Six weeks before I graduated from Physical Therapy school, I took a class on starting a private practice. I was the first student to sign up and arrived for class 15 minutes early, eager to get a front seat.
My excitement quickly turned to discouragement. The instructor strongly recommended that we wait at least seven to ten years before we should even consider opening a private practice. My instincts said otherwise. I had already started a successful personal training business while in school. Why wait now? Undaunted, I started my own physical therapy practice in 1989, just 18 months after graduation. It certainly wasn’t easy, but I lived and prospered to tell the story. In fact, my first hire, who eventually became a partner in the practice we built to 21 clinics, is now my wife.
Most rehabilitation practice owners are therapists’ first, business managers second. I’ve been fortunate enough to sit on both sides. We grew Physical Therapy and Sports Services, from $0 to $15 million in seven years mainly through acquisitions. I became enamored with the whole M & A process. After we sold PTSS to Novacare, I joined the company to help them acquire additional practices. What I saw were practice owners struggling with the business side of health care. Most sellers were simply therapists who accidentally became CEOs of small chains when their businesses grew.
I saw a real need for growth strategy and succession planning expertise specifically tailored to the rehabilitation industry. In 2000, I opened the doors to Martin Acquisitions targeted to that niche. More than one hundred clients later, we found that in the course of preparing a company for sale, we had developed a replicable system for making rehabilitation practices profitable. By 2006, we added healthcare consulting to our portfolio of services.
Fast forward to 2010, our tenth year anniversary. Martin Acquisitions is now Martin Healthcare Advisors to better reflect the broad range of consulting and advisory services we offer to the rehabilitation, homecare, hospice, hospitals, physician office practice and other healthcare service businesses.
I remain eternally grateful to my former instructor who tried to dissuade his young students from pursing their dreams. I’m very competitive and disciplined by nature but that experience only pushed me harder. Aside from my passion for business is my passion for sports and family. In 1999, I competed in the Ironman Triathlon World Championship in Hawaii. It was very important to me that my young children see that goals and achievement require hard work whether at work or play. I am telling that story to segue to very exciting events in the Martin family. I am very proud to say that my 12-year old just racked up six gold medals at the 2010 Middle Atlantic Junior Olympics for swimming, and my 14-year old daughter made it to the Semi-final round in the Stotesbury Crew Regatta. Way to go Alexander and Gabrielle!
