JDSM Medical Management

I recently received the following request from a person I am mentoring who is starting her own personal training studio: “I’d like to hear about your experiences starting and owning a business—what you would/wouldn’t do again, and what you wish you knew then that you know now.”

That's a great question. I told her so and that I can probably turn it into an article. That's actually one of the things I wish I had known when I started my first businesses, and later my first clinical practice, leverage, or multiplying the power of your work. If you do something, how can you use it in different ways, multiplying its power and effectiveness?

Getting any business to work and be successful can be challenging. But it’s been a great ride. It got appreciably better after joining with my current business partner to expand. We managed and got by for a time and after four and a half years we made a conscious decision to learn more and change the clinical practice from a business that just supported us into one that operated like a business and made a profit. Add two more years and we are now expanding and funding our own further growth. 

Our business experiences now span over a decade and are too long to fit in a page or two. We’ll stick to a few important items.

What would I do again?
These are things I did in my earlier projects and I am doing on the new projects, both with my business partner and also in a new venture on my own. 
       Plan  We are updating our plans for the clinical practice to move to the next level and creating and revising the plan for this company. Our plans include goals, obstacles to overcome, rules, marketing and more, including the items listed below.
       Create Exit Strategies  We are planning exit strategies for our new ventures and revising the ones we have for the clinical practice. Yes, there are several exit strategies for each endeavor. After all, what if one doesn’t work? I’ve been wrong before. I will certainly be wrong again. I’d like a back-up plan.   
       Do Something  Mark Joyner says that everything you do is an action. When you make a marketing call, you are performing the action of making a marketing call. When you are sitting on your couch, you are performing the action of sitting on your couch. And that there are predictable results from most actions we take. Even when things don’t work out, at least I am trying and doing something.
         Create a Team  My early teams weren’t as well thought out, or as extensive as my teams today. But at least I recognized that I needed people around me that had knowledge and skills I didn’t have. A team can do more than an individual. I have never met or found anyone who is successful that has done it all on their own. A team can be comprised of business partners, employees, advisors, managers, bankers, inspectors, coaches, and agents, to name a few. Team members have knowledge, skills, and abilities I don’t have. They compliment my weaknesses and bring abilities, skills and resources that would be impossible to acquire on my own.

Stay tuned for what I wish I had known and what I wouldn’t do again.

Sturdy McKee is CEO of san francisco sport and spine physical therapy and JDSM Medical Management. He can be found on the APTA mentor website and on MicroMentor.org.