Ben Lynch: G'day, good people. Welcome to the Grow Your Clinic podcast by Clinic Mastery. Here's what's coming up inside of this episode.

Bec Clare: Within the first month, we'd hit our 12-month goal for that clinic. Revenue, new clients. Revenue and new clients.

Ben Lynch: What we're looking at is the new clinic launch checklist. All the things you need to do, working backwards from your launch date.

Bec Clare: We worked with an absolutely exceptional architect. So in terms of design, our welcome space is completely open to the shopping centre. Now that has some logistical challenges which I'll unpack.

Ben Lynch: What did you change about filling the book so that week one is the best success it could be?

Bec Clare: We really shared the journey with our community. We had an eight-week marketing plan.

Ben Lynch: This episode will be right up your Allie if you're looking to move or add more clinic locations. We're diving into growing in new markets. And trust me, you'll want to hear Beck's take on the key criteria for landing your ideal site. Plus stick around for when we walk through your new clinic launch checklist. Before we dive in, today's episode is brought to you by AllieClinics.com. If you're the kind of clinic owner who loves to feel organized and stay ahead of the chaos, you'll love Allie. Think of it as your digital clone. It's the single source of truth for all your clinics, policies, systems, and training. Test it for free at AllieClinics.com. And in other news, applications are now open to work with us one-on-one at Clinic Mastery. If you want support to grow your clinic and bring your vision to life, just email helloatclinicmastery.com with the subject line podcast, and we'll line up a time to chat. All right, let's get into the episode. It is episode 343. My name is Ben Lynch. I'm getting joined by Beck Claire. Welcome, Beck. Great to be here, Ben. Thanks for having me. Another one in the can, Jack O'Brien. He's not joining us today. I'm not sure he ever works, but he's on holiday. Actually, he corrected me. He said, I'm going on an adventure. That was his nice way of putting it, but they are doing something pretty cool. They're taking their family. over to Thailand, and they're doing a version of mission work. They're going out to a local community, one that they support and sponsor, and doing some work and connecting with the locals there to see the fruits of some of their investment and support. But going overseas to Thailand into maybe a more rural or remote place with four kids and one that is very young, maybe under one, their fourth child. That's a big thing to do. I know you've been to Vietnam recently.

Bec Clare: Yeah, we also did Thailand and a remote part of Thailand in 2025 with a 18-month-old. I can't imagine doing it with four children. That is wow.

Ben Lynch: Yes. Yeah, that's next level. I'm scared to go to the next suburb with my kids in the car because it's just a punch-on in the back seat. Anyway, well, good to see you. Today, we're going to be unpacking moving or expanding to a new clinic location or site. There's a number of different reasons why you'd want to do that. Before we do get into it, and I'll tee it up in just a moment, a couple of warm welcomes to folks that are using Allie in their clinic. We've got Darren, Imon, Brett, Marcel, Sonam, and Kylie. Thank you for checking out Allie and rolling it out into your clinic. And then we've had a bunch of people join us in the Academy and Elevate over the last few weeks to get that one-to-one consulting, that group-based support as well to help them grow their clinic in 2026. We've got Mirza. Melissa, Winter, Karina, Rachel, Purva, Karlyn, Mai, and Annabelle. Welcome to you. Thanks for joining the Academy and Elevate.

Bec Clare: How good. I had the pleasure of meeting Rach this week. Such an awesome opportunity to welcome her to the community. Sensational. I'm so excited for the goals that she's got set. She's going to absolutely crack in with those.

