E573 | What To Do When You're Time Poor

Today, I am discussing the difficult stage of being time-poor and how it is a sign of success when a service-based business is busy making money. It can be overwhelming to do everything by yourself and if you haven't dealt with this yet in your business, you will. I also get into the two options you have when you reach this point in your business. Enjoy!

• Hiring Your First Clinician: Two Options to Consider
• Exploring the Pros and Cons of Growing a Small Business
• The benefits of growing a business beyond yourself

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Podcast Transcript

Danny: So one of the best ways to improve your customer experience, which we know will dramatically improve your business, is to have clear lines of communication with your clients. And that's something that can be really hard with these multiple channels between email and text. And what you really need is to centralize that in one place.

And that's something that we've been able to do as we switched over to PT everywhere within our client's accounts. We can actually message right back and forth with them. They can manage their home exercise plan within there, and it allows us to really compartmentalize the communication. That we have with those clients, instead of losing an email in the inbox or missing a text and then you're, it's very hard to dig yourself outta that hole because they feel like you're not very responsive, with them.

And for us, it's made a really big difference. It helps make our staff more efficient. It helps us not miss things as much with the volume of people that we're working with. And it's a really smart way of really compartmentalizing your communication with your clients so it doesn't interfere with the rest of the channels.

You have communication with family and friends and things like that. So I think it'd be. Huge for your practice to centralize it the way we have. Head over to pt everywhere.com. Check out what our friends are doing over there. I think it's really cool and 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 wanna 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? Dr. Danny here with the PT Entrepreneur Podcast, and today we are talking about one of the more challenging stages that anybody that is honestly probably starts any service-based business has to go through, but in particular for cash and hybrid practices. We're gonna talk about the stage of being time poor and that stage and the options that you have there.

So I look at this stage as. One of the hardest stages that you actually have to to get through, but also it's a sign that you're in a really successful place. That has taken a lot of effort to get there. And now, you get to enjoy the ability to make a lot more money and to be really busy in your business, which is.

It's the dream for so many people that start a business. And it's funny how it can actually feel like a huge burden. And when I started my practice, I remember I had a conversation with with Kelly who's who is my mentor and I was getting really busy. And I was teaching a lot two, three times a month.

And I told him, I was like, man, I think I just need to, I need to take a step back and just teach a little bit less. And it dropped it down to where I was teaching like once a month and I was like, man, I just, I'm just I'm just so busy and I feel like I'm. So time poor trying to manage all these patients that I have now and and teaching and staying on top of everything that I need to be a relevant instructor.

And I remember him saying, he's and you gotta be careful what you wish for. Because I wanted this I wanted my practice to be successful. I wanted to be able to, teach this information that I thought was so beneficial to other clinicians and coaches. And I was very time poor, super time poor, and it started to affect a lot of other areas of my life both mental, mentally, physically, my relationships.

It's interesting you put yourself in these stress states and they can last for a while. A lot of entrepreneurs that I know, it's years where they end up in a really difficult position as they're growing their. Business and this stage in particular is usually gonna be, it depends on the person.

It could be as short as six months, and it could be as long as two years to get to this stage. And this is a stage where your schedule's maxed out. You can't really bring on any more new people than you're doing consistently. Even with minimal marketing you probably can't get people back for a couple weeks at a time, maybe even longer, and you don't have any space to open up more.

Visits on your schedule you're also making really good money. So if we're looking at, people in this stage, they're probably making anywhere between on the low end 15 and on the high end, maybe 25, even close to potentially $30,000 in gross revenue a month depending on what they're charging per visit.

Yeah, it's. You hear that and you're like, wow, that's awesome. Why would anybody complain about that? Or why would anybody struggle with that? It sounds amazing and what it comes down to is it's a lot to do that by yourself. You really shouldn't do that for very long by yourself because you're gonna burn yourself out.

And but when people get to the stage, sometimes we wait a little bit too long to hire. Sometimes you can't find the right fit. And in particular at this stage, most people have at least some amount of administrative support, even if it's part-time. But what they really, struggle with typically is to get that first clinician in.

To be able to grow past themself because they're so busy seeing patients. They're so busy running the business and responding to everything. And they don't have help on the fulfillment side. So it's almost like you feel bad about selling somebody into a plan of care that you know that they need and that you should do for the business, but you're like, dang it, I gotta fulfill all that work.

And it's a lot. When we look at this stage, there's two options that. You have, and neither one is, not better than the other. I can just tell you, I'll tell you the direction that I decided to go and the direction that a lot of people that we work with decide to go. But both are fine.

