E414 | The Top 5 Business Lessons From The Past 7 Years Running A Cash-Based Practice

Welcome back to the P.T. Entrepreneur Podcast!  On this episode, I will be reflecting back on 7 years of owning and operating a cash-based practice.  Some of these lessons I have learned are super important not only for me, but I think for the clinicians we also work with with Physical Therapy Biz.

Also, if you want to be around a community of clinicians like yourself, don't miss the chance to join us in September at our live event in Dallas!  Hop on a call with one of our team members today!  Head to the link below! 

www.physicaltherapybiz.com/apply

Danny: Hey, I've got a question for you. Do you know if you're tracking the right data, the right metrics to the right key performance indicators in your practice? This is something that's huge for us and really helps us make solid decisions within our business, but the prior software that we're using to run our practice made it really, really challenging.

To actually get that data out and use it in reports. Since we've switched to PPG everywhere, this has actually become way, way easier for us to be able to have the right data. We have a dashboard of all the things that we actually want to see, the metrics that we want to pull, and it makes our life a lot easier to pull the information that we need to make the right decisions within our business.

So if you're running blind and you're not tracking the right things, or you're. Hard time actually pulling everything together. I highly recommend you check out our friends at PT Everywhere and see what they've got going on with their software platform. It's what we use for our practice. It's been a game changer for us.

You can check 'em [email protected]. I think you really like it. So here's the question. How do physical therapists like us who don't wanna see 30 patients a day, who don't want to work home health and have real student loans create a career and life for ourselves that we've always dreamed about?

This is the question, and this podcast is the answer. My name's Danny Mate, and welcome to the PT Entrepreneur Podcast.

What's going on guys? Doc Danny here with the PT Entrepreneur podcast and uh, today I'm excited to share a, uh, podcast with you that I had a chance to work on some of the framework of this on a trip that I was on, uh, recently. And, um, I had a lot of time on planes. I had a lot of time driving. Uh, I went out to Washington State with my family to go see, um, some friends of ours that are still out there.

The Shaman is actually Joe Shaman, the guy that I started the docking jock podcast with. But, um, his wife, Eliza and I went to the Army Baylor program together and she's still active duty. She's killing it out there. Super, super sharp clinician. Um, and they're still there. They luckily, uh, been there for like four years and, uh, so we got to go check out Olympic National Park with them and, and.

Joe gave us a food and history tour of Pike Place Market in Seattle, which was a lot of fun with, uh, with their kids. And then, uh, we went up to, um, the San Juan Islands in Orcas Island and stayed there for a couple days, which was, which insanely pretty so, I totally see what people like it out there. Um, it, you know, obviously it's a summer.

I don't know, I don't know if it's like that all the time, obviously I don't think it is, but damn, it's a pretty place in the summer. So, um, while I was traveling, I got a chance to, to really think about, you know, these, you know, variables that I think are really important, um, with the businesses that we work with, but also myself and, you know, from when we started practice seven years ago.

So, um, that's what I wanna share with you guys today. But before I do that, I want to update you on a couple things. So first of all, um, we're trying to. More of my, uh, business partners and our coaches, um, involved in the podcast. We wanna be able to share, uh, some different opinions, some different, uh, people that are, that are working with us and highlight them as well and what they're doing in these different, um, submarkets of the cash pt, uh, realm.

So if you have a notice, you definitely are gonna be kinda hearing from, uh, a wider variety of people, but all people that. You know, within PT Biz that are really, really smart, most of them, much smarter than me. And, uh, you know, I love to be able to highlight them and the things that they're working on and the problems they're solving and, and the, the information they have to share with you and hopefully help you, uh, as well through this podcast.

The other thing is in September we have our Dallas Mastermind event coming up, which is gonna be. Awesome. It's gonna be at a big ranch outside of Dallas. We're gonna rent the whole thing out. Uh, it's like the most Texan thing you can imagine. There's longhorn cattle in a, a barn and a saloon. Uh, and it's, it's gonna be amazing to get our whole community out there.

We even got a really cool guest presenter. In Juliet Stir, who's the c o of, um, the ready state that's gonna come out and blow everybody's mind. Uh, one of the smartest entrepreneurs I know was just one of the coolest people I know and, um, she's gonna be great. So, you know, if you have a cash-based practice and you think, man, you've been kind of.

