Hello everybody. Welcome back to the Rehab with Ronnie podcast. I am here today to tell the story of how I started my own physical therapy business. This question comes in at a high volume on A weekly basis. People asking, how did you start your own business? What tips do you have for me? How did you end up doing this? Was this always your goal? Let's just get into it. I'm going to give you the chronological order of how things happened and how I ended up where I am right now.
So we have to take it back a few years. In May or June of 2022, I started working for a corporate PT company, one that I was really excited about. This was the job that I really thought I wanted. I. I was just stoked. And it wasn't your typical outpatient orthopedic clinic. I mean, it was in the sense that I was seeing multiple patients an hour and it was insurance based but there was also a squat rack in there, and some serious weights in there.
And so, I only bring this up because I think I was really fortunate when I look back on my time spent there. I had a A wide variety of patients and it definitely helped form me as a clinician because I had that available to me. I mean, I think a lot of outpatient PT clinics, the heaviest weight that they have is like a 10 pound dumbbell. So that was not the case for me. That was not the case at all. And I feel really fortunate that that wasn't the case because it helped mold me.
Into the girl I am today. No, I'm just kidding. No, but it was, it was cool. It was an awesome job. So I started in the spring summer of 2022. And I really had no inclination to ever start my own business. That's definitely where I was at that year. Like that wasn't in on the horizon for me whatsoever. It wasn't until probably six months into the job that I started to have this deep seated feeling that this just was not where I was going to be for the next five or 10 years.
I felt like something was wrong because I, I could not see myself doing this until my mid thirties, forties, no way. But that's a tough place to be knowing that this isn't what you want, but not really knowing what to do. It's also. It's a little bit of a bummer, and I'm sure people that are in the same boat as me can relate a little bit.
You go to school for seven plus years to get a doctorate degree, to get a job that you think you want so badly, and then when you're actually in it, it's great some days, but it's maybe not shaping up to be. Exactly what you could see yourself doing for the rest of your life. And so that's sort of a hard pill to swallow. And I recognize that everybody's story is different. This is just mine, and this is just how I was feeling. So, 2022, I create an Instagram account.
And that's my Rehab with Ronnie Instagram account, I'm bringing this up because it's part of, it's part of the story. I created the Instagram account with this idea way, way in the back of my brain, barely even noticeable, but kind of thinking, okay, if I have this account now and I start posting now, then if I ever go off and do my own thing, Maybe by then I will have accumulated some semblance of a following. Maybe I'll have a few hundred or even a few thousand followers.
And then when I do go off and do my own thing, people will say, wow, this is a legitimate business. Look at their social page. And so I just started creating the content that you see today, but maybe a little less well curated. Exercise videos and me kind of just being a loser, but trying to be funny and also trying to be educational. And. And yeah, that was something that I continued to do throughout my time at the corporate PT company. So then we'll fast forward to about a year later.
At this point, I've been working in outpatient for a year and a half. And I'm feeling much more confident as a physical therapist and also much more confident in the sense that I definitely don't want to do this for the rest of my life in this setting.
My husband at this point in our lives was really pushing me to go the extra mile, think outside the box, how can you still use your degree but do it in a way that satisfies you and doesn't make you so stressed out and so dreadful for the day ahead. And I met a patient and she convinced me to come try a CrossFit class, which at that point in my life, I had heard of CrossFit. Of course, I'd treated CrossFitters, but I'd never really tried it myself.
Being a dancer by trade and a runner sort of, not really CrossFit just wasn't something I ever thought I would do, but I tried a class. I absolutely loved it. Signed up right there that day. And The cool thing about the CrossFit community is it's such a community. So everybody is friends. Everyone's cool. And they start catching wind that I'm a physical therapist. And I started to get clients from the gym itself.
So people from the gym, not exclusively, I mean, also people just around town, people that my husband worked with, his coworkers they figured out I was a physical therapist and that I was kind of seeing people on the side. So when people outside of my current full time job started inquiring about how they could see me, a light bulb went off in my head. I was like, Oh, I've got this space upstairs in my guest room.
