5 Steps to making a side hustle cash practice into full time business

[00:00:00] Hey, what's up? It's Aaron. Welcome back to The Aaron LeBauer Show. We're talking about the steps to making a side hustle cash practice into a full time business. Okay, like, we can talk about starting a side hustle. But you probably have already done that or you've tried that work. It's just a little easy. But you're stuck in this zone of, well, I can't drop my job because I'm going to lose my security. I'm going to lose my income. I'm not sure it's going to work.

[00:00:28] Then we're going to talk about that today because this episode is for you. And hey, look, if you're here because you're a physical therapist who already owns a cash practice, I guarantee you're going to learn at least one new thing today. If you're here because you're thinking about it, you're going to learn something. And shoot, maybe you've owned a practice for a long time. Maybe you're not even cash. You're just checking this out.

[00:00:48] Look, like there's one thing that I know you're going to learn when we talk about negotiating. We're talking about mindset today. We're talking about marketing. You're going to get some good stuff. So stay tuned. So look, if you don't know me, I don't know, maybe you've been listening to this forever. Maybe you haven't.

[00:01:08] If there's one thing that I probably haven't shared with very many people, it's that I used to race sailboats. And I recently bought a 1956 Nichols Lightning. I think it was Nichols and Holman might have built it in 1956. It's wood. It's been rigged to race. It is beautiful. I got a smoking deal on it.

[00:01:30] But I bought it with my brother and it happened to be right in my backyard and I'm hoping to go sailing it tomorrow. I've tried to go out three times, but eventually there's a repair you got to make or I showed up and the marina was closed because of a canoe race. And then last week I showed up with my kids. We got all rigged and ready to go. And I went to go put it on the van to tow it into the thing. And there's a little lock on the tow hitch hook on the trailer. And I left the key at home 20 minutes away. So anyways,

[00:01:58] I've also saw 43 patients one day as a PT student and decided to start a cash practice that day because I realized and knew that there was no way I was going to be able to treat patients the way that they had already been asking me to help them as a massage therapist in the current insurance based model. And guess what? That model is getting even worse. Copays are going up. Reimbursements are going down. It's hard to find PTs who want to work. The new generation of PTs doesn't want to work as hard as we did. Gen Xers and

[00:02:27] the people on the tail end of the baby boom, you know, that is just a very different vibe. Um, and people are struggling. And so a lot of people are just tired of working for someone who can't pay them. You're trying to make some side hustle cash and yeah, maybe you've got a couple thousand bucks, um, side hustle cash a month, but we're trying to go full time. Hey, if you want to really listen to me interview someone who did exactly this, um, go check out my interview with Alexis Sam's,

[00:02:57] Alexis Sam's, I did this like three or four years ago. Um, I don't even know that show number. It's probably under 100. It may or may not even be available on the iTunes app anymore. It's been five years. It's probably 2018 or 20, 2019 when I did it. But Alexis was making two to $3,000 a month.

[00:03:17] And, um, she had a side hustle, but she also had a job making $120,000 in home health. And it was like, well, how do I leave my job? How do I get out of this job and make this transition? Well, she joined our platinum mastermind and went from making 3000 a month to 5000 to 9000 a month.

[00:03:34] And as she got to 9000 a month, the numbers of visits she saw per week. So it went up from three to five, um, you know, like to 15 visits a week or 20 visits a week. And then it went down as she went to 9k partly because we raised her rates, but we didn't raise a rate so high that it was unethical. We raised her rates to an appropriate amount. And she was able to make enough money to try and trust and get some results.

[00:04:01] Hey, I can drop this job and then go make multiple six figures in my practice as a dance medicine specialist. And she went on to start some online programs and she built out an amazing, um, space. And Alexis was like the first, she was the first, uh, entrepreneur of the year in 2020 at PT BizCon. So check out that episode after you're done listening to this one. But here's some of the steps. Here's the, here's how we have, here we're going to transition your cash practice to a full-time business.

[00:04:29] I mean, there's many people who started their cash practice. Like she did that for years. There's others that have started recently. You may be one of them, but you're like, I just don't know when to quit my job. How do I know when to quit my job? Well, you don't, don't wait until you've replaced all your income.