Ben Lynch: It's really cool when people introduce themselves into the community. We use Slack as the forum and part of their introduction, they tell us a little bit about themselves and what they're looking to achieve by working with us and as part of the community. It's always interesting to hear and see the different goals that folks have at different stages of life and different stages of business. from folks literally starting to those wanting to exit and anything in between. So today's topic is about opening up a new location or moving to another location. And perhaps if that's not you right now as you're listening in, stick with us because I think whenever a clinic moves or expands, it actually puts an intense spotlight on the key challenges that every clinic owner faces throughout the weeks and months of the year. I think you suddenly need more new clients to fill the books. You need to recruit therapists to fill the rooms. You've got to manage your cash flow better than ever. And we will talk about some helpful funding solutions, especially in your journey. And there's a real deadline to get outcomes. Our move-in date is set and we've got to do all of this by then. So it's actually one of the best constraints, actually, for getting your stuff into gear and making it happen. And it's quite timely because, Bec, you've just been through this, not years ago, but literally in the last few months into the back end of the year, and I know how methodical you were in preparing and planning for this, so I want to tease that out and unpack that because you're a brilliant mechanic at these things. So this isn't necessarily just exclusive, this conversation, to moving clinics, but more so how do you get Results, how to get outcomes when you have to make trade-offs and decisions, but you got a bit of a timeliness or sensitivity to getting it done because there's a date, there's a pending date. Now, there's a lot of decisions in a short period of time. Some of them are often urgent. A lot of them are significant. And I can imagine it's easy to get overwhelmed, perhaps question why you're doing it or wonder, is this the right move to make? So to maybe just zoom out a little bit first, Beck, when you were considering this decision, when you and Grant were thinking about the move or the expansion, did you take time to really diagnose or understand what is the problem we're trying to solve that moving and going through all the headaches is actually going to solve for us and what was that and how did you come to that decision to move your home-based clinic to a new site?

Bec Clare: Yeah, it was one that took a little bit of time. And so to map it out, five years ago we relocated our northern clinic and we took a bit of a punt on that one. That one was like, okay, we're going to move it to a shopping centre and we hope that it works. We were very purposeful about the design to ensure that we put as many positive moves into that and the experience would be really positive. And it very quickly, the wheels just started turning really, really quickly. The momentum of that clinic was just incredible. The community support.

Ben Lynch: It took off. It just took off.

Bec Clare: It was just ridiculous. Within the first month, we'd hit our 12-month goal for that clinic. And this was five years ago. Are you talking revenue, new clients? Revenue and new clients. So it was just motoring. And our flagship, our head office in our original clinic, if you like, just started to, because this one was really, really moving, this one just started to have the gloss and the pace just come out of it a little bit. And so we're sitting there, we knew at that time we had just re-signed a five-year lease. We're like, well, we're here. So what are we going to do about it? We kept monitoring our northern site. And at the two-year marker of that one being open, we went, this is something we really want to do. And we've got to, this is our blueprint for PhysioWest moving forward. This model works with some really key parameters around why it was working. And I can unpack that as well. So we said, right, we've got a runway, we've got three years left on our lease. We need to find the perfect space and that's going to take some time. it's going to take some funds as well so let's ensure that we're putting that aside and we're making a really sustainable decision there. And so we had a really long runway but it took to get this spot and to get it the way that it is and this is now taken off as well. I can say that we've been here just short of three months and we've already surpassed our 12-month goal here as well.

Ben Lynch: You see the Northern Clinic absolutely take off and really dwarf what was going on at home base. All the toil, all the investment, all the hard work at home base, and just getting marginal growth, marginal gains, and then seeing this take off hit your 12-month goal in one month. As you started to unpack it a little bit more, what were some of the observations that you made about why it worked so well? And then how did that sort of play into you informing the decision to move home base? So just, yeah, let's unpack. What were you seeing as to the causes for it working?

Bec Clare: Primarily the cause was that we were where people were. And so what we've actually now distilled as the one sentence is we want to make healthcare as accessible and as easy as buying bread and milk.

Ben Lynch: I like that. I haven't heard you say that. That's cool.

Bec Clare: So we wanted to ensure that our home base and our previous northern clinic, we were destination clinics. People had to purposefully come to us. We didn't get any of that incidental walk-by or the community going, the repetition of our brand in front of them. We see people now walk past us with their trolleys, same time every week doing their groceries, and it's maybe that fifth time that they have brand recognition that they go, hey, there's a Physio here.

Ben Lynch: Yeah.

Bec Clare: So we just wanted to be where people were and it was the vibe we were also after. It may sound woo-woo, but the vibe of being where there's a bit of a hum and bit of noise was critical for us and it's really increased the vibe and vitality of our team.

Ben Lynch: Did you get any stats or insights from the shopping centre ahead of time as to the foot traffic or the exposure that you might get that informed that?

Bec Clare: Absolutely. So ensuring that we knew the numbers, all shopping centres have the ability to provide you with whether it be revenue that the centre is turning over or number of people that are surveyed coming through the centre. That's really critical. Equally, we've chosen centres that have only two to three max entry points. So you have to walk past us. You have to see us. We're not tucked down. That's the distinction. We've been offered many other shopping centres now as well, and the critical element is that people have to walk past us.

