice acts to Massachusetts that, you know, pretty much give you the green light.
Like we need our. Dry needling licenses. Obviously, we need our facility license in order to do physical therapy. Um, we also have athletic trainers on our team who can do all four of the services, but they need to be overseen by a physician. So we have a physician partnership to oversee our athletic trainers as well so that they can treat clients.
Um, but yeah, each state has their own practice act. So when we are reaching out to potential franchisees, it's making sure that we all do our due diligence in that state and making sure that things are being performed under regulation.
Danny: Yeah. Yeah. The, uh, [00:18:00] the, the practice act difference is interesting. I saw you that you have, uh, a decent number of athletic trainers on staff.
And I thought that was interesting as well. So, um, what's the thought process with that? Because, you know, obviously I look at it and I'm like, makes total sense. They are, you know, they're not as expensive as a PT. Uh, they. I think they're like the most underpaid group of medical professionals on the planet.
Uh, and they usually work terrible hours. Uh, you know, I have a decent number of friends that are athletic trainers. When I was going through undergrad, you know, I really quickly realized I was like, I thought training is not what I want to do. Uh, so switch to exercise physiology instead and didn't have to do all the team hours.
And, uh, even my friends that function and still do in the athletic training world. I mean, you're talking about ton of weekends, evenings before school. Uh, they work a ton of hours and then they don't make a lot of money. So, um, you know, what was the emphasis on, um, athletic trainers within the business model?
Ariel: Um, yeah, so I actually, I went to school too, thinking that I wanted to be [00:19:00] an athletic trainer. I went to Northeastern in Boston and then the year that I got there, they cut the program. So that like made the decision for me. And now looking back, I'm like, okay, this actually kind of worked out. Um, but I see FIX as like kind of two main goals.
Now, one obviously is to help people get better. give them access to care, give them convenient, accessible, um, you know, a place to access these resources, but also as a different career path for physical therapists, but also for our athletic trainers. And yeah, they are some of the most skilled clinicians I have ever worked with.
Like I learn a ton from our athletic trainers and we had the reason why we even started thinking about this route to begin with is because we had one athletic trainer reach out to us and Who was Johnny Link certified and it just kind of snowballed from there. So we just started looking into like what that would actually look like if they worked in the fixed setting.
And I will say like they, I love their perspective on things because they see things in such a, an acute way, right? I feel like they recognize things very quickly. They've seen lots of different [00:20:00] types of acute injuries, whereas in physical therapy, we see things more on the rehab side. So usually they've already seen a doctor.
They've seen, you know, this person, sometimes they've already had imaging. Athletic trainers have a different ability to identify, you know, their differential diagnosis. So. We have our fixed clinician group chat where we're always looking at someone who's in charge of doing a different research article each week.
Someone gives us a different clinical pearl, and then someone gives us like a stretcher exercise of the week. And it's awesome because we have a mix up. So we have several athletic trainers, myself, and we also have a physical therapist assistant who sees follow ups for physical therapy and just having the collaboration of all of us has been great for myself, but then everyone else is just constantly learning from each other and, you know, it's just Yeah.
The athletic trainers that we have, they get burnt out of their current, like their typical positions, working in a high school, working in a college. It's always weekends it's traveling. It's working until 9. PM, you know, really difficult for family life and having fixed, be able to offer them like more [00:21:00] traditional hours and a regular schedule is really appealing to them.
Danny: Yeah. It makes a lot of sense, you know, especially if, if, if. Your state, you know, is open enough to allow, you know, that, and there's a challenge. And it's one of the reasons why, you know, the business model, um, varies, you know, state to state, right? Like, we, we work with a lot of businesses. Some of them, they have great, you know, ability to use athletic trainers, PTAs.
Sometimes they use them in more of like a, like a wellness setting because of the restriction and the, you know, Practice act, but even still, it's like a, like a super educated personal trainer, uh, you know, and it can be a really great fit for wellness programs there. So, um, yeah, I, I don't think it has to be just, you know, specifically just hire PTs.
I think it's a number of different skills out there that you can leverage and use. Within the healthcare landscape that can, they can make a lot of sense, uh, tell me a little bit about franchising. So, you know, that's, um, that's obviously like a big step, uh, in the business. [00:22:00] Um, what's the, what's the process like and, you know, what would you say, what would you say the sort of hardest part of it, or maybe like a part that you didn't expect to be as challenging was as you went through that process?
Ariel: Yeah, there's a lot of changes to this process. Um, yeah, so we started in April, like we've kind of had this idea in the back of our heads since the early days. Like we knew we wanted to grow it. We just weren't exactly sure what direct route we wanted to go down. And we have our flagship location in Wakefield, Mass.
And then we have a second location in Haverhill. Which just underwent like massive staffing changes and essentially the person that we were going to have running that studio is no longer with us. So that has fallen on myself to be now treating clients there when that wasn't the original goal. So I think that can be one of the limitations of opening, you know, more studios, Elise and I, like more, you know, company owned studios.
