RENEW IS ONE!!!🍾🎉

I can't believe it's already been a whole year since I opened the doors of Renew Physical Therapy & Wellness. I distinctly remember the day I decided I was going to open my own clinic-- I was sitting at my desk (at my old job) thinking about all the marketing I could do for the clinic I just opened. I had so many ideas to help take the clinic to become a busy, multi-therapist clinic. But I felt stuck. And that's when it hit me. My ideas were too different, too unconventional for this insurance-based clinic. I wanted to be different-- and by different I mean better. So from that day on, I started researching spaces, legality issues, what I needed to do in order to turn my dreams into something legit. From the moment I decided this was something I wanted, to the DAY I opened my doors to welcome my first patient, was less than 4 months. When I want something, I do anything and everything I can to get it done and I became obsessed (in a good way, I think) with reaching this goal. Big shout out to my husband for bringing me back down to earth a couple times, and more importantly, for jumping into the excitement to help me achieve my dream. This did not come without financial and time sacrifice to our family and I could not have accomplished this without his love and support. This has been the most memorable, challenging, educational, confusing and rewarding year. I have been blessed with the opportunity to serve my community and hopefully bring a little more light to those in my corner of the world. I've had the pleasure of meeting and working with many small local businesses owners who have mentored me and helped me grow as a person and business owner. I'd be lying if I said everyday wasn't challenging in it's own way-- and I know Insta picks up on that based off the algorithm of "Small Biz Owner Probs" reels and memes being targeting to me. There's a saying: "Only an entrepreneur will work 80 hours a week to avoid working 40 for someone else." And it is SO true. I never had an inclination to become an entrepreneur, but here I am!

Even though I LOVE working for myself, it is A LOT. I mean, I knew I would have to wear all the hats, but I didn't realize just how many hats that would entail.

Even so, I wouldn't trade it for the world. I have time flexibility-- I'm able to take my son to school and/or pick him up most days. I'm able to go to appointments without burning up my PTO. I'm able to work from the comfort of my cozy couch if my schedule allows for it. I get to go to lunch with my husband. I am able to volunteer for my kids school events, and am free to stay home with the kids if they are sick. I don't feel bad for taking a day off. I have clinical freedom--I am able to treat how I want and how my patients deserve to be treated; no more cookie cutter exercises. Everyone gets an individualized plan of care tailored to them and their needs, abilities and goals. We get to treat the body as a whole-- not as a joint or as an isolated injury. I get to work 1:1 with my clients for hour long, uninterrupted sessions allowing us to get to the root cause and fix the issue faster-- hence spending less time in the therapy clinic and more time doing enjoyable things. I [will] have more financial freedom-- I hope to one day, be able to pay for my mortgage, student loans, car payments, child care, groceries, monthly utilities, and still be able to save for retirement or even an emergency fun. Unfortunately, with todays inflation and the going rate for a PT salary-- that is just NOT possible on one income in the standard insurance-based PT clinic. Did you know, the average salary for an Outpatient Physical Therapist living in Iowa is just shy of $74,000? That is about $50,000 take home after taxes. Here is another stat for ya- according to the APTA (American Physical Therapy Association) the average PT has about $143,000 in student loan debt with over 22% of therapists NOT working in their designated field. Why is this and why do I keep talking about it? Well, Insurance companies reimbursement rates are the reason for such low PT salary. If a therapy clinic does not get reimbursed well from insurance companies, they can not afford to pay their staff. Clinics will "turn em' and burn em'" so to speak in order to get more reimbursement from insurance companies just to keep the lights on. Patients see this and they feel this. They can tell when a therapist is over worked, they notice the lack of continuity of care when they are seeing a different provider every time. And they get frustrated with lack of results and progress because they are given the same exercises as Sally down the road. 🙃

All this to say, insurance companies trying to dictate a persons health and plan of care is not right and not what we as humans deserve. As a cash based clinic owner who doesn't rely on insurance companies to pay me what THEY deem I am worth, I am able to deliver a higher level of care that my clients deserve and pay myself a fare wage in which I deserve.

Okay, Okay, off my soap box now. But, truly you guys, I am SO tremendously grateful to everyone I've encountered, and everyone who has trusted me with their health and to be a part of their journey. I would not be here without the support of my wonderful clients, the amazing business owners I've collaborated with, as well as my family and friends who have encouraged and routed for me every step of the way.

I'm still learning and I have so much left to learn, but I've got big plans for the future of Renew, so I will continue grinding away to bring the best care to the area!

CHEERS to ONE YEAR and many more to come! 🥂