Ditch the business plans and do these 3 things to start your OT business
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[00:00:00] Ditch the business plans and do these three things to start your occupational therapy business. My name is Hoang Tran. I'm an occupational therapist and certified hand therapist. And in the past 11 years, I've started two therapy business, one in my clinic and one as an online program called. that you're watching right now.
[00:00:26] So I got this question from a therapist who she wants to start her business and she was like can you help me with a business plan or a financial forecast? And I was like, Whoa, financial forecast. What are you talking about? Totally understand. So she must've read that somewhere. You might have been searching online, which good for you.
[00:00:49] That's what you should be doing. And I did the same thing. And I used to see tons of people talk about business plans and how to draw one up and a financial [00:01:00] forecast just talks about the cashflow and the money that you're coming, that you're going to be seeing month after month based on the business that you do.
[00:01:09] If you're just starting out in your business and you're focused on. Business plans and financial forecast, I would just say, man, that is not the best use of your time when you're just starting out. And I'll tell you, I did the same thing because I read somewhere like you got to have a business plan and you got to draw that up and you got to write it out.
[00:01:32] And if you really think about. What a business plan is or a financial forecast that usually is used to take to like the formal way of doing it is to actually take it to a financial institution aka a bank or you are trying to get money from a venture capitalist, right? That's you going and say, I'm going to, with The history of what I've done and what I [00:02:00] can do.
[00:02:00] This is how much money I'm going to put in. This is how much money I'm going to get out. This is how much money you're going to have returned. That's a business plan. That's usually going out and going somewhere to get capital in to start your business. I'll tell you majority of time as occupational therapists, if we're starting our own business and we want to do something of our own, start a clinic, start a mobile practice, do something online Ditch those business plans.
[00:02:27] I'm going to share with you three things that's just going to make your life easier that can get you going and Really at the day make you money so that you can keep doing your OT business. Okay? So I wrote them down and I'm just going to share with you in the order in which you know when I was writing it down made sense for me I wish somebody had told me this when I first started instead of wasting months and months trying to draw out a business plan And you can have one.
[00:02:53] Just try to simple of try to simplify it because it does not need to [00:03:00] be that difficult if you're not going somewhere and getting, like venture capital money and a bank loan. And I'll tell you what to be perfectly honest. Most of the time you can get a bank loan to start your business because you have to show proof that you've been in business and that you can make money.
[00:03:18] Most people won't lend you money unless they know it. somehow or another they're going to be able to get their money back. When you look at a credit card, when you apply for a credit, I'm totally going off tandem right now. If you apply for a credit card, don't they ask you your income? Cause they want to know based on this person's income, or they're going to borrow money and they're going to pay me back.
[00:03:38] So there's an increased chance you're going to be able to pay them back. When you start a business, you say, I got no money. Can you let me borrow money? So usually. That's why I'm coming. I always like to explain why. So you just, I'm not just telling you, but I'm explaining why it will work or it won't work based off of, obviously based off my experience, cause who else is there and other business [00:04:00] friends that you know, been in contact with and know their business for the last 10 years. So number one number one is instead of going for the business plan and the financial forecast and all that stuff, you need to identify how much money you want to make, how much money do you want to make, and then reverse engineer this to show what your overhead costs.
[00:04:20] how to price your services and how many patients, how many customers you need. So for example, when I went out on my business, I literally started my business for six months doing all the paperwork and stuff like that. Found my space, things like that, buying my equipment, but I actually didn't see any patient paying patients until six months into it.
[00:04:45] And, But I did that because I had a full paying job. I had a very well paying full time job. And so I was working, I was the side hustle was on the at night and on the weekends to build [00:05:00] myself up to then quit my job and start, the next. Like literally I, I quit my job, gave my appropriate notice on a Friday was my last day on a Monday was my first day in my own business.
[00:05:11] I still remember the feeling of going to the office, unlocking the door and knowing that that was it. I was on my own and I had to, find a way to cut my own paycheck. So yeah, that was like a hot minute ago, but you want to think about how much you want to make. I at that time, let's say.
[00:05:33] For simplified services, I was making 100, 000. I was making six figures and I said, you know what? I would be happy if I made 50, 000, I would consider it a successful year. If I made 60, if I made 50, 000 I put in a certain amount. So my starting cost was 20, 000. Let's just say 20, 000 to put all the costs of.
[00:05:55] Of buying sub renting not renting yeah, renting the space, little [00:06:00] things like they add up and maybe the first getting other people's services to help me like get going. But I knew I could make that money back. So that was considered part of my expenses the first year.
[00:06:13] So then you have to, also consider your. Overhead costs. I have the cost of my ear in our system at the cost of my of my space, things like that. You want to think about how much you want to make for the year so that you have a target to hit, and then when you reverse engineer it, you actually just say this is how many patients I need to see and how many patients I need to see for the year to make this amount of money based off of the charge I'm going to charge.