And it depends what fits your life and the fits your goals for your life. So in this stage, you can do one of two things. You can either charge. More and intentionally decide to limit the number of people that you're gonna work with and stay in a smaller business and make it more of a lifestyle business.

And some of this really. It comes down to what you want your life to look like. What do you want the business to support and what do you want to do from a work standpoint? So if you are someone that knows man, I just, I don't wanna deal with any people. I don't wanna deal with any complexity.

I just wanna be a really good clinician and I just wanna focus on that. Then you could stay small and you don't have to grow past yourself. I almost did this. I almost just stayed, I here's why I didn't do this. If it wasn't for my wife, I would probably still be in the same office that I started at in a CrossFit gym today.

I'd probably still be there and, but if it wasn't for her and if it wasn't for her ability to help in the business, but also. To look, look at me and be like, is this all you want to do? Like you, you did, you left the military to do this, to stay in this little office with no windows.

And yeah, we're making pretty good money, but there's just so much more that I think, she was very aware that I. Could have done and not I, but we could do together, especially once we were at a point where our kids were just a little bit older and we could get, more support with with them and both of us could work on the business.

So I, if it wasn't for her, I probably would've done this. And. I can tell you this much as I was going through growth stages where we were hiring and getting standalone spaces and stuff, and like I would look back and be like, damn, I wish I had the simplicity of just me in a little office by myself and just seeing patients.

But the problem with that is there's not a lot of safety there for somebody in particular that has a family. So what if you get hurt? What if something really bad happens? What if you get. Sick. What if you die? Who's gonna, who's gonna take care of your family? Who, if you're the breadwinner, what are you gonna do?

And that was always something that, I was keenly aware of. And I stayed away from many different physical activities. I basically didn't play a sport until I had Hired somebody else in the business because I was just really worried I would hurt my hand or, have an injury to where I couldn't see patients.

I was the only one, or I couldn't travel to teach cuz I was the only one that was fulfilling on anything, any service and making any money. So I was just really, worried about that. Now you can do some things with insurance where you cover yourself if you're gonna, if you're gonna stay in that.

Position I if you're gonna stay in that position, I com completely recommend short-term disability, long-term disability, the best policies that you can get, as well as probably like some sort of term life policy that's tied to the business as well. Where, if you died, there'd be a big payout for your family.

So you gotta cover yourself if you're gonna stay that in, in that position. But if you decide to stay small, then that's fine. That might, maybe you only work, wanna work three days a week. I actually know plenty of people that are like this. They, it supports their lifestyle better. Maybe they want to be really active with a hobby that they have.

Maybe they want to just have a lot more time flexible for family purposes. But if you do that, then you have the opportunity to charge a premium. You could say, okay, I'm only seeing. Three days a week. So let's say you have 20 visits three days a week, but you're gonna charge 300 bucks a visit.

And you just leave it at that like you can. You can make a really good living in comparison to what you would make working for somebody else and have a lot of flexibility. So if you build to that stage, then you can just charge more and then limit it and stay small. That's one option that you have.

The other option is to push past that and to grow into what we consider a true business, which would be a business that doesn't need you there to function. Now this is this is a much more challenging. Thing to do because you are building, you're building a asset. You're building something that is going to be able to run without you there.

And it creates true passive income at a certain stage in the business. And that's a very hard thing to do, very hard thing to do. But to be at a place where your business generates. Revenue and creates jobs for other people. And you don't have to be directly involved in everything day to day.

That's a pretty awesome thing to be able to do in my opinion. It's something that I'm very proud of that we were able to do. I'm very proud of the people that we work with within our mastermind. They can do the same thing and I see what happens to them when they get to those stages. It's, it life is very different when you know you really don't.

You get to choose to work because you want to work and not because you have to work. And that most people never experience that. And if you're in a lifestyle business, you'll never experience that because you always have to be there. You always have to be the one fulfilling. Whether it's for a lot of money or not.

Either way, you're still there. You're still in a exchange of time for money, which is finite and limited, but again, it might be what you like, it might be what you want. It just depends. And there's no right or wrong answer. It just depends on what you want and what type of business you want to build.

But I can say if you decide to push past that, it is difficult. It's a difficult stage because you are a time poor. So you're fulfilling everything, you're doing everything in the business besides probably some administrative tasks that you have somebody else helping with. But then you have to go out and find somebody.

You have to interview people, you have to hire people. Then you have to train those people, and then you have to mentor and manage those people. You can't just bring people in and have no relationship with them. So that takes time as well. But what happens is, like once you get past that first person, that's the hardest.