Seeing what we're doing with our mastermind, you're aware of it. Um, you know, you're trying to grow your business past yourself, or maybe you've got a business and it's a little bit bigger, but you feel like it's, it could be more efficient and you want to be, you know, around a community of people that are like yourself that are trying to, you know, grow these.

True businesses past themself, be able to create time and financial freedom, but also be able to maintain and, and have healthy relationships with their spouse and their kids and their physical health and mental health along the way. Because entrepreneurship is just such a crazy, uh, challenge in so many ways, and it's very easy to neglect other areas of your life.

You know, if you're interested in, you know, having some structure, accountability. And being looped into a, you know, a, a sizable group of people, over a hundred, uh, business owners at this point. Um, reach out to us. Go to physical therapy biz.com/apply. All you gotta do is answer a couple questions. We'll link you up with somebody on our team to have a conversation, um, and just see where you're at.

Maybe it's the right time, maybe it's not. Maybe we can point you in the right direction, uh, somewhere else and, uh, and help you that way, which is totally. Our goal is to really just help the profession move forward, whether it's with us or somebody else. Um, we've just need so much value in being able to help people really align their business with where they're trying to go and have some, some, uh, legitimate coaching and support and, and a community more importantly around that, to help you achieve your goal.

So if you're interested, head to physical therapy biz.com/apply and answer a couple questions and you can jump on a call with our team. Let's get into it. So the, the top five lessons that I've learned in the last seven years of owning a cash-based practice. So I'd narrowed it down to five. There's many that I could talk about, but I thought these were the most important ones.

And the first one is, you gotta take action. Now this can apply in so many settings, but uh, initially it's just actually getting started. Um, and you know, I've had countless conversations or emails and messages from people that, you know, they've been doing their. They've been reading books, they've been listening to podcasts.

They've been involved in Facebook groups, and they've been in forums and talking to other practice owners and things like that for like two or three years. Two, two or three years, and they're just waiting for the right time. They're just holding off until, you know, Well, it, I'm, I'm about this life event's about to happen, so I'm gonna wait until then, or, you know, I'm gonna wait till I have this much money saved up and then, then I'm gonna do whatever.

Right? But the thing is, what I hear over and over again is people just, they wait and they wait and they wait, and then life just kind of gets in the way and they never actually do something, you know, or it's years later and they've. They put themselves in a place where now they've lost a massive opportunity because they didn't take action when they should have.

And this idea of like paralysis by analysis is very, very common and true, especially in our profession. We're very risk averse people. You know, most of us didn't go to school with the assumption that we wanted to start a business one day. We thought we were gonna have a cool job working for somebody.

And it's not necessarily like that. There definitely are options out there. Um, you know, especially with the people that we work with. Allowing people to work with people one at a time, you know, for an hour. Work with more of an athletic population, more of a, a goal-oriented population that, that really, really wants to be proactive with their health.

You're super fun people to work with and not everybody needs to be an entrepreneur because it's crazy and it's hard and it's not necessarily a thing that everybody needs to do, but if it is what you need to do, you know? You know, it, you, you don't have to explain to anybody. It's there. You feel it. And.

Yet you're scared and you think that the more information you have, the more likely it is that you're gonna take action. Well, unless you take action, oftentimes you don't know what information you actually need. And it's very, very easy to just think, oh, I need to learn a little bit more. I need to learn a little bit more.

When in actuality, if you had started two years ago, you would be in such a different place right now because you had been much further along. You'd have much more market share in your area, uh, and you'd be much. Better off as far as a business owner, uh, goes because you will see exactly where your faults are and what you need, uh, as soon as you get in the game.

Right? It's like playing a sport, right? We can, you, you can read a book about jiu-jitsu, you can watch who knows how many YouTube videos about different submissions and sweeps and whatever else you wanna do, but as soon as you get. On a mat with somebody, it's very different. It's like very, very, it's not the same thing.

So all that knowledge maybe helps you a tiny bit, but really you learn the most by doing, you learn the most by getting involved. And that's what most people that I see are making a massive mistake with just waiting and waiting and waiting and having all these reasons why now is not the, the right time and.

What they really need to do is just go for it is go for it. You know, as long as you're in a decent place, as long as you're not putting your family in some sort of financial bind, it's time, right? I mean, and if you wait another five years, you're gonna be in such a, uh, a more challenging position because we're seeing this evolve faster and faster and faster to where clinicians see proof of concept.

