Speaker 1: Ruby.
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Speaker 2: on them. Welcome back everyone, and welcome to all our
Speaker 2: new listeners. This is Mine the Business Small Business Success Stories,
Speaker 2: a podcast brought to you by Into It QuickBooks and
Speaker 2: Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia. I'm Jennise Torres, creator and host
Speaker 2: of the award winning personal finance podcast Yokiero di Netro
Speaker 2: and author of financially Lit, The Modern Latina's Guide to
Speaker 2: level up your de netto and become financial.
Speaker 1: And I'm Austin Hankwitz, host of The Rich Habits podcast
Speaker 1: and co founder of with S Ventures. But you may
Speaker 1: instead recognize me for my short form videos about personal
Speaker 1: finance and investing on TikTok.
Speaker 2: We're here for season three of the podcast, and Austin
Speaker 2: and I are quite literally hitting the ground running from
Speaker 2: where we left off last season. We're traveling all over Nashville, Tennessee,
Speaker 2: and Tampa, Florida to talk with business owners in person
Speaker 2: about the ups and downs of entrepreneurship.
Speaker 1: Denise, I know you're from Tampa. You actually just bought
Speaker 1: a house right outside of Tampa. I've lived in Nashville
Speaker 1: now for the last six years, so this is going
Speaker 1: to be a lot of fun.
Speaker 2: But Austin, before we get into that, what have you
Speaker 2: been up to since last season?
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, what a great question. So my dad
Speaker 1: got to celebrate his seventy ninth birthday. I celebrated a
Speaker 1: three year anniversary with my girlfriend. The Rich Habits podcast
Speaker 1: has been trending in the right direction. We launched like
Speaker 1: this private community where we do live streams. Now, what
Speaker 1: about you?
Speaker 2: That sounds like a super packed year, and I have
Speaker 2: to say I've had one as well. I got engaged,
Speaker 2: I got pregnant, I'm running a multiple six figure business.
Speaker 2: My book came out, I went on a book tour,
Speaker 2: and that's just the beginning of it. So twenty twenty
Speaker 2: four was definitely a whirlwind.
Speaker 1: Let's go. That sounds like we've both been up to
Speaker 1: some really exciting stuff now. I can't wait to kick
Speaker 1: off this first episode. Jennise, me either.
Speaker 2: But before we meet our guests, Austin, do you remember
Speaker 2: what it was like when you were just starting out
Speaker 2: on your journey. Do you ever, like just look back
Speaker 2: and reflect on those days and everything that's happened in between.
Speaker 1: I really do. The biggest lesson learned reflecting on those
Speaker 1: early days was just how important consistency is when you're
Speaker 1: starting a personal brand, when you're starting any sort of business,
Speaker 1: Just the consistency that goes into it, showing up being
Speaker 1: the best version of yourself every single day to do
Speaker 1: good business, and just thinking about that and reflecting upon that,
Speaker 1: and how important that was Deanie in the first twelve
Speaker 1: to twenty four months of my business, I say, was
Speaker 1: the big key differentiator there.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think with the beginning of the year, it's
Speaker 2: natural for us to want to look back as business
Speaker 2: owners and see what worked and what didn't. I think
Speaker 2: it's incredibly helpful to look back at those major milestones
Speaker 2: and even mistakes, to remember those key lessons that you
Speaker 2: learned and changes that you made or strategies that you implemented.
Speaker 1: That is one hundred percent correct. Your journey as a
Speaker 1: business owner is its own story, so going back and
Speaker 1: looking at how you and your business have developed from
Speaker 1: the very beginning until now can be super helpful.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think back to when I was first starting
Speaker 2: out considering writing a book, how it wasn't even something
Speaker 2: that was on my radar. And once I started talking
Speaker 2: to my audience and realizing that there was this hunger
Speaker 2: for some sort of resource that they could hold in
Speaker 2: their hand versus like a podcast or social media content,
Speaker 2: I knew it was time. And so, you know, it's
Speaker 2: probably one of the hardest things I've done so far
Speaker 2: as a business owner and a content creator, but it
Speaker 2: really has paid dividends because now it allows my audience
Speaker 2: to have an even deeper connection with my expertise as
Speaker 2: a personal finance creator.
Speaker 1: You are so inspiring, Janie, and I cannot wait to
Speaker 1: dig deeper into the book that you've published. But enough
Speaker 1: about us, let's introduce our guest, Scharise Rose of Potentia Therapeutics.
Speaker 2: Charis has a doctorate of physical therapy after earning a
Speaker 2: Bachelor of Science degree in microbiology from Louisiana State University.
Speaker 2: After her education, she enjoyed working in a big hospital network,
Speaker 2: but found herself wanting something with more flexibility. She also
Speaker 2: noticed that therapy clinics tended to be overbooked and understaffed,
Speaker 2: which created conditions for many patients that she found lacking.
Speaker 2: After a move to Tampa, she was working in a
Speaker 2: clinic that initially spoke to the more direct one on
Speaker 2: one patient therapist scheduling, but over some time things shifted
Speaker 2: and seemed to be trending in the direction of packing
Speaker 2: schedules with multiple patients at a time. Determined to make
Speaker 2: a change, Cherise took action. She bought out her former boss,
Speaker 2: became the owner and clinic director, and renamed the clinic
Speaker 2: Potentia Therapeutics.
Speaker 1: Cherise immediately set out to improve the business and bring
Speaker 1: it up to her standards. She expanded the team from
Speaker 1: three to sixteen therapists and created a culture of exem
Speaker 1: employer patient care, and focused on better work life balance
Speaker 1: for her employees. Charis has operated Potentia for the last
Speaker 1: eight years, winning Tampa Magazine's coveted Best of South Tampa Award.
