We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Elizabeth Rudd a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Elizabeth, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about how you went about setting up your own practice and if you have any advice for professionals who might be considering starting their own?

I started Well Equipt in 2018. I created a LLC knowing one day it would turn into a brick and mortar business. I started a part time job at a physical therapy clinic and plopped a treatment table in the back of a gym to treat gym members as injuries or aches and pain arose. After one year of treating in the gym as a side hustle, I grew my caseload enough to quit my part time physical therapy job. I jumped full time into Well Equipt June of 2019 and we have been growing and expanding ever since! I took my time and followed my gut with the early phases of the business. I also found myself a great business mentor, which was and still is extremely helpful. They key challenges for me were primarily knowing when to quit my part time job to set up a practice full time. The lack of security was scary! My other challenge once the practice started growing was having boundaries and figuring out a way to take time away from the business. My mind is always on the business and it is tough to turn it off. I have learned it is so important to implement a blocked schedule and stick to it. This helps to have a clear start and end time to working and also lays out exactly what each day looks like.

My best advice: find someone who is doing what you want to do (or something similar) and use them as a resource. Surround yourself with like minded entrepreneurs and successful business ownwers!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I knew I wanted to be a physical therapist since I was 13 years old. I was in and out of physical therapy with all kinds of sports related injuries. I went to undergrad at Wake Forest University and enjoyed earning my degree in Health and Exercise science, then I went straight into the doctor of physical therapy program at Columbia University in New York. When I graduated, I worked for an outpatient orthopedic clinic in Atlanta. At this particular clinic, I was in charge of treating 15-20 patients every day, which felt a lot like managing humans versus practicing medicine. I noticed that the patient population I was treating was consistently experiencing chronic pain. Chronic pain develops when a patient has been experiencing pain for a long time. Either the patient “toughs it out” or they go see their doctor and it takes forever for them to get referred to physical therapy. Chronic pain can be difficult to treat. I believe physical therapists should be a primary care provider for musculoskeletal pain! I started thinking: what if we could create a business model that gets physical therapists out into the community to tackle pain as it arises. If we could get patients in our doors before pain turns chronic, we could really impact people’s lives. Our mission at Well Equipt is to be a healthcare resource to the community so they can live a pain free, active lifestyle. We provide comprehensive evaluations to diagnose and understand the patients pain, create and implement a plan to fix it, and prevent the pain from returning for good. Our physical therapy services are completely individualized through one on one care. As patients achieve their wellness goals, we continue to foster their desire to optimize their health and fitness by providing monthly physical therapy and wellness check ins, exercise training, and remote fitness programming.

Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?

Get out into the community!! Getting out into the community not only allows us to educate on how we can help our community as physical therapists, but it also helps us make other valuable connections. I have met patients, referral sources, and also some of my best entrepreneur friends by getting out in the community. These connections help keep my business alive and thriving!

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Providing a good service is SO important! Since the very first day of setting up my practice, I would say I “overdeliver” my services. I go above and beyond to provide the best patient care and client experience that I can. People appreciate our skills, but they also see that we are invested in their plan of care and wellness journey. Our clinic depends on word of mouth referrals, so it is important that our patients have good outcomes and experiences with us.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.wellequiptpt.com/
• Instagram: @well.equipt
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/well.equiptpt
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5cWuZW8pUw4NzdZhT4AtFg/videos?view_as=subscriber

Image Credits
Elena Luca