E863 | Why You're Scared To Charge $250/Visit (And How To Get Over It)

No Money, No Mission

A clinic owner told me they were stuck. Great demand. Solid brand. But hiring? Brutal.
Salaries, benefits, rent—everything was up. Their prices weren’t.

We’d just finished a four-clinic pricing test. I compared average visit rates to local median household income.
Here’s what shocked most people: the lowest-income market had the highest price point.
The second-lowest income market? Second-highest price point.
The “wealthiest” city in the group? Third.
Another big market? Dead last.

It didn’t line up neatly with income. It lined up with courage—owners willing to charge what it actually costs to build a great clinic.

The clinics that priced correctly weren’t gouging; they were funding the mission:

• Paying their team well (and keeping them).

• Upgrading space and experience.

• Developing leaders so the owner didn’t do everything.

• Creating a clinic people are proud to work in and refer to.

That’s when it clicked for this owner: “I’m not undercharging patients—I’m underfunding the business that serves them.”

The Lesson

• Price for your market’s reality. Standard markets should average $190–$200+ per visit. High-cost-of-living markets need $250+—or the math doesn’t work.

• Don’t let fear set your rates. The mass-exodus story is mostly fiction. A price lift rarely affects your best-fit patients.

• Volume × Price = Growth. Tiny increases often don’t dent demand but massively improve your ability to hire, retain, and reinvest.

Your Challenge This Week

1. Pull your last 90 days and calculate your average visit value.

2. Compare it to the target for your market ($190–$200+ or $250+ in high-COL).

3. Draft a price-update plan (date, scripts, FAQ).

4. Commit to reinvesting the lift into team comp/benefits and patient experience.

5. Sanity-check with two peers—don’t be the lowest-priced clinic in the most expensive city.

Because at the end of the day, your purpose rides on your pricing.
No money, no mission.

“What you charge isn’t greed—it’s the oxygen your clinic needs to serve people at a high level.”

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Podcast Transcript

[00:00:00] Hey, Danny Matta here with PT Biz, and I have some interesting [00:00:05] pricing specifics to share with you based on a test that we did and different demographics [00:00:10] as far as average income is concerned, and the price points that were tested probably gonna surprise you a [00:00:15] little bit. So price point is one of the things [00:00:20] that when we look at.

The biggest businesses that we work with [00:00:25] versus the smallest businesses we work with. There's definitely a separation there. We [00:00:30] recently did a internal, um, assessment of a number of different factors of [00:00:35] businesses with, there was an industry report that we put together, and one of the things we found, which is [00:00:40] pretty common sense, I think as far as correlation is concerned, is the more you charge, [00:00:45] the more likely it is that you have a bigger business.

Right? Um, so it's. The amounts you [00:00:50] charge times, the volume you have essentially equals your gross revenue in a, in a simple fashion, assuming [00:00:55] that's the front end offer. Well, as we looked at that, [00:01:00] we started to look at a couple other factors, and this was [00:01:05] also the demographic area that you were in. So I was able to kind of pull out a [00:01:10] few different examples of a pricing test that we did recently with a [00:01:15] handful of clinics and I was able to compare their.

Pricing, so how [00:01:20] high their pricing was in comparison to their median household [00:01:25] income. And I found something that was pretty interesting and something that really [00:01:30] should help you better understand how you should be pricing yourself and probably [00:01:35] the fact that you're probably undercharging. Now, before I get into that, I wanna share [00:01:40] my experience with this because I know.

Changing your price points can be [00:01:45] very scary. I've now done this in basically every single business we've ever been a part of, [00:01:50] and every time that you change your pricing, you, you increase your pricing. You think to yourself, [00:01:55] everybody's gonna leave. No one's gonna work with me. You know, like, I'm, I'm not gonna have any more new [00:02:00] patients.

All the old patients are gonna be mad. Um, the reality is very rarely do [00:02:05] you actually. You know, see any sort of negative impact to your business and if anything, what happens [00:02:10] is you have people that are kind of pain the ass patients. Or [00:02:15] clients that they get upset and they don't come back, but they're also probably the people you don't, [00:02:20] you don't wanna work with anyway.

You know, if they get that upset over a, you know, 10 to [00:02:25] $20 change in what you're charging for a, for a visit, like these are just [00:02:30] challenging people to deal with, probably best for you to not have a long-term relationship with them. Anyway, [00:02:35] so I've never really seen it aside from the, the one-off, you know, example here and there of a patient that [00:02:40] maybe just gets upset as long as you manage it the right way and you handle the, the price raise, uh, [00:02:45] correctly.

