Physical Therapy Private Practice: Secrets Of The Top 10%

There is a lot of noise in the digital marketing space. It’s going to take 7 touches from your physical therapy practice for people to remember your brand. While many practice owners we talk to know the importance of marketing and know the concept of marketing is important, they lack the management of marketing to really be successful. Meaning, the lack of accountability and management over this area is going to hold your practice back and hold YOU back from the living the life you dreamed of when you opened your practice. So what can YOU do about this? How can you differentiate your practice? We’re talking with MEG Marketing Director, Heidi Schmidt and MEG Regional Marketing Manager Scott McCutcheon about some marketing strategies that will help your practice get found and win in the digital marketing space that will benefit both your internal and external marketing efforts. Here's your guide to acquire, retain and manage patients effectively - Marketing Strategies Toolkit  

Have you ever felt like you were walking on eggshells around your staff? Or, maybe you felt like you needed to think twice about what you wanted to say to a staff member for fear of upsetting them, or worse that they might quit? These are all symptoms of a bigger problem. They show a lack of leadership and lack of confront. There are only two ways you can be and only one of them can exist at any one time. You can either be in control and be at cause over what is going on and what is being done by you. Or, you can be the effect of others and what is going on to you.    Check out our NEW Packages & Pricing in MEG Academy!   Grab one of our top resources, the Physical Therapy Personnel Toolkit  

Fact: it doesn’t take more money to build a better physical therapy practice. All it takes is better people. When I say better people, I mean you and me as owners and leaders of our groups. When asked, just about everyone will say that he or she can be better than what they are today. If this is true, then they would immediately understand that they have deficiencies and lack of capabilities.   More significantly, I want to bring your attention to the fact that real success in any business is dependent on one’s abilities to bring about understanding amongst your team. The keyword here is “ability.” The only way your skills are going to grow in the field of private practice management is if you realize that you have deficiencies. If you acknowledge that you don’t know all there is to know about this field of practice. Let’s face it; physical therapy school did not sufficiently train us for the challenges that we face every day in the world of private practice. So, before we go criticizing the shortcomings of o

My daughter is about to graduate college. She’s moving on into the field of acting out in California and I have every confidence that she’ll be a big success. However, as we learn about this industry – there’s so much criticism and counter intentions out there causing headwind to her success. As a result, I can understand now why aspiring actors and actresses need an agent before anything else when they are coming out of school. The agent is there to help protect them against making bad decisions and going astray down a path of unlikely success. Yet, an agent is still not enough. She will still need an acting coach to further enhance her skills and push her to learn new things and operate outside of her comfort zone. Looking back on when I was a new practice owner, I realize that that was exactly what I wanted and I would have paid anything to get. To have someone who had the knowledge and experience to help me stay away from making foolish mistakes and coach me on all that I needed to know but never got whil

I’ve been working with both new and existing owners now for almost two decades. When I think back to what I went through when I opened my first office in 1999, it’s a world of difference. I actually recall putting my head in my hands saying to myself: “I would pay anyone anything they wanted if they would just sit down with me and show me what it is that I needed to do first, second and third in order to build a successful practice.” Unfortunately, at the time, all that was available were business consultants who either didn’t know physical therapy or were more interested in selling me stuff rather than actually helping me. I knew then that someday I would create a company that physical therapy owners could trust would have their best interest in mind and provide them with the knowledge and support necessary to their success.   A private practice’s success begins with the owner knowing what they need to do and when they need to do it. There is no time in business where your actions as an owner are more critic

Our employees are people and as we all know; people, in general, are resistant to change. I read an article last week about how more now than ever before people are being labeled with having Neophobia. Defined as “the fear of anything new, and it can be an especially persistent and abnormal fear. In its milder form, it can manifest as the unwillingness to try new things or break from routine.” How do you get your staff on board to make necessary changes in your private practice when they’re afraid of change?  Grab one of our top resources, the Physical Therapy Personnel Toolkit  