Ben Lynch: very interesting in the work of Byron Sharp, who's written How Brands Grow and How Brands Grow Too, very original second title. They come from the evidence-based marketing school, marketing science at the Ehrenberg Bass Institute. And so a lot of their work is pretty dry to read, but very good because it's based on evidence. And there are two key things that they talk about for brands to grow, and they are mental availability and physical availability. And so your point around it being accessible or physically available, it's much easier because we're in the presence, people are walking past. That, in my mind, is a direct connection. And then secondly, the mental availability. If people are going through that shopping centre and seeing you four or five times, then it stands out. You come to mind when they think, I've got a sore knee, I need some help. Oh, when I'm at the grocery store next, I'll book in. That's quite interesting. And I remember, actually, I had a conversation with Daniel Gibbs. We were sitting down on a couple of chairs in this sort of foyer space of a shopping centre here in Adelaide. And at the time, we're having a conversation about going full-time into CM, which is a trip down memory lane because it's our 10th year. And I was having the conversation about, all right, we've got to go all in and make this happen. But he was there because he was literally observing and counting the people walking through that shopping centre. Because at the time, they were looking to expand their Whole Foods store. into that space. And they were just wondering, is this the right space for us? Do we have the number of people? And do we have the right demographic of people? In the end, they chose no. But for that day, he was doing that. So it's quite interesting, I think, for folks, whether they're moving into a shopping centre or otherwise, what stats could you get to help inform the decision? And I like that it's not just, oh yeah, go to a shopping centre. It's going to work. People have to walk past you. As you said, there's only a few exits that are there. So you're in a really great position for the foot traffic, for people to see you. Were there any other things that you feel? worked either at your northern clinic that informed moving to this new one or that you've observed in this new clinic at the Brickworks, the really kind of bubbling to the surfaces like essential ingredients that are leading to this level of success in such a short period of time?

Bec Clare: Yeah, absolutely. One of the things that we noticed was that by virtue of being in a shopping centre, people are consuming. and therefore you want, like they've already essentially got their wallets open, right? So we want to, there's not so much of a price point barrier. Yes, people will come up to our concierge or our client care desk and ask about fees, but it's much less of a barrier than we ever thought possible. And we adjusted our fees quite significantly with both moves as well. And it hasn't been an issue. The other thing that we noticed was that because people are here to consume, we had to also incorporate, we had to not just only provide therapy, we had to provide a retail aspect as well. So try and meet the community where they're at and where they're willing to have an entry-level conversation that we can then take to a different level by being curious.

Ben Lynch: And that's where it comes from. What do you mean with the retail piece? Like you're selling flip-flops, Archies, pillows? Archies. Archies, okay.

Bec Clare: Predominantly Archies. Shout out to Archies. Prior to Christmas, it was wild. We could not order them fast enough. I have never seen so many pairs of Archies sold in my life. It was just wild.

Ben Lynch: Wow. It was a really fun experience. They seem to fly off the shelf and if Archies are listening in and want to sponsor the pod, feel welcome to do so. They do fly off the shelf, right?

Bec Clare: Absolutely. And so it was really about then creating an opportunity for clients to buy and shop and then us also having the skills and the training for our client care team to be curious, to have conversations. And you know, when someone says, oh, I need a pair of Archies because my knee's been really sore. Well, let's unpack that a little bit. And have you seen someone for that? Or I've got plantar fasciitis and them having enough knowledge and scripting that then is supportive of that client then engaging with our services.

Ben Lynch: Very nice. Okay, so it sounds like a lot of things are working here. I want to unpack it, but let's look at some of the lessons as well. If you were to go back in time, what would you do differently about this? Because I'm sure it wasn't all smooth sailing, but what would you do differently next time?

Bec Clare: couple of key lessons. Honestly, I think I would have sped the process up. This took three years and we tried to align it with the end of our lease at our current site just so that we didn't have a lease break. But given the success that I would have done earlier.

Ben Lynch: So, just to jump in, you go back in time when you say, Bec, break the lease, cop it, the finances, make the move happen.

Bec Clare: Absolutely. Yeah.

Ben Lynch: Obviously hindsight is 20-20 vision and with the success it would be easy to say that, but it's interesting because I think perhaps the principle or the thing that we commonly see, whether it's this decision or any other, is that speed is often too slow in making the decision. I'm guilty of that. I constantly think about how can we speed this up? Don't rush it, but also do you need two months to do it or two years to do it? It's like actually speed it up. Okay, so that's an interesting one. I ask, what would you change? What would you do differently? Speed of decision? What else?