So we decided that the franchise model was something really interesting to us because [00:23:00] the branding is so unique and because the model is so unique and it's so I think something that people see as almost like, you know, like stretch type places that they can go to, but it's the, you, the, it's the care of a physical therapist or an athletic trainer.
So it's really quality care, um, but in a more convenient way. So when we started looking into the franchise model, we had talked to a few different business owners who had done the franchise route for fitness studios. And there's not really anyone else who has done this for, there are for physical therapy, but not for this type of body work.
So we really see ourselves as like the first in the industry to do something like this. And Yeah, I mean, it's a lot of legal processes, but I think the best part that we are, the thing that we learned the most was that everything has to have a process, which we had in place somewhat, but as far as like our training goes, our operations manual for our day to day, like how we provide all of our services, the expectation of our staff, like everything has to fall into that operations manual.
So it's [00:24:00] like a 70 page document of how we do every single service. We used a lot of video trainings and. Honestly, going through that process and making sure that everything, every T was crossed, every I was dotted, like really helped me learn a lot about the way that the business operates, what things we could be doing better, what things needed improvement, what things needed to be tweaked.
And now when we have, even just in our current locations, a new staff member come on, it's so much easier to just give them this document, which. Is not something that you can kind of develop right away because I think we wanted to see how the business runs, but it has everything in there from like when we at least and I divided up the this project of developing the operations manual.
My piece was everything clinician side. Her piece is everything back end. So all of our email marketing, all of our text. follow ups. Everything is built in there so that as soon as someone comes to us and wants to open their own fix, there's no questions about how to make the business successful. But I think it's so important because as a physical therapist, you really don't know how things [00:25:00] are going to go.
Like, it's really scary to open your own business. And if you have this blueprint essentially on what's been successful in two locations, You know, it's just it's like a turnkey at that point, right? Like you have how the operations of the day to day go. There's no questions. There's Amazon links for everything that you need to order.
There's supplies. There's like what the budget should look like, you know, all that information is there for someone. So we're really excited about this opportunity for the next Transcribed by https: otter. ai PT that wants to come on.
Danny: What's the legal process look like? So what type of attorneys do you have to use?
You know, how lengthy is the process? And also like, how is it regulated? Is it federally regulated with as far as franchises are concerned and you have to like have, you know, some sort of sign off from, from another organization on the federal level? Like, you know, what, what's the, what's the sort of details of that process?
Ariel: Yeah, so there are specific franchise lawyers. So the lawyer that we worked with was recommended to us by a few gym owners who franchised their business. And she was awesome to work [00:26:00] with, like knew everything in and out, which obviously they need to because there's so many regulations, but yes, at the federal level, but then per state.
So we're in constant communication with her. Anytime we're in communication with someone who is, you know, Opening a fix in another state, we're running everything by her again, which is great to have her as a resource. Um, there are just like general fees for, you know, the money that you need to put into start the process, but then there's hourly fees as well, which I think is something that at least and I like really.
Took , we took, we wanted to make sure that we got things done efficiently so that we could save as much cost as we could on these lawyer fees. So every time she sent us something, we made sure, like for the next meeting, we looked through everything and we were prepared going into the next meeting. So we could be like, all right, here's this document.
Tell us what we need to change. Um, instead of having her tell us what we needed to do, go back, write the document, and then meet again, which can just add up on the hourly cost. Um, so I think those are probably the [00:27:00] biggest pieces as far as that goes.
Danny: So what's, what is like legal costs all in ballpark for, let's say somebody who's trying to franchise a business in general, like we run a business in order to get all that set up.
Ariel: Yeah. At the businesses that we talked to before we started this process estimated between 60 and a hundred thousand. Um, I think for us, it ended up coming in lower than 60, probably like around 35 to 40, because. We were able to get things done a little bit more efficiently. So, um, yeah, I mean, it's not a, it's not a small investment.
So we,
Danny: it's not terrible. I think it depends on the complexity of your business as well, because I've had friends that have franchised and it, it was hundreds of thousands of dollars, you know, Two and 500, 000 for, uh, all the legal fees, but they had obviously like more complexity, uh, around the business and the operations.
I'm sure that has something to do with it as well. Um, you know, because this is the path that I see a lot of people try to decide on is do they [00:28:00] own. Uh, just one big group of clinics or just one big clinic or whatever their goal is. Do they own, uh, a clinic? They own a business that then has other clinics and then there's owner operators in those.
That is a really common model to sort of the Chick fil A model if you were right, like the people at Chick fil A are not, you know, There's, there's no franchises, they just, they're owner operators, but Chick fil A has ultimate control over that model. And this, they're based in Atlanta. So it's been fun.
It's been fascinating for me to actually talk to people that work there about their business model, because it is interesting. And, uh, there there's pros and cons to that too, because there's, there's a slower expansion because of capital needs to actually like open the spaces, but there's more control over that, that, um, Partnership and that person, like, actually doesn't have a whole lot of leverage at all.