[00:06:43] And then from the year, you break it down into 12 months. And from those 12 months, you break it down into weeks. Actually the first year I didn't account for any time off. I was just like whenever they don't have patients, that's my time off. So it's you have to get rid of that employee [00:07:00] mentality to go into the business.
[00:07:01] And at first you're just creating You're creating a job for yourself, and that's okay. That's how a lot of OTs in business gets started. You build your caseload and you start there and then from there you build down, build out. In that first year you want to think about how much you want to make and you want to calculate as close as possible to your overhead costs.
[00:07:21] And then that way you can help to price your services. And also you want to consider, what's Bare minimum to live, right? So I was able to live below my means for a little while so that I could save money, so I could not have any debt so that I could, get, to a certain extent accustom.
[00:07:45] To living on a little bit less while I grew my business, right? So it's very realistic that way versus I'm just going to live this lavish lifestyle off of, if you're earning six figures, like that's a good amount of money and you can [00:08:00] live off of that. I know people are going to be like, but whoa, there's inflation.
[00:08:03] There's always inflation. There's always costs, but there are ways to live. Within your means, and then you have to have that mentality to go into the business so that your business can be successful. So how much you want to make, and that will and then reverse engineer it so that you could dial down onto those little itty bitty things that's going to make it so it's going to help you.
[00:08:26] Not just start, but stay in business. All right first year can be really challenging All right. So number two is you want to think about where are your patients or your clients coming from? Where are they coming from in order to make money? You now have to attract people to you. You have to go out there and say hey This, I'm going to share my example.
[00:08:50] Hey, this my name is Wong. I'm an occupational therapist and certified hand therapist, and I help people with X, Y, and Z problems, like hand and arm injuries. So when I first started, I [00:09:00] was very I was really good with post surgical cases. And so I led with a thing that I was really good with.
[00:09:07] When you're starting out, don't start thinking, I wouldn't recommend thinking about all the other things you want to do because it's going to take time to do those other things you need to catch your food and eat it today. So you're not necessarily learning some new skill.
[00:09:21] You're going to take this current skill that you have and say, Hey I help people. If you have had a surgery to your hand or wrist. That's exactly who I hope if you can't if you had surgery can't move your hand don't know When the stitches come out don't know why you're swelling is still there even though it's only been even though it's been four weeks I can help you right if you can't put your makeup on you can't wipe your ass You can't grab a drink like all those things You want to think about where your customers are coming from.
[00:09:56] You want to think about where your patients, your clients, whatever you want to call them, where are [00:10:00] they coming from? Now, I started out with workers comp and I started out getting into insurance network. I didn't know how bad it was going to be. So I like at this point in my career, I don't necessarily recommend it.
[00:10:13] But it's not wrong to do. You just have to make sure in your town. It might be a little different in my town. Reimbursement rates were so low and it was very hard as a solo entrepreneur, right? To get into these closed networks. Like most networks were closed to all therapy because they have enough people providing the therapy.
[00:10:37] They didn't want to add another person. So I'll be honest, I could not get into majority of insurance contracts. And after working in one to two years with them, I was like, Oh my, I'm going broke working with them. So you have to make your decisions on that. But. But at the end of the day, the conversation here is, where do you get them?
[00:10:59] You can get them [00:11:00] from doctor's referrals, in network insurance contracts, workers comp, and you can also go direct to consumer. So I'm more in the cash direct to consumer game now versus having to go through all these third party payers and stuff like that. I want to talk directly to the people who want to, who need my services, who is willing to pay for my services, who see that my services are valuable.
[00:11:24] And so if you are going out. And starting your business, you have to start thinking about them. You have to think about that one person and say, how do I find them? How do I get in front of them? So that gets the circle of thinking of where are your patients, where are your clients coming from?
[00:11:43] Your energy, I think, and your time is better off on learning marketing skills, how to write understanding social understanding the need for a website or Or organic. And [00:12:00] for, I actually, I think I recommended this to to someone who is just starting, she's just starting her business.
[00:12:06] She's I'll wait until January, 2024 to get started. I was like, let me get started today. If you start your business in January. You're going to go into your business with no patience, right? No patience. I started my business like walk through my door January 13, but I had already been doing the marketing beforehand to get in front of people.
[00:12:30] And I think that as an occupational therapist, we're so not used to marketing ourselves, bringing attention to ourselves. But that's the only way to get business is to think about how do I attract. people to me. How do I get in front of more eyeballs? And if you don't have a website and you don't want to spend a lot of money, social media is free.
[00:12:57] Social media is free. You can start [00:13:00] your account today and it is. free. And I'm going to do, I have other videos on that and where to start with that, how to start with that. But you've got to get in front of people. And there are things that you can do for free. That's it's free in the sense that you don't have to pay to do it, but you paying with your time, it's called sweat equity and you got to use, you got to put a lot of that at the beginning.