Bec Clare: Be much more across the finances. Be prepared as well for it to cost you more than you think it is going to. Like with a home build, right? They always say, I'll put 10% on, put 20% on. Invariably, you're just going to have to potentially put more on the table. But what I also learned was that because our lease was coming to an end and we had to exit that building, and often you do need to exit where you have been and you want to start somewhere new, is sometimes you will need to pay a premium in order to get things done on time. They might have to work Sundays, as an example. You might have to pay for the shopping centre to have the security guard here so they can work through the night to get it done and get in on time. And in the end, those seemingly small bills that you go, oh, that just hurts because this bill is costing more. If you are successful on the other side, you won't even notice it.

Ben Lynch: That's interesting looking, you know, maybe it's over a few hundred bucks or a few thousand bucks. What you're saying is focus on getting speed to launch so that we can get the clients in and then therefore the income in to get a return on the investment. Absolutely. Okay, so be more across the finances if I'm picking up what you're putting down that it's mainly around the trades and the fit-out side of things that you felt you could have been more across. Is that about right?

Bec Clare: Yes, and also the fact that potentially getting finance might take a little longer than you anticipate. We've got some really great people who we work with. We work with one of the Clinic Mastery partners to get our finance. Shout out to Daniel Raining who is just the most phenomenal person to work with. We're on the phone almost every day. Became my little bestie. But it might take a little longer. And it took us a little, to be vulnerable here, it took us a little bit longer because the flagship site we were moving was starting to languish in terms of its numbers. It was falling behind what we had projected. So the banks started to scrutinize that. Not that we couldn't fund this new build, but they were like, well, what sort of business are you running that it's tapering a little bit and not meeting your expectations?

SPEAKER_01: Okay.

Bec Clare: So, it was then in the sales piece to the bank that Daniel helped us with to convince them to finance it.

Ben Lynch: And for those listening in, if you need any support on the financing front, whether it's a fit out of a new clinic, car loan, home loan, anything like that, we work with Dan Rainey. Just send me an email, ben at clinicmastery.com and we can connect you. He's an expert in small business owners in particular where There is a lot of paperwork or scrutiny put on small business owners as distinct from employees, though we can help with those. So just send me an email, BennettClickMastery.com and we'll connect you with them. Okay, so speed, finance and being more across the numbers were the things that you would do differently. Interesting that you went with those two. Often we'd hear folks maybe say, I should have started my marketing earlier to fill the books of the new location. Maybe I should have started my recruitment sooner, so I filled the rooms a little sooner. I've also heard a number of folks talk about the difference in culture, whether they're expanding to another site. or they're moving their site potentially, finding that right mix of the culture staying true to what it has been. Sometimes it can fracture a little bit as you grow and expand. Okay, so that's really interesting, the speed and the finance side. What do you think could have helped you make the decision quicker to address the speed? and get clear on the finances, like, okay, these were the things to look out for. Do you reflect and identify maybe some things you could have done differently or someone could have helped you do differently? I'm just mindful of folks picking up, how could I think through this proactively? So, what would you have done differently

Bec Clare: Yeah. In terms of the speed, it would have been to really understand what the ramifications would have been if we had to break the lease and really run those numbers versus just going, right, well, the lease is coming to its natural end here. Therefore, that's when we will move. So, really getting a little bit more analytical around what would it cost us and what are the benefits because there's a trade-off. There was a trade-off for us in staying where we were. versus getting the momentum a year earlier than we did.

Ben Lynch: Yeah, such a good point. Like while this is ticking along and you're looking at, oh, we don't want to duplicate costs, we're also not getting the upside. Yeah, the upside, the opportunity cost of moving.

Bec Clare: Opportunity cost for sure. And then in terms of the financial aspect of actually getting the money, I think just understanding that it was going to take more time and that I needed to be patient in that process and that by working with good people, they had our back. It was just, despite what we did, it felt like it took forever. And they just kept coming back with more and more questions. And I understand now, in hindsight, I understand why they did that, but just being prepared to answer a million more questions than you initially expected and just be patient in the process.

Ben Lynch: So I can imagine you see the success of the North Clinic. You're opening up this new clinic in the Brickworks in Adelaide. What did you change about your approach to fill the books? Because that is still kind of the biggest concern is, are we going to have enough income of clients? Obviously, you were transferring clients from your home base over, so it wasn't entirely new. There's still a bit of a distance to travel. I mean, it's reasonable for Adelaide. It's pretty small. I'm sure there's a concern, are all of our clients going to follow us to the new location?