We see it all over the place. And amount of cash-based practices that are starting and growing past themself is astounding compared to whenever I started, um, a few years ago. So, Number one, you gotta take action. You gotta take action, not just when you get started, but also you gotta take action when there's time to have go through these other hurdles.

Right? Let's say your schedule's maxed out, and I see this all the time with people in our community because we get their, we get 'em busy, they get 'em busy, they're making great money. Um, they're, their schedules are, you know, oftentimes wait listed and they wait way too long to hire. And they, or they're busting at the seams in their, in their space, and they wait way too long to look for a bigger space or a standalone space, because now there's fear again, there's an unknown.

Well, okay, well how do I negotiate a sublease? Where do I, you know, find a commercial realtor? How much should I pay? You know, what should I build out? Cost me, what kind of funding do I need? All these things, these are things we help people. All the time. And what stops them is the fear of the comfortable, comfortable position they found themselves in, where they're making more money than they have working somewhere else.

You know, they're enjoying the people that they work with, but when they have to grow past themselves or when they have to grow past the facility, they start in. There's fear there, and the fear leads to learning as much as you can about it before you dive into it, which is, which is fine. I think there should be said for that.

But oftentimes people wait way too long. And one of the biggest regrets we hear is people saying, I wish I hadn't waited so long to move into a standalone facility. I wish I hadn't waited so long to hire my first employee. Um, and again, it's just like, I wish I hadn't waited so long to start my practice waiting, waiting, waiting.

You gotta stop it, take action. It's uncomfortable, but that's where, that's where the growth is, and you have to go for it. All right, number two. You can't take it personally. And this is something, this is something that nobody really told me this, um, and I wish they had because anytime somebody, like didn't wanna work with me or didn't want me to teach a workshop at their facility or like dropped off my schedule and just never booked again, I, I would take it very personally.

You know, I'd be like, man, what's wrong with me? Or What's wrong with them? Or, or, you know, just try to figure out what's going on. You can't take business personally. Most people do, but you really shouldn't. And the reason why is you have to understand everybody you're working with. They have their own, they have their own problems, they have their own biases in terms of what they want to have happen or what they want to do or what game they're playing.

It's all a big game, really. And if someone. Just ghost you and doesn't want to answer your email, or somebody doesn't respond to you on a direct message or somebody that you meet with, just don't hit it off with, or they don't want you to teach a workshop at their facility. That's okay. That's totally normal.

And don't take it personally. You've gotta just like view this as a game, right? That's part of the game. And the better you get at connecting with people and, and networking and, and the more you, you're in the area or the longer you're in the area, uh, the more likely it's people are gonna wanna work with you.

The hardest stage for this is new businesses because new businesses, there's no proof of concept there. Like, you know, you get this established business owner and they're like, all right. You just started, maybe you're not gonna be here in six months. I think only 50% of, uh, businesses or less actually make it the five year mark, right?

So for a lot of 'em, its like, why do I wanna spend my time with this person that may not even be around? And they'll, and it's more likely that you're not, uh, gonna be there than, than you actually are. Um, so, you know, they're busy, they've got other things going on. They've got a family, they've got employees of their own, they've got, they've got their own overhead.

They've gotta make their own sales, right? You're not the most important person in our world, and we think that we are early on because it's the most important thing for us. Like, we need this, it's the most important thing for us, and we press, and that's noticeable. And then we take it personally. We take it personally.

If somebody drops up our schedule, we take it personally if somebody leaves us a bad review. So personally, you know, and it's hard not to. But it's gonna happen. It's inevitable. There's, people are, certain people are not gonna like you. Certain people are not gonna wanna do business with you. Certain people are gonna love you.

Certain people are gonna, you know, a hundred percent want that relationship with you, but you can't take it personally if they decide that you're not the right fit for them, or the timing is not right. One of the best relationships we have with Jim took like two years to hash out, and some of it had to do with people that were there.

That ended up moving on and, um, you know, we were able to develop better relationships with some of the other coaches and the head coach in particular. And then, you know, it's been a huge relationship for us, but early on they wanted nothing to do with us. And I took it very personally and, you know, almost to the detriment of what, what our relationship is now.

And I, I shouldn't have. Right. And I get this a lot from our newer business owners that we're working with. We were like, well, so-and-so didn't email me back, like, okay. They're busy, you know what I mean? Like you, you also can't, some expect somebody to respond to a cold email. It's the easiest thing to ignore.

