2019 has been a great year for PrivateSLP, the Speech Therapy Private Practice Startup Podcast and Kyle’s clinics, Therapy Group of Tucson!

When starting, growing or scaling a real speech therapy private practice, one of the benefits of learning from an active clinic owner with multiple disciplines and locations is gaining real-life experience and expertise so that you can avoid the pitfalls and mistakes that Kyle has made already.   If you’re going to learn, then learn from someone who is actively managing thousands of visits and multiple locations.

In this episode, I review 2019 and list our highlights and celebrate our overall growth while giving you an idea of what to expect if you start and grow your own clinic.

Also, the time to join my PrivateSLP All Access Community is right now before the price increases on January 1, 2020.

In this episode:

01:12 – 59769 + listeners

01:48 – Welcome to Julie Griffith, SLP to the AAC

05:38 – Making Changes

06:30 – Insanity defined

07:05 – Second location

07:35 – Speech Therapy numbers

07:48 – Employees and benefits

If you sit around and talk about it on Facebook or sit there and watching YouTube videos and kind of dreaming about it, you’re going to get what you’ve always got. Nothing, no change, whatsoever, you can sit there and absorb information till the cows come home. But if you don’t get off of it and change and do something get into action nothing’s going to change.

Well, Hello everyone you’re listening to the Speech Therapy Private Practice StartUp Podcast. This is episode number 51. My name is Kyle Meades and I’m a Speech Pathologist since 1993. And these podcasts are designed to help you improve your business and your life one Podcast at a time.

Welcome back to the show everyone. Thanks again for all the emails and all the questions, and as of today, today’s Friday December 27th 2019, we have well over 59769 listeners to the show and I’m super glad you guys are out there getting good valuable information because you know me I’m going to say it every single episode, value is what you get in the absence of money. And these podcasts are absolutely free for you, so if you don’t mind, please go to the iOS or Android platform of your choice and leave some good five star feedback that way other people just like you can get the same valuable information that you’re receiving right now.

And also I wanted to have a shout out and welcome to Julie Griffith. She’s a speech pathologist. She joined the All Access Community here in early December someone to welcome her to the community. And in our community right now we just launched an iOS and Android application so the community is actually easily accessible more so than ever before. And we’ve got monthly trainings we’ve got weekly coaching calls also wanted to recognize one of our perfect students who’s doing a splendid job. Their company now they contacted me in June of this past year and this is just amazing. I was in Hawaii vacationing with my family and I get this email about the All Access Community and some questions. I pick up the phone and I speak to these two individuals and I start interviewing them for a possible membership in the community but more specifically I just knew that this person was the Perfect student.

And since we’ve started working together this past June their business now has over 20 visits per week in less than six months they’ve actually got their own office now. We helped their company complete their credentialing and contracting. I helped these two individuals negotiate their service contracts and helping them with their employees. It just gets better and better and you’re going to be hearing from this company very soon I’m going to do some interviews with these guys.

They’re just killing it and it’s just this is what I do this and it’s just wonderful to see what happens when people just ordinary people who have a dream, who have a skill set, who have that degree. Well it’s funny because the person that I’m helping doesn’t even have a degree in Speech and Hearing or communication disorders or Speech therapy services. This person is a husband of a person and it’s just really cool to help people grow and improve their life and sit there and have these conversations knowing that 2020 is going to be even better than 2019. I mean what a great feeling it is.

I remember before Hurricane Katrina I used to take these walks around Audubon Park in New Orleans, just complain and edges ticked off and hateful. I was so angry inside because I hated to go to work. I hated the kind of hours I was pulling at this local hospital. And my boss was doing the best she could and the people I work with, they were doing the best they could. But this big organization was just sucking the life out of me. we used to have these beepers on my pants there and on the edge of my coat and that thing would go off constantly, “We need you on this floor.” I mean yes, I’m a hard worker. Don’t get me wrong but I knew I wanted something different, I knew I wanted a different life, I knew I needed a change but I was just stuck in that comfort zone. When you get those checks weekly or bi monthly checks and you just get stuck in a rut and that’s when Hurricane Katrina happened and I moved to Tucson.

And so that’s when my life changed. So it’s just nice to see that change happened to other people who reach out and contact me. I’m able to help these guys improve their business improve their life and I can’t wait for 2020 to help these guys grow even more. So I’m just fired up about that so I want to share that with you. But this Episode 51 is sort of a year in review for the Speech Therapy Private Practice StartUp Podcast. My business Therapy group of Tucson and also some things I’ve been doing on a personal note so just to kind of give you a glimpse into what can actually happen when you do change your life or when you do change your mindset, when you do have that shift.

And again people say, you’re just bragging and blah-blah-blah. No I’m not. I’m showing you guys if you want to do this, what can happen. That’s simply all I’m doing here. I’m giving you guys a roadmap. I’m a guide. I’m kind of a conduit. I’m showing you guys what can be accomplished when you do certain things. So if you sit around and talk about it on Facebook or sit there watching YouTube videos and kind of dreaming about it, you’re going to get what you’ve always got. Nothing, no change, whatsoever you can sit there and absorb information till the cows come home. But if you don’t get off of it and change and do something, get into action nothing’s going to change. I mean doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, that’s called insanity. So you can continue to be insane or you can reach out and pay a little bit of money and get some help and get the right information, so you can change your life and get into action and do it the right way. Or you can get multiple opinions from multiple people and sit there and kind of like a dog chasing their tail spin-spin-spin and you just get sick and fall down right. So I’m just trying to help.

Anyway year in review for our business we did this year. We got a new commercial building. We’re able to get almost 8000 square foot commercial building for our second location. I started looking in Tucson and there’s a really nice place down towards the south area town. I started looking into that and comparing rents in the area and we were able to negotiate and actually buy the building from a company who just had this building completely renovated so that was exciting for us.

We also expanded our disciplines to meet the wants and needs of our community. We increased our Speech Therapy discipline, we also increased our occupational therapy and added physical therapy to the mix. So we’re now offering all three disciplines speech occupational and physical therapy. Also this year I increased the benefits for all our employees. We offered a couple different health plans to choose from. One is always free and it’s a great plan. It’s the same plan that I have for my family but we also added a couple more.

There was an HSA plan and also a plan that you can pay a little bit of money every paycheck and get just a little bit lower deductible copay. So we did that for our employees. Also I increased bonuses for our employees this year. Also going back to that commercial building I went to pay the first half of the year’s taxes on that real estate property and it’s real property. You have real taxes on real property so went to pay and the City of Tucson they sent me my first payment back and they said you don’t have to pay taxes we’re refunding this amount and it floored me.

I called and I said, “Why are you doing that?” And they said, the owner of that building in January was approved for a non profit status. And you get that for the year, so basically you don’t have to pay taxes. We’re given twelve grand back to you for the year of 2019. So I said, great I’m gonna give that to my employees so that’s what I did. That’s part of their bonus this year. I also increased the profit sharing plan from a traditional 401 k to a higher plan to give more free money to all the employees who work with me at Therapy group of Tucson because our