Bec Clare: Absolutely.

Ben Lynch: Secondly, are we going to be able to fill the books with new clients? Is it going to be the same as the North or is this an entirely different market? What did you change about filling the books so that week one, month one is the best success it could be?

Bec Clare: The thing we did this time was we really shared the journey with our community. We had an eight-week marketing plan so that it was like we were, in the first two weeks, we were teasing something new is coming to PhysioWest and we were sort of giving little clues. And even our clients in the clinic were sort of saying to us, we've seen it on socials, what are you doing? And they were like, we can't tell you just yet. Stay tuned. So we created this hype that then they wanted to follow and they were intrigued to follow. So we did that on our socials. We also did that via SMS and email campaign to our current database and included our referral partners in that. Something new and exciting coming. And at the six-week mark, once we had that date really firm and we knew the builders would be done, We then release the date, release the information. And then we did, I think it was either once or twice a week, we did walkthroughs of the site to involve the community. So it's like, oh, here's, you can't see any walls yet, but here's where this is going to go. Here's where this is going to go. Everyone loves a renovation. So we had people just tuning in just for the sheer fact of, oh, they're building something. I wonder how it's going to go and what it's going to look like. So people were really engaged. We had clients who were returning When we opened just to see the new clinic and to experience our new space, we had people swing by who are not necessarily needing care at the moment, but to say, oh, we've been following you. This looks amazing. Can we take a look? So it was really about the hype.

Ben Lynch: I can imagine, and it is a great space. You've done it very nicely, invested in it very purposefully and meaningfully in terms of dollar amount. It looks schlick, and it is a great space. That shopping centre is a nice shopping centre. So, with this now, how many of your current clients actually came across? Do you have maybe an actual number or, indicatively, do you think 80% of folks came across from the original clinic because that is a reasonable fear? It's going to be different for every clinic owner depending on the size of the move. If you move 50Ks away from where you were, that's going to be pretty big. The overall move is probably under 5Ks, is it? Under 10Ks?

Bec Clare: I think it's about 1.2. Yeah, it's really close.

Ben Lynch: Okay, there you go. Yeah, even closer. Okay, so it's reasonably close. Yeah. Do you have any sense for how many came across?

Bec Clare: I'm reticent to say 100%, but our team were really involved in the process of ensuring that that patient who was seen at that clinic on the Thursday was then seen at the new one.

Ben Lynch: So close to 100%. Yeah. And the sub 2K mark is pretty good. That's worthwhile noting, but that would definitely factor into my… thinking as well is to what degree are we going to lose clients from our current base if we're moving. Also, there's the upside of tapping into a new market and being able to get new clients, but it's worth trying to get a sense for that.

Bec Clare: genuine concern for us, Ben, that anytime you move, there's the potential that people won't follow you, that your new location doesn't really meet the needs of that group of patients, that we've just also expanded the demographic ring of the number of, I'll say, competing clinics as well. So we have a set that we knew about and then we've got a new set as well as the old ones too. And also, the communication piece around ensuring that no one went to the old clinic by accident because that's not great experience for clients. They rock up expecting their appointment, you're no longer there, where are you? So, I reckon we probably had one or two clients who ended up going to the wrong clinic. It happens. And so, it's really about ensuring that everyone's well aware of where they need to be, at what date and what time. But with genuine concern for us, our northern clinic moved about 5Ks, that was very purposeful and I dare say I'd bank on about 98% having come across to the new site.

Ben Lynch: That's a big one. And that's part of the reasoning, I guess, for moving into a new area, a new market, quite literally, to tap into the client flow that is there. I think the more you can get some of those demographics some of the numbers in your case from the shopping centre, perhaps there are suburb demographics that you're able to get that just filter into your decision making. I know for some folks that might be acquiring another clinic rather than starting from scratch like you did. There's always going to be surprises. I think the more data points that you collect, you start to formulate some sense of what it's going to take to get it to those targets you have.

