We recently connected with Melissa Donovan and have shared our conversation below.
Melissa, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the backstory of how you established your own practice.
When I first decided to open my own practice I was very nervous about branching out on my own and being the face of my own company. I was working at another private practice at the time and I was comfortable, had built a good rapport with the owners and other therapists and felt slightly intimidated about stepping out to do things independently. However, I could see that there was a very clear need for quality services in and around the Hinesville, GA area. Parents were traveling 30+ minutes 1-3 times per week to get their children quality speech, occupational and physical therapy services and expressed there weren’t any other good practices locally to provide them with what they needed. I wanted to do my part. I could see the strain and the struggle on the parents faces who were trying their best but overwhelmed by the many responsibilities and therapies needed for their children with special needs. So I decided to push down my fear and my discomfort, step out of my comfort zone and open a private practice in Hinesville, GA. I started out just seeing clients one day a week. Over the months I marketed to doctors offices, got to know parents, grandparents and siblings and the word started to get out in the Liberty county area. I started out providing services only one day and then had to expand to 2, then 3 then finally full time with Donovan Rehab as my sole job. I provided therapy to children in addition to being the biller, receptionist, and accountant. I did everything until Donovan Rehab grew to the point that I could not do it all on my own.
I hired another therapist and Donovan Rehab continued to grow. I added in Occupational therapy as an additional service and Donovan Rehab continued to grow. Over the years Donovan Rehab continued to grow. We started with 10 clients and now serve over 250 clients. We started with 1 therapist doing everything and now have a full office team with 3 wonderful staff, and 5 occupational and speech therapists. Donovan Rehab continues to grow every day and will be celebrating their upcoming 11 year anniversary in October 2025. 11 years of quality speech and occupational therapy service to Liberty county and the surrounding areas.
Some of the main steps I had to take were to determine if there was a need in the area were to, build good rapport with surrounding business owners in similar types of practices, keep things simple and keep my overhead low, give myself time to grow by staying at a position that helped me pay the bills while I got things established with my practice, set up a business plan, collaborate with other like-minded professionals and business owners who fully understood business management and administration. Thankfully my husband was already an established business owner and he was very helpful in the beginning stages and has continued to be a great sounding board in regards to business related decisions.
Some of the key challenges I faced were not growing as fast as I wanted or expected to grow. I was less than 5 minutes from Fort Stewart military base and thought it would automatically lead to many new clients as long as I got my name out in the area. However, it took almost a year or more for my business to truly pick up and for doctors to start sending referrals to me in the area and for the word of mouth of parents to get out to other parents in the area.
The biggest thing I would have done differently was to get a business mentor and business coach as soon as I started thinking about opening a practice and shadowed more business owners to truly understand the background work that went into being a successful business owner.
My advice to a young person would be to shadow business owners, ask questions to truly understand the background work that goes into establishing and running a successful practice. Social media portrays the positive side of being an entrepreneur and the accolades. However, the side that is not shown is the after hours work, work on weekends, work on holidays, the split second decisions that have to be made for the good of the business, the office disagreements that have to be settled or the client disputes that have to be managed and dealt with by the owner. Being a business owner requires grit and someone who is determined to make things work no matter what odds they are presented with in different situations. I have dealt with roof damage and my ceiling caving in and destroying many of my treatment items but I forged forward, got creative and had therapy outside. I have dealt with covid shutdowns and wanting to give my team the time off but also realizing I had to pay bills and pay my team so we had to step out of our norm and offer virtual therapy services. In many situations I could have given up but I was determined to make things work because I kept my mind focused on the bigger picture of helping children in the community and being a light to parents who had given up hope in their children communicating.
Melissa, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I have always loved people and enjoyed helping them in some way. From the age of 12 I would assist friends with their children by babysitting, assisted at daycares, assisted in preschool classrooms and taught young children at church. As an adult I worked at a facility that provided care for individuals with special needs. In school I wanted to help people to walk, specifically children so I started school with the intention of being a Physical therapist. I started a program that transitioned from my Bachelors into an accelerated Masters/Doctorate in Physical Therapy program. I started in the program but realized it wasn’t my passion. I did the work but it didn’t give me joy or make me excited. I didn’t look forward to the classes or information I was learning and reading. I decided to take some elective courses. The electives were in Speech-Language Pathology. I started attending the classes and immediately fell in love. I loved learning about the development of children from infancy to adulthood. I couldn’t get enough of the books and wanted to learn so much about children and how they functioned in society and what they needed. Speech-Language Pathology was my passion and still is to this present day. I truly love what I do from beginning to end.
I am able to listen to parents, provide advice, work with the children and the parents, give the parents suggestions to improve the quality of their lives and their children’s lives and help their children to function at their best in society in regards to communication. Not only am I able to help parents but I am able to solve mysteries as to why their children do or don’t do different things based on evaluating them with different assessment tools and making a diagnosis based on what the tests reveal and informal/formal evaluation and observation. It truly is a heartwarming experience when you are able to explain to a parent that the reason why their child may have challenges with something is because of something else that can be resolved with hard work and dedication. Then its even more beautiful to watch the children’s faces who have been discouraged for so long and thinking they couldn’t do different things to see someone who believes in them so much it makes them believe in themselves. It is the most rewarding feeling ever to know that you can inspire so many children and parents and improve the quality of their day to day life by assisting them with communication.
