(NOTE: This is the second in a series of blogs about the five phases every start-up must go through on the way to becoming a successful enterprise.)
I won't say that starting a physical rehabilitative clinic like ours was the most irrational business venture that I've pursued. The most irrational took place before college when a friend and I contemplated opening an import business, specializing in €agricultural€ products from Jamaica that had become popular on most campuses. Fortunately, that one went bust before the first sale.
After raising capital for a manufacturing company with recently patented therapy equipment, my partner, Steve, and I chose to waive our usual success fee. We wanted the rights to open clinics. If the CEO report that we reviewed was true (and we now agree that it was severaly inflated ), each clinic should generate more than $2,000,000 in net revenue, producing enough profits for us to buy season tickets for Gonzaga University's men's basketball! Steve already had season tickets for Washington State football. Last year he had a hard time giving them away.
We decided to open our first clinic in the SIRTI building. SIRTI is a state funded technology-incubator. The letters are an acronym for a series of words that can't fit on a letterhead. The building is in a great location. The people helping us get started are really smart. The room we took was once used for manufacturing. If I said it was, €butt-ugly€ I would be insulting €butts.€
Steve and I set aside a Saturday to tear down a bunch of metal cabinets covering each wall of the newly leased space. Steve showed up just before Sunday. During the demolition we talked about our clinics: what they would look like; what patients would experience; how much money we would make; how many clinics we would open; how much money we would make; the type of staff we would hire; how much money €¦
We knew our clinic would be unique. Our typical patient would have tried everything to find relief including traditional physical therapy and chiropractic care, pain management through injections, surgery, voo-doo. We were going to treat the ones who are close to giving up (or who have already done so). This focus made us think we were special (not the short-bus type of special, but the boutique type of special). We wanted the clinic to reflect this.
Sitting in the middle of our dusty, cabinet free room we played a game that I've used in seminars called, €What I Hate About Those Guys.€ We talked about what we didn't like when going for medical treatment. The list was long and we quickly agreed that we would build our clinics around respect (for referring physicians and specialists, respect of time, condition, intelligence, people, staff - though I agree that staff are people, too), honesty and openness (about conditions, treatment, plans, expectations), and patient driven outcomes (getting out of pain, improving function, lasting results).
Looking at our newly demolished manufacturing room, I knew we couldn't do this on our own. I called a friend, Kim, and asked for her help in designing our first clinic. We were introduced to Rob, who once owned a bunch of physical therapy clinics. He guided us through the uncharted (for us at least) maze of regulations, HIPAA, operations, credentialing, insurance; all of the stuff we knew nothing about.
Steven (not be confused with Steve who is not allowed to treat patients), Susan and Jen came over from Idaho and began treating our friends and helping us gain traction.
Through it all, our BIG IDEA was taking shape.
We would develop, own and operate multiple outpatient rehabilitative therapy clinics throughout the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii. These clinics will improve the lifestyle of those who continue to suffer from chronic or acute back, shoulder or cervical pain through conservative, non-invasive and predictable treatment plans supported by clinical review.
Patients will be given our utmost respect.
Medical professionals will be treated as partners.
Staff will have both the character and competence needed to achieve our treatment and practice goals.
And finally, as a result of our efforts Steve and I will one day have center-court season tickets to Gonzaga University's men's basketball games.
Next I'll share about the second phase start-ups go through: Market Validation (or €¦ €Will This Dog Hunt?€)
I won't say that starting a physical rehabilitative clinic like ours was the most irrational business venture that I've pursued. The most irrational took place before college when a friend and I contemplated opening an import business, specializing in €agricultural€ products from Jamaica that had become popular on most campuses. Fortunately, that one went bust before the first sale.
After raising capital for a manufacturing company with recently patented therapy equipment, my partner, Steve, and I chose to waive our usual success fee. We wanted the rights to open clinics. If the CEO report that we reviewed was true (and we now agree that it was severaly inflated ), each clinic should generate more than $2,000,000 in net revenue, producing enough profits for us to buy season tickets for Gonzaga University's men's basketball! Steve already had season tickets for Washington State football. Last year he had a hard time giving them away.
We decided to open our first clinic in the SIRTI building. SIRTI is a state funded technology-incubator. The letters are an acronym for a series of words that can't fit on a letterhead. The building is in a great location. The people helping us get started are really smart. The room we took was once used for manufacturing. If I said it was, €butt-ugly€ I would be insulting €butts.€
Steve and I set aside a Saturday to tear down a bunch of metal cabinets covering each wall of the newly leased space. Steve showed up just before Sunday. During the demolition we talked about our clinics: what they would look like; what patients would experience; how much money we would make; how many clinics we would open; how much money we would make; the type of staff we would hire; how much money €¦
We knew our clinic would be unique. Our typical patient would have tried everything to find relief including traditional physical therapy and chiropractic care, pain management through injections, surgery, voo-doo. We were going to treat the ones who are close to giving up (or who have already done so). This focus made us think we were special (not the short-bus type of special, but the boutique type of special). We wanted the clinic to reflect this.
Sitting in the middle of our dusty, cabinet free room we played a game that I've used in seminars called, €What I Hate About Those Guys.€ We talked about what we didn't like when going for medical treatment. The list was long and we quickly agreed that we would build our clinics around respect (for referring physicians and specialists, respect of time, condition, intelligence, people, staff - though I agree that staff are people, too), honesty and openness (about conditions, treatment, plans, expectations), and patient driven outcomes (getting out of pain, improving function, lasting results).
Looking at our newly demolished manufacturing room, I knew we couldn't do this on our own. I called a friend, Kim, and asked for her help in designing our first clinic. We were introduced to Rob, who once owned a bunch of physical therapy clinics. He guided us through the uncharted (for us at least) maze of regulations, HIPAA, operations, credentialing, insurance; all of the stuff we knew nothing about.
Steven (not be confused with Steve who is not allowed to treat patients), Susan and Jen came over from Idaho and began treating our friends and helping us gain traction.
Through it all, our BIG IDEA was taking shape.
We would develop, own and operate multiple outpatient rehabilitative therapy clinics throughout the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii. These clinics will improve the lifestyle of those who continue to suffer from chronic or acute back, shoulder or cervical pain through conservative, non-invasive and predictable treatment plans supported by clinical review.
Patients will be given our utmost respect.
Medical professionals will be treated as partners.
Staff will have both the character and competence needed to achieve our treatment and practice goals.
And finally, as a result of our efforts Steve and I will one day have center-court season tickets to Gonzaga University's men's basketball games.
Next I'll share about the second phase start-ups go through: Market Validation (or €¦ €Will This Dog Hunt?€)
SHARE