Bec Clare: On that, one of the key components for us was research and ensuring that we were picking the best location we could. And so part of that was downloading our patient data out of our practice management software, de-identifying it and then overlaying it into Google Maps so we could actually see on a map of Adelaide where our clients live and then being able to draw a circle around those two clinics to ensure that they perhaps just touch but we're not putting a clinic right next to the other one because essentially what you're doing is robbing clients from one clinic and putting them at another. You're not expanding your reach. You can also overlay where other clinics in your area might be, the ones that you really respect and perhaps they'll be genuine competitors to what you do. The way that I view it though with competitors is there are plenty of hips and knees and backs in Adelaide. If we do it really well and we elevate the experience for clients, we'll all be fine.

Ben Lynch: Yes. It's very interesting. You've moved locations into a higher density of competitors and actually accelerated the growth of your clinic better than the home base was doing. It's a fascinating thing to unpack and understand what are the ingredients. That's really cool. And in terms of the clients that are coming through now, you've obviously made it easier for them to book an appointment. Have you found any difference in terms of, I'll say the calibre, quality, type of client which can sound a bit hard, but let me just explain. Sometimes we've seen clinics get access to an abundance of new clients, but they come in for a visit or two visits and they don't stick around, especially in a musculoskeletal context, but this is true for psych, OT, speech and the like, is maybe people just checking out, looking for something pretty quick, but not sticking around for the care plan that you want to recommend. Have you found any differences in the shopping centre mix? Because maybe it is super easy to book that appointment, but they're not coming there frequently enough or want to come back to see it through. Just talk us through the types of clients in their care journeys.

Bec Clare: Yeah, the key ingredient for us as well was to sit, based on Daniel Gibb's advice, he gave the same advice to us, was to sit in the shopping centre or sit where you intend to be and watch and observe the community going about their day-to-day life. How are they rushing past you? Are they walking in a nice cadence where they can absorb the environment and who is walking past us. So our ideal client is typically the person in the family who pulls the lever on their family engaging in healthcare. I hate to be stereotypical, but we're targeting the mums.

Ben Lynch: I think there'd be a lot of data to back you up as well.

Bec Clare: The mums are the ones who are concerned about whether their kid can play sports, they've got growing pain, they're wanting to be a better version of themselves as well, they're sick of hearing their husband complain about back pain, they may be looking after elderly parents. So that's who we've designed our clinic to engage with because that person opens the door and helps the foundation of treatment and treatment mapping.

Ben Lynch: And just on that, what are some of the things that you feel you're doing to engage that person? Is it literally the design aesthetic? Is it who's on the front desk? Just talk us through what are the things you feel are essential for attracting and engaging that person?

Bec Clare: Design is the key element, followed by our client care team and their training. So in terms of design, we were very deliberate with this. Our welcome space is completely open to the shopping centre. Now that has some logistical challenges, we shall unpack. It means that we essentially have to have a client care team member on the front desk at all times for the welcome experience, but the security of the clinic and the products as well that are there.

Ben Lynch: In a similar way for folks listening in like a OPSM or a Specsavers as a parallel example or any other shopfront, it's quite an open shopfront rather than a door that you have to open and then walk through and maybe it's frosted and you can't see what's in there. It's quite an open storefront. Okay. Yep.

Bec Clare: Very open. And the key elements of that were we wanted it to be a nice wide open inviting space that people felt like they were being welcomed into. We wanted to break down the barriers or the really clinical feel of a healthcare clinic so that it felt more accessible. And the key aspect was the door. A door you have to open and it often will close behind you in order for you to make an inquiry. We didn't want a door closing behind someone because then there's this notion of feeling trapped. You have to then make an appointment. We want it to be the skill and the care that our client care team take with that inquiry that the person's enthusiastic about booking the appointment.

Ben Lynch: I love that distinction. That is great. I know there's a medical centre doctor clinic in the shopping centre close to me, and it is that friction, some of those barriers, obviously a different market. You're going to book into a doctor, you kind of know when you're going to do that. But seeing the PhysioWest store, yeah, I can see how that is very inviting and quite welcoming. Then you're saying as well, well, we can't have someone that's a little bit grumpy, arms crossed, not smiling on the front desk. We have to train our admin team to just be fantastic at customer service and support. What are some of the things that you really emphasize with that team, especially in these locations? what are kind of maybe some of the training anchor points or mantras or I don't know rules or things that you guys emphasize massively like this is how we're going to show up on the front desk in this setting.