That's the hardest thing because it's almost like you're running, you're redlining yourself, but. Then you have to work even a little bit harder for a period of time. As you're bringing a new person in and you're training them on your systems and your approach and how you want them to work with patients, then you start to be able to slide people over to them.

And I remember the very, like the first time that. We had a provider, our first provider saw patients when I wasn't around. Like I wasn't there at all. I was actually at a business conference in San Diego and I remember I woke up, I went to the gym, and on the way to the gym I actually looked at our schedule because it's a three hour time difference and our provider had already seen a new patient and sold a package by the time that I woke up.

And I remember it was an interesting moment cause I remember standing there. And it was on the sort of the bay in San Diego. I remember just like I closed my phone, I looked out, it's just like super pretty there, looking out at the water over this bay. And I just had this sort of realization of what we'd had accomplished, which was really hard to do.

But ultimately so worth it. I had this we're just really interesting feeling of just feeling free. And. And that's what comes along with that, right? When you build something that works without you being there, then you have a lot of other options in life for many things. And you're building what I consider a true asset.

Something that's, can be autopiloted, something that can be sold. So you're building wealth, you're building the ability to, have an asset that supports your family regardless of whether you're hurt or not, regardless of whether you're there or not. And, In my opinion, that was worth it for us to build a business that way.

I probably wouldn't build a lifestyle business ever. That's just not, doesn't really fit what I want to do. But just the other option that you have, stay small, charge more, limit the number of people that you're seeing. Have a wait list, like again, you can make great money doing that. And then the other one would be push past that and build a team and the money aside, the time, freedom aside, all of that.

I actually think that the most rewarding part of. Starting any kind of business is actually the people that you get to work with, cuz you get to choose who you hire. You get to choose your team. You get to choose your culture. You want to work with people that you know are positive human beings that are trying to help other people.

And then you get to build this little team. Of people that all just get to work together and it's a really cool thing. It's super special to be able to have a a group of employees, a group of team members. I don't even think of 'em as employees. Be like people that you work with, that you get a chance to help support their lives.

That's actually. In my opinion, worth the effort, worth the struggle to grow past yourself. It's like the it's the Christmas dinners you get to take everybody to. It's the, the times when your staff is able to buy a house, it's when they, get married or they. You have a family member, they have a child.

Like those are cool moments to be a part of. You're not a part of their family. But in a lot of ways, you have a much deeper relationship than somebody that's just a friend because you're working together on the same goal. You're, you have a tight-knit Community that you've built within your business and culture, and that's really cool.

I think that's, I don't know what that's worth, but there's no really way to quantify that. It's worth a lot though, from a satisfaction standpoint and just feeling like you're able to help. Help support other people in a lot of ways. You are, you're creating a job for them that they hopefully really like, that they can make a good living with, but they feel proud of, telling people where they work and what they do and within their own career, their own skills that they are so proud of and allowing them to be great clinicians.

That's great to me, that's one of the biggest benefits to a business that you grow past yourself, a true business that most people actually don't even think about. Until they start to, to develop that team and then they realize, man, this is awesome. And I really feel a sense of just pressure to support these people and do the right thing by them.

And, if you don't want that, then stay small. And if you do want that, growing past this stage is very worth it.

What's up, PT Entrepreneurs? We have a new exciting challenge for you guys. It's our five day PT biz part-time to full-time challenge where we help you get crystal clear on how to actually go from a side hustle to a full-time clinic. Even if you haven't started yet. This is a great way to get yourself organized in preparation for eventually going full-time into your business.

So we actually help you get. Crystal clear on how much money you're actually gonna need to replace with your business to be able to make a lateral transfer. How many people you're actually gonna need to see based on what you should be charging. We're gonna tell you three different strategies you can take to go from part-time to full-time, and you get to pick the one that seems like the best fit for you for your current situation.

We even show you all the sales and marketing systems that we teach within our Mastermind for people that are scaling to multiple clinicians, past themself that you need to have in your business to be able to go full-time. And the last thing is we help you create a one page business plan. This is a plan that's gonna help you get very clear on exactly what you need to do and drive action.

That's what this is all about. We want you to win. We want you to take action, and in order to do you have to get really clear on what you need to do next. So go to physical therapy biz.com/challenge. Get signed up for the challenge today. It's totally free. We think this is gonna be a game changer for you and are excited to go through it.

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 Yves Gege every single week, and we share resources that we don't share anywhere else outside of 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.