Speaker 1: For the last six years in a row. Currently, Charise
Speaker 1: and her team of highly trained physical therapists at Potentia
Speaker 1: continue to practice evidence based physical therapy and wellness allowing
Speaker 1: for precise diagnosis and skillful management of movement dysfunction.
Speaker 2: Cheris, We are here at Potential Therapeutics in the lovely
Speaker 2: Tampa Bay area in your clinic. Welcome to mind the business.
Speaker 2: So excited for you.
Speaker 3: To be here. Thank you.
Speaker 2: Now you have a very unique origin story, as you
Speaker 2: bought this business from your boss.
Speaker 4: I sure did so tell us about that. Okay, well,
Speaker 4: I'm a physical therapist, but I believe in wellness. So
Speaker 4: my history is that I was pre med major in college,
Speaker 4: but then physical therapy drew me in more because it's
Speaker 4: more conservative and its care. It's more treatment based and
Speaker 4: wellness based. So when I became a physical therapist, I
Speaker 4: would look for clinics that yearn from that as well.
Speaker 3: And we have a weonness based model here in Tampa.
Speaker 4: My boss also had the same concept based out of California,
Speaker 4: So this is the first clinic outside of California that
Speaker 4: had that kind of concept, and so we wanted to
Speaker 4: create a space that allowed the patient to have WEONUS
Speaker 4: based treatments as well as PT visits. So we look
Speaker 4: at the continuum of care with the patient injury based
Speaker 4: treatment BOSS, so keeping them well for years to come,
Speaker 4: preventing injuries versus the treatment symptoms that they exist. And
Speaker 4: so we decided to create that space here. My boss
Speaker 4: was here for four years and I ran the spot
Speaker 4: for four years as a clinic director, and we had
Speaker 4: great success here. I worked in clinics before where you're
Speaker 4: seeing a patient for a treatment session for an hour,
Speaker 4: but so maybe two patients one hour, three, an hour,
Speaker 4: four an hour sometimes, which is to me kind of outdated.
Speaker 4: So we'd yearned for a space where could see a
Speaker 4: patient one on one patient care without being double booked,
Speaker 4: so that patient had that quality care with that therapist
Speaker 4: for an hour. We launched that here as the former clinic.
Speaker 4: And so when he wanted to fold into to the
Speaker 4: kind of issues existing with insurance based care, I want
Speaker 4: to keep the same practicing one on one care, so
Speaker 4: I decided to consider buying him out and launching my
Speaker 4: own space. When he wanted to revert back to the
Speaker 4: old ways of doing physical therapy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it sounds like there was a difference in
Speaker 2: philosophies about how to approach your client experience, and so
Speaker 2: would you say that's the main driver for wanting to
Speaker 2: go into business for yourself versus wanting to continue to
Speaker 2: work for someone else.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 4: I wanted to create a space that I can love
Speaker 4: and thrive in. And for so many years we didn't
Speaker 4: have a voice as therapist. We worked for big companies, hospitals,
Speaker 4: large chains that maybe you were a number to the employer,
Speaker 4: but not really a face or a name. And so
Speaker 4: I want to create a space where the therapists actually
Speaker 4: we're seen and heard and we could practice as the
Speaker 4: clinches we wanted to be and thrive to be. And
Speaker 4: so we did that in the space and I feel like, oh,
Speaker 4: my therapists, my coworkers are my friends, They're a family
Speaker 4: to me, and we create a space where patients feel
Speaker 4: loved and cared for.
Speaker 2: You know, I really like that whole list approach because
Speaker 2: in my own experience having physical therapy, I have felt
Speaker 2: in the past like it's kind of just like they
Speaker 2: want you in and out as quickly as possible, and
Speaker 2: there's not really this emphasis on maybe like.
Speaker 3: Keeping you out of the office.
Speaker 2: It's almost like they want you to keep coming back,
Speaker 2: which makes sense because you know every time you come
Speaker 2: you get paid. But also if I'm not making modifications
Speaker 2: in like how I'm taking care of myself, it's almost
Speaker 2: like you're on a hamster wheel of just continuous care
Speaker 2: where I don't necessarily want to be in pain all
Speaker 2: the time forever.
Speaker 3: I agree with you.
Speaker 1: I think a really interesting statistic right now is that
Speaker 1: there are about four million baby boomers that retire every
Speaker 1: single year, and a lot of these baby boomers are
Speaker 1: small business owners, and they don't really have these succession plans,
Speaker 1: and so sometimes what happens is someone who is interested
Speaker 1: in running a small business, a locally owned business, will
Speaker 1: go and they'll buy this business, right And what's wild
Speaker 1: about that is they have no idea nine times out
Speaker 1: of ten how to run a business for themselves. So
Speaker 1: I'm curious, what were some of the specific challenges that
Speaker 1: you went through as it relates to taking over a business.
Speaker 3: Okay, yes, I'm a clinician first business owner.
Speaker 4: Second, so this was something I say fell into my
Speaker 4: lap and it was just luck met opportunity at the
Speaker 4: same time. But I also had a vision for this.
Speaker 4: The funny story is that the name Potentia. I met
Speaker 4: with my lawyer about four years prior to develop a LLC.
Speaker 4: I didn't know what the LC would be, but I
Speaker 4: knew the name would be Potentia at some point. And
Speaker 4: then four years later came opportunity with my former company
Speaker 4: to buy them out and change that name to Potentia.
Speaker 4: So it was always in my mind that would create
Speaker 4: my own space in some kind of way, but I
Speaker 4: didn't know how I would do it. So fast forward
Speaker 4: to four years later, when the other company was here,
Speaker 4: I decided to buy them out. I did not know
Speaker 4: much about business, but I did have a lot of
Speaker 4: patients of mine and friends and family in the business
Speaker 4: world and finance and.
