How I quit my high paying, full time job to start my own therapy clinic
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[00:00:00] Hey there. If you're an occupational therapist and you're wondering how do I start my own therapy clinic? This video is gonna be for you. I'm gonna talk about how I quit my full-time, high paying full-time salary position to start my own therapy clinic. My name is Hoang I'm an occupational therapist and certified hand therapist, and 10 years ago I took the leap of faith, of myself to say, Hey, You can do hard things and I started my own therapy clinic and I'm gonna just talk you through a little bit about what I did in order to quit this high paying position, this great position to start my own therapy clinic.
[00:00:43] And literally it feels like you're starting from scratch. But one of the things that I did. To actually, one of the things I did before I quit this high paying full-time job was I actually quit a really great [00:01:00] hospital position. I had a great hospital, their hospital position in an outpatient setting.
[00:01:05] I had great coworkers. My boss was really awesome, and I had been at that position for about 10 years. But I was getting really comfortable. And I was also getting bored and I always knew that I wanted to open my own therapy clinic from when I was in grad school, in occupational therapy school. I always had this like little thing in the pit of my stomach that I knew I wanted to open my own business one day.
[00:01:33] I just didn't know when. I didn't know how. And I quit that really great comfortable position and I took a high paying. Position, which I knew was going to be very uncomfortable, but it put me into a privately owned therapy clinic, and I wanted to see how it worked, how it ran, because I was just so comfortable in my hospital position, and You're very [00:02:00] insulated in a hospital setting.
[00:02:01] You're very protected in a hospital setting. And I hadn't worked in a private setting before. I said, I wanna try. It's almost like I wanted to try it out before I started my own therapy clinic. I. But I did tell myself that if I really loved the company and I was doing really great there, that I would, I could see myself staying there for a really long time and I just won't open my own therapy clinic.
[00:02:26] And it's funny 'cause it's sometimes those things that you say to yourself because you're scared of taking the leap of faith of what you really wanna do. So I just wanna forewarn you that. That might be happening to you. 'cause it certainly happened to me that you start to say things or rationalize things to yourself to keep yourself away from reaching your goal.
[00:02:49] And one of it is just fear. Fear of failing. So if you find that you're doing that, let me just tell you that. [00:03:00] If you want to start your own therapy clinic, it's not an easy thing, but if that desire doesn't go away then do it. That means that it's meant for you. 'cause it's a little whisper in your ear and you keep pushing it back, keep pushing it back and forth, but it keeps whispering your ear.
[00:03:17] That means you need to bring it from the back to the front and actually maybe carry it out. So here's what I did. Maybe by sharing my story, I can help inspire, motivate you to, take the leap of faith and, learn from my mistakes, essentially, I. So I had worked at this high paying, full-time position.
[00:03:37] It was great. I was working really closely with a respected hand surgeon and I loved the patients that I was treating, but I didn't love the company itself, and that already told me that. Yeah I could. Stay for a certain amount of time, but what I really needed to do was like move on and do my own thing.
[00:03:58] So at some [00:04:00] point I was just like telling my husband. At that time I was married, I have two little kids, and I was like, I am not happy in my job. Yes, I can go out and look for other jobs, but I quit my great hospital position so that I could eventually go on my own. And it is time. I need to, I need us to buckle down and save money.
[00:04:23] I need to start working on doing things for my business so that when I quit, I can, I could start. So one of the things that I did, which you don't necessarily have to do, but. I quit my job and on a Friday was my last day, and on a Monday I started in my own therapy clinic. So a lot of different ways to go about it.
[00:04:49] But I went cold Turkey. This girl went cold Turkey. So I quit my job, started my business, right? Started in my business, but in order to start in my [00:05:00] business, let's rewind and go backwards. Six months. So once I. Made that decision. So you just have to, if you wanna start your own therapy clinic, make a decision, draw a line in the sand and say, this is the date, pick the date, this is when I'm gonna do it by.