After having spoken with hundreds of practice owners over the years, it’s what they don’t know that’s typically holding them back from the success they desire. When you went into physical therapy, you went in to be a clinician, not a lawyer, or an accountant, or a bookkeeper. We tell physical therapy owners time and again to stop wasting time and mental attention on tasks that you can outsource to others. This week, we have a panel discussion with Jon Repka, VP of Sales from Paro – an accounting and bookkeeping service company, and Denise Muncie, COO of MEG Billing Solutions who manage their respective outsourced services to physical therapy practice owners across the country.  These outsourced solutions allow practice owners to stop wasting time and mental energy on tasks that they aren’t trained to do so they can focus on what really matters when it comes to being an executive. Check out our NEW Packages & Pricing in MEG Academy!   Take our Billing Stress Test to check the pulse of your PT private prac

If I had to say what the top three reasons are that people call me it would be: marketing, personnel, and billing related issues. Almost everybody believes that they can do better in business if they have more new patients. Unfortunately, these people don’t know that almost all problems associated with the practice can be traced back to lack of leadership, lack of knowledge in that area, and/or the inability to confront others.  In podcast episode 49, I laid out the four types of owners and made the case that how you approach your practice and the people associated with your practice is what will have the greatest impact on your practice’s success. Every successful practice owner that I’ve ever met understands that they have four main responsibilities and everything else outside of that is simply a distraction.  Consider outsourcing your accounting services, legal services, and billing services so that you have more time and attention to spend on the four key elements to running a successful practice. Gettin

Knowing when it’s time to hire additional physical therapy staff is a challenge we hear about a lot from the practices we work with.  If it’s not well thought out, you could wind up paying more in payroll than you are getting in return for the services being delivered. This is especially true when you are a new startup practice just starting out; you cannot afford to spend more money than you make. To combat this, you need a proven hiring system that tells you when and who you should hire based on the numbers. You should never be guessing or hoping that your new patient numbers will sustain the new physical therapist you just hired. You should be driving those numbers and hiring based off a sequential plan of growth that you are in control of. This week, we’ll dive into the strategy to know when to hire the next therapist that your practice can sustain that will contribute to the growth of your practice.  Grab one of our top resources, the Physical Therapy Personnel Toolkit  

In order to become a private practice among the top 10%, there are several factors that need to be met. These key factors of success cannot be attained without the right mindset.  This week, Brian is talking about the factors that make the top 10% of practices and what YOU as the physical therapy owner can do to reach those goals.   Check out our NEW Packages & Pricing in MEG Academy!   Are you ready for growth? Request your free private practice expansion evaluation  

Regardless of your industry, there are always challenges to overcome. As a Physical Therapy Private Practice owner, there are four common challenges that we see more often than the rest. One in particular is rarely confronted. Unfortunately this is often the root cause of all the other problems. Lack of leadership and what that means to your staff, yourself and your practice. This week on the podcast we’re talking about how to approach and conquer these challenges so that you never fall the effect of them again.  Check out our NEW Packages & Pricing in MEG Academy!   Are you ready for growth? Request your free private practice expansion evaluation  

How many times have you said to yourself: “there just aren’t enough hours in the day.” Or, wondered as 5pm rolls up, “where has the time gone?!” Turning our focus inward to ourselves, allows us to take greater responsibility for our group by first taking more responsibility for our own actions. It’s easy to blame others for missteps and inconveniences, but they are the ones that you chose to work with, trained and allowed their actions to exist. If you place more time on being a better boss and CEO first, and then put forth well-thought out policies and procedures to train others on, then it comes down to holding them accountable. Unfortunately, too many physical therapy practices are so busy running the day to day functions of being productive and getting work done, that they are not proficient at working on their practice policies and procedures or on standardizing systems of operations. This gives your team better clarity and certainty so they can get their jobs done. Giving this direction and confidence t

If you want to be a successful startup, we always recommend starting with an office manager. Front desk is a huge gateway to your practice and the office manager should run that show (consider the front desk and office manager the gate keepers) and be the core of your front desk management system.  This week in our podcast, Brian discusses the benefits of this for your startup, but also how to create a culture of US for your practice, and how the front desk contributes to that.   Grab one of our top resources, the Physical Therapy Personnel Toolkit  

Whether you have multiple offices or just one, it’s important to recognize that every successful small business grows through three distinct phases of business development. Most private practice owners are unaware of these phases and what is required to efficiently progress smoothly through each phase for successful business growth and development. It is quite common for unknowing owners to find themselves falling further behind and becoming more and more frustrated with the way things are going due to lack of structure, and lack of standard operating procedures that match their current state of business size and development. These challenges are largely due to a lack of knowledge and lack of available processes to handle staffing and operating needs. While it is the CEO and executive that has the larger vision, they also need to set into motion the structure and systems of operation necessary for individuals to gain clarity from so they can be successful in their roles and responsibilities. What took Brian y