But when we, the first price raise we ever did, so when I started Athletes Potential, [00:02:50] we were charging $175 per visit. Now granted. [00:02:55] I wanted to charge $125, but the, uh, the group I [00:03:00] was working for at the time was called Mobility. Why? This is Kelly Stat's Company, which is now known as the Ready State. [00:03:05] Uh, that's their current company name.

And I remember I had a conversation with him and he was like, dude, if you charge, [00:03:10] if you charge anything under $200, like you're just, you're doing the wrong thing. [00:03:15] But I couldn't. I couldn't do that. I just, at the time I was like, there's no chance man. [00:03:20] Like, no one's gonna pay that. And so I settled in at 1 75.

Uh, I [00:03:25] was kind of, sort of met him in the middle, sort of, right. So I started at 1 75 [00:03:30] and as we brought on our first, um, admin, I, [00:03:35] I wanted to be able to pay for her salary without necessarily. Decreasing [00:03:40] our profit. So I went from 1 75 to $190 and at the time I [00:03:45] was only doing visit to visit. There's no packages.

There was no plans of care, nothing. It was just [00:03:50] 1 75 to one 90, and I was so nervous about. Raising my [00:03:55] rates like so nervous that I delayed [00:04:00] actually doing it for weeks until finally I decided, okay, I'm gonna go ahead and do this. I'm [00:04:05] the next person that I talked to on the phone that it's like a discovery call.

I'm gonna just tell 'em it's [00:04:10] $190 a session versus 1 75, and you know what happened? Nothing, nothing changed. It was exactly [00:04:15] the same because it's such a minute jump in, in our [00:04:20] mind it was huge. But to the consumer, they didn't even know what the price was actually. Uh, they just, they just [00:04:25] wanted to know what it cost and it wouldn't really matter to them.

If it was 1 75 or one 90, they didn't really care. [00:04:30] And for a lot of us where we're pricing ourself, there's there, [00:04:35] there's a sweet spot. Okay. And it, and it changes based on your location, which I'm gonna get [00:04:40] into in a second. Uh, but if your cost of living is higher, it, your rent is [00:04:45] higher, it, you know, gas is more, uh, food is more, [00:04:50] insurance is more just the cost of living is higher in your area.

You're going to have to pay [00:04:55] more to run your business, and you have to pay more for your staff to be able to have the same quality of [00:05:00] life in that city. So you would think that [00:05:05] higher cost of living areas would be associated with higher price points in these cash-based clinics. [00:05:10] But that's not necessarily the case, and in fact, that's not [00:05:15] really what we see.

Generally, it trends to that direction. You charge more if you [00:05:20] live in New York City than if you live in Memphis, Tennessee or something. Right. But not always. [00:05:25] And. I think there's a mismatch there. There's, there's, there's a disconnect [00:05:30] between what people should be charging based on their area, based on their, their [00:05:35] demographics and based on their cost of living.

That is really, it [00:05:40] hinders businesses in, uh, higher cost of living areas that don't [00:05:45] actually match that up with where their pricing should be. And a lot of it is because of fear. [00:05:50] Frankly. It's fear of mispricing themself and. [00:05:55] Not getting the business that they would've got if they were at a lower price point.

Now there's, [00:06:00] there's, there's another variable there, which is what you charge is one thing, but your volume [00:06:05] is the other. So there is a sweet spot in regards to what you [00:06:10] charge and the volume you can expect to see. So maybe if you charge $400 a visit, [00:06:15] you'll see a drop in your volume. But does that. Change in what you're charging, make a [00:06:20] meaningful difference overall in total revenue and total ability to be able to pay your staff [00:06:25] what they're worth and get really high quality people.

I don't know. It's very dependent based on the [00:06:30] scenario, the case, the niche, the area, the brand strength, um, a number of factors, [00:06:35] but I can tell you this much, if you undercharge in a high cost of living area, [00:06:40] it's very much going to affect your ability to get great staff, to pay them well enough [00:06:45] to live in that area and.

In higher cost of living areas, you usually actually have an easier [00:06:50] time hiring people because it's more of a, uh, it's more of a place that people want to live usually, so that's why it [00:06:55] costs more. And so you have the easier pipeline of hiring, but you can't hire people because you [00:07:00] don't make enough, uh, revenue per provider to actually be able to pay them.