[00:04:47] Especially if you're not charging, you know, a hundred, $150 a visit. And at, if you're charging what I'm charging in here in Greensboro, which is we're doing 250 a visit. It takes nine visits a week to make $108,000. And that might not be enough to, you know, take care of your hundred, you know, $130,000 salary doing home health or whatever you might be doing.

[00:05:09] But that's still more than most people are making doing 80 K a year. And, um, maybe you got a baby, maybe you got family, maybe you got other responsibilities. Like I totally get it.

[00:05:20] You're going to have to take a risk because as soon as you quit your job, you're going to have more time to put into your business, to grow it. And your back's going to be a little bit against the wall and you're going to work even harder. You're going to make it work.

[00:05:33] You know what the best thing that could probably happen to you is getting fired. Tons of people got let go or decided to quit in 2020 when they were, um, being told you have to get a vaccine or you have to do this or that in order to continue working here.

[00:05:49] And some people didn't want to get a vaccine. Some people just didn't want to be told what to do. A lot of people with ADHD don't like to be told what to do and make bad employees.

[00:05:58] Um, and so I had, I had handfuls of new clients then I think in 20, I want to say 2016, 2015, something happened it with, with insurance reimbursements. And a lot of people got let go from their jobs. I can't remember. I can't remember, but there, there are these waves where insurance cuts happen, Medicare cuts happen. People get let go.

[00:06:19] So like I'm saying, the best thing that could happen is you get fired. I had someone recently say they were going to drop down to part-time and they either decided she's new in the cash PT blueprint. So I don't know the whole story.

[00:06:33] They either decided they were just going to do it, but I've had people do this where they, they go and ask you, Hey, I want to do part-time. And their job says, no, you can't do part-time. And they're like, okay, I'm going to quit. Or they're like, Oh, we're going to let you go.

[00:06:43] Anyways, I had one client a few years ago, Stephanie McMillan and Stephanie did a hundred K in her first eight months. She did. Stephanie did 15,000 in her first month open. I'll tell you how she did that. Cause she was a birth doula. She was working somewhere and she could only do two to three births a month.

[00:07:01] And she was charging like $800, you know, cause she was making $43 an hour working at this other clinic. And Stephanie was like, well, I'm going to give them, she joined her mastermind. We got on our, our game plan call. And she's like, well, I'm going to give my boss two months notice.

[00:07:15] It's like, why are you going to give her two months notice? She's like, well, that only seems fair. Like she didn't have anyone else to take my patients, all this stuff. And I was like, I think you only need to give her two weeks notice.

[00:07:24] I'm like, give her 30 days. And that's nice. And she was like, okay. And she, and she wasn't sure about it. She went and she said, Aaron, I gave her three days notice.

[00:07:33] And boss was like, basically, basically cool. No worries. Good. I'm, you know, like you don't need to stay beyond two weeks. And she was like, she was so concerned that her boss was going to be hurt.

[00:07:44] But the next thing she realized was that the business owner was like ready to move on and go hire someone else or had someone else already there.

[00:07:51] And then, so what do we do? We raised the price on Stephanie's, um, birth services and booked her in six, you know, in one month, like all the babies didn't come in three days, but we booked six of them plus her pelvic floor floor clients.

[00:08:05] And she crushed it. Right. And she's doing great. And she isn't working like overly hard, you know, and she's got other people and working with her now.

[00:08:13] Um, you know, but she had a specialty service. She was kind of already doing, which is kind of a side hustle.

[00:08:19] Okay. So number one thing we need to do, if you want a ready to transition so you can stop, you know, the SAT word is called perseverating.

[00:08:29] Number one thing you gotta do is you gotta know your why you gotta know why this is important to you. Who is it help? Who does it affect?

[00:08:36] Right. You might be taking a risk, but just imagine instead of earning 80,000 or a hundred thousand dollars a year, you could go make $300,000 a year.

[00:08:44] How much better of a life is your family, your spouse, your partner, your kids going to have?

[00:08:51] You gotta know why it's important to you. What are you missing out on by not doing this?

[00:08:58] What potentially might happen if you don't take this risk? Will you get to your grave and, and regret that you didn't try this?

[00:09:05] Will you go five years down the road and say, I should have done this sooner?

[00:09:08] Will you think about this for months and then finally get fired? And now it's the time you can do it.

