We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dr. Chelsea Smith, PT. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dr. Chelsea below.
Dr. Chelsea, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Setting up an independent practice is a daunting endeavor. Can you talk to us about what it was like for you – what were some of the main steps, challenges, etc.
I graduated physical therapy school in May of 2016. I started at a large outpatient company that June and worked my way through as much training as possible. I took advantage of their very generous continued education monetary contribution and took about 180 con ed hours in my first 2 years at the company. I also went through leadership training. This was all well and good and I had been working on goal setting and saw myself as a clinic director or potentially partnering in opening a clinic for them.
What ended up happening was quite different than my original vision of my 5 year and 10 year goals. In 2017 I began working with a business mentor (Greg Todd) who flipped my thinking upside down. Why work for someone else when I could branch out and create my own practice that allowed me so much more freedom?
By beginning of the summer of 2018 I had put in a 6 month notice because I did not want to burn any bridges with a company that had treated me well, just ultimately was not where I wanted to remain long term. I filed for my LLC Dec of 2018 and took my first patient in my own private practice Jan 4, 2019.
This took a lot of motivation, self marketing, developing my “voice” and proving that I could get the outcomes people were seeking. I began as a 100% mobile practice, seeing my patients in their homes, office buildings, gyms or outside (I rode my bike behind runners to get a true outdoor running assessment). A lot of my start was word of mouth and social media. I would definitely admit that had I not lived in a town where I had friends and family to initiate the word of mouth momentum, I’m not sure how the timeline would have differed. It would have been more challenging!
It took me about 6-8 months to replace 50% of my corporate salary and about 12 months to entirely replace it. I only paid myself what I could after all my expenses were paid. What I would have loved in hind sight is knowing how to financially structure my practice on the front end instead of figuring that out in 2020. BUT, that’s okay! It all worked out and I am better for it today.
In 2020 when the world went crazy over Covid and practices were closing their doors, I became even busier. People liked the idea of one therapist coming to their home versus them going to a busy clinic and interacting with higher volume of people. It was in this season that a friend of mine from the same corporate company I had previously worked for reached out. They had laid off every physical therapy assistant (PTA) in the company and I struck gold by bringing on the best of the best! Simon Ibrahim was a God send when we both needed it most.
From July of 2020 onward he has worn the hat of PTA as well as COO. He brought his years of experience in clinical management and helped me establish a much more sturdy framework of business and finances. I continued working with business mentors through this time (Uncaged Clinician) who also helped us with a Profit First setup which I highly recommend. From 2020-2022 we doubled in volume and revenue twice. It was incredible! We operated as hybrid mobile as well as having a small treatment space that was very affordable. We also brought on Kim Smith to be our office administrator who handles all things out of network insurance filing, accounts receivable, physician office communication, etc.
Moving into present day we are working on scaling, have moved into a much larger and nicer clinic space, added Dr. Sarah Peterson, PT to our team. We are in our 6th year of practice and have officially made it past the statistical time frame that most small practices close (within 5 years). We are eager and excited to see what the next 5 years holds as we now are neighbors in space with a very skilled personal trainer, a company full of holistic recovery tools (cryo, red light, hyperbaric oxygen, and others), a world renowned acupuncturist and a successful med spa.
In hind sight, I would always repeat having a solid business mentor. I would highly recommend reading Profit First, and I would recommend to anyone starting out to not go into business debt but to start as low overhead as possible. Your outcomes, your ability to build relationships and establish rapport with local professionals is what should drive your success, not how much money you pumped into an office on the front end.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am a Doctor of Physical therapy who focus on being as holistic as possible. This means I am not just looking orthopedic, but also assessing the nervous system and lymphatic system to figure out root causes of pain and discomfort. I strive to treat the entire person, including taking note of their emotional and mental status.
I am most known for my skill in neurological dry needle therapy and my keen attention to detail. I love to educate my patients and their referring providers so that we are all on the same page.
As a brief example for a holistic versus traditional approach:
If Ms. Smith has back pain in a traditional outpatient clinic, she may work directly with a doctor of physical therapy for 20-30minutes, receive some manual interventions to her back and be given a list of stretches and exercises to work on at home. She will likely be suggested to schedule 2-3x/week for 4-6 weeks.
If Ms. Smith has back pain and comes to see me at HiFLEX Health & Performance, she will work with a physical therapist 60-90 minutes in the first session and unpack every detail feels may be pertinent to her case. We will discuss sleep, emotional status, prior emotional or physical trauma, diet and exercise. I will screan not just her back but her entire body including her nervous system. We will work on manual interventions to her back as well as likely her hips, her overall functional movement patterns, and likely utilize dry needle therapy to calm her central nervous system down. That will be followed up by instruction on a home program that she can access via an app where she can also directly communicate with me whenever she needs. We will likely work together once or twice a week for up to 8 weeks on average depending on how well she is progressing, even having a session in home to make sure she is able to do everything around her home she would like to do.
Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?
Hands down the most helpful skillset or characteristic I think I encompass is the ability to quickly connect with people and establish relationships. I am an empathetic person by nature and am able to feel their emotions and can quickly establish rapport that allows the patient to open up, be vulnerable and trust me with their care. This is the love of Christ in me! I am here to serve and people can sense it.
Have you ever had to pivot?
In 2020 when Covid had the world on lockdown, I absolutely had to pivot! I quickly transitioned my focus in the one month I was closed to my online platform. I run a Facebook group for swimmers/swimming injuries and got to work finishing an online course I was launching.
For my physical therapy practice I also pivoted to utilizing video sessions to continue working with patients. I met with several of my older clients via FaceTime to go through their exercises and talk through any struggles they were having.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.hiflexhealth.com
- Instagram: @chattanooga_physical_therapy
- Facebook: Facebook.com/hiflexhealth
- Linkedin: LinkedIn.com/company/hiflex-health-performance
- Youtube: @hiflexhealthperformance