Speaker 3: In hospital administration that can help me.
Speaker 4: So I met with two gentlemen before designed to buy
Speaker 4: the company when was a CEO of a hospital retired
Speaker 4: for ten years, worked in the business for thirty years
Speaker 4: or more. And my husband's uncle who's a VP of
Speaker 4: a large bank. And met with both of them and
Speaker 4: talked about my ideas for the business here, and they
Speaker 4: looked at all my data, my numbers, and said it's possible.
Speaker 4: So I think one thing I took away from that
Speaker 4: situation is that knowing to have a team around you that.
Speaker 3: Knows what they're doing, so know how to hire your
Speaker 3: team that supports you. And that's what I did well.
Speaker 4: I think I just found people in my circle who
Speaker 4: were my champion and also believe in the concept and
Speaker 4: also gave me the truth.
Speaker 1: So that makes a lot of sense. Now. Tactically speaking,
Speaker 1: you take over in existing business. That business has customers,
Speaker 1: it has protocol, it has existing software. Talk to me
Speaker 1: about how you adapted to some of these changes that
Speaker 1: might have been different, and then how did you keep
Speaker 1: your customers since they were so I'm sure used to
Speaker 1: something different.
Speaker 4: Funny story is that we did have Yes, we maintained
Speaker 4: the same space. So one thing we did well was
Speaker 4: we did not move. We had the same space. We
Speaker 4: just changed the name our signage and patients who were
Speaker 4: former patients of ours for years would drive by and say,
Speaker 4: you know, I need therapy, but that name looks different,
Speaker 4: but I think I went there four years ago. And
Speaker 4: so they walk in and they become our patient again
Speaker 4: and say, that's sure. You know she was my therapist.
Speaker 4: We had new therapists at the time, but they believed
Speaker 4: in what we did before and knew that we had
Speaker 4: quality care, and so I maintain my address, my fax numbers,
Speaker 4: my phone numbers, so if they called the same number
Speaker 4: even though it was formerly the other name, they knew
Speaker 4: it was still therapy.
Speaker 3: And so my patients just followed us. We did not
Speaker 3: maintain some insurers.
Speaker 4: We only kept Medicare and Tricare based on reimbursement purposes.
Speaker 4: A lot of the insurers don't pay very well when
Speaker 4: it comes to reimbursements, so we had to make sure
Speaker 4: we were getting enough for our patient visits, to maintain
Speaker 4: a clinic space and to not fold, and so we
Speaker 4: decided to defer some insurance contracts which weren't open at
Speaker 4: the time, and kept on two contracts with that said,
Speaker 4: those people who were patients of ours who had at
Speaker 4: Neblue Crossbow Shield signa knew that we were great therapists
Speaker 4: and decided to go cash pay with us and stay
Speaker 4: with us so they would pay higher rates for better care.
Speaker 4: A patient of mindset to me, he says, Listen, why
Speaker 4: would I go to another site and another physicallypity clinic
Speaker 4: if I'm paying for my copay for that hour, but
Speaker 4: I'm double booked to other patients, So use me for
Speaker 4: an hour. You get me better in one visit. That's
Speaker 4: one visit a week versus three busits a week somewhere
Speaker 4: else where. I'm not feeling better. So he chose to
Speaker 4: stay with us, and that's what most people do all
Speaker 4: the time with our clinic space.
Speaker 1: Talk to me about the branding, right, I think a
Speaker 1: lot of small business owners listening right now are either
Speaker 1: trying to figure out the name or their business. Maybe
Speaker 1: they just acquired a business that exists and they want
Speaker 1: to rebrand it. How did you approach rebranding this existing
Speaker 1: business and what does the new branding mean to you?
Speaker 1: And what type of customers do you hope to attract
Speaker 1: with this branding.
Speaker 4: Yes, I can start with the name Potentia means power
Speaker 4: in Latin. I was looking for a nice, strong name
Speaker 4: and I could draw all kinds of patients to our clinic.
Speaker 4: So I wanted patients to feel powerful in their treatments
Speaker 4: and powerful in their advocacy for their health. I think
Speaker 4: having that branding potential, just being powerful and the way
Speaker 4: they apply themselves as therapists and how we treat our
Speaker 4: patients was like builtimin Cole.
Speaker 2: That's amazing. It really is about empowering the Yes, yes,
Speaker 2: I love that. So you're obviously working here previously as
Speaker 2: an employee. What's it feel like to get your first
Speaker 2: paycheck as an owner and how does that change? What
Speaker 2: did you have to adjust in order to make that transition?
Speaker 4: Well, I know, launching the clinic in the first year,
Speaker 4: you know, you want to make sure you're doing well,
Speaker 4: you're staying profitable, and making sure that you have all
Speaker 4: the teas, cross eyes, dot it, and I just made
Speaker 4: sure I wanted to take care of my employees first
Speaker 4: and the business first. So like I definitely paid myself,
Speaker 4: maybe less than I would have paid myself initially, but
Speaker 4: once that first year past, I knew that we can
Speaker 4: be successful in the business and everyone would win.
Speaker 3: And I want to make sure everyone's.
Speaker 4: Taking care of so when the business thrives and when
Speaker 4: everyone is happy, we all thrive.
Speaker 1: Considering. This episode is very much focused on reflecting over
Speaker 1: the last several years of the business owner. Now you've
Speaker 1: been in the space for I think you said it
Speaker 1: was eleven years and you've owned it for seven. Yes,
Speaker 1: So kind of staying on this theme of reflecting back,
Speaker 1: can you share with me as we reflect back? Call
Speaker 1: it seven years ago before this was a Sharis owned clinic. Right,
Speaker 1: You're just about to walk into this new amazing chapter
Speaker 1: of your life. What emotions were going on in your head?