[00:09:12] And you're like, God, why didn't I do this before?

[00:09:15] Right. But, but if you don't know why you need to do it now, there's no reason to take the risk.

[00:09:23] And taking a risk isn't for everyone. If you're making three to five K a month as a side hustle, like,

[00:09:30] you know, you could probably quit your job. You know, if you're making a thousand, 2000,

[00:09:35] maybe we need to like fix a few things and give you a strategy on when and how to make this shift happen.

[00:09:41] You need to get clear on your goals. There's number two, you need to get clear on your goals.

[00:09:45] How many patients a week are you seeing right now? How many patients a week do you need to be seeing?

[00:09:50] How much money do you need in the bank each month? I talked to someone yesterday and I was asking them,

[00:09:55] you know, how much revenue do you make every month? I don't know.

[00:10:01] She's like, I know what my adjusted gross income is. I'm like, okay, but what's your business revenue

[00:10:06] like per month? I don't know. Like, well, I can't help you make a goal if I don't know. I mean,

[00:10:11] I can make a goal and say, Hey, we need your adjusted gross revenue instead of 80,000 to be 150.

[00:10:17] Right. But you could do that and you could be grossing 175 a year and have an $85,000 adjusted

[00:10:26] gross income, or you can have $150,000 adjusted gross income. So maybe the better goal is that,

[00:10:31] but okay. I was like, well, how much are you making or paying yourself each month? She didn't

[00:10:35] really know. She just knew what her number was for 2024. So we got to know these numbers.

[00:10:41] We got to know how much money do you need in the bank each month? And we need to know if you're

[00:10:45] charging the right amount. Cause if you're doing $50 visits or $75 visits, you might be looking at,

[00:10:51] okay, I'm going to see 25 patients a week. Like I'm not going to make what I need to make to make

[00:10:55] this transition. So you might be calculating your future with the wrong data. You know? So if you

[00:11:03] might be, there's no way I can charge $150 an hour, well, look, if that's you, I guarantee whoever

[00:11:10] you're working for is billing more than $300 a visit for people to see you. So, um, get your head out of

[00:11:16] the sand and figure this out. Cause if you're not charging the right amount, you'll never make this

[00:11:22] transition. Okay. Number three, you have to commit and go all in. You have to stop doubting yourself.

[00:11:31] You have to address all your fears about failure, um, money and disappointment and drop your ego.

[00:11:40] So look, it's like, stop doubting yourself. Like you're smart. You're good. You do not need

[00:11:45] another con ed class to help people get results. Not everybody is going to miraculously be healed

[00:11:50] coming to see you. You don't need to learn more better clinical skills to be a cash practice owner.

[00:11:58] You just need to know and be one step ahead of your patients. Like you do not need to be better

[00:12:03] than you are now or better than your colleague. Cause you're not treating your colleague, but look,

[00:12:08] even me, I need a colleague to help me out. I need some, I can't needle my own QL.

[00:12:14] No, I can needle my infraspinatus. I can't, I'm not, cannot needle my own traps.

[00:12:20] Sometimes I need someone to help me out and they don't have to be as experienced as me to help me.

[00:12:24] They don't have to know everything I know about the body. I mean, look, I've been

[00:12:27] treating bodies for 22 years. There's PTs listening and in the profession have been

[00:12:31] treating bodies longer than me. And there's people that are right out of school that can help me.

[00:12:37] And that's part of, that's a little bit about ego. And that's a little bit about fear of failure.

[00:12:41] You were trained to be super smart and value credentials, but your patients don't give a shit.

[00:12:47] They want to know, can you help them? Personal trainers don't have half the education you do.

[00:12:55] Some of them might. They're helping people. So drop the ego about that. Drop your fear of failure.

[00:13:04] What's the worst that can happen? You get another job and maybe you negotiate an additional $100 per

[00:13:12] month in salary when you go back to the old job or a new one and you know, you get a bonus.

[00:13:19] Cause I guarantee you there's a PT job in your town open right now. There are a few years where it

[00:13:25] wasn't. Hey, know that people will pay for a high value service. People will pay cash for PT

[00:13:34] and your town is big enough. And, uh, you are good enough. Your town is big enough. Like, I don't

[00:13:40] know how I had to beat it with a, uh, like a stick with it. Beat it. Was it beating a dead horse with a

[00:13:45] stick? Go listen to the episode with, um, Megan Stinson. Go listen to the episode with, uh, Holland Oliver.