[00:13:25] So number one, how much do you want to make reverse engineer it? Number two, where are your patients, clients coming from and then list out and figure out how you get in front of people. And then oh my God, that was number three. Oops. Number three was getting started on social media, right? Getting started on social media because it is free.
[00:13:47] So I was talking to I was talking to this therapist who said she wanted to start a business and she's Oh, and she was telling me about how she wanted to connect with certain doctors. If you have referral sources and doctors go to them. Tell them where you're [00:14:00] going to be and tell them what kind of patients you can help, right?
[00:14:08] I used to do that. I went to doctors. They had their own therapists. Hey doctor, I know you have your own therapist in your own clinic. I totally respect that, but every once in a while You can't keep all your patients, right? If you're looking for a trusted therapist in this location this is how you can send me and refer patients to me, right?
[00:14:30] Because Some doctors, they're trying, they're a business as well. They're trying to keep all of their patients as many As they can, but not all of them can, right? They might be limited in the therapy, the space the insurance, the whatever it is. The location, and you just need to be there for them. But outside of doctors and referrals outside of those referral sources, you need to get in front [00:15:00] of people who don't know you.
[00:15:03] And that's social media. It's totally free, and You can take a picture and share a picture. You can take a picture of yourself, share a picture. You can take a picture of what you do and explain what you're doing and who it's for. You can go on and share perspective so you can get used to getting on camera.
[00:15:26] And I think that, I think as occupational therapists, we are, there's so many that I feel like they're, they just don't want the attention, but The thing is no one's going to know that you can help them unless you attract that type of attention, right? So if you share your perspective in terms of what you do they're more likely to be like, Oh, I need that.
[00:15:52] So I happen to be a certified hand therapist, but I see there's. Tons of other occupational therapists [00:16:00] that provide such great value and service. You could be in peds You could do some form or fashion of home therapy You could be catering to a specific type of niche like Postpartum moms. There's a lot of OTs going into the pelvic health space, there's OTs that are OTs with certain skills and then they've niched out into other things like OTs who love yoga.
[00:16:27] I'm an OT. I love yoga, not a yoga instructor, but I know this OT. She's amazing. She's working to become a certified hand therapist and she. loves yoga and she actually trains and teaches and I'm like, Oh my God, if you were a CHT and you also did yoga, she's Oh, and I saw so much potential in her.
[00:16:49] She was like, no, I don't know. But she wanted to do it in her little town, which is fantastic. You still have to share your perspective. You still have to say, Hey, this is. Who yoga would be really great [00:17:00] for, and the reason why you're coming to an OT and who who is a yoga instructor is because I can help you with X, Y, and Z, whatever it is to live fully, to live this way, whatever it is that, that that you do, but share your perspective and don't be shy about it.
[00:17:17] And then. Just be okay that you're going to suck at the beginning. You're really going to suck at the beginning. It's okay. It's alright. Please don't go back to 11 years ago when I first started. I really sucked. But I only got better. People are like, Oh, but Hoang you make it look so easy.
[00:17:35] I make it look easy because I've been doing it for a while. It was not easy at the beginning. I promise some days is not easy for me to come on and do these. I have lots of mess ups. My, my. Marketing assistant can, share that with you for sure, but we never have space. So we delete all the bloopers.
[00:17:54] But but yeah, so ditch the business plans, ditch this [00:18:00] idea of a financial forecast and just do these three things to actually get started and to actually make the moves, take the action that's going to bring customers, clients, patients knocking on your door. calling your office and wanting to get onto your schedule because that's the only way you're going to stay in business.
[00:18:24] You can really fall into this rabbit hole of financial forecasts and things like that. But honestly. Do that after you get started, do that after, but I didn't do financial forecast until three or four years into my business. I still really don't do it. I have a budget. I have a budget and I have a plan, but that's not a financial forecast.
[00:18:48] A financial forecast is real specific. I have a budget and I have a plan on how I'm going to. I have lots of bills. I have employees. I have to make sure I have money to pay [00:19:00] them. Otherwise they don't want to work for me anymore. But but when you get started, simplify your life and it's going to make it so much easier for you to get started that you're going to see that is doable and it's possible for you.
[00:19:13] And if you see that I've done it, other people can do it. I have done it. Then it's possible for you to do it as well. So if you like this video and it was really helpful for you, please hit the subscribe button and I'm going to include the link. If you want more details get on my email list, the OT business corner.
[00:19:31] I share a lot more and it's only business. I don't share anything therapy treatment related. It is only business. So if you want to get on it, links down there. And if you have more questions, by all means, leave me a comment below. And that's what helps me to make a great, valuable videos, just like this one that hopefully can help you start and grow your business as an occupational therapist until next time.
[00:19:58] Peace out. Thanks.[00:20:00]