Speaker 1: How did you feel, what were you scared of? What
Speaker 1: were you excited about? Walk me through the feeling of day.
Speaker 3: One day one.
Speaker 4: Day one was actually pretty transitional. It was a quick turnaround.
Speaker 4: I remember closing as the previous business on a Thursday
Speaker 4: and then opening us the next business on a Tuesday.
Speaker 4: There's really no change in like the space. But I
Speaker 4: knew that I wanted it to succeed. I must say
Speaker 4: I'm a type of individual who jumps in first and
Speaker 4: think second. I assume there's going to be a yes.
Speaker 4: I never expect to know if there's a no. I
Speaker 4: try to convince someone that it should be a yes.
Speaker 4: So I just was very optimistic in jumping in the clinic.
Speaker 4: I just thought we have the tools. I mean, in
Speaker 4: this for almost twenty years and there is no quality care,
Speaker 4: and as long as we have all the administraty of
Speaker 4: tools in place, then we can succeed. I know there's
Speaker 4: a little bit of fear, maybe a little bit of fear,
Speaker 4: but to me that drives me that means I should
Speaker 4: be attempting it, attempting to get over that fear and
Speaker 4: try to succeed in that area. I knew that I
Speaker 4: have a family at a nine month old at the time,
Speaker 4: my son and my husband in my corner, and I
Speaker 4: knew that this is the right time to take a
Speaker 4: leap of faith. I mean it's always a challenge. I
Speaker 4: mean starting a new practice during a business. I knew
Speaker 4: that my quality care was there. I mean, I knew
Speaker 4: that we had the hands on skills, we had team
Speaker 4: in place at the time, and if everything would fall
Speaker 4: into place.
Speaker 1: I've heard that a lot with other small business owners
Speaker 1: and entrepreneurs, this mantra of build an amazing product and
Speaker 1: your customers will come. Yes. Right, the word of mouth
Speaker 1: is going to happen. If you have a great product,
Speaker 1: people will come.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 1: And so it sounds like that's what you really leaned
Speaker 1: into as a small business owner. It might take, you know,
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks or a couple months, but it's
Speaker 1: eventually going to turn into a thriving business, which it
Speaker 1: has today.
Speaker 3: That's right, I agreed.
Speaker 4: I just that you know, having the previous business and
Speaker 4: being the clink director for that business.
Speaker 3: I knew that the model was working.
Speaker 1: Is the current business as it is today what you
Speaker 1: had expected it was going to turn into? Or did
Speaker 1: you have other expectations or desires for the business in
Speaker 1: the beginning, then you realized, wait a second, that was silly.
Speaker 1: We should actually do this instead.
Speaker 4: It's so funny. This client grew fast than I thought
Speaker 4: it would grow. The biggest growth was through the pandemic.
Speaker 4: And I to tell you why. During the pandemic, I
Speaker 4: think people had to approach their life and mortality and
Speaker 4: they realized, wait, am I doing the right things of
Speaker 4: my life to be successful, to be happy, to be healthy.
Speaker 4: We are essential workers as physical therapists, so we stayed
Speaker 4: opened in the pandemic, so we were able to work
Speaker 4: in the pandemic, and so we were like sometimes the
Speaker 4: first person someone saw all day, all week, and we
Speaker 4: made their day and we had a safe space. That's
Speaker 4: when we grew the most, honestly, is during that time,
Speaker 4: and people started thinking about their own health and being
Speaker 4: empowered by it.
Speaker 2: So I think one of the unique things when you're
Speaker 2: buying a business is you're also buying the forensic analysis
Speaker 2: that comes with us, right, So you get to look
Speaker 2: at what's been going on with the books, procedures, what
Speaker 2: have we been doing, what services have we been selling.
Speaker 2: I'm curious, once you started kind of digging down, did
Speaker 2: you find anything that maybe raised some red flags for
Speaker 2: you or did you see some stuff that like, Okay,
Speaker 2: this is working, we should continue doing this.
Speaker 4: Yes, I think what I learned is that as far
Speaker 4: as reimbursement, so you know, insurance drives a lot of healthcare,
Speaker 4: and so in our space, we had a hybrid based clinic.
Speaker 4: We had insurance based and cash bay clinics. So we
Speaker 4: wanted to maintain that space and make it reasonable for
Speaker 4: patients to come and see us, even that they had
Speaker 4: no insurance. Sort of fee schedule that was pretty average
Speaker 4: compared to all the other FEA schedules out there in
Speaker 4: the world, which is other pet clinics had the same
Speaker 4: pricing point for evaluations, follow up visits. And then we
Speaker 4: had to increase that fee schedule and raise the rates
Speaker 4: you know, every year or so a little bit.
Speaker 3: To help with inflation, of help with.
Speaker 2: Costs of real estate here exactly, but not getting any
Speaker 2: cheaper exactly.
Speaker 4: We doubled in size, and so we have had to
Speaker 4: make up for the double rent, and so we did
Speaker 4: raise the rates and the fee schedule. We also did
Speaker 4: make sure we maintain that patient care within those rate
Speaker 4: changes so that we don't price gout anyone out of
Speaker 4: our clinic space.
Speaker 3: So that was important. One thing I.
Speaker 4: Learned is that we had a billing company that was
Speaker 4: doing a great job for us, but not the best job,
Speaker 4: so there's lost revenue. Let's say you complete a patient
Speaker 4: note and there's like a mistake made that patient note,
Speaker 4: Well you can you can change that on the back
Speaker 4: end and resubmit for insurance and get that billing collected
Speaker 4: on the back end. So the billing company wasn't informing
Speaker 4: us at all times in a timely fashion when some
Speaker 4: mistakes were made. So we decided that company wasn't for us.
