The Hidden $250,000 Asset Sitting Inside Your Clinic

Most clinic owners are constantly chasing new patients.

More ads. More referrals. More outreach.

But very few stop to look at the most valuable asset they already have sitting right in front of them: their past patients.

In many cases, that list represents hundreds of thousands of dollars in recurring revenue that never gets touched.

Why Past Patients Matter More Than You Think

If your clinic has been open for any length of time, you’ve likely treated hundreds or even thousands of people.

A large percentage of those patients:

• Had good outcomes

• Trust you and your team

• Would come back if the right opportunity existed

Yet most clinics never follow up unless someone gets hurt again.

That’s a missed opportunity.

Recurring Revenue Is the Most Valuable Dollar in Your Business

If you had to rank revenue sources, recurring revenue should be at the top.

Recurring revenue:

• Creates predictable cash flow

• Reduces financial stress

• Makes staffing and scaling easier

• Allows you to plan instead of react

Traditional insurance-based clinics rely on referrals, evaluations, and discharges. That model makes continuity difficult.

Cash-based clinics don’t have that limitation.

A Real Example: Turning Past Patients Into $250,000 in Revenue

At one clinic, we tested a simple idea.

Instead of advertising or running promotions, we reached out directly to past patients and invited them into a small group training and movement program.

The first group filled immediately.

Shortly after, a second group followed.

No ads. No cold leads. No complicated funnel.

That single program now generates between $200,000 and $250,000 in gross revenue for one clinic alone. Most participants stay for years, not months.

Why This Approach Works

Past patients are the easiest people to re-engage because:

• They already trust you

• They know your quality of care

• You understand their history and goals

• The relationship is already built

Selling to someone who knows, likes, and trusts you is far easier than starting from scratch.

What You Can Offer Past Patients

Recurring services don’t need to be complicated or trendy. They just need to be useful.

Some examples include:

• Small group training or movement classes

• Monthly check-ins or tune-ups

• Ongoing strength and mobility programs

• Longevity-focused or wellness-based services

• Remote coaching or programming

The best offer is the one that fits your skill set and solves a problem your patients actually care about.

The Biggest Barrier: Time

Most clinic owners don’t build these programs because they’re buried in documentation and admin work.

That’s where Claire comes in.

Claire is an AI scribe trained specifically for physical therapists. It handles your documentation so you can stay present with patients and spend more time working on your business instead of stuck in it.

Try Claire free for 7 days

How to Get Started

If you want to tap into the revenue already sitting in your clinic:

1. Review your past patient list

2. Identify patients who had strong outcomes

3. Test one simple recurring offer

4. Start with direct outreach before running ads

You may already be sitting on a six-figure opportunity without realizing it.

Ready to Go Full Time?

If your goal is to transition into a sustainable, full-time cash-based practice, PT Biz offers a free Part Time to Full Time 5-Day Challenge.

You’ll get clear on:

• How much income you need to replace

• How many visits you need per week

• Which strategy fits your current situation

Sign up here:
https://physicaltherapybiz.com/challenge

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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, what's going on? Dr. Danny here with the PT Entrepreneur Podcast, and today we're talking about. The [00:00:05] hidden asset in your business that is [00:00:10] $250,000 of revenue that's just sitting there that you're not using. And I'm gonna give you an example of this that we use [00:00:15] in our clinic as well, uh, that you can replicate in your own.

And [00:00:20] this asset is your past clients.[00:00:25]

So we have many of us, hundreds, if not in some cases, if your clinic has [00:00:30] been around and is bigger for a long period of time, thousands of past patients, [00:00:35] what are you doing with them? Are, are they on your email list? That's a good [00:00:40] first step. Um, are you communicating with them in a segmented way? That's an even better [00:00:45] set.

And what we really like to do with [00:00:50] past patients is give them a reason to come back in. So. Recurring revenue [00:00:55] in a business is for, if you look at like dollars in terms of [00:01:00] how I would rank them, I would put recurring revenue above every other dollar in your business. [00:01:05] And it's because it provides stability, provides stability for you to, um, [00:01:10] make decisions on overhead and staff and scaling.