Let me just fold out my folding table, grab a couple exercise bands and we'll get to work. And so that's how. It started in the beginning. It's fall 2023, and I'm just seeing people in my spare room on the weekends after work. They're Venmo ing me. It's very under the table. And honestly, I operated that way for a few months, just smooth sailing. But it got to the point where I mean, I wasn't busting at the seams by any means.
I wasn't so busy that I was even considering quitting my full time job. But I started to get, I don't want to say uncomfortable, but you're bringing people into the confines of your home. They're parking on the street, walking up your steep, steep driveway, and then up your stairs into the guest room where there's still a guest room bed. And I don't know, I wanted to be more professional. So I started to consider my other options.
Like if I can continue maintaining this client base, where can I keep my operations going without people feeling like they're infringing on my personal space? Around the same time, I also started to decide I needed to be a little bit more legit. Like maybe I should incorporate myself as an LLC, have a little website, nothing too fancy. Maybe I should have some consent forms I needed things to be a little bit more professional just for my own sake and for, the patient experience sake as well.
So by October of 2023, I've incorporated myself as an LLC, I've gotten the necessary paperwork in place for new patients to come in, still working out of my guest room, still trying to figure out what's my next move going to be in terms of a physical space that I can work out of. And this is where You know how sometimes things line up and, call it what you want, fate, divine intervention, right place, right time, a coincidence, I don't know, I don't care.
I'm sitting at brunch one day with some friends, and one of the friends is a personal trainer at a personal training gym in downtown Chattanooga. And I have to skirt out of the brunch a little early because I have someone coming to my house for some dry needling on the side, which I already just told you about. And I'm like, okay, peace out, guys. I gotta go. I have a client in 20 minutes. And he goes, oh, Ronnie, I didn't realize you were doing that.
Are you looking for a space to work out of because I've heard my gym owner mentioned that he might be interested in having a PT in house. I'm pretty sure my jaw dropped. I was like, is that so? How interesting. So after I do a little research into this gym, I'll never forget the DM that I sent to this gym owner. I mean, I got serious about it. I DM'd him maybe two or three separate times before he finally answered me. I was relentless. Like, please let me see your space.
Please meet me in person. This'll be great. So now it's January 2024, actually January 4th, to be very specific. I remember the date like it was yesterday. We finally find a day and a time that works for both of us and I go meet this gym owner at the gym. It's called Othisee Personal Training. Shout out Josh. Uh, and we just hit it off from the get go.
We're just hanging out on the turf field, talking about business, talking about what my goals are, what his goals are, how we're going to work together and make this work. He walked me around the space. I remember trying so hard to contain myself and my excitement. I was like, I can't believe this could be a real opportunity. This could be real life. So the meeting goes really well.
And a couple of weeks go by of us trying to figure out specifics, you know, contract things, how I'm basically going to be my own separate business, but working inside of his business. And for those of you that are even more interested in the details, I'll mention this one piece when you're starting out in a gym space if that's something that you want to do whether it's Personal training whether it's physical therapy massage therapy.
I don't know I think a good option would be and I only say this because it was a good option for me The good option would be to not pay a set rent rate in the beginning unless you have 20, 30 people on your client list that you know are going to be coming in every day, every week. I think it's better to start off with a percentage of the visit cost going towards your landlord or your gym owner or whatever.
I remember thinking, I don't have enough people coming to see me on a regular basis to foot the bill for a rent bill every month. It would make more sense for this gym owner to just get a percentage of my visits up to a cap and then kind of go from there. And then why don't we renegotiate in three months and see where we're at? So just a little side note for those of you that are seriously considering taking a similar path. All right. So January 4th happens. We hang out. We talk.
It's a great vibe. And I start moving things into this space, which, by the way, was such a cool space. It's probably somewhere on my Instagram if you dive deep into the archives, but it was this big open gym with a turf field and these big Rigs and racks. And then down the hallway, there were four private rooms with these sliding barn doors and the rooms were big. I mean, as big as my guest room. So I knew that it was gonna work.
But honestly, for a young entrepreneur trying to just make some side gig work. It was a dream come true. It felt surreal and I'm just smiling thinking back on that moment because it was really exciting getting to integrate myself into that gym and start doing what I love to do but sort of on my own terms. I think it's time that I bring Instagram back up.