Speaker 4: They weren't able to keep up with our demand. Sometimes
Speaker 4: in a month we may see seven hundred patients come
Speaker 4: through the door. So we want to make sure we
Speaker 4: can maintain that care and with our billing as well.
Speaker 4: So we changed companies and that was a big change
Speaker 4: we had to make, and we had to make sure
Speaker 4: we were not leaving any money on the table basically
Speaker 4: and not missing reversements.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great attitude to have, and I think
Speaker 2: it's important to know as a business owner, you're going
Speaker 2: to go through different growth seasons and there's just going
Speaker 2: to be some support that maybe got you to where
Speaker 2: you are, but is not going to necessarily be able
Speaker 2: to get you to that next phase. You know. It's
Speaker 2: just about kind of making sure that at the end
Speaker 2: of the day, you're getting the support that you need
Speaker 2: so you can provide the optimal experience for your clients.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 4: It's all that takes all of it, not just the
Speaker 4: personal care, health care, but like knowing that it's a
Speaker 4: business and if I could, I would treat everyone for free.
Speaker 3: Would I would? But then we would not have a
Speaker 3: clinic and we wouldn't be able at a hobby.
Speaker 4: You could treat me for fresh Yes, I'll do that
Speaker 4: any time, but you know, we would have a clinic.
Speaker 4: You know, we would have four walls and yeah, so
Speaker 4: we had to maintain some business aspects.
Speaker 2: Coming up on mine the business small business success stories.
Speaker 4: You live and breathe the business. It's like your baby.
Speaker 4: It's like you know, you want to protect it. You
Speaker 4: have to protect the palace at all costs. You whatever
Speaker 4: that may be. Just protect the palace. We'll be right back.
Speaker 4: Welcome back to mind the business.
Speaker 1: So I've been an entrepreneur for going on five years now,
Speaker 1: and I've made countless mistakes. Okay, so you're going on
Speaker 1: now year seven, year eight, what are some mistakes that
Speaker 1: Reflecting back, thinking man, that was goofy right, what are
Speaker 1: the mistakes that you had made and what did you
Speaker 1: learn from them?
Speaker 4: I think not catching the billing mistakes early was one
Speaker 4: thing I would have like, because I can't collect that
Speaker 4: money now it's gone.
Speaker 3: How long did that go on before you guys are
Speaker 3: read on something? Maybe a few years? I think a
Speaker 3: few years.
Speaker 4: I mean, now could we collect that money? You have
Speaker 4: a year after finding an insurance claim to like get
Speaker 4: that money. So if you see a patient, you have
Speaker 4: a year to finish that note and you get the collections.
Speaker 4: And so this is beyond a year that these things
Speaker 4: were happening, so we couldn't go back in time and collect.
Speaker 4: So you know, it is what it is at the
Speaker 4: time back and that was one mistake we made. You know,
Speaker 4: just making sure that I maintain growth and profitability as
Speaker 4: well as take care of my employees, that's important. So
Speaker 4: if we get collect as such as we can through
Speaker 4: our fee schedules and through insurance and thinking smarter, working
Speaker 4: smarter and harder.
Speaker 3: That that helps.
Speaker 1: What's a strategy for balancing growth and profitability? Again, you're
Speaker 1: on year seven, year eight. I'm sure you do a
Speaker 1: great job of is it monthly? Is it quarterly? Is
Speaker 1: it annually? Sitting down with the finance team and going
Speaker 1: through the books understanding how much you're spending on marketing
Speaker 1: versus how much you're profiting per new visit new clients.
Speaker 1: Walk us through that.
Speaker 4: Okay, So we have a monthly meeting. Michell and I
Speaker 4: and my office assistant we meet once a month to
Speaker 4: go over numbers. Sometimes you go over numbers with the
Speaker 4: company we work with the billing company, and we go
Speaker 4: over collections and you know, lost revenue and how to
Speaker 4: collect the revenue. My accountant I meet with every three
Speaker 4: months quarterly to go over our accounting numbers, like how
Speaker 4: we're doing I buy this new machine? Can I raise
Speaker 4: my fee schedule? Should I raise my fee schedule? Can
Speaker 4: I pay my therapis a little bit more? And how
Speaker 4: much can I pay them? So these questions I asked
Speaker 4: the team so that we try to profit and not
Speaker 4: save our losses, keep them smaller than larger we have losses,
Speaker 4: and that we did see a change happened with the
Speaker 4: two hurricanes. It was unprecedented times. We had two hurricanes
Speaker 4: that was not planned. So we definitely had to pivot
Speaker 4: through those times and figure out, Okay, well, you're not
Speaker 4: seeing patience in those weeks, and so that's not money
Speaker 4: coming in. So we had to figure out how to
Speaker 4: save for rainy day, which is a lot of rain
Speaker 4: actually a rainy day.
Speaker 1: It sounds like an ongoing theme of the success you've
Speaker 1: experienced with this business is surrounding yourself with a good team,
Speaker 1: good partners and employees, good accountants, good mentors, good financing people. Right,
Speaker 1: everything comes around this idea of surrounding yourself with a
Speaker 1: team of people who have your back. We're going to
Speaker 1: be very honest with you and then also encourage you
Speaker 1: when you might be, you know, having a hurricane day.
Speaker 2: So, as someone who has now been in the driver's
Speaker 2: seat of this business for seven years, you've seen a lot,
Speaker 2: You've seen a pandemic, you've seen inflation. How has the
Speaker 2: information that you've collected in the past served you going forward,
Speaker 2: because I imagine it not every year looks the same, No.
