In Episode 42, I speak with Roy Harmon over at Fusion Web Clinic and discuss the ins and outs of a speech therapy private practice.  There many advantages to owning your own private practice, but there are some negatives, too.  All of these aspects are discussed in this interview. Fusion Web Clinic also has a pediatric therapy giveaway for the Speech Therapy Private Practice Startup Podcast Listeners and you can register for that right here.

In this episode:

01:18 – If you do it right, it’s something that can change your life

02:05 – Name that can showcase services in community and that will grow with business

06:58 – You don’t have to have an LLC if you want to see some people on the side

09:25 – Main thing is to create relationships

10:15 – The best person to introduce yourself to any doctor’s or physician’s office is Referrals Clerk

11:45 – When you meet people don’t try to sell it, be yourself

14:58 – Nobody’s going to audit you because you’re not billing out insurance companies

19:46 – I don’t like working for anybody else but myself

24:46 – It’s my responsibility to make sure this thing rolls

27:35 – If you’re not responsible, you’ll be down for the count in a matter of no time

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Roy: So, thanks a lot for talking to me I really appreciate it. What I’m really interested in is, we are a Pediatric therapy EMR. So, the people that we serve are Pediatric therapists, whether they’re OTs, SLPs, PTs and we really try to provide them with valuable information that they can use, just really in every aspect of Pediatric therapy. And one of the things that a lot of therapies in general whether they’re pediatric therapies or not is eventually I think a lot of people start thinking maybe I should go out on my own, maybe I’ll start my own clinic. And you are the expert on this so I’m really looking forward to hearing some of the things that you think people need to think about before they get started. And I know that you’ve kind of talked about some things that people need to do before they open the doors. So, to speak could you go into that a little bit?

Kyle: Yeah, Nice to talk to you finally Roy. I know we bounced some emails back and forth and just finally nice to get some time where we both can talk about this stuff. This is I think important information for therapists who really want to start their own Private practice because if you do it and you do it right, it’s something that can change your life and really put you at that next level. But on the other side, if you don’t do it correctly it can destroy your finances. And again, I’m not a doom and gloom, but if you don’t do it right you can wipe you out. I’ve seen people shut their clinics cause health problems. I know of one lady she got really sick and I know a gentleman who just financially bankrupt from it. But starting out, it’s something that you got a plan and you’ve got a plan to do it right. So, I do have some thoughts on that. Yeah.

Roy: Awesome, I guess really the simplest thing is if you’re going to have a business you got to have a name for it, right?

Kyle: Yeah absolutely. And I’ve always said this is just personal preference. I like a name that can showcase my services in my community something that will grow with the business because I think what sets me apart from other people who were in this space. I teach people how to start a real business something that will take care of me, take care of employees, give the government their cut every month and give the state their cut every month. Everybody has something and I teach people how to start real life clinics not part time on the side, but real-life businesses. I guess people would say “headache”, that’s what a real business is. It’s not all peachy keen just roses.

It’s very difficult at times and I think for me I remember, I went and got some magazines and I was thinking what can I name my business and what can I name my Website. Because I didn’t want anything cheesy. I wanted to serve kids and adults, so I wanted a name that was kind of neutral and I found that name. And I remember looking at buzz words and magazines and this was a while back. So, when you could actually go to a convenience store and pick out a magazine. So, I picked out some of these magazines and look for these buzz words like support, prosper, things like that and I finally came up with Supportvoice.com. And that was for our clinic Therapy group of Tucson.

I remember this gentleman telling me, “No, you can’t do that. Your Website’s got to match your name because how are you going to rank on Google.” “Oh my god, I don’t know how to do that stuff. I never did SEO and I couldn’t do that.” This was 15 years ago and he said you just can’t do that. Well we did. Your name on your Website doesn’t always have to match your brand. I mean it’s part of us. We started this very early on so I just wanted to tell people, just start. That’s the main thing. You don’t have to sit there and over analyze everything you gain into that whole analysis paralysis thing. Therapists are notorious for ideas in no implementation, and I can say that because I’ve been a therapist for 25 years, Speech pathologist graduated from LSU Medical Center in New Orleans. So just get a domain name. Find you a good solid name that you feel that will work. Register it and just start and go with it. You can always change stuff later.

Roy: So, then what about when it comes to getting incorporated or the more legal aspects of the business. What comes next?

Kyle: Once you get your name you can go see a lawyer if you want but I use paralegals. I’ve got my favorite paralegal here in Tucson and she does only work here in Arizona. I threw her name out there but I know you guys have an international base of listeners so really wouldn’t do them any good. But I like paralegals I did a lawyer thing once and it was a lot of money. It was a bunch of money. But you can even get online and just get incorporated. Put your name in there put your address that you want your articles of incorporation mail to. You’ve got to get on that government Website and get your Tax I.D. number. And it’s a simple process it takes minutes and once you have that piece of paper from the government it says here’s your Tax I.D. and once you have your articles of incorporation from your paralegal or your legal team, you take that information to the bank and you can open up a separate Business checking account and throw some money in there and off you go. It’s really that simple.

And then I think the next thing would be is like for Speech pathologist you could get on the ASHA Website. I think they use Mercer insurance or something like that. They get a little deal. You can get you some general professional liability under that business name. It’s cheap as one of my podcast episodes where I actually talk about that and I even put a screenshot on there of the actual amount of the cost of that insurance. But it’s supercheap cheap and you just go with it.

Roy: At that point you’ve got a business, right?

Kyle: Absolutely.

Roy: Is there sort of any other steps? I mean I know that a Website is big. Is that something that you think you need right off the bat or should you focus more on finding patients at that point? What’s the process that you go through.

Kyle: That’s a real good question and to answer your question or to comment on what you said. That’s a business. I know people who and I just talked about this in a recent Episode 41, PrivateSLP.com in the podcast section. Some people don’t even need a corporation. I mean I wanted to start an empire I’ve always wanted to say that but I wanted a speech empire. People used to joke with me I’m like now I’m going to do it one day I will do it. But you don’t have to have an LLC if you want to see some people on the side. You can do that as long as it’s ethical and moral for you. Like if you’re a school-based Speech therapist and a parent hits you up and says, “Hey, can you see my kid after school today?” That might be a problem. I don’t know the whole legal ramifications for taking kids out of the school setting and seeing them privately on the side. I think that might not work.

We have a code of ethics at ASHA, there the American Speech Hearing Association. But if somebody off the street their mom had a stroke and they wanted you to see them for cash. You can do that. You got a license to practice in that state. You can do that. Sure, and you can have them write that check out to you and you can put that money in your checking account. You can be what’s called a sole proprietor so you don’t have to be a corporation. People say there is liability, you can get sued, but I’ve even made the example, I’ve had apartments for years in New Orleans I had apartments in here in Tucson. I’ve got rental property and I’ve always operated under a sole proprietor. I gave an example, I had a water heater blow up on one of our tenants. But it was their fault but I never got sued and I did the right thing I helped the lady out. And it’s a long story.

But my point is don’t be afraid to jump in. I think that’s where people shut down. They’re scared. They’ve got in their mind somewhere, you’re going to get sued for treating this patient. You just can’t do that. I had a lady recently. She contacted me and she wanted to kn