As a Speech-Language Pathologist I work with children who have all types of special needs (Autism, Downs Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, Fragile X, Williams’ syndrome) and a variety of other medical diagnosis. My clients may have challenges with receptive(understanding things in the environment, directions, concepts, tasks) or expressive language skills(saying what they want with words, answering questions, vocabulary, problem solving). As a Speech-Language Pathologist I also work with children who have articulation challenges (sounds deleted, distorted or substituted in words) and apraxia, fluency disorders (stuttering), voice disorders (nodules, polyps, vocal fatigue, hoarseness). Some of our clients may also have challenges with swallowing foods or liquids (dysphagia) or with auditory processing challenges. Last, but not least a large number of our clients may not communicate their wants and needs with words on a consistent basis so we aid them with determining the best mode of communication when they are nonverbal. The mode of communication my be an AAC (Alternative Augmentative Communication device), Picture symbols for communication, sign language and or using other techniques. The scope of practice for a Speech-Language Pathologist is very wide.
As a therapist and a business owner I would like to say that we set ourselves apart at Donovan Rehab because we look at the whole child. We understand that speech and occupational therapy challenges are our primary focus but we also provide parents with resources and recommendations when we notice other areas where a child may have challenges that would add to their quality of life such as; seeing a Psychologist, Psychiatrist, ABA, PT, support groups for parents, social skills groups or recommendations for social activities and funding through Easter Seals and Gateway. We also set ourselves apart because we believe in the child, often more than the child believes in him/herself or the parent believes. Its always so rewarding when parents come back to us and say ” I never thought he would be able to put on his clothes by himself, tie his shoes, or say what he wanted with words, tell me I love you or even answer my questions”.
I am most proud of the fact that we are able to provide hope to so many children in and around our community. We share hope and help them to believe in themselves from the moment they walk into the office and see the positive quotes and words to the moment they enter the room of a smiling therapist encouraging them along the way.
The therapists at Donovan Rehab all come to work because they genuinely love what they do and it shows through the work they do and how they go over and beyond to help each and every child. Just like the therapists love what they do I genuinely love what I do and enjoy sharing the positive words and encouragement with my team, clients and anyone I come in contact with.
Donovan Rehab has a very active presence in the community as well and understands the importance of engaging with the community. We host an annual trunk or treat with police cars and firetrucks where the community is invited and we get local organizations to dress as certain movies, games, characters and provide the kids with fun games and snacks. Donovan Rehab also hosts a parent support group and is actively involved with the local parent support group Unique Puzzle Pack and nonprofit organization Kiwanis. Donovan Rehab hosts a story time during Read Across America week to encourage literacy and Donovan Rehab has hosted and been a part of multiple resource fairs sharing local resources with parents from equestrian therapy to massage, chiropractic, fitness and other resources to aid parents with children with special needs.
Donovan Rehab has also worked to bring resources to children by contracting with HeadStart to provide services at their facility and has gone to some ABA locations in the past as well
Last but not least Donovan Rehab has stood out as one of the Best Speech and Occupational therapy facilities by winning “Best of Liberty” for the past 8 years.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I briefly shared that it took almost 4 years to move into my present facility due to renovations. I will expand on that story.
My office was growing and I was out of room in my 600 square foot facility. So my husband and I went on the hunt for another location. I was currently renting my office and we were looking for something that I could own and make my own. We looked everywhere but prices were out of my budget. Finally, we found an old laundromat. It hadn’t been opened in 10+ years, had no air condition, but was a totally open space or blank slate that had potential. My husband and I talked through finances and decided it was a good buy. We came up with a blueprint and planned to do most of the work ourselves. However, we were met with many challenges. The building was in a downtown district and therefore had to follow certain guidelines for both the downtown historic district and for the county. That was very discouraging because it meant we were going to have to do double things and it would take more time for approvals. However, we didn’t lose hope. Meanwhile at my office I had clients that needed to be seen and therapists that wanted to come work more hours for me but I couldn’t take them on because I only had 3 therapy rooms and a small lobby that sat 6 people. It was very discouraging telling my therapists I’m working on something big and hopefully it will open soon. One year turned into 2 then 2 years turned into 3. We had to go through multiple contractors, contractors quitting, measurements not being done correctly, running into challenges with leveling of the office floor, ADA requirements and adding an extra bathroom. Whatever problem you can think of and whatever challenge you can think of we went through it. As you can imagine that meant more and more money as well.
I was paying a rent and a mortgage, two light bills for over 3 years while this project was going on. I got discouraged, I cried, I asked God why is this happening, I thought you wanted me to grow and succeed. How can I grow and succeed if I have no space for clients or therapists? I kept a smile on my face and continued to try to encourage my therapists, I lost clients, I lost therapists because the project took so long. Then Covid happened. We were devasted and did not see a light at the end of the tunnel. However, we were able to get additional assistance financially and had the time to work over time during covid on the office.
Oh, I forgot to mention we did most of the work on our own. I helped put in walls, insulation, and paint in addition to a lot of other things. My in laws helped with painting, framing, my son carried boards and moved rocks and my husband spear-headed the overall renovations as well. It was a family effort and it truly took a village. We hired contractors but if my local family and family from Atlanta hadn’t pitched in to help I would not have been able to open when I did. ‘
The renovation process of my new office, that we have now been in for the past 6 years is truly a testimony and a time when I was met with challenges from every direction. However, with family support, and God’s grace and mercy we pulled through and were able to open the newly renovated office.
Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?
One of the things that are most helpful for succeeding in my career is being a positive thinker and being able to inspire others and see a vision that they may not see or believe for themselves. I have to truly believe in order to ensure the parents and the children believe in themselves and what they are capable of doing with their communication.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.donovanrehab.com
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/donovanrehab
Image Credits
Shot by Somi Studios Head Shot, all other shots taken by friends and family