Um, and it shows no value. Like, well, you're not helping them in any way. So you gotta understand these relationships. If you're not from an area and you don't have all these preexisting relationships, it's very difficult to build your, your local reputation and a service business. Um, and it takes time. It takes being persistent and you can't take it personally when people turn you down or don't wanna work with you cuz it's gonna.

All right. Number three. You gotta get really good at the numbers. And this is actually, this is actually something that I think our profession struggles with, uh, more than many other, uh, businesses because, Uh, clinically we're amazing, right? Like we can help people get better what, whatever injuries they have, like we're, we're really, really, uh, good at what we do.

But it's not like you're getting, you know, basic financial courses in school. It's not like you're getting some basic accounting in school. It's not, it's not like anybody's telling you, Hey, here are the key performance indicators you need to know, and here's how you calculate them, and this is what they mean because we went to school to be clinicians, you know?

There's a reason that's not in there. It's not on the federal, you know, national board exam. Uh, but when you get into business for yourself, if you don't know the numbers, a couple things will happen. Number one, people can a hundred percent take advantage of you, whether it be through banks and lending, uh, landlords.

You know, when you were looking at your overhead of your facility, your subleases, like, you've got to understand your numbers, you have to understand how much cash you can, uh, allocate to these different things. Otherwise, you run outta cash and you run outta cash game over like that. You know, that, that's essentially the way it works.

Um, you'll be out of business and to understand the numbers. It's actually, it's not like calculus, you know, I suck at that stuff. I, I don't even know, I didn't even even took calculus. I don't even know, I dunno how to explain it to somebody, but I can look at your, your profit and loss sheet and I can tell you very quickly the health of a business or any other business because I understand the basic financial components of looking at business numbers, business, finances, and that's what you have to learn.

That's what you have to understand. And some of that has to do with you starting to actually. Not just be trying to be completely, uh, separated from your numbers. I get this a lot where people, you know, they, they're like, well, I've got a bookkeeper and I've got a cpa. They'll, they'll, they'll handle it just in blindly trust that somebody else is doing the right thing.

I've caught, uh, three outta the last five years a mistake on our taxes. That was, you know, a small error, but I'm talking. You know, a couple thousand dollars tax error, uh, from our CPAs and our bookkeepers and the way things are being accounted, um, and allocated. And it's because they, they're doing this for many businesses, right?

It's up to you, to you, you should audit your own, uh, you know, returns. And, and this is just a specific example, but you have to also understand. Percentages you need to be at in order to be able to have a healthy business. What margins should you be at? Can you take on that kind of overhead? Can you hire a staff member right now?

Do you have enough cash reserves? How many months does that, uh, last you for? Right? And, and for many of us, we never thought a pandemic was gonna happen. But it did. And for those of us that had cast reserves, we were fine. And we got through those couple months where it was real sketchy for those of, uh, us that did not, they were out of business or they shut it down and had to go back to, you know, work for somebody else.

Um, maybe they restarted it, maybe they didn't. But understanding that, understanding why. It's huge and it's, it's honestly, it's basic arithmetic. Uh, you know, it's adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, that's basically it, and categorizing things. But the reason the numbers are so important is because it gives you clarity.

And the more clarity you have, the more likely you're gonna make the right decision and not the, the wrong decision. And really, I think, Longevity in business comes down to making more of the right decisions than wrong decisions over an extended period of time. So understanding numbers is a huge component of that.

I dunno if any of you guys have ever have ever, uh, seen Shark Tank, but, uh, it, it's, it's a, it's a great show actually. Uh, I really enjoy watching it. But one of the things that they constantly ask people about is their numbers. What's your, what's your revenue? What's your net? You know, so what's your cost of good soul?

And what are your margins on that? Right? Because they're, they're, they're, they're coming in saying that they want x percent money or X amount of money for this percentage of their business. So they're essentially valuing it and they're trying to figure out, well, how did you value it at that? Why does it justify that?

And all they're doing is asking 'em questions about their numbers. It's numbers and the person numbers and the person's story. Do you want to invest with this person? Do the numbers match up? Does the person match up what you think you know, they can be success? And that's how they do it. But numbers are a huge component and you have to be comfortable with it.