[00:13:52] Go listen. I think I did an episode with, uh, Justine Calderwood or I I've got a, she was one of my

[00:13:59] early clients. There are people with, you know, making 20, 30 K a month, one therapist, two therapists

[00:14:07] in towns as small as 3000, 4000 people, 5000 people, 12,000 people. I mean, your town is not

[00:14:14] too small. That's, um, you, your brain lying to yourself, protecting you, or that's you listening

[00:14:19] to the wrong people saying no one's going to pay cash for PT. Okay. Um, your town is big enough.

[00:14:25] I've had people say, I live in New York city. I live in Manhattan. People won't pay. I'm like,

[00:14:30] are you kidding me? You're good enough. We already covered that. The worst thing that happens is you

[00:14:35] go get another job if you don't, but what would, how would you feel if you never even tried?

[00:14:42] Or will you regret not even trying live without regrets? Um, I, I talked to someone, I had a client

[00:14:52] a few years ago and she was like, Aaron, I just can't, I just can't keep up with the coaching.

[00:14:56] And it's just, you know, like something like that. And she's like, she didn't say that. She's like,

[00:15:01] I need to drop out of this program or I need a refund on the pro course or whatever it was.

[00:15:05] And I said, well, why, what's up? She's like, I just don't have time. She was working another job

[00:15:09] and, and she was like, I just don't have time to put in to do the work. I was like, okay. I was

[00:15:16] like, well, I mean, she was like 34. And I said, I was like, you know, I was like, well,

[00:15:20] how many kids do you have? She was like, none. I was like, I almost started laughing. I was like,

[00:15:27] I was like, well, what do you do on the weekend? She's like, you know, well, I like to rest and I

[00:15:30] need time for myself. And I, I go exercise and I hang out with friends. That's someone who's not

[00:15:37] all in and committed to their business. That's someone who's still doubting their business and

[00:15:41] lying to themselves. They're like, I don't have time to do this business. You have time.

[00:15:45] If it's important, you'll make time. You'll get up an hour early every day.

[00:15:51] Just ask someone with kids, like, how do they find time to build a business? Some of the most

[00:15:55] successful business owners I know started with kids because they're doing it for their kids to

[00:16:00] give their kids a better life. Talk about some meaning. Um, I started before my kids came.

[00:16:06] Um, I've got other clients who are doing that and they're feeling the pressure and they go, oh,

[00:16:10] I've got a kid coming. I need to stay safe. Okay, cool. Stay safe. That is your duty.

[00:16:18] Also, I mean, but it's also your duty to provide. It's also your duty to provide opportunity for your

[00:16:24] family. And sometimes providing opportunity means taking a risk. Okay. Number four, we got to get

[00:16:32] your marketing dialed in. You know what? Um, we can go all in all about, you know, how to run a

[00:16:40] business, all these fun, exciting things to do, doing Facebook ads, et cetera. Don't run Facebook ads

[00:16:46] unless your marketing's dialed in or you're willing to spend the cash to, you know, dial in your

[00:16:52] marketing. You can spend $2,000 a month to dial in your marketing, or you can dial in your marketing

[00:16:56] and then go spend $2,000 a month and start generating leads. If you're running ads and

[00:17:04] they're people are just, they're sending people to your homepage, uh, you're wasting money.

[00:17:09] If you're running ads and you don't have a strategy for converting them into clients and getting them on

[00:17:15] the phone and getting them into your clinic, you don't have an automated follow-up system.

[00:17:18] You're wasting money. Okay. So we need to get your leads. You're going to need to dial in your leads,

[00:17:25] your lead magnets, your, um, your list. Okay. Where do you put them? You don't put them in a

[00:17:32] spreadsheet. You automate it by putting them into a, uh, HIPAA compliant CRM like PT marketing machine.

[00:17:39] Then we need to nurture them. We need to nurture leads with text messages and emails and other

[00:17:45] specials and offers and, uh, information about you and get them to know, love, and trust you as a

[00:17:51] nurturer. So I can hand you over an automated email system. I can hand you over promotions.

