The Small Business Black Holes with Alan Pentz

Building a Niche Physical Therapy Practice: Jesse Lewis on Growth, Marketing, and Culture

Aug 28, 2024

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Jesse Lewis, owner of District Performance and Physio, discusses the growth of his cash-based physical therapy practice from a single room in a gym to multiple locations in Washington, D.C. He details the company's focus on serving active individuals who want to continue exercising while recovering from injuries. Jesse shares insights on bootstrapping the business, scaling operations, and the challenges of marketing a higher-priced, insurance-free model.

The conversation explores Jesse's approach to growth, including his strategies for hiring and retaining talent, managing multiple locations, and balancing profitability with employee satisfaction. He discusses the effectiveness of various marketing channels, particularly Google Ads and SEO, and how he adjusts these efforts based on clinic capacity.

Jesse reflects on the challenges of transitioning from a solo practitioner to a business owner, including delegating responsibilities and creating systems for scalable growth. He also shares his thoughts on potential expansion strategies, such as organic growth, acquisitions, or franchising within the niche cash-based physical therapy market.

Throughout the discussion, Jesse emphasizes the importance of company culture and his efforts to intentionally shape it as the business grows. He offers valuable insights for healthcare entrepreneurs looking to build and scale niche practices while maintaining high-quality care and employee satisfaction.

Episode Highlights:

[00:00:53] Overview of District Performance and Physio's business model
[00:01:45] Jesse's journey from a single room to multiple locations
[00:05:05] Discussion of revenue targets and growth strategies
[00:11:35] Marketing strategies, focusing on Google Ads and SEO
[00:18:58] Challenges of scaling and maintaining profitability
[00:25:23] Plans for future growth and expansion
[00:39:06] Developing company culture and core values

Quotes:

"We are physical therapy for active people. So we focus on people who want to exercise people who want to work out."
"We don't take any insurance at all, so we're a higher price point, and there's a lot of pros and cons to do that. But one of the pros of doing that is it's a very low barrier to entry."
"One of our distinguishing like competitive advantages internally is that I asked my therapist to see a very low number of clients because there's a huge problem of burnout in physical therapy."
"Revenue is a vanity metric in the fuel business, if anyone ever mentions it to you, just kind of understand that."

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