We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Morgan Shea a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Morgan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear the backstory of how you established your own practice.
The beginning stages of establishing my own practice were very impulsive. After working as an Athletic Trainer in outreach sports medicine for 6 years for a corporate physical therapy company I began to lose motivation and felt burnt out. The idea of seeing patients on my own in a more intimate setting where I could give them a higher quality of care and more of my attention began to creep into my mind. I noticed people in the active community (local gyms, mixed martial arts academies, etc) with various aches and pains, with little to no access to direct care or solutions.
After establishing my LLC in the spring of 2019, I began to accept clients. At the time I was working as a personal trainer for a local gym where I set up a table to offer my services. I decided to “window shop” for a space of my own and ended up signing a year lease on a small office space with only a few clients in August of 2019….. then 7 months into business the pandemic hit, I lost my corporate job and essentially all outside sources of income outside of unemployment. I decided to pursue full time entrepreneurship rather than returning to work for another company. In July of 2020 I hired my first staff member, and in August 2020 doubled my clinic space and our overhead when the opportunity to gain more space arose.
I believe every business owner has a different startup story and different key challenges. I have been fortunate enough to have grown clientele organically through word of mouth from the ground up and have been blessed with the right team to serve those clients. My key challenges have been mostly financial due to the unplanned nature of the business. I went in with no plan and no savings, to hit a global pandemic 7 months later. There has been a large learning curve for me in everything finance related from operating expenses, cash flow, payroll, taxes, etc.
If I had advice for a young professional starting their own practice it would be to start with a savings and an emergency fund if possible (because you will need it, something is better than nothing), buy less than you think you need up front to get started, consult with a business mentor or coach, and develop your network in your industry early on… it will save you time and time again.
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 graduated in 2014 from the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee with a Bachelor’s of Science in Athletic Training (Sports Medicine). I had been in athletics all my life prior to college, and have always had a deep rooted passion to serve others, so it felt only natural to merge the two. The core offering of an Athletic Trainer is to provide injury diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, and prevention to the physically active population.
I was hired straight out of college by ATI Physical Therapy where I worked for six years providing outreach sports medicine serves to various athletes and sports clubs in the community. When I was in undergrad, entrepreneurship was never mentioned as an option for Athletic Trainers. It was common for other medical professionals such as Physical Therapists, Chiropractors, etc to open and own their own private practice… but not Athletic Trainers. So much so that when I got the idea to open my own practice I was not sure if it was legal at the time. I am extremely proud to have taken the steps I did early on with little validation it was possible and I believe being 100% AT owned sets our clinic apart from others.
Our clinic has grown from me (Morgan) as the sole provider to a team of six providers with different backgrounds (Physical Therapy, Massage Therapy, Athletic Training). We take a team-based approach to medicine, and share clients between one another. I believe this continuous circle of care allows our clients to receive the best care possible, as every practitioner brings something different to the table. Due to the multi disciplinary nature of our team, our service and specialty list continues to grow. We primarily serve those in the active community suffering from an injury or those who are otherwise healthy looking to provide their body with maintenance and preventative care.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
We are days away from signing a 6 year lease on a new 4,100 sq ft facility we will be relocating to this summer 2024 Signing this lease is a symbol of resilience in itself. It would be difficult to acknowledge every challenge along the way that has led to this moment, but the challenges have been steep and continuous. It is surreal to go from impulsively signing a lease on a two room clinic space on the first floor of a duplex (our current clinic space) to moving into a commercial/retail facility on a main street in Milwaukee I could have only dreamed of four years ago.
It makes me smile when I think about the process of finding our new facility, as it is similar to how I found my first clinic space. I decided to “window shop” for a larger space in early 2023 because my intuition told me it was time to do so. I should know by now I am a terrible window shopper, because shortly after window shopping spaces with a broker I set out to acquire funding for the new location. I attempted to obtain a business loan from my bank, which was denied, and ended up going through a nonprofit organization in Milwaukee that provides lending through the SBA. The process of getting approved for a loan through the nonprofit organization was lengthy and required multiple loan committee meetings and a full drawn up business plan including projections. All in all, between landlord negotiations, acquiring funding and working with a construction company to create a project that fit within our budget has been a year long process.
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
With finance being the greatest challenge and struggle for me as an entrepreneur, one of my favorite books is Profit First. It has significantly impacted how I structure my cash flow and my business finances.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.mayonemke.com
- Instagram: @mayonemke @themorganshea
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/morgansheak/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/morganshea
- Other: https://www.facebook.com/tmj4/posts/pfbid0nUcUJWPi7G3gRgTZk8RyPmRvQmAMo9SoTnPVYy2QMugsSqK7bzunasJmNoNtTaj1l Morning Blend/TMJ4 News Feature
Image Credits
Laurelyn Savannah Katie Soyka Brit Lip