Speaker 4: Every years looks the same. And just knowing that reimbursement
Speaker 4: can take a long time. For instance, if you file
Speaker 4: a claim with Medicare, you may not get paid for
Speaker 4: three to four weeks.
Speaker 3: Wow, you know.
Speaker 4: And you know, sometimes there's a mistake made, you might
Speaker 4: have to wait two or three months to get that claim.
Speaker 4: So it's it's very cyclical. It's it's kind of like
Speaker 4: up and down when collections are concerned. You know that
Speaker 4: maybe in December and January things shut down in the government,
Speaker 4: so you have this holiday kind of like schedule where
Speaker 4: you might not get a lot of response from insurance
Speaker 4: companies are from the government because they're also on vacation
Speaker 4: and enjoying their holidays. So that means that if they're closed,
Speaker 4: we're closed. Reimbursement it depends of like they're getting to
Speaker 4: our you know, our documentation, getting to our charting and
Speaker 4: paying us in a timely manner.
Speaker 3: So that may slow down in the first quarter.
Speaker 4: So we learned that we have to like maybe not
Speaker 4: do big projects in the fourth court of the.
Speaker 3: Year, maybe just like you know, hold on to like
Speaker 3: our cash.
Speaker 2: And that makes a lot of sense, yea, And you
Speaker 2: only know that with information, right, That's why I only
Speaker 2: you can know that by being able to look back
Speaker 2: and see, ooh, this is a seasonal thing. We need
Speaker 2: to be mindful of what time of year this is,
Speaker 2: to be strategic about how we deploy cash and also
Speaker 2: just what we take on as a business. Yes, so
Speaker 2: what's the biggest surprise that you have had in this
Speaker 2: small business owner journey?
Speaker 4: I did know growth this fast and that you have
Speaker 4: to be all in. So like my laptop is always
Speaker 4: with me vacations, it's always with me.
Speaker 3: I traveled with it.
Speaker 4: We went to London recently with my family and it
Speaker 4: was time for payroll, so that laptop came with me.
Speaker 4: I made sure you know to do payroll in London,
Speaker 4: and just make sure like I can take care of
Speaker 4: business when I'm away. So you still have to vacation
Speaker 4: and take time for yourselves. But also your business is
Speaker 4: always on your mind and to know that never shuts down.
Speaker 4: It's always like part of your life and you have
Speaker 4: to be all in at all times. So I think
Speaker 4: you live and breathe the business.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: Someone always says it's like your baby.
Speaker 2: It is.
Speaker 4: It's like your baby. It's like you know you want
Speaker 4: to protect it. My coworker Meredith, she says, protect the palace.
Speaker 4: You have to protect the palace at all costs, you
Speaker 4: whatever that may be. Just protect the palace from unhappiness
Speaker 4: from the IRS.
Speaker 3: IRAS's exactly exactly. Irs.
Speaker 4: Protect the palace from just like you know, keep it joyful.
Speaker 4: Just protect it from hurricane. Yes, and just make sure
Speaker 4: you steer clear of things that could maybe pull you
Speaker 4: off the path of like success.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, and I can imagine that being able to run
Speaker 2: payroll from London. It's only possible in this modern era
Speaker 2: because of programs like into a quicks Oh yes, can
Speaker 2: you imagine having to like sit there and physically write
Speaker 2: and mail tracks like back in the day. I'm just like,
Speaker 2: I'm so glad I'm a business owner in this modern era.
Speaker 3: Oh, we love into it. You use it daily and
Speaker 3: we love it.
Speaker 1: Let's actually dig into that. As you know, Intwit QuickBooks
Speaker 1: is great for record keeping. With intwit QuickBooks, I manage
Speaker 1: my businessiness in one place. I track money in and out.
Speaker 1: I'm running payroll just like you. I make and accept
Speaker 1: payments all in one integrated platform. And the best part
Speaker 1: is it's all recorded. I can go back and look
Speaker 1: at what I spent on marketing in my first year
Speaker 1: and how much that might have positively impacted my business,
Speaker 1: and say, should I spend more this year? How is
Speaker 1: that trending? What decisions should I make? So do you
Speaker 1: have any strategies for looking at your business's performance week
Speaker 1: by week, month by month, or year over year so
Speaker 1: that you can keep going with what's working and improve
Speaker 1: where things need to be tweaked up a little bit?
Speaker 4: Oh yes, looking at into it quick books and the
Speaker 4: way it helps us. We look at collections on a
Speaker 4: weekly basis, daily basis to see like how well we're
Speaker 4: doing a daily, weekly, monthly and we know if there's
Speaker 4: going to be a slow month coming. We can look
Speaker 4: at previous history, last year's data compared to this year's
Speaker 4: data and see well how we do. Then we can
Speaker 4: see also growth factors like how well we've grown from
Speaker 4: last year to this year. I know as we are
Speaker 4: a hybrid based clinic, have an insurance for Medicare and
Speaker 4: Tricare and cash pay visits as well, cash pay every
Speaker 4: day with into it right versus getting collections from insurance
Speaker 4: would be mailed to us or direct deposit too, So
Speaker 4: having that real time cash through QuickBooks so important to
Speaker 4: maintain the space and know that we're going to get
Speaker 4: that payment.
Speaker 1: I would also imagine it helps with sort of real
Speaker 1: time understanding of cash flow, right because you mentioned and
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people listening can empathize with
Speaker 1: the fact that sometimes you send an invoice to Nison
Speaker 1: doesn't get paid for sixty days, right, So you know,
Speaker 1: having this real time visibility could be really important for
Speaker 1: someone in your shoes.
Speaker 4: Oh yes, oh yes, and making sure we have we
Speaker 4: able to pay our vendors and making sure we're getting
Speaker 4: paid as well. Is there important to have that convenience
Speaker 4: through QuickBooks. It's been successful for us to maintain that flow.