So, at this point, I've been posting for a year and a half, pretty consistently, and I've got 400 followers, maybe 500 followers, and that's fine. I mean, sometimes it was a little bit frustrating because I felt like I was creating pretty good content. I liked it. I thought it was good. I was like, where are my followers at? But whatever. It was just something I liked to do. And I liked to share what I was doing.
And so when I started to see people on the side in this new gym, of course, in my mind, this will be fantastic content for the gram. And so I did just that. Once I had everything set up inside the space. I made this intro reel, which you can definitely still find on my reels, and I'm pretty much talking to the camera. I'm like, hey guys. I'm so excited, I've partnered with this gym, I'm gonna be working here, yadda yadda. And I had it all set and ready to go in my drafts.
And I remember going to my clinic director at the time and I said, Hey, this is what I'm thinking of doing, even though I had already signed the contract and pretty much gotten everything in motion. But I said, this is what I'm thinking of doing. I've created this partnership with this gym, it's not going to impede on any of the work hours that I'm putting in here. I'm not going to be marketing to any of the patients that currently come here. This is going to be its totally own separate thing.
And based off of everything that I've read and all of my paperwork that I signed to work here as a staff PT, there's no conflict of interest. And he was cool about it. He was like, sure, Ronnie. Sounds good to me. Let me double check with my boss, but I don't see why not. And I was like, great, perfect But then I got too excited, you know, I got trigger finger and I just posted the video and well, this is where it gets a little interesting.
I sort of went into it with this all or nothing mentality, I'd already put in a lot of work creating my business. marketing myself on social media, meeting with the gym owner, establishing the relationship, getting everything in there, getting my clients in there. And so I was like, I mean, whether or not my clinic director's boss gives the okay, I'm giving myself the okay, because this is going to be really exciting and I'm just too excited to not.
So I post the video and let's see, that was on a Tuesday on Wednesday afternoon. I'm eating my lunch, regular Wednesday afternoon, when the regional director, regional VP, I can't remember his title, walks through the glass double doors of the clinic that I was working at. And he's like, Hey, Ronnie. Do you have a moment to chat? I'm not a nervous person, but in that moment I was like, Oh God. So we walk around the building. I think I'm still chomping on my apple while we're chatting.
And he's like, so can you just elaborate here? What's going on? And so I pretty much told him everything I've just told you guys. This is what I've been doing. This is what I'm up to based off of all the things I've read. This shouldn't be a conflict of interest, but obviously, please let me know if it is. I'm not trying to sneak around and I want to be upfront about it, and it was kind of funny. It was a good conversation.
He basically said, Alright, thanks for this open and honest conversation. Let me talk to my higher ups and get back to you about whether or not this is going to Fly, basically. I'm like, okay, great. Business as usual. I continue treating my patients and seeing people on the side and about a week later, he gets back to me. We do another lunch walk around the block. And this was a conversation I'll never forget. He comes back with an interesting proposition.
He said, alright, so I've talked to my boss's boss and here's what we've come up with. Based on the operations that you're conducting outside of this workplace, it does qualify as a conflict of interest due to the radius and the mileage from this business to the next, some type of technicality. But we have three options for you. So I think we're going to be able to work something out. Option number one, you quit the gym entirely and you stay at your job here. And I know that's not what you want.
So we also have an option number two where you leave here and you go full time at the gym. But obviously that's not what we want. So option number three, which is my personal favorite, his personal favorite, was you continue doing your side thing at the gym. You stay working for us full time. But instead of treating clients as a physical therapist at the gym and getting paid for it, you just conduct free injury screens. And if they need physical therapy, you just refer them to us.
I wish I could go back and see what the look on my face was when he said that last, that last little bit. I was like, Oh, okay. So if I'm hearing you correctly, you want me to work my normal hours here and then work also on the side for free. Where I'm not getting any extra benefit, but you are. Okay, cool. Sure. I like how, I like how that sounds. That sounds great. I remember looking at him dead in the eye. I said, What would you do in my situation? given that you were in my shoes.