[00:17:58] I can hand you over, uh, lead magnets and ideas to generate leads based on your niche.

[00:18:02] And then the follow-up emails, um, that go with it. I can hand you proven landing pages at work.

[00:18:09] But in order for a landing page to be set up, we have to know that the lead magnet works.

[00:18:14] And then we can automate this process to get them in, to see you.

[00:18:18] And with the scripts to get them on the phone, to talk to them on the phone, et cetera,

[00:18:21] we have to get your marketing dialed in. And now is the best time we get that dialed in

[00:18:26] and you've got lots of demand for your service. No time. We can, we can increase the prices to a rate

[00:18:32] that's sustainable. And then we can go to the boss or supervisor and say, Hey, I'm giving you my two

[00:18:37] week, my notice, my 30 day notice. But if you don't have that, and you don't have the confidence

[00:18:44] that you're charging the right amount, you don't have the confidence that you've got people wanting

[00:18:47] to come see you, it's going to be really hard to do that. If you are lacking time, but you know,

[00:18:51] this is going to work and you're ready to go all in and quit your job. And you've got an extra 40

[00:18:55] hours a week to work on figuring this stuff out. Just imagine how much of this you can get done.

[00:19:00] If you've got 10 patients a week and another 35 hours a week or more to work on figuring this out.

[00:19:08] And if you're going to run your own business, you're probably working 50 hour weeks. Cause if

[00:19:11] you're working for someone else doing 40 hours plus notes on the weekend, you're working 50 something

[00:19:16] hours. Um, and you put in that same amount of time into your own business. Just imagine how fast it's

[00:19:21] going to grow. So number five, the fifth step to transitioning from a side hustle cash practice

[00:19:30] into a full-time businesses, get help to go faster, get help. This is kind of a little bit of an ego

[00:19:37] thing. Like I know it, you know, we're trained to be a doctor as a smart person in the room,

[00:19:42] but we also need to understand that business is a different game than working somewhere. And

[00:19:49] you need help. You know, you got help. Uh, you had clinical instructors to help you with your

[00:19:56] clinical skills. When you go to a con ed course, there's someone that teaches it.

[00:20:01] There are professors in school, but you don't need to go get an MBA to start a cash practice or any kind

[00:20:07] of business. You, um, but you need to work with, uh, mentors and coaches and you need to get proven

[00:20:15] systems. You can try to figure out doing it on your own, but that's like someone getting out of

[00:20:19] college and going, Hey, I'm gonna figure out how to become a physical therapist by watching YouTube

[00:20:23] videos and reading textbooks. You could probably do it. You probably can't get licensed because you

[00:20:28] have to, you know, good thing is, uh, to start a business, you don't have to graduate from an

[00:20:34] accredited university. But the point I'm trying to make is you need to learn about business and you

[00:20:40] need to learn about it from someone who's been doing it for a long time and who understands the game

[00:20:44] and he's weathered the storm multiple times. You know, I, I, so my, my massage practice survived the

[00:20:52] dot-com crash in the early two thousands in San Francisco, my PT business, you know, survived the,

[00:20:58] yeah, I started it in, uh, the bottom of the recession in 2009 with a baby on the way.

[00:21:04] It survived me being gone. My massage practice survived me being gone for six months for my

[00:21:08] clinical rotation with Alan Ling, who I mentioned. Um, maybe I mentioned him on the podcast I just

[00:21:13] recorded, um, but you guys have seen him and it survived COVID and it's still here.

[00:21:19] And, um, I've helped thousands of people. So whether you work with me or someone else,

[00:21:23] just make sure that they know what they're talking about and they're not new and they're not here

[00:21:26] because it's fun and it's a good idea. They're here because they care about you and they care

[00:21:31] about patients. And here's one of the problems about me is that I believe in your success more than

[00:21:36] you probably do right now. And just like, I believe that my patients can get better more than they do.

[00:21:41] Um, let's get help to go faster. Work with a coach. Number two, part of this is number B is

[00:21:47] get proven software systems and strategies. Like don't try to make it up and don't try to,

[00:21:51] don't go study Dan Kennedy and Russell Brunson and Frank Kern and Badris Cooley and and Taki Moore.

