Therapist integrates business with home life
Physiotherapist Laura Pat-rick wants a baby some day, so she is structuring her growing business to be an organic part of her future life.
If everything works, her business will neither rule her, nor be an appendage to her family life.
It’s a holistic view, and one that might just stand a chance because Patrick, 33, is methodically planning in advance to fully integrate all aspects of her life.
Patrick started out at Vancouver Coastal Health as a consultant to parents and caregivers of kids with physical disabilities. She soon realized that while the kids often had funding for her treatment recommendations, there were few places for them to get that treatment.
“It’s hard to bring kids into a typical physio environment,” she said. Children often need one-on-one time, but in most offices, physios rotate among multiple clients during a single appointment. When a mom of a tiny girl with cerebral palsy going in for surgery told her “I value your input and all, but there is nobody to do the rehab after discharge from hospital,” Patrick had heard enough.
She quit her job and went out on her own.
She started by visiting kids in their homes, and renting space in a downtown office.
“My caseload grew very quickly. Parents talk,” Patrick said. “I had no social media, no website.”
Wanting the flexibility to manage her own space, she built a temporary studio in her garage. It did not last. For one thing, she got married and started thinking about children. “Working out of your back office can be extremely isolating and challenging on a day-to-day basis,” she said. “It’s a very intense working environment and I knew I would not be able to sustain that long term,” and certainly not with kids of her own. “If I do not create something larger than what this is, this could not survive,” she said. “What if all of a sudden I was injured or whatever?”
She decided to open her own office with other physios to share the workload and provide continuity when she eventually went on maternity leave. Children with physical disabilities often need long-term care and consistency is important.
She approached finding a location with the same holistic approach she was bringing to her own life. Opening an office in the medical district around Broadway and Oak Streets made initial sense, but she realized that for her clients, simple access and free parking would make a large difference. Major arteries such as Broadway for-bid parking from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., the prime after-school appointment time.
Patrick took a map and put in a pin for where each of her clients lived and looked for the midpoint. She eventually took an office on Fraser Street – 15 minutes from everywhere – and right of first refusal on the one next door.
She opened Kids Physio Group with 850 square feet in October 2010 knowing that she would not need employees to make the numbers work, and with the added benefit of low Fraser Street rents. “It was an opportunity to get my feet wet without punching above my weight class,” she said. By August, she had taken over the second space and now has 1,800 square feet.
“At first, to be honest, I thought: ‘Is this the most kid-friendly place in the world?’ But it is,” Patrick said. “We get so many comments about how simple it is to get to and from our location.”
Barely a year and half in, Pat-rick already has five physiotherapists, two occupational therapists and two receptionists working for her. She’s down to seeing clients just two days a week and spends three days on business development. She’s hard at work writing systems and operations manuals. She’s also already connected with networking and support groups such as the Mom Café network and The Mom Entrepreneur.
“I see other women my age with kids without the flexibility of being able to really enjoy their job but also participate in raising their kids,” she said. “My understanding is I can do both and I’ve met other women who are doing both who are entrepreneurs. I’m motivated by the women at [the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs] who have kids. Mompreneurs exist in full force in Vancouver. Their businesses are successful and they are not burned out. I think it takes hiring the right people to help you. That’s the key.”
One of Patrick’s role models is Jennifer Hood who owns Jump Gymnastics in Yaletown.
“She has three kids and a child with a medical condition. Last year, she took the entire year off from her company and she hired her office manager to run the space because her child was quite ill. I remember looking at that and, like wow. She can take the entire year off because she had a family situation, yet her company did not dissolve. I’ve been exposed to kids like that. The advice I’ve been given? Make sure you are not the only person in your company that can do your job.”
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Submited at Wednesday, February 8th, 2012 at 3:00 pm on Uncategorized by Alina
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