Speaker 4: And yes, accuracy, accuracy, I think that's a key term here, right, accuracy, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Accuracy and visibility.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, I agree with that.
Speaker 1: Something we talked about earlier when you first walked into
Speaker 1: this new chapter of your life of owning this business
Speaker 1: was optimism, right, very optimist, Nick, not very fearful, just
Speaker 1: very excited about the future. Now fast forward seven eight
Speaker 1: years into the future, do you find yourself still very
Speaker 1: optimistic and how has that sort of translated in risk taking?
Speaker 1: Do you see yourself taking big risks today were you're
Speaker 1: taking big risks in the beginning, and those risks could
Speaker 1: be anything like hiring new people, expanding into a new space,
Speaker 1: things like that.
Speaker 4: I think I took more risk early on because we
Speaker 4: just launched the business. It was a smaller clinic path
Speaker 4: of size, less rent, and we had a therapist who
Speaker 4: are amazing, and we had to prove our products. So
Speaker 4: I think I took more over then to like kind
Speaker 4: of develop the clinic and make sure that we were
Speaker 4: providing the best lighting, are the best atmosphere, and the
Speaker 4: best marketing. And we definitely had marketing lunches with our
Speaker 4: doctors and we're out there in the market getting people
Speaker 4: to know who we were, and yeah, that was fun.
Speaker 4: The first three four years of launching was just bring
Speaker 4: our name out there. I think I'm less risky now.
Speaker 4: I'm more trying to fine tune everything because I think
Speaker 4: there's more to lose because I have more therapists on staff.
Speaker 3: I have family.
Speaker 4: I think about I have coworkers who are like my family,
Speaker 4: and they have children, they have husbands, and I want
Speaker 4: them to have a stable job and a stable career
Speaker 4: and to protect our palace.
Speaker 3: So I think I take less.
Speaker 4: Risk now than I did before, but I'm still looking
Speaker 4: to the future. For instance, I would love to launch products.
Speaker 4: I have ideas for products, you know, maybe launch something
Speaker 4: that I think we need in the world, like an
Speaker 4: ergonomic device or something like that.
Speaker 3: I have that on my plate in my mind. I
Speaker 3: want to write a book.
Speaker 4: Things like that could be kind of like passive income
Speaker 4: for the clinic, but the active income is more seing
Speaker 4: patients and I want to protect that. I think one
Speaker 4: risk I took was expanding the clinic. So from four
Speaker 4: years we took the wall down and jumped across to
Speaker 4: the pandemic, so that was pretty risky. So I think
Speaker 4: that I want to make sure to grow the clinic.
Speaker 4: We continue to like change our kind of method of
Speaker 4: working and expanding our clinic space and our therapists and
Speaker 4: our team, and.
Speaker 3: We love it.
Speaker 1: So it sounds like in the beginning it was more
Speaker 1: of financial risks, right, pulling the rent, going out there,
Speaker 1: getting your name out there, taking people at the lunch
Speaker 1: dodent and marketings like that, where today it seems like
Speaker 1: reputational risk is what you're focused on. Yeah, right, making
Speaker 1: sure that your reputation stays five stars out of five stars,
Speaker 1: like it is right now.
Speaker 4: Yes, we want to make sure our patients feel cared for.
Speaker 4: My coworkers are feel cared for by me and by
Speaker 4: our team. We tend to work well together and we
Speaker 4: want to maintain that as well. So we have a
Speaker 4: village we want to protect. And I feel like one
Speaker 4: thing I have at point out is that we have
Speaker 4: work life balance.
Speaker 3: A lot of right therapists are off a day of
Speaker 3: the week or two.
Speaker 4: Some work part time because they want to because their parents,
Speaker 4: and some want to work full time, but they work
Speaker 4: maybe four ten hour days. So I encourage a hybrid
Speaker 4: schedule as well. We have that balance. Our team is
Speaker 4: pretty much the same team we started with.
Speaker 2: Wow, so sounds like you're really good at not only
Speaker 2: protecting the palace but protecting the village too.
Speaker 5: That's right.
Speaker 3: Thank you for saying that. I do love my village
Speaker 3: and I hope they know that.
Speaker 4: But I just want to grow with them, and I
Speaker 4: see how we can be a great neighborhood clinic that
Speaker 4: people feel comfortable coming too. We have patients who come
Speaker 4: here just for coffee in the lobby, they have no
Speaker 4: patient visit. They want to come have coffee engage with
Speaker 4: us and that's amazing.
Speaker 3: We love that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that is a unique uh loyalty that you've built
Speaker 2: into your client.
Speaker 1: Because that's all.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 2: What is the biggest lesson you've learned about yourself in
Speaker 2: this entrepreneurial journey.
Speaker 4: The bigest lesson I'm going about myself is that you
Speaker 4: can't do it all. You know, you have to delegate.
Speaker 4: And I know for me, my calendar is full. So
Speaker 4: like as far as my social life, my personal life,
Speaker 4: and my professional life. You want to be balanced. So
Speaker 4: balance is important. And so in a day, I may
Speaker 4: have certain task scheduled, but I realize that's my calendar.
Speaker 4: I may from myself in my mind. No one has
Speaker 4: this calendar but me. I can change any time, so
Speaker 4: and I do.
Speaker 1: So.
Speaker 4: The way I kind of moved through life and with
Speaker 4: task is that I have a conveyor belt. It's a
Speaker 4: conveyor belt. If it doesn't get taken care of today,
Speaker 4: it's on the belt, right, it comes back around at
Speaker 4: some point. No need to stress, we need to worry
Speaker 4: about it. It'll happen in due time. You can do
Speaker 4: it all, but it has to be not at the
Speaker 4: same time, not at the same time, giving yourself some
Speaker 4: grace that I give yourself some grace.