Did you know that there are four types of private practice owners? Each type of owner has their own characteristics. Once you identify which type of owner you are, then you can identify your strengths and weaknesses in order to optimize your abilities. All too often, physical therapy private practice owners struggle to succeed in private practice not because of external influences, but because of internal. In this podcast you will learn how to project your efforts toward pro-survival actions that enable you to achieve your ideal scene across six vital key elements necessary for true success. Download our CEO Toolkit for a clear and organized breakdown of the hat and responsibilities of a CEO  

Are you living the life that you’ve always envisioned for yourself? This week we’re interviewing Quinn Worden of PT United. Quinn shares how his father (a physical therapy private practice owner) influenced him starting PT United and helping the world of physical therapy. As he grew to understand the private practice world, he wanted to collaborate with owners to improve their business performance. Some of the benefits PT United offers to the private practice world are sourcing supplies – from therabands to PT Tables at a better value than anyone else. In addition, practice owners can support and become LLC partners by paying a fee and enjoying the benefits of buying together as a coop with a full transparency. What's missing from your private practice? Check out our Physical Therapy Guide to Optimizing your Private Practice  

For 10 years Brian ran a staffing company in the state of Maryland. He staffed Physical, Occupational, and Speech therapists throughout the entire state. By the end of his 10 years, he averaged approximately 5 to 7 interviews a week – his most popular phrase being “the business with the most players wins.” At that time, only two out of every five interview were worth the interview and one was worth the hire.  Fast forward to today, and there are new challenges in the workforce: unrealistic expectations, lack of professionalism, lack of confidence in one’s abilities and a group mentality by the younger generation of workers entering into our professions. However, with rising student loan debt placing increased pressure for higher salaries, it can easily become a rat race to the offer the most money to a limited number of candidates. In reality, it’s a race to the bottom for YOU, the employer. Hiring individuals who are money focused will result in nothing but headaches and pressure within the employer-employee

When inquiring about the topic of statistics in private practice, one might get a wide variety of responses depending on who you’re asking.  However, if you are the owner of the practice with any executive training, I believe the responses you get will consistently be positive.    This week, Brian shares what some of the key metrics and statistics are, and even more importantly how you get your staff on-board.  Running a physical therapy private practice is a team effort, one that will be more successful as you hire and train staff who are more interested in hitting their production targets/stats and quality satisfaction measures/metrics than simply doing the tasks before them. Unfortunately, far too many owners are unware of this critical factor and it becomes overshadowed by the need for more patient visits. Download our great starter tool for revamping your company structure: The Structure Worksheet  

Now, more than ever, it is vital that you bet on you and not let your future be in the hands of others. Recently, I have met with several physical therapists set to discuss their future plans of opening up a private practice. However, their lack of knowledge in this area, was causing every single one of them worry and indecision. Between their own indecision, and counter-intentions from friends and family members, the chance of them not launching was high.  The fear of failure is a powerful force that suppresses us at various points in our lives, but those who succeed, do not allow fears to hold them back. They take actions to fill these voids with knowledge to minimize the fear of the unknown.  This week Brian talks about overcoming these fears and talks about how to achieve that personal and professional success – however you define it for yourself. Overcoming these fears doesn’t happen without an appropriate level of communication, believing in yourself so you can confront others to bring about agreement.

Although none of us have a crystal ball, if you are paying any attention at all to the landscape of physical therapy, it’s easy to see that our treatment set up is evolving.  Take a look at how family/general practitioners are set-up. You have a medical doctor, a certified nurse practitioner or a physician’s assistant, followed up by a medical assistant. All of whom can provide reimbursable care to their patients based on the morbidity level of the patient and the educational degree of the professional. This is a tiered approach that encourages the use of care extenders.  ​You don’t need to look far for the signs of these pending changes. First, we saw the change in the morbidity level of the evaluation codes we were asked to begin using two years ago, and now it’s the reimbursement that Medicare will be paying physical therapy assistant’s for delivering the same care to the same patients being reduced to 85% of what the DPT will be getting starting in 2022.  This week’s episode, Brian dives into these predic