Aaron LeBauer, PT, DPT, LMBT
Aaron LeBauer PT, DPT, LMBT, is the owner of LeBauer Physical Therapy, LLC. He can be reached at alebauer@gmail.com.
Part 1: PERSONAL DATA
Name; practice, location: Aaron LeBauer, PT, DPT, LMBT; LeBauer Physical Therapy, LLC, in Greensboro, North Carolina
Size of practice (# of locations, employees) and years in practice: 1 location, 2 employees; 9 years
Most influential books: Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson, DotCom Secrets by Russell Brunson, Being of Power by Baron Baptiste
Favorite vacation spot: my 1982 Westfalia Vanagon
Favorite movie: Star Wars or Pulp Fiction
How do you like to spend your free time? Working on my vintage Vespa and Lambretta scooters and VW Westfalia, working out with kettlebells, and hanging out with my wife and 2 girls.
What do you like most about your job; what do you like least: Freedom to practice and treat patients the way I think is most effective; that I’m isolated from other physical therapists and practice owners.
Most important lesson you’ve learned: To ask people questions about themselves and to listen attentively to the answer.
Part 2: BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY
Describe your essential business philosophy: Do More with Less.
Describe your management style: Hands off with frequent training and feedback.
Best way you keep a competitive edge: Spend time listening to our patients and speak to their inner desires in our marketing. A majority of our new patients find us online and through our testimonials and reviews, so we make sure to ask everyone to share their story in a review or testimonial.
How do you measure your success? If everyone on our team, and our patients are happy, we are successful.
Goal yet to be achieved: Take a month off from working in the clinic to go on vacation without the clinic closing.
Best decision: To hire my first employee, Sarah, as my administrative assistant and customer care specialist. So many people told me a cash-based practice wouldn’t work, that I spent my first five years trying to prove them wrong. When combined with having 2 kids, I didn’t want to take on a burden of hiring someone else. Now that I’ve hired her, the time she saves me is worth more than her salary.
Worst decision: Spending time early on marketing to physicians and trying to prove myself to them rather than just focusing on marketing to my target audience and perfect patient.
Toughest decision: Starting a cash-based practice and sticking with it when things were slow and almost everyone around told me it wouldn’t work, that it was a bad idea and that “patients wouldn’t pay more than their copay for physical therapy.”
How do you motivate your employees? Lead by example, show up with a positive attitude, thank them and show appreciation. Empower them to make decisions and take action even if it’s not perfect and without consequence for making a mistake.
Part 3: YOUR PRACTICE
If you could start over, what would you do differently? I would hire my assistant much earlier. Probably in year 2 rather than year 8.
Describe your competitive advantage: We get to spend up to a whole hour with our patients.
Describe your marketing strategy and highlight your most successful action: Our marketing strategy is to focus 100 percent of our message to our perfect patient using our website, blog, and email marketing. The most successful action has been to set up an automated email sequence for both our current patients and prospective patients and to include a call to action in a few of the emails asking our patients to refer their family, friends, and colleagues.
What unique programs do you offer that set you apart from the competition? We help active people stay fit, healthy, and mobile without pain medications, injections, and surgery. We do that with education, hands-on therapy, corrective exercise, massage therapy, private yoga, and one-on-one treatments for 45 minutes in a quiet private treatment room.
What are the benefits of PPS membership to your practice? Connection with other practice owners and the PPS annual conference, which was awesome last year!
Part 4: THE FUTURE
What worries you about the future of private practice? I’m not at all worried about the future of private practice. We must be willing to adapt, change, and grow, and there will always be people willing to pay for a high-value experience and transformation in their life.
What are you optimistic about? That more opportunities for physical therapy private practice will present themselves as patients are now choosing their provider based on the value they bring to their relationship, not just convenience.
What are your goals for the next year? My number one goal for 2018 is to take a month off of work to travel across the USA with the family in my Westfalia and not have to close down my clinic.
Where do you see the best opportunities for your practice in the future? The best opportunities in my practice in the near future are in adding additional therapists and offering more online wellness programs for our patients as a bridge before or after their treatment in our clinic.
What do private practitioners need to do to thrive in today’s health care environment? To thrive in today’s health care climate, private practice owners need to market directly to patients using patient-centered language and addressing patients’ inner concerns and desires.