Don't shy away from it and just say, oh, I'm bad with numbers. You don't have to be, you know, a genius. You just have to understand basic math and, and what you're looking at, and then practice it and be consistent with it. Alright, number four, you've got to understand your own core values and your deep why.

So, I heard, uh, a podcast recently, and there's a guy, um, he was, uh, he, he was a Navy Seal and he was talking about, uh, mental, uh, toughness, right? And he said when they go to, uh, their, uh, uh, like training in particular, their hell week, where it's like, it's a week long. I think they sleep for like four to six hours the whole time.

Something crazy. They can, they can write something, um, in their hat and, uh, you know, it can be anything, anything that's gonna motivate you. And what he said was the people that. Uh, seemed to pass and get through. They all wrote things that wasn't them right. It was about their family. It was about other, you know, deep important things to them.

But it wasn't just, it wasn't just them. And I think there's some, some parallels here with business in terms of, you know, getting super clear on why you're doing this. And this is actually one of the first things we do with people whenever we work with them in our clinical Rainmaker program. And if they haven't defined this already and they come into our mastermind, we have to go through this as well because it is not.

Uh, to do this, it's a grind. It's every day for years. Um, and you know, it's, it's something that if you don't have a deeper reason for accomplishing something than just money, uh, or just not wanting to work for somebody else, you're not gonna make it. You're gonna give up. You're gonna move on to something else.

It's gonna get too hard. Something's not gonna go your way, and you're gonna start looking at other things. But if you understand your deep why and you understand your core values of what you stand for and and why you're doing this, You're, it's, you're much less likely, you know, to give up. I can tell you, for me, you know, when I first started, I just wanted, I just honestly didn't wanna work in an in-network clinic.

I didn't wanna have to see a bunch of volume. I, I wanted to work with certain types of patients, um, you know, a certain niche and, um, you know, I wanted to work with. In a way that justified what I thought my skillset was at the time. Uh, and I felt like I needed more time with it. So I thought an hour would work.

Seemed like cash model was an. I rolled the dice on it and that was it. Right? But as I started going through my business coaching, uh, about a year and a half, uh, two years into us starting our business, one of the first things they did with me was sit down and get super clear on why I was doing this. And I remember thinking, I was like, man, this is a waste of time.

I was like, what, dude? Just show me, show me how to market and sell. I was like, show me your marketing plan, you know? And they were adamant about having to go through this. And it actually is really difficult. It's really challenging to really distill down why it's important for somebody to do something.

And for me it came down to, you know, generational family change. You know, not just financially, but also I think it's very important for my kids to see that my wife and I, we are like doing this on our own. We're taking a chance on ourself, you know, we are, uh, Necessarily living, uh, a normal life. We're trying to be able to live an extraordinary life, which means we need time freedom, financial freedom, and we need impact with the people that we, we really, really, uh, enjoy working with.

And all those are components of, um, what drives us, what, how we make decisions, uh, as well, and who we wanna work with or who we don't wanna work with. You know, opportunities we say yes to or we say no to. These are all based off of originally going through you. What our deep why is our core values, and we make decisions off of that.

So you need to do the same thing. You need to understand why you're waking up every morning to, to again, get, you know, beat up early on in your career, uh, and then do it again the next day. And, you know, you, you definitely, you, you, you learn a lot of lessons the hard way. You know, not everybody wants to work with you right away.

You know, you get a lot of nos. Uh, and I think that's a really challenging. For people to go through when we see it over and over again. Uh, mentally they're. Beat up, you know, and, and their confidence is shot. Uh, but if you know that deep, why, imagine like what you would write on your hat if you were going through, you know, you know, Navy SEAL training.

Like that's what's gonna drive you in this business. Uh, it's gonna keep you on the path and it's gonna keep you from giving up, which is what we see a lot of people do. It's like, you know, is there a high, uh, success rate in cash-based practices? I guess so maybe in comparison to other businesses. They, they cost less to start.

So I guess if you, if you fail, it's not like an astronomical, uh, you know, setback, but it doesn't mean that they all, that they all work. I mean, I, I know many cash-based practice owners that have left and gone back to jobs many. That have just given up, this has gotten too hard. Side hustles just turned into shutting it down full-time businesses, they end up going back and working for somebody else.

Cause they want the benefits. They want, you know, the easier path. They, they want to not have to think about their business all the time or be, you know, in it all the time. They want that separation and early on it's very hard to have that. Um, you know, and, and for me, I don't know what their context was or their situation.