So. This is where I see [00:07:05] providers, our clinic owners really shoot themself in the foot. And when [00:07:10] we look at this test of this, this pricing test that we did with a handful of clinics, there were four clinics that I [00:07:15] looked at. And this was really interesting 'cause I looked at their [00:07:20] price point, their average price point, and I looked at their median income.

So [00:07:25] this was the median income. For these four locations, so location number [00:07:30] one was $84,000. Median income, household income annually [00:07:35] in this location, location number two was [00:07:40] $111,000 annually. Median household income number three was [00:07:45] $118,000, and number four was $129,000. [00:07:50] So you would think, uh, clinic one, which is $84,000, which is.[00:07:55]

50% less than the fourth one, which was 1 29 would [00:08:00] be less, would charge less than the clinic in a higher cost of living area. [00:08:05] Well, when we look at their average visit rate or their plan of care, [00:08:10] it wasn't correlated to their location at all. In fact, clinic number one, which was [00:08:15] $84,000 in household family income, median household income, had the [00:08:20] highest price point.

By a good chunk compared to the rest of these clinics. [00:08:25] Number two, the second lowest was $111,000. They had the second highest price point, so [00:08:30] the second lowest median income, the second highest price point, clinic [00:08:35] number four, which was $129,000. They had the third highest price point and clinic [00:08:40] number four, which was $118,000.

They had the fourth highest. Income. [00:08:45] Our fourth highest price, or I'm sorry, fourth lowest price point I should say. So like they were the lowest [00:08:50] out of all of them. So the lowest average income had the [00:08:55] highest price point. The second lowest average income had the second highest price point. The [00:09:00] third, the, the, the highest income had the third highest price point.

And the, [00:09:05] the third highest income had the fourth highest one. So it didn't correlate whatsoever. But here's what [00:09:10] happens if you're clinic number. Uh, for where you're seeing [00:09:15] 118,000 in average income. In your area, and you're charging [00:09:20] less than everybody else on this, uh, in, in this test, who two [00:09:25] of the three are significantly lower than you in average income.

Here's what's happening. [00:09:30] You're undercharging, you're unable to pay your staff what they are worth, and you're going to have a harder [00:09:35] time retaining staff as well as scaling your business because at the end of the day, your [00:09:40] net profitability is not lining up with your demographic area. So I would highly [00:09:45] recommend that you take a look at your price points and ask yourself honestly, [00:09:50] if you're charging what you should be for your area.

The areas that I see [00:09:55] this absolutely become a bigger problem than anywhere else are the [00:10:00] high cost of living areas. If you live in the Bay Area, if you live in New York City, if you live in [00:10:05] Chicago, if you live in Boston, if you live in la, San Diego. You [00:10:10] know, some of the, some of these cities are starting to become, uh, more expensive.

Even Atlanta is starting to become far [00:10:15] more expensive. Charleston is becoming far more expensive. You know, these are definitely areas that are starting to [00:10:20] become more and more expensive. And if, if you are not keeping pace with the change [00:10:25] in cost of living in your area and you're undercharging. You're putting yourself in a really bad spot [00:10:30] because here's an example.

Let's say this clinic that was, you know, in an area that [00:10:35] has an average income of $84,000 on a household annual income. [00:10:40] And they're charging 50% more than a clinic where it's [00:10:45] 50% more expensive for people to live there, they're going to eat your lunch. As [00:10:50] far as net profit is concerned, they're gonna be able to pay their people so much more money.

They're gonna be able to pay [00:10:55] their people. And have far better benefits for them. They're gonna just have a better culture overall because they [00:11:00] can reinvest in their people in such a significant way. So what you charge isn't just about how much [00:11:05] money you make, it's about how much you can reinvest in your staff, in your space, in your culture, [00:11:10] and, and investing in the business in a way that allows it to really grow and mature and [00:11:15] become stabilized.

It allows you to, to hire leaders internally in your [00:11:20] company so you don't have to do everything for. That is what's happening there. So the fear that you [00:11:25] have about what you're charging, you gotta get over that shit because it's going to [00:11:30] hold you back in your business. And I can tell you this much across the board, I don't care [00:11:35] what city you're in.

You're gonna need to be between 190 and [00:11:40] $200 per visit per hour average based on what we're gonna have to be able to [00:11:45] pay staff. And it's continuing to, you know, obviously change and, and, uh, cost of [00:11:50] living goes up basically every single year. It's some in some percentage. So that's not gonna change if [00:11:55] you're in a higher cost of living area.