Speaker 1: That's something I certainly struggled with in the beginning as
Speaker 1: an entrepreneur. Was I saw online all these people working
Speaker 1: twenty four hours a day and seven days a week,
Speaker 1: going hard and doing all these crazy things. I'm like,
Speaker 1: that's what I have to do to be successful. And
Speaker 1: it took me a very long time to realize that
Speaker 1: is not the definition of success. Happiness is the definition
Speaker 1: of success for me at least. And so to your
Speaker 1: point of giving yourself grace, Oh, I wasn't able to
Speaker 1: meet with this person, or I wasn't able to get
Speaker 1: this specific business task done. It's on the conveyor belt.
Speaker 1: It's going to come back around. We've got tomorrow, the
Speaker 1: week after, and the many more years to come. As
Speaker 1: it relates to being an entrepreneur, So having that balance
Speaker 1: to your point between work and life and relationships is
Speaker 1: the most important thing.
Speaker 4: I concur I just think giving yourself grace and knowing
Speaker 4: that to take out other people, you have to take
Speaker 4: care of self and so that's not stable and important
Speaker 4: to you, then it can all fold.
Speaker 2: I think that's a great reminder of again how important
Speaker 2: mindset is the conveyor belt gives me this reassurance that
Speaker 2: those things that are for us as entrepreneurs will wait
Speaker 2: for us until we're ready to get back to them.
Speaker 2: Cheri's this has been an incredible conversation. I am so
Speaker 2: excited to continue to follow your growth here in the
Speaker 2: Tampa Bay area. I predict multiple clinics because what you're
Speaker 2: doing here is very unique and very needed, as you
Speaker 2: can tell by the fact that you have a wait list.
Speaker 2: So we're we're seeing lots of success here at Potential Therapeutics.
Speaker 2: And thank you so much for being on the show.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate you
Speaker 3: guys so much.
Speaker 1: What a cool journey that Cherise has embarked on and
Speaker 1: absolutely succeeded with. What is your biggest takeaway from our conversation, Janis.
Speaker 2: Well, I really loved how as somebody who's buying an
Speaker 2: existing business, you actually have data to make future decisions
Speaker 2: on right. You actually have sales data, marketing data, all
Speaker 2: types of information that I didn't have as an entrepreneur
Speaker 2: when I first started because I'm starting business from scratch.
Speaker 2: So there is actually a big benefit to buying an
Speaker 2: existing business and We're also going to talk about later
Speaker 2: on in the season about how you can use this
Speaker 2: data to make decisions. And I think us obviously is
Speaker 2: making a bunch of great decisions because she has had
Speaker 2: nothing but success in the past seven years as.
Speaker 1: An owner, no kidding, Oh my goodness, you know. I
Speaker 1: think my biggest takeaway from our conversation, and I find
Speaker 1: myself as a small business owner kind of going through
Speaker 1: this myself right now, is this idea between financial risk,
Speaker 1: like she was taking big financial risk in the beginning
Speaker 1: as it relates to expanding, hiring, marketing, you know, meeting
Speaker 1: new people, doing these things that you can definitely burn
Speaker 1: a hole in your pocket if you're not careful, versus
Speaker 1: now reputational risk. Right as small business owners, we want
Speaker 1: to make sure our reputation is at the very top
Speaker 1: of all of our focus and everything that we do,
Speaker 1: because at the end of the day, if your reputation suffers,
Speaker 1: your clients begin to suffer, your customers begin to suffer,
Speaker 1: and the business suffers. And so just balancing that financial
Speaker 1: risk and now that's sort of matured into a reputational
Speaker 1: risk focused business model, I think is genius and I
Speaker 1: think a lot of people are going to take away
Speaker 1: some really really important editits around that.
Speaker 2: There were a lot of gems dropped in this season, Opener.
Speaker 2: I cannot wait to dive into the rest of our episodes,
Speaker 2: but that's it for today. You can find me on
Speaker 2: social media at Joketothenedo podcast and you.
Speaker 1: Can find me at Austin Hankwitz. You can follow into
Speaker 1: quick QuickBooks on all social media at QuickBooks. To get
Speaker 1: the tools you need to start, run and grow your business,
Speaker 1: head to QuickBooks dot com today.
Speaker 2: Don't forget to follow this show wherever you listen to
Speaker 2: podcasts so you can stay up to date on future episodes.
Speaker 1: We also want to hear from you, so be sure
Speaker 1: to leave us a rating and a review. See you
Speaker 1: next time. Coming up on this season of Mind the
Speaker 1: Business small business success stories. You don't want to be
Speaker 1: scrambling and then realize that the website's not available or
Speaker 1: your logo is copying somebody else.
Speaker 5: At the beginning, we were diying it and it just
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Speaker 3: My biggest question was I, how can I grow this?
Speaker 3: How can I scale this? How can I come down
Speaker 3: on this? Like Wire supplies this this month.
Speaker 4: If a client loves you or a customer loves you,
Speaker 4: is always the five stars.
Speaker 2: But if they will hate you, they will just hate
Speaker 2: you everywhere and it will sting you.
Speaker 4: AI is able to make it sound a little bit
Speaker 4: warmer because there's no body language, there's no tone when
Speaker 4: you're writing email.
Speaker 5: They're the saying that success is when opportunity meets preparation.
Speaker 1: So we've always been geared to grow.
Speaker 4: I think once you're in it and it starts to
Speaker 4: become your livelihood and there are people depending on you,
Speaker 4: you're running payroll.
Speaker 3: That's the hard part.
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