I would never do that. There's absolutely, and this, this is something that, you know, I think everybody needs to get to this point and understand. You either either have a backup plan or you don't. And this is, is either I think this is gonna work or this is gonna work. There's a big difference in the mentality of that.

And understanding what's gonna keep you going is a huge, huge part of it. So if there's no other other option, then your why was gonna keep you going each and every day. Number five, and this is something that I think is actually one of the best parts of the business, is to be able to build your dream team.

Build your dream team, meaning hire amazing people, hire people that you really enjoy working with, hire people that. Fit your core values that help you build an amazing culture, a culture that, uh, of, uh, a business that everybody that works there enjoys being there. Everybody that comes to work with you there enjoys that environment.

Build, build an environment that's fun, that's positive, that, that cultivates people to, you know, grow and, and to be challenged by each other in a positive way To have account. You know, to have opportunity for them to have more success and have a better work-life balance than working for somebody else.

You know, this is my favorite part of our practice. It's actually the thing that I miss the most cuz I'm not as involved with the business, um, on a day-to-day basis anymore. You know, I'm, I'm only there, uh, a couple times a month. You know, which, which is by design, like I pulled myself out so that we could really focus on running the business and growing PT biz.

But the people are who I miss the most, not just the people that we worked with. I really enjoy the population, but people that are involved in the business, the, the, the. The organization itself, the culture that we have. Like, it's just a fun place to be. These are smart people, these are people that I would want to hang out with anyway, and we get a chance to work together.

We get a chance to solve problems together, to build together. Um, you know, and that culture is, is honestly, I think, the best part of starting the entire business. It's super sketchy when you get started, you know? It's, it's really, there's so much unknown. There's so much stress. There's so many things that you have to learn so fast and you know, especially that first hire, it's, it's really difficult.

Like, you know, you don't know. Nobody wants to hire somebody and have to fire them, you know, or let them go because you can't support their salary. You know, you can't. You can't actually follow through on the thing that you're promising them, which is to give them, you know, a job to give them a working opportunity and yeah, that's how they pay for their mortgage.

That's how they pay for their groceries. Right. And like even if they have to go, they, they'll find another job. Right. But like, it's not something that you want to do, but it happens. And I think it's what scares people off from bringing anybody on. I know when we've hired our office manager who's been with us for five years, over five years, I was really scared about paying her, you know, what we, what we are, were paying her at the time.

And, you know, it's, it's just a number though, right? It's like, it's one of those things you have to realize, yes, there's a cost there, but. How much does that person add to the business? How much does that person add to the culture? How much does that person bring additional people in and improve your experiences and give you the ability to be less active in the business?

Like what is that return on that? It's massive. As well as, you know, like our, our office manager, her name's Claire, she's like, uh, the epitome of our core values in terms of. You know, like having a fun work environment, you know, you know, being able to not take yourself so seriously, actually caring about helping people, you know, being consistent, showing up every day for people.

Like it's, she's just been, I wish I had 10 of her. Right. And you know, it, and, and I was apprehensive. To, to hire her. And if we hadn't, it would've been a huge, huge mistake. You know, and all of our staff clinicians, this is amazing. They're so much smarter than me. They're so much better clinicians. They really care about their patients.

Our patients see it. You know, they're not used to seeing that level of, of somebody really caring about them and problem solving with them and, and, and wanting what's best for them. Um, you know, and we get to provide that for people. And, and I think if you decide to just say small, just a lifestyle business, That's up to you.

I think it's, it can be the right fit for people depending on what they're trying to do and their spouse and family commitments and many other things. But one of my most, you know, I, I favorite kind of parts of, of having a business is, is really the people. It's the people that you get to surround yourself with.

And normally it's like, oh, like coworkers can be kind of hit or miss, you know, like wherever you're working. It's like, well that guy's cool. Like this guy got nothing in common with, I don't really want to. You know, I don't really wanna sit down at lunch and have to make small talk for, for 30 minutes with this person.

And, you know, you get to build what you want. You know, like if you get to build and hire whoever you want, it's like one of the best parts. So you get to build that culture via hiring people and, and making it stronger and making your impact bigger and your reach bigger. And I think. In my opinion, my favorite thing that we've been able to do since we started, you know, like the people we've helped is great.