[00:05:18] So I picked a date and I was giving myself six months. Actually, I think I was giving myself even longer. I think I gave myself a year. And I was like, by this date, for sure, I'm quitting. Things were happening in the clinic that I was working at. That fast tracked me and I quit much sooner.
[00:05:38] So my window became from like this year became a six month window and I started, I incorporated my business. So I figured out what I needed to do to start my business. I got a name. I worked on business cards, picking out their color schemes, the branding, and [00:06:00] I started researching a lot online, so I literally would work from eight to 4, 4 30, right?
[00:06:07] I'd go pick up my kids, make dinner, put them to bed, and by seven o'clock I was working from seven to midnight every night for six months to learn what I needed to learn to open my business to start applying for. Insurance contracts and stuff like that. So one of the things that I did was after I started my business I started applying for contracts, like workers' comp contracts insurance contracts and that trying to get in-network.
[00:06:41] And I'll tell you what. I did that because I asked other people at that time what they did and they told me that's what they did. I'll do another video on all my mistakes so you don't do the same. 'cause I don't recommend doing that.[00:07:00] But that's what I did. I said, let me I actually really enjoy working with workers' comp.
[00:07:05] I enjoy working with injured workers. It was one of the things that I started researching. So you go online, you start researching companies, you start researching, how do you get into networks and stuff like that. And I started making phone calls like by the end of the day so hopefully.
[00:07:22] Depending on the companies, you still have a small window of opportunity to either do it on your lunchtime or right after work. So I was doing a lot of stuff right after work. Like as soon as I got out, I could make phone calls, even if that meant delaying picking up my kids by 30 minutes or something like that.
[00:07:38] And then there's a lot of things that. Even 10 years ago when I started, you can do a lot of things online. So I started applying for contracts and trying to get in network. It is incredibly difficult especially when you're an solopreneur. Basically you're starting on your own. You don't have any other people.
[00:07:57] You don't have teams that you're just, [00:08:00] starting with. It can be really. Incredibly difficult. But I spent a lot of time doing that. And what else did I do? I looked for a space, I looked for a space where I could, see myself working in. I didn't want a place that was too far from where I lived, but I wanted to be within a particular area.
[00:08:21] So I found a small clinic. At that time it was 300 square feet. So I had a realtor. Look around. I actually had two realtors looking. I was working with one and she could only find me like these big spaces and I didn't want it. And I started working with another realtor and she found me a really small space.
[00:08:43] The thing was I needed to sign the lease almost right away, and I was like, crap, I don't know. I don't have patience yet. How am I gonna pay for this? It was. One of the things that she said to me was because it was a really [00:09:00] small, inexpensive place that I was renting, even in Miami, Florida, you can find some of those places, but she was like, this is equivalent to a car payment.
[00:09:11] She goes, even if you don't have patience or you. Let's say you signed a three year contract and you don't make a go of it. Can you live with a car payment, an extra car payment? And I was like, you know what? I can live with an extra car payment. It was like I said, 300 square foot a room inside of an office building.
[00:09:32] It wasn't like some big fancy building or anything like that. It was actually, I didn't know it at the time. But I had signed a lease into a C class building versus an A class building. When you're in an A class building, there's a lobby. It's like fancier, there's A, B, and C I'm sure. So I was in this office building, but it was in the area that I wanted to be in.
[00:09:53] And so I said, you know what? I can afford a car payment, right? I will stop, I can [00:10:00] either earn more money or save money. To be able to afford it, and so I. Signed the lease and actually I signed it to take effect in October and I started working in my business in January. I had given myself like this six month window to start the research.
[00:10:20] I started the actual business, got my N P I number, got my. My irs tax identification number, did all that stuff first. As I was doing all that stuff, I I was looking in terms of finding a a place to rent. I found that place. And then I was also working at night to do all of my research on business stuff.