It's, it de-stresses running [00:01:15] a business in a significant way. Um, but generation of recurring revenue in [00:01:20] a. And a clinic has not historically, not really been an emphasis because of the, [00:01:25] you know, referral, evaluation, discharge model that, uh, insurance companies, you know, essentially [00:01:30] dictate that's how you run your clinic.

And, uh, many, many big pt you know, groups have been [00:01:35] built off that model in a cash based setting. Uh, we can do things differently. And [00:01:40] oftentimes the recurring revenue side of things is what most people do not understand, but is, [00:01:45] is frankly probably the, the biggest. Asset that you have in comparison [00:01:50] to in-network based clinics.

So I'll give you an example of, of this with [00:01:55] past, past patients and we can kinda just do some rough math on it. Like, like, let's just say that you have, [00:02:00] I don't know, three to 500 patients that you've seen. Let's say that [00:02:05] 70% of those people had a good outcome. So that's like 200 to 2, 350 or so. People, [00:02:10] um, 60% of them probably would like come back for, for something, you know, if it [00:02:15] was the right fit for them.

So let's just say that's like. 120 to maybe 200 [00:02:20] people out of 500 total, uh, that would come back in for something that [00:02:25] maybe you've never even offered them that, uh, you know, a service or, or some sort of [00:02:30] program that would fit what they want. So let's just, let's just assume that's 150 [00:02:35] people. Now with athletes' potential, uh, as an example, like the [00:02:40] number of people that have been seen in that clinic over the last 11 years is in the thousands of people range, right?

So it's a much [00:02:45] bigger past patient list. But when we decided that we wanted to stand up a small [00:02:50] group training program where we basically, you know, it's, it's small groups of five, six people. [00:02:55] With a provider. It's very similar to like a bridge program. Like I would run rounds in the military. So we're doing a lot of, [00:03:00] it's, it's, it's strength in, in conditioning, but it's also a lot of movement prep training.

It's, [00:03:05] um, it's definitely not like, uh, extreme, you know, functional fitness [00:03:10] training or anything like that. Uh, it's, it's very targeted as very specific and the population would be considered like a [00:03:15] special population for personal trainers or in groups. It'd be hard to work with in a group class, actually.[00:03:20]

Um, but they find a perfect fit with us because. We have built trust with [00:03:25] them. They, um, you know, they know that the providers that are running the, the, the actual [00:03:30] training can make modifications and they understand their background. It's a small enough group that we, we know everybody. [00:03:35] Um, but yet misery loves company, so it's a great way for them to train together.

And it's, um, it's only a couple days a week. It's, it's, you [00:03:40] know, it's the minimum effective dose is kinda what we're going for. But when we wanted to test this out, we wanted to, [00:03:45] um, build this program up. The very first thing we did was we reached out to past. [00:03:50] Patients about a new program. We were starting where we wanted to get the initial [00:03:55] cohort together of six people.

That was the original test that we [00:04:00] did, and we were able to find all six of those people via reaching [00:04:05] out to past. Clients, um, you know, and eventually we're able to actually add a second group pretty quickly after that, [00:04:10] just by individually reaching out to past people, let alone, you know, sending an email out to [00:04:15] everybody, uh, that are, you know, past patients of ours.

In, in a more broad context. So if you [00:04:20] look at this program today, you know, that program accounts for, um, [00:04:25] roughly. You know, 200 to $250,000 in, in gross revenue [00:04:30] just for one, one clinic. Uh, in, uh, you know, in that we have out of the, you know, [00:04:35] the other two, uh, or the other one, um, has its own, you know, uh, small group [00:04:40] training program as well that accounts for even more revenue.

But just in one clinic where we first started this, that you're talking about [00:04:45] a quarter million dollars of revenue that came exclusively from, uh, [00:04:50] prior. Customers, and that's not just in one year. That's recurring. By the way, the, the lifetime value of these people, the [00:04:55] stick rate is like we found it to be.