Bec Clare: It comes to physical presence, so the way that we look and the way that we engage with our community. We've deliberately moved our monitor to one side so that you are directly facing the client care team member. Eye contact, big thing. There were also scripts that we practiced. And curiosity and practicing curiosity. We wanted to ensure that when someone came up and said, oh, look, my son's got this sort of problem and is really struggling at soccer. Oh, tell me more a little bit about that. How long has that been? Not that they need to triage from a medical perspective, but what we wanted to convey to the client was we are the experts at this and we will not just treat you, but we will align you with the most perfect therapist for you. And we've got the diversity of our clinicians to be able to do that. And then you're going to be in great hands with, I actually recommend this person on the team. I've seen them for this. So really training our team as to how to have conversations. The end goal is that, yes, an appointment is made in the diary, but also just love and care for that person in that moment. And then they feel that and they will feel like that this is where they want to be.

Ben Lynch: The curiosity angle, asking questions to clarify and engage them in that process, the physical opening of the space, I think is a terrific choice, a very purposeful one, it sounds like, that you've made. Any other ingredients that you feel are really working for you, whether it's at the new location or the northern one, maybe the original shopping centre clinic? And are they different is probably the other thing or they're pretty much same, same in the sense that the way they're getting clients, the type of clients, just talk us through the differences and also the things that are working perhaps that are different at the Northern one.

Bec Clare: Really, they've now become quite similar in the way that they operate and the way that they feel. And that's been purposeful as well. We have a number of our team who work across both sites. So we wanted the transition for them and their workflow to be really seamless. So both clinics feel quite similar. The equipment is the same because we want We want to ensure that the workflow and the ease for our clinicians means that they can concentrate on providing exceptional experiences for our clients. So let's do the work for them in that space. When it comes to Why I feel like these spaces are working so well is we came at it from thinking about the experience first. Often you think about, I need this many rooms, I need this sort of space. Think about what sort of experience and what journey you want your clients and your community to go on and then how do you design the space to work with that.

Ben Lynch: Fantastic. And how did you start to articulate what that experience was and perhaps even what was the process? Was it you in front of a Google Doc writing it out? Did you workshop it as a team with post-it notes everywhere? Yes. How did you do it and then what did you start to articulate it as?

Bec Clare: We had a beautiful opportunity to visit a number of clinics interstate as well. So whenever we went on a family trip, we'd say, oh, hey, we know these clinics. Let's pop in. Let's buy them a coffee. Let's connect with other humans. And also, let's take a sneaky little look at their space and what works, what do we love about it. Ask them, what do you love about your space and what would you change? The fact, by virtue of being part of the Clinic Mastery community, allowed us to go into other clinics and celebrate their success as well and work out what they had done and learn from what the very best were doing. And then it came down to the reason we were able to distil our ideas around design and vibe and feel were we worked with an absolutely exceptional architect. That was his job. He asked us those questions and then put on paper a series of really beautiful designs and made it come to life. We designed the flagship clinic that we were in. I designed that and I can tell you that While I like building and I like designs, I'm really not the best person to determine what a really good flow of a floor plan looks like. Leave that to the experts and just the finesse of the two clinics and the little details that come from working with a professional who does this day in day out makes a huge difference.

Ben Lynch: Just to give them a bit of a shout out, who are they and are they a clinic specialist or this was just someone you found that was able to do this and enjoy doing this project?

Bec Clare: They were a connection actually through a team member who had worked with them as well. Let me get the name of their organization because they have just merged.

Ben Lynch: great because we often get that question, hey, does anyone know a clinic architect or clinic builder that can help us out? And we had the Articulate Design crew on a few episodes back, and they talked about how they can play a role. They're based out of Canada, but can work worldwide. And they're terrific at what they do. So I'd love to hear your experience of who it is.

Bec Clare: So the architects that we used were Stallard Meek Flightpath here in Adelaide. I know that they do also have an office now in Melbourne. I'd say that- Just say that again.

Ben Lynch: Stallard.

Bec Clare: Stallard Meek Flightpath.

Ben Lynch: Okay.

Bec Clare: Stallard Meek. Stallard. Stallard. Stallard. Meek. Meek Flightpath architects. So if you look at- Flightpath. SMFA is their acronym. You can find them on Google. Um, while they, they do a lot of commercial and retail and they are just experts. All of their spaces are just absolutely incredible. We worked with the wonderful Matt Rundell. Um, they're at, um, their organization. It was just a really great experience and it made it really fun as well. Like I have to say, I love our spaces because I also had fun building them.

