The Fitness Niche - When Rehab is over, fitness programs can boost your practice's cash flow by Stephen Clark, PT, DPT, MHS, OCS, MBA Have you ever considered keeping your physical therapy patients after they finish treatment? Or how about creating a new referral stream where you control the referrals? I am talking about starting an executive and/or individual fitness training program right in your own facility. While it is not a new idea, it could be the right time for you to start this service and expand your opportunities. First you must ask: Do you have a competitive advantage? What are you better at than everybody else and how can you use this to your advantage? Write down what sts you apart from the competition using the SWOT analysis: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Make two columns (strengths and weaknesses) and list what you are good at and where you can improve. Next, flip the paper over and make two columns for opportunities and threats. These columns should pertain to the local, national, or even global market. What is going on in the community around you? Now match your strengths with the market opportunities. Do you see a way to leverage or improve your position? After this exercise, you should know what is happening in your office (strengths and weaknesses) and what is happening around you (opportunities and threats). However, sometimes the best action is no action. You cannot do everything well, so stay focused. Use the SWOT tool to see if an opportunity for fitness services could improve your practice, generate extra business, and improve cash flow. Competing with Fitness Clubs To begin an executive or individual fitness program, you must assess your equipment, location, staff, and overall "feel". For example, if your office looks and smells like a hospital, you will have a problem signing up new fitness members. Instead, your office must be fun, entertaining, clean, and accessible. However, most of you do not have a 20,000-sq-ft physical therapy office that looks like a fitness club. And if you try to compete with the national fitness and health clubs, you will never match their diversity of equipment or their economy of scale. You can compete with the existing health clubs by offering more and better service. No single profession is better equipped than physical therapy to offer this high level of service for fitness customers interested in functional health and preventing musculoskeletal injuries. Your physical therapy knowledge is secret ingredient that will build and maintain a steady fitness program. Both the public and corporate worlds will recognize your knowledge as a highly desirable commodity and be willing to pay for it. If you are not well versed in applying exercise to strengthening and injury prevention, learn how to hire someone who already knows. However, knowledge alone is not enough. You must be able to share this knowledge and personalize a program for each and every client. This combination of knowledge along with the ability to share it is what will separate you from the competition. page 1 | page 2 | page 3 | page 4 | page 5 | page 6 Solving the Athletic Patient Puzzle The Fitness Niche Train and Sustain A Safer Way to Stronger Abs Postoperative Support Following ACLR Weight of Injury Bracers Beware Gluteus Medius Stimulates Lower Extremity Movement Physical Therapy Following Peripheral Nerve Surgeries Email this page to a friend Further reading Featured next to Stephen Clark's article is a spot light on Pat Croce A Niche Master