Going Solo: Payton's path to financial security

Learning to value his time and respect his body

At 19 years old, Payton was suffering from chronic sciatic pain. He had just dropped out of school for engineering and moved to California. The cost of living there was astronomical. He took on multiple minimum wage jobs to make ends meet. At that income level, it took an obscene amount of time just to pay the rent.

After four years of this, his pain was debilitating. One day, he wandered into a massage school offering a free neuromuscular therapy demo. He explained his pain to the instructor. Then, a student worked on him for 45 minutes. When he stood up, his pain was gone. Right then, Payton knew he had to learn how to do this himself.

He couldn't keep scraping by on low-paying jobs. That's part of why he was in so much pain. He needed a career, but the idea of investing 4-8 years in education sounded expensive. Not to mention, he needed to start earning more ASAP. He wanted his time back and needed to take better care of himself.

Going to school for massage therapy made perfect sense. The experience of being in so much pain, getting past it, and then being able to do that for someone else – what could be better than that? It was emotionally compelling. Plus, he could get his massage certificate in a relatively short time.
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Starting a massage business during covid

Not long after Payton began his career as a massage therapist, the COVID-19 pandemic began. He was working in his mentor's clinic. It took a lot of continuing education to earn his place there. She had a thriving practice, and he was learning a great deal working with her. Unfortunately, the state of California announced that all massage therapists must close their businesses to help prevent the spread of the virus.

All of a sudden, Payton's plans to earn a great living were brought to a halt. His mentor didn't just close her doors for a few months. Instead, she closed the business permanently. Paying for commercial space in California without any income was simply impossible.

Payton packed up and moved back to Las Vegas. His family was there, AND there were fewer covid restrictions. He respected and understood the need to keep people safe during a pandemic. Still, the therapy he provided was a medical necessity for many patients. He could practice massage therapy in Nevada, provided he had proper covid protocols in place.

He found an orthopaedic office with a space for rent. This was the perfect opportunity to build a medical massage practice. The doctors there referred their patients to him. Seeing patients with an Rx for massage therapy allowed him to continue practicing massage, even during the early phases of covid.

From there, his business has continued to grow. His skill set allows him to charge a premium for his services. His time is valued, and he doesn't have to give it all away to earn a good living. The days of someone else determining how much he's worth and controlling his scheduling were over.

Software that eliminates the need for a secretary

When Payton started working at the orthopedic office, he didn't want to depend on their systems. He wanted to be completely independent. So, he passed on using their receptionist. Having a receptionist would be nice, but Payton didn't want the expense of paying her salary.

The simplest solution to not having a receptionist was to get scheduling software. So, that's what he did. The first software he tried wasn't specific to massage therapists. It worked ok, but he wanted something where he could do everything in one place.

Then he found ClinicSense. It had everything he needed to run his practice, AND the online scheduling worked better than what he was using before.
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"The biggest thing I see with people, if it's too complicated or has too many steps, they get turned off. With ClinicSense, scheduling is easy – It's click, click, see ya next week!"

ClinicSense has really helped Payton streamline his processes. It does everything: scheduling, SOAP notes, and invoicing. All he needs is his iPad or phone and a moment of his time. In addition, it's HIPAA-compliant, which is essential in his type of practice. Overall, it's allowed him to spend significantly less time on the unpaid tasks of running a business. That leaves more time for patients and living his best life.

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