How to transition from the clinic seamlessly

One of the most difficult parts of the entrepreneurial journey is figuring out the right plan to begin the transition from where you are to where you want to be. In a lot of cases, there are deep ties of loyalty to a current employer, the sense of guilt that comes with the thought of leaving a job behind, and in reality, the worry of the financial implications when you’re thinking about leaving your current role for the pursuit of freedom, flexibility, and financial upside. 

Like many other rehab professionals, I went through this exact same contemplative process.

In hopes of helping those of you who feel stuck in this exact phase, I’m going to outline the strategy I used to get myself out of the 40-45 hour traditional work week and into a position that gave me back control of my time. 

When I graduated PT school, I took a safe job. One at an outpatient clinic where I worked as a tech in undergrad. Great facility, great people, but ultimately left me wanting more from the patient population. Like most PT’s this job occupied most of my time. I had set myself up so I could work 4 10s which left me 3 days a week where I planned to work PRN in my free time (one of the factors I think contributes to burnout, but we can talk about that later).

Through one of my clinical instructors while in PT school, I  secured a PRN position in a skilled nursing facility at a decent rate of $50/hour as a new grad. This was a less than ideal setting, but it provided a lot of flexibility in when I could work and the times I had to be in the facility - this factor is KEY to creating your transition plan. 

About 1 year into my career, I started my cash practice in a gym. Knowing this was what I ultimately wanted to occupy most of my time, I began to network with other gyms in the area and use my reputation as a coach within the CrossFit community to spread the message of what I was looking to do.

After 2 years at my first job and PRN role, and 1 year into my business, I was offered the opportunity to go work in Division 1 athletics. The only catch was that the offer was part time (two 10 hour days), initially I was hesitant about this, but it ended up being an excellent catalyst to understand the value of having my time back - this is the concept most PT’s get stuck at. 

So in order to balance out the loss of a full-time role for the part-time one I accepted, I had two options: 

1. Ramp up the SNF hours (easier path to short term revenue, but cost opportunity to build my cash business)
2. Ramp up the cash practice (more difficult path to revenue, but was able to generate 3x the income in the same amount of treatment time)

Ultimately for me, it was all about balancing these two concepts and using the flexibility of the SNF model. If my cash PT hours were slow for the week, I would pick up SNF hours. When my cash clinic was busy, I would simply decline the request for hours at the SNF. I saw this as a great vehicle to remain flexible and adaptable.

When it became time to move on from the part-time D1 role, I already had my strategy in place. Ramp up the SNF, while I ramp down the outpatient hours UNTIL my cash PT schedule was more full. And that’s exactly what I did.

The key to using this strategy is successfully finding the balance between hourly upside and schedule flexibility. It’s a difficult strategy to execute using PRN outpatient hours because of how rigid the scheduling structure is. 

Now that you know the strategy I used, you can go and execute yours similarly. Remember, flexibility and being able to ramp up or down hours is the KEY!