[00:21:58] Don't study all these old school marketing guys and then try to figure it out and adapt it.

[00:22:01] That's what I had to do when there were no business coaches or cash practice mentors.

[00:22:07] And I had to figure out the emails and the software and the systems and all that stuff.

[00:22:13] Just go get it, go be willing to pay for it and invest in it because if you invest in it,

[00:22:18] it's going to bring and you utilize it. It's going to, it's going to pay for itself. So,

[00:22:23] so quickly. Um, why try to reinvent sliced bread when you can just go buy it at Whole Foods

[00:22:27] or Harris Teeter and you can buy, you can buy sliced bread at the dollar store. Um,

[00:22:35] but what the quality are you going to get? You learn from clinical instructors in school.

[00:22:40] You paid a hundred thousand dollars to be able to learn how to be a competent physical therapist.

[00:22:45] Um, now what you need to do is you invest, I don't know, I shoot a 10th of that effort and money

[00:22:52] into growing your business, but you will not invest in your own business unless you believe in

[00:22:56] yourself. Like I said, I believe in you. You just have to believe in yourself and you're

[00:23:01] the best person to bet on and to invest in is you because you won't let you down. So if you're ready,

[00:23:10] if you're ready to make this transition, you're ready to make the leap, you're ready to get

[00:23:13] started or you're ready to even just add 10 K to a month to your business, then, um, the time is now.

[00:23:20] And if you'd like some help doing it, you'd like a proven system and roadmap and a marketing

[00:23:24] strategy, then all you gotta do is go to call with Aaron.com and book in a time to chat with me.

[00:23:30] And if I can help you, I'll point you in the right direction. If I can't,

[00:23:33] I'll, um, tell you where to go. I'll tell you what to do. Tell you, I can't help you. Um,

[00:23:38] but if I can help, we would book in another time to talk about how and what that looks like.

[00:23:42] Um, and I would never try to force you into anything that I didn't think was going to help.

[00:23:47] Um, but you just need to be honest with me and let me know like, yeah, Aaron, no,

[00:23:51] this isn't the right fit for me. Totally cool. Um, or if you just get a lot from this podcast and

[00:23:58] you're like, but yeah, but I don't want to hang out with someone with red hair.

[00:24:00] I totally get that. Um, but I would love to know that if you get one thing out of this show,

[00:24:06] I have anything I said, I'd love to know about it. So you can always message me on Instagram,

[00:24:10] but if you'd like a proven marketing system, you'd like us to drop, um, marketing, um,

[00:24:16] um, marketing, uh, what's it called promotions into your account every month. And you'd like us to

[00:24:21] help you get it set up. Um, so that it's kind of like Mad Libs. We give you the automations and

[00:24:26] the strategies and, and the, and the landing pages, and you just input in your own like business name,

[00:24:32] your ideas, and we get you help that set up. Just book in a call with me, call with Aaron.com.

[00:24:37] We'll, uh, take a look at where you are, where you want to go. We'll uncover the

[00:24:41] bottlenecks and hidden opportunities and hidden income in your business.

[00:24:44] And we'll get you a plan to transition into a full-time cash practice, or even take your

[00:24:49] cash practice and add 10 K a month or more to your business in the next, uh, you know,

[00:24:55] three to 12 months. Um, that's it for today. Remember it's all about belief and taking action

[00:25:00] and I'll see you on the next show. Peace. Hey, what's up? It's Aaron. Thanks so much for taking

[00:25:07] the time out of your day to listen to the show. If you have an established PT business and you want

[00:25:11] to 10 X, your marketing time, income impact, and scale your business to multiple six or seven

[00:25:17] figures, then I'd love to invite you to join me or someone on my team for a free strategy and scale

[00:25:22] session. On this call, we'll help you get clear on your goals, identify the obstacles in your way,

[00:25:26] uncover the hidden opportunities in your business, and then we'll map out a three-step action plan so

[00:25:31] that you have more fun, help even more people make even more money much quicker. And you'll leave the

[00:25:36] session feeling clear, confident, and excited about taking your physical therapy business to the next

[00:25:40] level. Sound good? If that's a yes, just DM me the word call over on Instagram at Aaron Labauer,

[00:25:46] and I'll get back to you with all the details. Thanks so much. And we'll see you next week on the show.