Starting a physiotherapy practice from scratch

Starting a physiotherapy practice from scratch can be challenging. But what if I say that some awesome tips can help you with the initial take off, and that too for free?

Not sure entrepreneurship is the right path for you yet? My guide on alternative career options for physiotherapists covers other paths worth weighing first.

In this article, I am going to share a few very useful tips that I learned my way through 16+ years of struggle into a successful, thriving practice today. We will cover the article under these subheadings.

1. Qualifications for starting a physiotherapy practice.
2. Minimum experience.
3. Marketing yourself.

We will discuss each point in a very detailed manner and will share my valuable experience related to the topic.

So, let us get started.

1) Qualifications for starting a physiotherapy practice

To start a physical therapy practice anywhere on the globe, you need to be a qualified physiotherapist and should possess a licence to practice. The licensing process differs from country to country.

Ok, to become a physiotherapist, you first need to pass at least a BPT (Bachelor’s in Physiotherapy) from a good physiotherapy school. I have done my BPT from SVNIRTAR, one of the prestigious Government of India rehabilitation institutions.

In one of my articles, I have covered how to make “career in physiotherapy after 12th” which you may read to get full insight on the topic.

2) Minimum experience

Once you are a qualified physical therapist you are now ready to serve people. There is no minimum experience requirement for starting a physiotherapy practice but my experience tells a different story.

When I graduated and joined a clinic under one of my senior in Delhi I got to learn so many thing. I found that, running a clinic not just involves treating a patient. It involves all other aspects that is required for maintinaing a setup in daily basis.

For example, if you have hired a house keeping staff and he/she is absent for a week then how will you manage that part. In such situation, either you will look for alternative for that short period, which is impoosible, or you yourslef need to come early and sweep your setup.

These may sound minor things, but it drastically affects your quality of service. This is what you get to learn in a job, when your senior delgates you these small tasks.

So, I would highly suggest the fresh graduate not to start practising straight after graduation. The best way is to get a job for a year or two and learn to from your seniors, learn from the patient itself and gain insight about every aspect of the profession.

Having a job experience actually equips you with experience to tackle every kind of situation when you are into your own practice.

3) Marketing yourself

Traditionally, word of mouth was the only option for clinicians to market themselves, but in the era of information technology, we have lots of avenues. We need to understand that the service provided by physiotherapists is highly specialised, so our way of marketing is different from other industries.

Our marketing strategy essentially involves “practice building” with maintaining the essence to serve in an ethical way. For example, a simple exercise chart with DO’S and DONT’S given for a back pain patient during discharge can greatly impact.    

Why marketing when word of mouth is working?

Yes! why to invest in marketing when word of mouth is working for me? Well, it is no doubt that it’s very effective and long-lasting for your practice, but it will take to only so far. If you want to expand yourself beyond what you are today, you need to market.

Another thing is today’s condition is very different, it’s getting overcrowded and over saturated and if you want to remain visible you have to do it now.

How to market yourself?

Ok, how to market yourself? I am going to describe four tips to market your practice and that too for free. This tips are an extract from one of my previous article “Physiotherapy marketing strategy: 4 Secret Tools to Skyrocket Practice“.

Tip 1: Give exercise chart with your contact detail

Keep your patient happy….But how? Very simple….just keep your promise! And make sure your patient knows you kept your promise every step of the way. A happy patient should have a happy ending, so discharge them with exercise chart with Do’s & Don’ts.

Tips 2: Network, network, network

Networking is a kind of invisible advertisement and believes me it has a very significant impact. By network marketing “Amway” a known FMCG company has built an empire.

Network with your seniors, juniors with other medical professionals, network with P&O colleague. Join local physiotherapy association, arthritis association. Join Lions club, Rotary club. Attend conferences, CMEs, workshops.

Tip 3: Do not ignore social networking

People now tend to spend more time on the social networking site than the physical gathering. Perhaps you are reading this article because you are in the social network. Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn are the top three of them and has the huge impact in our life.

If you are not here you are missing out a large chunk. Create your facebook fan page in the name of your practice, invite your friends to like them. Post useful information and make it worthy. Slowly you will grow your audience and let them know about your good service.  

Tip 4: Create and publish compelling health tips on local daily and website

Write compelling content on health issue like health tips, health awareness and approach local daily & publish them. People take note of good things on paper and may approach you. You may also approach health niche website and publish there with all your contact detail. If you are interested you may approach us.  

Tip 5: Create a brand

Creating a brand is the most exciting thing and perhaps most difficult. If I mention ‘Apollo’ or ‘Dr Batra’s’ you will be able to imagine something. Creating a brand need lots of time, investment, advertisement and you need to constantly build trust by providing standard service.

Advertisement plays very crucial role in brand building, but the thing is advertisement is a costly affair. There are many ways to advertise, pamphlet distribution is perhaps the cheaper option.

There is another effective way to create brand awareness, by cross promotion. What I mean is we can promote each other by conducting awareness camps in another city in association with the local physiotherapy centre.

Conclusion

Building practice is a journey, not a destination. Though in the small span of my experience I tried to cover whatever possible if I missed something or you have a different opinion altogether you are free to drop a comment.

Sunit. S. Ekka

The author is a physiotherapist who has been practising for the last 17 years. He holds a Bachelor's in Physiotherapy (BPT) from SVNIRTAR (Swami Vivekananda National Institute of Rehabilitation and Research), one of the prestigious physiotherapy schools in India.

Whatever he learns dealing with his patient, he shares it with the world through blogs and e-books. He also owns a YouTube channel, "Sunit Physiotherapist" with over 8 lakh active subscribers. Here, he shares everything he gets to learn serving the patient.