[00:10:43] I was looking at developing business plans. I was looking to. Like how do you get in network with places? I was looking up things of like just making sure I was [00:11:00] doing things, quote unquote and I can tell you, I think there's just so much more information now. 10 years I. Fast forward 10 years, there's so much more information now than there was back then.
[00:11:11] Back then when I started, I relied on, what other people did. The one or two people I could ask questions to. They would just, they're like, just start. That's so vague. How do you start you, you feel like you have all these questions? So I literally started with $20,000.
[00:11:29] I'd saved that money. I started going on eBay, buying used materials used equipment I, I had contracted someone to help me build the kind of table that I wanted in my therapy clinic versus just buying a therapy table online. The therapy tables online are really expensive, and you can go to iq, you can go to so many cheap places and get like cheap tables, but I really wanted.
[00:11:55] I don't know why in my head I was just like, I want this table to be a certain way. [00:12:00] And so I just had it crafted. I went to found a contractor and had my table custom made and I went to IKEA to buy furniture and we just started slowly but surely buying little things here and there to stock the clinic.
[00:12:17] So it wasn't like one massive purchase and then slowly but surely, so I started I signed the lease in October, so I went in there and I cleaned it up and I, did all this stuff and then I slowly but surely started ordering the material. 'cause in January I was starting initially I wasn't gonna start exactly at that time, but things were starting to slowly.
[00:12:40] Like breaks down in my clinic and I ended up quitting much sooner than I had anticipated. But I would say like the one thing that I would encourage you to do, I. Is draw a line in the sand, pick your date. Just pick a date in which you're gonna, you're gonna open for business, right? Not the pick a date of when you're gonna [00:13:00] start doing shit.
[00:13:01] You have to pick a date of when you're gonna start seeing patients, and then you work yourself backwards. And that's essentially what I did, or picked a date. It got moved forward by, picked it regardless. And I just worked myself backwards. So what needs to happen in order for me to have patients?
[00:13:17] On that first day, I thought it was all about insurance, and I can tell you right now, I. I'll probably do another video of all my mistakes. I would not start there. I would not start as that being my only most priority thing. But I can tell you that's exactly what I did. I started with insurance 'cause that's what everyone did.
[00:13:38] I got into Medicare, I got into workers' comp insurances and I. Started to do a lot of the research of what needs to be done. I think I wasted a lot of time spending time on quote unquote branding, getting my website out. Those things are, looking back they were so [00:14:00] insignificant, but getting the first couple of patients coming in was gonna be really key.
[00:14:05] And so that's essentially how I started, right? I kept working in my full-time job. I was working at night to do the research, to do the work. And then my last day was Friday. I started on Monday. I started with one or two patients that. That requested on their own to follow me. I didn't essentially I didn't take or poach any patients that were from my clinic that I was working at.
[00:14:34] I was just like, I didn't even tell them, I didn't even tell them. I don't think I even told them. Until the last week that, that was gonna be my last week and that they were gonna find another therapist for them. And people were asking me where was I going? I said, oh, yeah, I'm starting on my own.
[00:14:50] And and that was it. The, one of the doctors that I was working with When I quit and I told him, I, gave him my business cards, I'm like, listen, I know you have your own therapy [00:15:00] clinic. That's all cool, but if for whatever reason you need a certified hand therapist and need me for particular cases, this is where I'm gonna be.
[00:15:09] And then once, once I quit that job, then when I started on Monday, literally had two patients that like. Called on their own, their insurance company. And they were like, I want to go see her at her new place. And one patient was, 'cause he was a flexor tendon and he had already been searching for me for about like a month or two.
[00:15:38] 'cause he had gone somewhere else and he wasn't getting any results with his therapy. And then, They ended up finally finding a certified hand therapist to connect him with. And so he had just started with me at that clinic and when I was leaving he was like, I don't care where you're going.