What would you do? And he kind of, I don't want to say he fumbled his words a little bit, but he was like, uh, had to think about it for a little bit and then said, well, I, I think I would stay with, with my steady job. I'd stay with the, the corporate PT company. I was like, well, sure. You have to say that. You can't say I would leave Ronnie, do it, run while you can. But I already knew in that moment during that conversation, what my choice was going to be.
I Yeah. I had put so much of my time and effort into this and had a feeling that it was going to be something and to just shut it down before it really even got off the ground would have just been so against my nature, my very, very being, you know? So I tell him, Okay, I'll get back to you, and so about a week later I said, Hey, I'm going to have to put in my notice. I gave them a long notice though. I worked for two more months at my corporate job while also seeing people at the gym.
So that was a grind, but it was a very nice departure. There was no bad blood whatsoever. I do miss it from time to time, actually. I get that question a lot. What do you miss about working in outpatient? And, I miss the co workers and the wide variety of people that you see and the craziness. I mean, sometimes it was just crazy in there, but in a good way. So, all in all, a great experience.
Something that was Totally formative for me in terms of how I grew as a physical therapist, and there's no way that I would be here today without that experience., it was a fun one. It was a ride, that's for sure. But the story does not stop there. So, that was February, March, April 1st was my first day with no nine to five job, no health insurance, just out there on my own. But let me be so clear. I feel like I must hammer this point because I am a very lucky girl.
It's very important to mention that I have a supportive husband who has also a job and also has health insurance and was able to carry me through this basically. And that doesn't mean that I wasn't working my ass off trying to make the sacrifice and the risk worth it, but it's probably a much different beast to try to go at this alone. And I'm not saying that it couldn't be done.
I do think in a, in an alternate universe where I wasn't married to my husband and he wasn't pushing me to go the extra mile, I probably could still do it. I know that I could still do it, but it would, it would look different. I think the timeline would look different. Things were able to be accelerated because I had him in my corner being like, quit right now. Just don't go back in, you know, like you don't need them. I mean, he was, he was crazy. He's good, crazy, but I'm very supportive.
Oh my gosh, there, there he is right now. Hi. He just got home. Anyways, I think it's important to highlight the fact that I recognize my privilege. If you want to call it privilege, I don't know. My circumstance. It's just the reality of, of how I'm living my life. The point is everyone's circumstances are going to be different. I have talked to many, many people in similar boats as me, maybe different boats. Maybe it's more of a ship. Maybe they're in a more of a canoe type water. vehicle.
But what I'm trying to say is if the goal is the same and you have some type of means to do it, whether that be just pure motivation or lots of people in your corner, which I had, it can be done. I believe it can be done, but I think I had a little bit of a leg up because I had such an awesome husband. Not had, have, uh, amazing, huge family that was just like, hell yeah, Ronnie, go get it. And so that can make a world of difference.
Also, one thing I forgot to mention, the same day that my last day at the corporate PT company was, I immediately left. We went and celebrated at Pizza Bros, which is like my favorite restaurant in Chattanooga. And then I immediately drove to an interview at a life care center, which is a skilled nursing facility. Because I. recognized that I didn't have a full schedule at the gym and I needed some extra income.
And so for those of you that are considering this having a PRN job or a part time job or something that is going to be a little bit more regular and a little bit more predictable can be helpful. So, now it's April, May of 2024. And I'm working on building up my caseload. How am I doing that? You ask? Well, so glad you asked. I would start.
By going around to other facilities in the Chattanooga area, whether that be a yoga studio or a CrossFit gym or a personal training gym, you name it, I went there and I would bring flyers or I would bring business cards and I would shake hands and say, Hey, this is what I'm doing. This is where I'm located. And honestly just getting to know people and having that face to face interaction is valuable and people remember you.
And if you can be a little outgoing and talk a little bit about what you do, why you do it, what sets you apart, that can be a really good way for people to at least think of you if they have somebody that's injured or if they themselves need physical therapy, they might go, oh yeah, that girl came in the other day. And so that was one way that I started to get people through the door.