You need to be closer to $250. Plus, [00:12:00] if you're in the Bay Area and you're not a $250 plus, you're gonna have a really hard time paying your rent. [00:12:05] You're gonna have a really hard time paying your staff, and that's just the way it is. Like you're [00:12:10] in an area that costs more money. You have to be able to charge more in order to even.

[00:12:15] Have a viable business there. Like that's just the way it is. I do see this [00:12:20] though, there are sweet spot areas. These are sort of mid-size cities where the cost of living is still relatively [00:12:25] low, but you can charge between, you know what, what a [00:12:30] smaller market and a large market would be able to accept. So you actually have.

A, a, [00:12:35] a really interesting position to be in. You can be in a sort of, uh, a higher price point per [00:12:40] session. Cost of living is lower, your rent is lower, your overhead for your company is lower, and this is x where I see [00:12:45] the most profitable companies, uh, that, that we have a chance to work with. So this is where we see pro, uh, [00:12:50] some of these clinics that are running 40 plus percent net profit margins.

And at the end of the [00:12:55] day, it's not about what you make, it's about what you keep. So take a close look at what you're charging, look at [00:13:00] your average. You know, demographic area, what the, the income level looks like in your [00:13:05] area. Compare that to some other ones. And this is actually the power of people in our mastermind group.

We just got [00:13:10] together with a couple hundred clinicians in, uh, in Dallas for our, um, [00:13:15] for, for our mastermind event in person, for our, our PT Biz Live event. And [00:13:20] it's really interesting to sit in on conversations, to sit at breakfast with people where they're talking [00:13:25] about what they're charging and their price points and things like that.

And to hear to people. Like I [00:13:30] sat there with, with, uh, a group of people on a round table, and I overheard two people having a [00:13:35] conversation. One was in a smaller market and one was in a big market, and they were charging the [00:13:40] same. They had the same price point and they had the same size businesses, basically, except [00:13:45] one was more profitable than the other because they didn't have as much overhead.

And it was interesting to see that [00:13:50] clinician in the bigger market have a light bulb moment that they needed to charge more money and they were undercharging [00:13:55] because they randomly sat down next to somebody that had a similar size business to them. Same, [00:14:00] basically set up performance based, cash-based clinic.

And to hear that they were charging what [00:14:05] they were charging. In a smaller market, that is where the light bulb goes off. That is where the courage [00:14:10] gets developed for you to then say, I gotta go raise my prices. I gotta reestablish a better price point. Why? 'cause [00:14:15] you gotta be able to provide the, the net profitability to the business, the [00:14:20] profit that's there, to then reinvest in your staff.

In your space, in their [00:14:25] benefits to create jobs that are fantastic, to create jobs that are on par with [00:14:30] what they can get in corporate owned clinics and hospital clinics and home health, [00:14:35] without having to see 20 plus people a day without burning them out, with allowing [00:14:40] them to work with fantastic people in a niche that's interesting to them to to, to let them be world class at what they [00:14:45] do and.

Do that for an extended period of time and not just leave the profession after a couple years, which is what [00:14:50] we see over and over and over and over again. And my hope is that these [00:14:55] clinics really, you know, they save people from leaving the profession, great providers from leaving the [00:15:00] profession. We need fantastic providers in our profession.

People need our help. And it's up [00:15:05] to us as business owners to create an environment that is ideal for them to be able to live the [00:15:10] life that they want, have the impact that they want. You know, be able to make the money that they, they want, [00:15:15] uh, be able to be a part of a fantastic culture and feel like they are a part of [00:15:20] a big mission of helping people live these high performance, pain-free lives that we help so many people actually live.

[00:15:25] So, take a look at your business, see what you're charging, and if it's not, you know, [00:15:30] on par with where you need to be if you're not in a bigger market. You know, if you're in an [00:15:35] expensive area and you're not charging, you know, $250 a visit, you're not averaging up [00:15:40] towards that. You need to really look at why, because as you see your rent going [00:15:45] up, you see your insurance going up, you see your staff asking for pay raises and they want you to pay for healthcare.

[00:15:50] How are you gonna do it? How are you gonna do it if you don't have the money to, to be able to do it? [00:15:55] When my wife worked in the nonprofit world, which she did for years, they used to say. No [00:16:00] money, no mission, and guess what? It's the same thing for us. These are mission [00:16:05] driven businesses. They're not nonprofits, but man, we help a lot of people and it's a really, really special thing to be able to do [00:16:10] that.

Remember, no money, no mission. It's up to you to charge for your [00:16:15] work.