[00:15:54] He goes, I'm going with you. And he called his insurance company. He was like, wherever she's [00:16:00] going, I'm going there. 'cause I'm not gonna go with someone who's not certified hand therapist 'cause I don't want to have another surgery. And that's what he was at risk for. So he followed me and then another one other patient soon after followed that and they did it all on their own.
[00:16:15] So once I started in my therapy clinic on that Monday, it was honestly building up to it. Very surreal. 'cause you think about it, you dream about it, but it's completely different when it happens. You go in there and you're excited and scared at the same time, you're just excited because man, like I, I would unlock the door and I would look at my space and I'm like, I built this space.
[00:16:39] This is where I'm gonna grow and this is where I'm gonna expand. But you're scared at the same time 'cause you're like, I don't have any fucking patience where I don't have any money. I don't have any money slowly but surely the 20 K that I was saving to buy, the stuff was getting spent right.
[00:16:56] Was getting spent buying different things. But, [00:17:00] and I had the two patients on my schedule, that's a total of six visits, right? Two patients that they come three times a week, that's six visits, that's nothing. Especially if you knew the reimbursement rates, right? It was like pennies. And so you have that excitement and you have that fear at the same time.
[00:17:18] And part of what. Is required for you to quit your high paying full-time job to start your own therapy clinic? Is that your ultimate belief in yourself? That you can do hard things, right? You can do hard things. So I just had to have that belief in myself that I could do hard things. So that Monday when I opened up and I was like, ah, I can breathe, but at the same time my stomach was like, and knots because I just didn't know where the income was gonna be coming from.
[00:17:49] I'm very fortunate I have a husband who has a job I didn't necessarily, I didn't take loans out because I needed to live on any kind of income. We went down to one [00:18:00] income for me to build up the therapy clinic. And so within that first year, I was able to hit six figures and I just was relentless in terms of once I had full-time hours, then it became what am I going to do with those hours?
[00:18:18] What am I gonna do with those hours? It's gonna effectively bring patients in through the door. And so I would say the one thing if I. Or to do it all over again. I would change how I thought about insurance and how to get patients. Because for businesses to be successful, you have to have customers.
[00:18:42] So if you're thinking about how do you start your own, like the number one thing that you need to be thinking about is how do I. Attract and get customers. That's one of the number one things. I was thinking about it, but I don't think that I was [00:19:00] thinking about it in the way, obviously, that I'm currently thinking about it now, and I wish someone had shared that with me.
[00:19:07] 'cause as a certified hand therapist, when I would talk to other business owners, it was always go to the insurance and go to the doctors, right? Go to the insurance go to the insurance, get networked and they'll send you patients. Not true. Go to the doctors. The doctors and your friends will send you patients.
[00:19:25] That's a fucking. A line of bullshit right there if I, wherever to share anything. So harsh, right? They tell you that they'll send to you. Oh, if you're specialized, if you're a certified hand therapist, so there's somehow gonna automatically send patients to you. That is a lie. There's a certain amount that you get, but it's is not enough.
[00:19:47] And now, It's even more competitive. So I would not rely on any surgeon to send patients to me. When you rely on surgeons to send patients [00:20:00] to you, the minute they pull they're like loyalty to you or whatever it is, like you're screwed. You don't have a business, right? I, that was told to me, oh, just go to the surgeons that really love you.
[00:20:13] They'll send all your, all their patients to you. And that was utter crap. But and another video I shared with you a little bit more about all the things that I've done. So maybe that can help and inspire you, but that's essentially how I quit my high paying full-time job to start my own therapy clinic.
[00:20:31] I just went cold Turkey. I drew a line in the sand. And that was my plan. Draw a line in the sand. And then I worked backwards six months to get me to that time. And all the little things in between. I'll share a little bit more with you over time, but draw a line. If you wanna own your own business your own therapy clinic, your own online business draw a line in the sand and then create a plan will work backwards and you'll get there.[00:21:00]
