Recent data shows there are around 131,278 physical therapists working in the US.
If you’re a physical therapist, you might be ready to open your own physical therapy business. That said, you may have no idea how to do this kind of thing.
Read on, and you’ll discover how you can start a physical therapy practice. If you’re really nervous about launching your own practice, these tips will help calm your nerves.
Let’s begin!
Table of Contents
Do the Math
Before you do anything else, you first need to crunch a few figures. This is important because you will need to work out how much money it’ll take to launch your business and whether you’ll need to take out a loan.
When starting a physical therapy clinic, you’ll typically have to pay for the following things:
- Admin fees
- Rental fees
- Permits
- Marketing
- Equipment
- Potential staff members
Of course, this list isn’t exhaustive, so there are probably a few things missing here. However, for the most part, the things mentioned will make up the bulk of your costs.
In any case, it’s hard to say how much you will have to pay for each of these things. That said, if you’d like some help, you might want to reach out to other people that already run a PT clinic.
In some cases, these people might provide you with a physical therapy checklist that explains the startup costs you will face. You can then take these figures and use them as a rough guide.
Finding a Location
The location you choose for your practice will have a big impact on your business. After all, the location you pick will massively influence your startup costs. If you set up shop in a busy location, you will have to pay higher rental fees.
That said, picking a busy location might result in more customers, so this could be worth it. On the other hand, a quieter location will be cheaper, but you will need to spend more money on marketing so that people know you exist.
It’s hard to say which approach is best, and you will need to figure out which tradeoff you’d like to go with here.
Getting Equipment
If you’re going to start a PT business, you will need to invest in some physical therapy equipment.
To begin with, you might just want to specialize in certain kinds of physical therapy. For instance, you may just want to provide a therapy service that only requires the use of therapy tables.
This will then reduce the amount of equipment you need to buy, thereby lowering your costs. Of course, as your business grows, you can eventually expand the scope of your practice and buy more equipment.
Time to Start a Physical Therapy Practice?
This post has covered some of the main things you need to know about starting a physical therapy practice.
If you’re short on cash, but you’re wary of taking out a loan, you can always approach investors. If you present them with a solid business plan, there’s a good chance they will be willing to offer capital in exchange for some ownership in your firm.
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