On top of I think, you know, the obvious, just being inside of a gym, that was helpful because my face was getting seen by gym members, by the trainers. And then also doing little workshops inside the gym. So maybe a dry needling seminar or a low back pain while lifting seminar. I say seminar, I don't know why. When I think seminar, I think large crowd of people. This was, you know, 10 people, but an educational workshop. There we go. That's a better word for it.
And giving, I guess, a service, a little piece of knowledge for free to the public and also showcasing your skills a little bit, showcasing\, what you're about, what your company's about. what it would be like to work with you basically. Now I do want to bring up Instagram yet again because I think at this point it starts to become a much bigger part of my business and The turning point was in May. I started to get a lot better about the content that I was posting.
And by better, I think I just mean more consistent in the location that I was posting, the lighting, the content subjects, my content pillars, if you will, I remember sitting down with the gym owner and we wrote our goals for the year and I said, by next January, so January of 2025, I want to have 1, 500 followers on Rehab with Ronnie. And I smile looking at that because now it's 90, 000, 90, 000, yes. Sometimes you can exceed your goals, and how much control I had in that, I'm not quite sure.
Maybe the algorithm just really likes voiceovers and cool exercises and matching sets. I don't know. But it started to become a much bigger part of my business, and I do want to talk about that even more, maybe in another episode, because I had some really great mentors. My, Older brother, oldest brother, and my sister in law, his wife, they both do Instagram, content creation, TikTok, for a living. That's how they make all of their money and that's not how it used to be.
my brother's an accountant by trade and his wife worked in PR for different companies. So, it's something that can totally change the game for a business. And I'm still I'm learning so much. I feel like I'm just barely brushing the surface of what that could bring. But I hit 10, 000 followers in May and that was a really cool moment. I'll never forget.
I was on a beach trip with some friends and they were all kind of aware of what was going on and I was like, you guys look at all these, like what's going on? Everyone's following me all of a sudden and we're sitting around the couch. one morning and I'm refreshing it, refreshing it. It's like 9, 995 refreshing, refreshing. It hits 10, 000 and I jump up. Everyone's like, ah, it was so fun. It's, it's cool. It's a cool thing to have happen to you. I don't know. Whatever.
That's too much about the following. Anyways, with that growing number of an audience, I also started to supplement some of my income with partnership deals. And so whether that is paid partnerships with a clothing brand that I really like, or exercise equipment I really like, or commission based income on Like to Know, all of those different things have Sort of become part of the business.
I mean, if I'm not treating patients at this point or out marketing, I am doing content creation just for my own pleasure. And because I like doing it or for other companies, and gaining some financial gain from that. I say all this to say for me.
It's been a cool addition to the Rehab with Ronnie business, but it's definitely not something that has to happen in order for your physical therapy business, your personal training business, your chiropractor business, whatever it is that you're trying to start, you don't need that to be successful. I think it's fun.
And it's a cool addition, but some of the most successful clinicians I know, one of them being my mentors, doesn't have a huge Instagram following, and he's absolutely crushing it in the PT world. So it doesn't really matter, I like doing it. I'm having fun with it, but if you don't have a huge following or you hate creating content and you don't want to be on camera, then don't do it. It's been a fun little ride for me. Okay, so we're almost to the end here.
So now it's June of 2024 and the gym owner comes to me and he says, Hey Ronnie, I am selling the gym. I'm getting out of town and I'm letting you know ahead of time because you might not have a place to work. I was like, perfect. Great. So glad I threw in the towel so early. When he told me he was selling the gym I was A little in shock, but I didn't let it get me down. I was like, you know what? It's going to work out for the best. Some something's going to happen. It's going to be fine.
And sure enough, somebody else came in, purchased the gym, a very experienced gym owner, and things really just continued as usual. But that was a little hiccup. Anyways, as fate would have it, The landlord for the entire building that the gym is in, along with a bunch of other businesses and business suites, she ended up being one of my patients.
And one day we're finishing up her treatment and she says, Frani, I love the space that you have in here, but have you ever looked at the units on the other side of the building? And I said, no, I haven't. Do you tell? And so we walk over to the other side. She unlocks these units and there, But they are. These two big, beautiful rooms with windows facing the sun. And I was in awe. I was like, you mean to tell me that I could have all this? This could be mine? You're kidding.
