10 Tips From A Young PT Business Owner
Every therapist reflects on the beginning of their career and realises what went well and what did not.
Without great guidance, mentorship, and friendship, I would not be in the position I am today. I have thought deeply about how I have set myself up to love what I do and have success in my career to date. I think about this not only to pass along to my mentees, but also to further my own growth and figure out how to translate this to the next stage.
Between undergrad, PT school, and the first few years of your career, there is a lot to learn. You attempt to figure out life as you transition from a young adult (only a larger child) to a responsible grown up. You are now not only part of the workforce, but also expected to learn about the body, how to help people, how to not hurt people, and how to take care of yourself emotionally and financially. If just reading the past sentence is a mouthful, you can imagine how hard this juggling act can be in real life.
I came up with a series of tips that worked for me. I hope they resonate with someone else, and help them grow to become the physical therapist that they want to be. You can have a blast in this profession while being successful in other facets of life. As with any line of work, you cannot always have it your way. Even when you think things are not fair, you need to navigate the current landscape to come out on top. Hopefully these tips can help get you there.
If You Haven’t Graduated Yet, Do Research With Your Professors Outside of Class.
I learned how to be smart from doing research outside of class with one of my professors. It may be cocky to call myself smart, but I am proud of the fact that I had to work to unlock the potential of what my brain can achieve. Doing research teaches you how to ask questions and how to respond to tough questions, even when the answer is “I don’t know.” If you choose to enter the clinical world, you will have to be inquisitive to learn, and they have to be the right inquiries for you to get good answers. No matter what you do in life, you will have tough questions asked of you that may challenge your work, core beliefs, or your actions. Writing papers, having them critiqued, and helping professionals with this process will teach you volumes in the area.
2. Apply For A Residency Or Work At A Clinic Where There Is Formal Mentorship.
Mentorship is a hot button topic and many new grads seek it. It is crucial to make sure this is real mentorship tailored to you and not just a weekly call or an online program. These secondary options may be better than absolutely no mentorship, but it cannot touch the benefits of another individual fully investing in your growth.
My residency was the worst year of my life. I did not get along with many of the instructors and I was not built for a corporate environment. Despite the tough situation, my mentor Kati, made me grow to be a better person and clinician than could have ever imagined. We were barely friends, yet she fully invested in me becoming the best I could be in that year. There is zero chance I am in the position I am in today without these people. Make sure this is the type of environment you are seeking.
3. Have Good Friends That Also Want To Be Better Physical Therapists
The people you surround yourself with will significantly influence your growth and actions. It's cool to be able to nerd out with a friend about something that you love. If you love PT, make sure to have some great friends that want to grow with you.
4. Learn How To Budget
Physical therapists start out their careers getting paid a fair salary for someone right out of school. It is important to know that the ceiling for pay is relatively low if you intend to remain purely a physical therapist. You can live an incredibly happy and financially stable life in this career, but you need to know your budget and what is reasonable for you to do with your life.
5. Learn The Business Side Of Our Profession
“Many physical therapists are frustrated with how much they are paid or why they have high productivity standards. In my opinion, this is largely due to a poor understanding of how the business of physical therapy works.”
It only takes a small amount of calculation to estimate the overhead for a business, marketing costs/cost of patient acquisition, and how much you are reimbursed per visit (that actually shows up). It is challenging to get paid a tremendous amount when your income is directly tied to your time. Understand the business you work in and then decide how you want to proceed and what realistic expectations are. This does not mean to accept low pay and high productivity, it means that you will have to learn this model to break away from it. Creativity, drive, and discipline are key.
6. Your Connections Are Everything. You Can Never Start Developing Them Too Early
You may view this as meeting other PT’s and professionals for “business connections” but do not forget that great connections help you in every facet of life including your worth as a physical therapist. You may think that knowing every manual therapy technique warrants a higher salary, but it unfortunately means nothing if patients do not want to see you. If you are able to build referral networks through connections and have your own following, you add true value to a business and yourself as a physical therapist. You still have to execute and be an expert in your craft, but you need patients to enter the clinic first so you can be their expert.
7. Look Up To Someone And Try To Be Great Like Them
Role models are awesome. There are a lot of absolutely incredible people out there. You don’t have to copy or emulate them, but you have to try to be great just like they are. Bonus points if they are in our profession. There are so many special physical therapists out there. Spend time talking to them. They probably want to help you.
8. Have Some Bravado, But Don’t Be Cocky
Physical Therapy school teaches you how to not kill patients, not how to get them better. (Ooooo…. Provocative!) Our teachers from PT school will read a statement like this and fume, but it is not their fault. There is not enough time, and the classroom is not the place to really learn how to rehabilitate other humans. Helping humans rehabilitate is more than a textbook or lecture can teach. School is only the first step on the journey to helping people get better.
This does not mean that you cannot help people, but you will have to have some false confidence to make sure you get opportunities to learn and help people for another day.
“Make sure to be confident that you will figure out how to help people, and not confident that you know everything. Patients and co-workers will respect you for believing that you can LEARN anything, not that you already know it.”
9. Have A Niche
From a learning perspective, there is way too much to learn for you to excel at treating every type of injury, condition, and person. A niche allows you to get very good at something and help people at a higher level. Patients value this, and you will be better at what you do to help them. Spend time working toward a specialty (OCS, SCS,NCS, MDT, FAAOMPT), then further narrow your focus. The board specialty ensures you know what you need to know to be a generalist in your sub-division of physical therapy.
From a business perspective, it is much easier to market to a small segment who is typically interested in something very specific. If this is running, runners search for products, go to shoe stores, and join running clubs. You can inject yourself into all of these facets. If you choose to specialize in a medical niche such as spine, figure out how to meet people who have spine issues who you can help.
10. It Is What It Is. Make Sure You Know What It Actually IS.
Everything is what it is. Learn to accept that. You can decide to change things, but understand the time and energy investment it takes to make change. Don’t expect a guarantee that things will change just because you think it's fair or you put the effort in. In our profession, many issues that we gripe about are far too large and complex to expect any short-term change. I encourage you to be the change in our profession, but do not let your hopes of change squander your current success. It is easy to use the climate as an excuse.
Make sure you understand whatever situation you are in. Seek to understand the people around you. Make sure you know what is actually going on. These are vague words, but they apply to many of the situations you will find yourself in as a young professional. Companies, co-workers, friends, and just about anyone you deal with will have a manner in which they try to appear. Make sure you know the reality of the situation you find yourself in and then make your life decisions based on this.
I hope that these tips are helpful for someone. All professions are tricky. It is important that we network and share with each other to learn what works best and how to navigate the current landscape. Always remember that we signed up to help patients, and that starts with being a better version of ourselves!