You know, in the close to three [00:05:00] month or three year range. Uh, so they stick around for a long time. So, you know, we engineered [00:05:05] a quarter million dollars of recurring revenue into a clinic just by reaching [00:05:10] out to past patients with something that we felt they would. They would like to do, [00:05:15] and there was a fit and it was a good product.

Uh, you know, and service fit for that, for that [00:05:20] community. And then we've been able to grow that to, you know, where it's today, only by reaching out to past [00:05:25] clients, never actually, uh, spending money on ads for this or marketing directly for this or anything like [00:05:30] that. It's all been internal. And the only reason it's not bigger is we don't have the space to, to, to have more, more people and, [00:05:35] and, uh, to, to have a bigger, you know, number of, um, groups we're working with.

So [00:05:40] looking at this. You should really be asking yourself, when is the last time [00:05:45] that you offered your past, uh, patients and clients something [00:05:50] to come back in for? Uh, we know when is the last time you tested something that they might be [00:05:55] interested in. When's the last time you had a conversation with people about what, what things.

Don't we offer that you [00:06:00] think are valuable that we could, that maybe match our skillset? So this is conversations you can have with clients that you [00:06:05] have a good working relationship with. In particular, I always love to ask my clients that owned businesses, they tend to be pretty [00:06:10] savvy about like, you know, sales, marketing, fulfillment and, and they understand your business.

They typically really [00:06:15] like you, uh, because you've helped them get over an injury. And there's a lot of reciprocity that people feel with that, even if they [00:06:20] paid for it. So you can always ask people that you think have sort of a, you know, a, maybe a, a better [00:06:25] understanding of business. You know what it is that they value, or are you just people you have the most comfortable relationship with?[00:06:30]

And, um, they, they probably give you a lot of great information about what you might be able to do. But [00:06:35] just remember, you probably have literally hundreds, if not thousands of [00:06:40] people that you have had a great outcome with. Uh, and, and help them get back to something that's very [00:06:45] meaningful to them. And if you never give them a reason to come back in, they're not gonna come back [00:06:50] in unless they.

Get hurt again, which is not necessarily the best case scenario, right? You [00:06:55] want to be proactively working with people. It's great for them because they're not waiting until they get [00:07:00] hurt again. It's great for our businesses because it provides recurring revenue and stability. You [00:07:05] know, and it's one of those things that's just a win-win situation.

The hard part is you [00:07:10] need to actually sit down and think about what that is. Maybe it is some sort of structured, recurring, [00:07:15] uh, you know, program that you don't have in place right now that can fit in as a continuity offer [00:07:20] for people that want to work with you ongoing. Maybe that's just coming in once.

Month and just [00:07:25] checking in and making sure you're, you're managing little things that pop up here and there, and maybe it's, you know, talking [00:07:30] about some, some longevity stuff that they're interested in. Maybe it's far more structured than that. You know, it could be [00:07:35] people coming in every week and working with you.

You know, on, on movement training. Uh, we work with [00:07:40] clinics that do this now and it's a big. Big chunk of their, of their business. It could be small group training stuff like [00:07:45] what we're talking about. Um, it could be nutrition, it could be, you know, things that you're interested in, like remote [00:07:50] management of clients and doing programming like full on program design.

It depends what, what you are [00:07:55] good at and what your people want. But at the end of the day, you're sitting on a [00:08:00] probably far more valuable asset than you think that you're not actually leveraging very often, if [00:08:05] ever. Uh, and yet we go out of our way to generate [00:08:10] new. Uh, clients and work our ass off and spend a lot of money on ads [00:08:15] to get these new people in the door.

And we completely forget about the people that have, that have already [00:08:20] worked with you. They know, like trust you. They've already spent money with you and, uh, they're a far [00:08:25] easier sale in many ways. If it matches up with something that they want and you can individualize [00:08:30] that, uh, reach out to them, it's even better, right?

So don't forget about your past clients. Don't forget about your [00:08:35] past patient list. Think about what you could be doing because. For many of you, you're probably sitting on, you [00:08:40] know, hundreds of thousands of dollars of recurring revenue. You know, that's just right there and you [00:08:45] haven't, you really haven't, uh, tapped into it at [00:08:50] all.