Physical Therapy Business Tips
January 21, 2025
Starting a physical therapy practice of your own is an adventure that can involve many different twists and turns along the way. Unfortunately, making the wrong moves early in the early days of your practice can lead to unhappy clients, low revenue, and even the closure of your business.
But don’t worry, because we’ve got you covered. We’re going to share the most common mistakes people make when starting a physical therapy practice, explain how to avoid them, and give you helpful tips for taking your practice to the next level.
Let’s get started!
Some of the most common mistakes to avoid when starting a physical therapy practice include not creating a financial and marketing plan, choosing the wrong location, not building a referral network, pricing your services too low, trying to do everything alone, and using the wrong practice management software.
It can be hard to know where to place your efforts with your physical therapy practice when there are so many potential mistakes to make, but knowing what to watch for will help you make the right decisions early on. Let’s dive into each of these common pitfalls one by one.
One of the great qualities of physical therapists is that they enjoy working with people and helping them live better lives. The trade-off here is that most physical therapists aren’t well-versed in how to create a business plan for their practice.
For example, focusing only on your physical therapy services and patient satisfaction - although very important - canlead to blind spots with important financial planning such as properly calculating the cost of opening your practice, facility and equipment upkeep, rent, provider and business insurance, and staff salaries.
The best way to get ahead of these challenges is to take advantage of financial tools for physical therapy business owners and build relationships with other practice owners who can help guide you along the way. Joining a group for business owners, whether online or in-person, can be an excellent way to learn the basics of building a healthy bottom line for your practice.
Most physical therapists haven’t had any experience with marketing before starting a physical therapy business, let alone building a marketing plan to support the long-term success of their physical therapy business. But in today’s modern world, the way you market yourself can make or break your practice.
The main goal of marketing for a physical therapy practice is two-fold: reach more patients and build brand awareness. This means that your marketing strategy should make it easy for potential patients to see you, trust you, and schedule with you. Whether it’s through paid advertising, social media, or creating a website, anyone can create a strong plan with the right help.
One especially valuable tool to get your marketing plan started is Google My Business. Google My Business can be used to list your business on Google, advertise, and receive and respond to reviews from clients. Marketing can be much more complicated, but many practice owners will find everything they need with just a few powerful tools that are easy to use.
For physical therapy business owners who want to start on the right foot with their finances, ClinicSense offers marketing and communication tools to help your business thrive month after month.
The common saying in real estate is Location, Location, Location, and that couldn’t be more true when starting a physical therapy practice. In fact, choosing the wrong location is a big factor in why so many clinics are unsuccessful.
When choosing the location for your practice, think about your target patient population both generally and specifically. Generally speaking, if your clinic is on the second floor of a building, make sure it has an elevator! Thinking more specifically about your patient population - for example, if your goal is to work with high school athletes - you’ll want to make sure your clinic is close to local schools and the nearest children’s hospital.
Other factors such as adequate treatment space and parking can go a long way in making your location enticing for potential patients, so be sure to consider all of the details when planning out your brick-and-mortar venture.
When starting a physical therapy practice, who you know can be just as important as what you know. For that reason, not building a referral network can leave you without the connections you need to get new client referrals, opening the door to stagnancy for your business.
There are two main ways to build your referral network with local physicians and rehab professionals: in-person and online.
In-person network building often looks like walking into local clinics and asking to speak with providers face-to-face, including things like lunch-and-learns where you can show what you know and strengthen your referral connection. Online networking usually involves a group of providers local to your area that post about hot topics, message each other for advice, and plan in-person events for more intimate connection building opportunities.
Gradually building up your referral network will eventually lead to a steady number of new patients coming to your practice that you wouldn’t otherwise have, helping sustain the monthly incomes needs of your business and strengthening the patient care journey in your area.
It can be challenging to transition from working as a staff physical therapist to owning a clinic, especially when it’s time to create a pricing model for your services that looks attractive to your clients and keeps your practice healthy month after month.
If you’re having trouble deciding how to price your services, make sure to look at what other practices that are local to you or serve your patient population are charging. If you’ve already started your network with other practice owners, ask them what they wish that had done differently at the beginning.
Another helpful way to boost the value of your services is creating compelling treatment packages that incentivize new and current clients to purchase in bulk. Finally, don’t forget to plan annual pricing increases to account for normal inflation.
As the days of handwritten chart notes and colored patient folders fade into the background, it’s never been more important to have the right practice management software for your practice - and this means going beyond the basic SOAP notes software with limiting features.
Practice management software should be a one-stop-shop for your practice that helps you care for your patients more easily, manage SOAP notes and billing more efficiently, and keep your audience up-to-date with new offerings from your business.
ClinicSense is an all-in-one physical therapy software that includes all of the key features you need to help your practice thrive from the start. You can get a SOAP notes free trial right now to start boosting your practice and helping more patients.
The old saying “communication is key” couldn’t be more true when it comes to starting a physical therapy clinic. But it’s more than just communicating treatment plans with your patient, and it can be easy to miss key communication points for your practice.
Being consistent with communicating your service offerings, service pricing, scheduling changes, billing, events - and yes - your treatment plan, can make a huge difference for the patients you serve.
Keeping track of several lines of communication at once can be challenging, which is another good reason to make sure you’re using practice management software that fits the needs of your practice.
One of the biggest reasons for struggling when starting a physical therapy practice is not maintaining thorough and accurate patient records such as medical history, treatment progress, and important documents relevant to the care of your patients.
Keeping track of SOAP notes, intake forms, consent forms, outcome measures, and important patient test results is important, but having a simple and fast way to access those documents can take your physical therapy clinic to a new level. ClinicSense gives practice owners the power to read, write, and review documentation seamlessly for a simpler practice management experience.
Starting a physical therapy practice opens the door to new responsibilities, which can make practice owners feel pressured to take on big amounts of work and rarely ask for help. While it might seem possible to do it all at the beginning, trying to do everything alone can lead to exhaustion and burnout.
Planning ways to delegate administrative and operational aspects of your practice early on can make a huge difference in the efficiency of your business, freeing up your time to help more patients and focus on future growth opportunities.
To get a step above the competition, consider looking into Physical Therapy trends for 2025; AI, telehealth, and technology are predicted to be making waves in the space.
Whether you’re a new physical therapist, or just new at owning a physical therapy practice, having the right guidance on what to do - and what not to do - can help set you up for success in the long run. That means having the right plan, the right help, and the right software for the needs of your practice.
ClinicSense helps physical therapy practice owners focus on the things that matter most when starting a physical therapy practice, making it easier to account for the common pitfalls that most business owners struggle with while building a healthier future.
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