Like, if you, if you screw around and you don't do what they want, they'll just find another person to plug in there. And there's probably a wait list of people that would want to take that location. So, you know, the third variation is [00:29:00] franchise. And franchise is, uh, faster to expand. But a little bit less control over, uh, the day to day, but there you can't just like kick them out of your franchise all that easily versus an owner operator model.
So, uh, for like the purposes of sort of deciding, I'm sure you decided between those three. What was it about the franchise side that really aligned with what you're trying to do with fixed?
Ariel: Yeah, I think we saw it as we just are, we want to keep consistency within the brand. Like we want to do everything that we can to protect the brand that we've built and protect our model in general.
And obviously Chick fil A has figured out a way to do that as well, but we see the franchise as. Like you are coming into this business with a business that is already laid out, like we know exactly what works and what doesn't work. So I think the pros for someone coming in is they don't have to spin their wheels on how to develop a website, how to develop, you know, all of these things.
Like we have tons of Instagram content and marketing and things already in place for someone, which I [00:30:00] think is great. Um, and I think that's something that is really valuable. And we want to keep that consistency with the next fix. So right now, our two locations run exactly the same. Um, the, we did run into an issue with having someone who had equity in one of our locations, and we thought that that was going to be the solution for us.
But because of personal reasons, she ended up, uh, you know, we had to figure out transferring ownership back to Elisa and I ourselves, which was a mess. It was, it was a mess, to be honest, and it's something that we didn't ever want to go through again. And we wanted to, you know, we just saw the franchise.
Um, and I think that we want to see this opportunity as something where we want someone who is as invested as we are right like they're coming in. They will. They there's a fee that you need to pay in order to come into the franchise and once you're committed to that, we want them to be as excited about fixes.
We are. So I think that that. That is another reason why the franchise was appealing to us because they are the owner, right? They own this business. It is theirs. We are there for support and for guidance. But for a PT who has [00:31:00] always dreamed about opening their own business, like you get to own 93 percent of your franchise, right?
And it's a, it's a royalty fee that we keep each month. So I think that's really appealing for someone too, who wants to own more than 25 percent or 30 percent of a business, like they want to own the whole thing.
Danny: Yeah, no, there's obvious like pros for to the model. Um, and I'm interested to see, uh, you know what it looks like over the next few years.
And speaking of that, so, like, what is, uh, yeah, what's what is. What's the next three to five years look like for, for, for fix? Like what's, what's a home run for your, for the two of you and, you know, where do you see the business going?
Ariel: Yeah. I mean, I, I top priority is we, we want to get our two locations running like seamlessly, like with me seeing fewer clients, you know, um, right now, especially with the changes that we underwent in April, um, there's a little bit of a balance issue there.
So we're getting that. All worked out. But that's kind of like short term goal. We're almost there too. We just need like a couple of key staff members up [00:32:00] there and it's going to be great, the business is doing great up there. So, um, we're excited about that, but also. For some reason I have this number in my head where I want there to be 10 fixed.
So that's kind of the goal for the next 10 years is like open one year. Um, and then see what happens from there. I mean, you know, I feel like that's kind of the focus for everything that we're working on right now is find more physical therapists who want a different career opportunity. Um, and so we're really excited to be able to build these businesses and see like what fix can do in different locations.
And we know that the model works. We know that it's a brand that people trust. And I think for myself, I, I initially saw fix as like a, a place for me to grow as a clinician and a place for, to, to see myself being a business owner. And now I just see it as so much bigger than that. Like I want to give this opportunity to other PTs who are stuck in their current careers and they want to do something different.
Danny: Yeah, no, it's cool. Um, you know, it's, it's just, it's, it's interesting to hear how people are independently sort of like being creative with business and they're [00:33:00] finding solutions to problems. And, um, I mean, more than anything, being able to carve out a career path that decreases some of the burnout gives people more ownership over what's happening and, you know, allows them to be.
And I'm a bit more flexible on how they're working with folks. I mean, I think that's just, there's so many people turning that direction within the profession, which I think is, you know, in a lot of ways, uh, going to keep a lot of people in the profession, which is, which I hope happens, obviously. Uh, so yeah, I think this is awesome.
It's so, so cool to learn about what you guys have done. I was super impressed when I had a chance to To chat with the two of you, um, on your podcast. And I'm glad we got a chance to, uh, to, to connect if people are interested in learning more about, um, fixed and the franchise side of things, or just the, the, you know, maybe it makes sense for them, uh, to even, you know, sounds like a place they might want to work, like, where can they go and learn more?
Ariel: Yeah. So fixstudios. com and then fixstudios. com slash franchise fix has two X's in it. And then on Instagram we are fixstudios. You can follow myself. I'm [00:34:00] drariel. dpt on Instagram. And then, yeah, at least I might have our podcast too, which is, uh, the business muscle podcast. So business muscle podcast on Instagram.
Danny: Nice. That was great. Um, well, Ariel, thanks so much. I really appreciate your time. This was cool to learn about this. And, uh, guys, as always, thanks so much for listening and we'll catch the next one.
Ariel: Thank you so much.
Danny: Got it.
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