That really got the ball rolling for me. I was thinking, how can I make this work? I was fearful of leaving the gym setting so soon. I mean, I'd literally only been there since January, February, and I was thinking of being out of there by November, December, but it felt like too good of an opportunity to pass up. Now I have a fixed rent rate, so I'm not paying a percentage of my visit costs and I've got I have an open space that faces the street.
I have actual windows and sunlight, which if you know me, you know that I don't thrive inside without windows. I'm like a plant that photosynthesizes. I need the sun. So just fantastic change of pace there. So anyways, I enter into a lease. I decide that it's worth it. I think, honestly, having a little bit more privacy was something that I was craving as well.
Being inside of a gym is awesome, don't get me wrong, but the space that I was in didn't even have walls that would close all the way up to the ceiling, so it was like this open ceiling concept where the noise would travel and, you know, people are working out. They're laughing, they're throwing medicine balls, they're Blasting music and then I could have somebody on the other side of the wall coming to me for the first time talking about their chronic pain and being on the verge of tears.
And so having a little bit more privacy, I was really excited for that. I get started on that lease. I get started moving into that space. And on December 1st, I was officially out of the gym and in my own space. And so talk about a whirlwind of a year. I mean, 2024, She had ups, she had downs.
it was a wild time because I started the year off thinking I would continue at my full time PT job and see people on the side, probably more so just on the weekends, and maybe by August, September, maybe by the fall, be able to cut back and just go part time at my Full time PT job and pick up some more clients at the gym, but never did I think that I would be balls to the wall quitting everything, putting all my eggs into my own basket and then being in one space, finding another space, moving
into that. It's been crazy. And so I'm looking forward to 2025 being a little bit more of a growing in one place, instead of being all over the map. But gosh, I wouldn't change any of it. It was fantastic. So I know that this has been sort of just a, a whirlwind of a story, but I think one thing I wanna mention before I close it up. is, this was a lot of work. I like to kind of just give you the abridged version of everything and talk about the highs and the lows.
But all the in between is really the part that comprises the, bulk of how I got here, right? I mean, I would get up in the mornings, I would go to a 6am CrossFit class. So, I'm up at 5, and then immediately rushing home, showering, driving to my corporate PT job, working there from 8 to 5, 8 to 6, rushing out of there.
Heading over to the gym to do an evaluation for somebody until 7 30 8 o'clock coming home Scarfing down dinner going to sleep and doing it all over again And that was just on the weekdays and then on the weekends I would try and load up my schedule even more so there was really not a day where I wasn't grinding and I liked it that way because I knew that I was going to get a More of a return on the investments that I was making outside of my PT job than I was within my PT job And that's just the
nature of working for a corporation, right? But I just want to make it clear that it was a grind and it still is a grind all the time. I Stay busy.
I'm always doing something and people will try to say oh gosh, you know working for yourself that's just that's got to be stressful because the work never ends and I understand the point, I understand where they're coming from but I think when it's for yourself and you can see the direct return of all of the hard work and the hours you're putting into it and you're getting something out of it and at the same time you're happier while doing it, I mean I would take that over A nine to five, every
single day. So now, it is 2025. We are entering into the spring, which I'm so excited about, and April 1st will be coming up on a year of me being a solo girl, a one woman show. And obviously, given everything I've talked about over the past 30 minutes, it's been a beautiful journey. I wouldn't change anything about it. But I like that I'm able to share this. I'm excited about the podcast because I think, a lot of people have questions about how I came to be where I am.
And it's such a work in progress. I certainly don't have everything figured out, but the story is fun to tell. So I hope for those of you that are listening in and are considering maybe doing something similar, this has given you one framework of how it can work. Now I can't reiterate enough how everyone's circumstances will be different.
Everything from their financial situation to their relationship, to where they live, to where they decide to work out of, to their clientele they want to see, to their clinical expertise, the list goes on. You can't base. your goals off of what somebody else has done in the past, but it is a fun story to tell. And I'm excited to be able to look back on it one day and be like, wow, that was a crazy time in life. But thanks for being here.