You know, the fact that we have, uh, a financially healthy business is great, but the people we get to work with are, are the best part, makes all the difference in the world. And if you decide to grow past yourself, I a hundred percent recommend. I think you'll, you'll love it. You'll learn a lot about yourself.

It'll force you to become a better leader. It'll force you to become a better listen. Uh, you know, and, and motivating people is not easy. That's very, very difficult in fact, and, uh, it's a great way to grow and make you a better parent and make you a better spouse, I think, honestly, cuz you just have to understand how to engage with and motivate people in a positive way.

So, in summary, number one, take action. Gotta get started. You gotta have that first hire. You gotta move to that standalone space. All these things that create tension and friction. You gotta move past him. You gotta take action. Don't just learn and do nothing with it. Number two, don't take it personally.

People are gonna turn you down. People are not gonna wanna work with you. People are gonna, you know, maybe leave you a bad review, drop off and never come back. It is what it is. It happens, you know, there's lots of reasons why, uh, don't take it personally, cuz it's, it's probably not just you. Number three.

You get really, really good at the numbers. Understand, if you don't know what a profit and loss sheet is, start there. All right. Profit and loss sheet. And a balance sheet. These are two things that you really have to understand, uh, pretty well. Um, and then getting really clear on your key performance indicators and looking at those on a weekly, monthly basis.

Number four, understand your core values and your deep why. Understand why you're doing this. Understand, look what you're trying to accomplish long term. Um, and be very clear on that. And be very, very clear on that. Write it down, look at it every day. Make sure that you understand what's driving you, cuz it'll help you stop, um, you know, from, from quitting if you get to the point where you don't want to do it anymore.

Now, number five, build your dream team. Hire the people that you would want to hang out with anyway. Hire the people that are smarter than you. How are the people that make your culture your business? Better and get a chance to work side by side with them. It's not like, you know, this idea of, oh, they're gonna be, they're gonna work for me, I think is so stupid.

It's so, it's so backwards. It's like, no, man, we are working together. We have different roles. We have different amount of risk associated with what we're doing. And because of that, compensation is not, it's not, uh, split up equally. You know, there's, there's a lot of variables when it comes to that. But hire great people.

Pay them well, you know, let. You know, work within an environment where you're not micromanaging them, but you're giving them structure and letting them be successful and letting them know if they're winning the game they're playing, what's their score? How, how is that, how is that added up? And, and how do they win?

How do they progress? Where do they move up? All of that is to be part of your businesses. You're hiring these people, but you build past yourself, build amazing culture, and you'll build something that that really is bigger than you, which is something that can. Uh, run passively can be run as actively as you want, can be passed down, can be sold, can be put on autopilot.

Any, any number of things. You're building an entity of people, of the right people to serve in the right positions and, and follow the core values that you set in place. That's your business. So those are the five. Hopefully you guys enjoy this. If you like this podcast, share it on, uh, on Instagram, shoot, shoot.

Uh, tag me in a, in a, um, Instagram story. Take a, a screenshot of it, put it up there. I'd love to know if this is one of the ones you like. I'm gonna try to synthesize more of kind of these, uh uh, Lessons or, or bullet point lessons of, of kind of what I've learned and hopefully helps you at some stage. Cuz I know there's people that are thinking about starting that have just started, that have been going for a while, that have had a practice for a long time.

Um, you know, and I'm just trying to share what I've learned. And hopefully it helps you in some capacity. So if you like this one, go ahead and take a screenshot of it, put it up on Instagram, tag me in it in your story. I'll re-share it and I'd love to know if you, if you like this one. So guys, thanks so much for listening.

As always, I appreciate it and I'll catch you next time.

Hey, real quick before you go, I just wanna say thank you so much for listening to this podcast, and I would love it if you got involved in the conversation. So this is a one way channel. I'd love to hear back from you. I'd love to get you into the group that we have formed on Facebook. Our PT Entrepreneurs Facebook group has about.

4,000 clinicians in there that are literally changing the face of our profession. I'd love for you to join the conversation, get connected with other clinicians all over the country. I do live trainings in there with Eve Gigi every single week, and we share resources that we don't share anywhere else outside that group.

So if you're serious about being a PT entrepreneur, a clinical rainmaker, head to that group. Get signed up. Go to facebook.com/groups/ptentrepreneur or go to Facebook and just search for PT Entrepreneur, and we're gonna be the only group that pops up under that name.