Ben Lynch: Yes. That is the joy, isn't it? Bringing your vision to life. That's what we often talk about. And for those folks that are maybe early on in their journey, or they're battling a little bit financially, or they're just stressed, overwhelmed with where their clinic journey is at, and they're like, oh, if only, that would be great, or that would be nice. just reflect back on the challenges that you've been through, Beck, you know, are long and storied. We've talked about them many times on the podcast before, and we'll continue to share your story and journey here. But even this clinic being two, three year process to work towards just shows how far out you're starting to think about the vision of where you're going. So well done. And as part of defining a project like this, you need to have some serious project management skills. And maybe part of it is you do have someone who does that for you. Obviously, anything's possible with the right budget and the right funding. But one of the tools that we share with Business Academy and Elevate folk comes from Shane Bennett and the Beyond Osteo, now Move Beyond team, because they've done this many, many times. And that is the new clinic launch timeline. I'm just sharing my screen here. So for those listening along, come and check out on YouTube. Also, subscribe so that you always see the latest content from us. What we're looking at is the new clinic launch checklist. It's a bit of a Gantt chart style. All the things that you need to do working backwards from your launch date. I realized maybe you had this experience back that launch tech can be kicked down the road a few times depending on build and fit out and so on and so forth, depending on your requirements, but it's broken down into a few different sections from operations. So I scroll down through to finance, marketing. and there's a whole bunch of specific actions in between or underneath those things. So just to give a couple of examples here, we've got from booking systems, setting up perhaps a new company, the meet and greet with the team or one-on-ones with the team. Then we go to the finance side of things, perhaps You need to get funding as you spoke about, Beck. Maybe you need new bank accounts, credit cards, payroll, etc. In the marketing side of things, what are you doing to transfer those existing clients, perhaps Facebook or Google Ads that you need to do in this new market? So, there's a big checklist. If you're using a site build, there's another process that involves lawyers, IT, builders, furniture, and then we go over to sort of a high-level budget and looking at what do we actually spend, what do we budget, and some notes there as well. And working alongside your accountant to do this is perhaps the best way to do it. How did you go about managing this? Did you do it yourself? Did you get somebody else? Because it's a big job to manage this. Not only have you got the building side of things and the fit out, as you said, you got the marketing, you got the team, you got the client experience and the client notification. So how did you go about managing all of this? Because it's a lot.

Bec Clare: What we elected to do is choose a builder that could manage the build. and then had a key contact there. We then, by ensuring that that was taken care of, we could then concentrate on the logistics of moving the clinic from all new provider numbers to ensuring that the internet was connected. I was really cautious with this move because I was triggered by our last one with the internet not being ready on time. So we had the internet connected a month ahead of schedule just to ensure that we definitely had internet. phones, whatever it might be, your utilities, that stuff can take time and you're almost better to have a reasonable overlap of services. And whether you need to get a new connection at your new site before you cancel your old one versus a transfer, I'd recommend that. They're just little titbits that we've learned along the way. But we used, we created a laundry list of everything we needed to do on Asana and then as things kept popping up, we would add to the list. We were very clear on who would do what. So who would head up marketing, who would head up team communication, who would head up the logistics and the utilities and all of those sorts of things. So someone could own that, be accountable and responsible for ensuring that it happened as well.

Ben Lynch: It's a great way to do it. Asana, Trello, there are a number of different tools out there that folks can use to manage task lists. I'm interested to know whether it was at this clinic or perhaps you had in your first experience, feeling or sense that this is going to be a big risk, maybe something specific about the move that actually turned out to be a whole lot easier. And maybe folks spend too much time worrying about these things and actually they turn out to be much easier to handle. So was there something that looked like a really big risk that actually wasn't for you?

Bec Clare: A huge risk with this clinic in that there's no guarantee that just because the northern one worked that this one would work. Significant financial investment that we're putting into here. the demographics might not translate, just because that worked does not guarantee this one would work. This shopping centre, do people in the inner west of Adelaide want to go to a shopping centre for their healthcare? There's also challenges with a little bit of the parking here in the roundabout to get into the shopping centre. At Christmas time, we had to be really um, in front of the game with all of our clients because there's one entry and exit point to this car park. It's one roundabout and it can take you 15 minutes just to get in. So it was about ensuring that our clients knew about that and that we'd sort of made a little bit of fun, but we were really anxious heading into this, but it came down to forecasting get the team on board, get the team excited, and ensure that, at the very least, all of our current clients came over.

Ben Lynch: Was there a thing that you sort of anchored back to as the driver of confidence for you? Because we can never know ahead of time that you do all this research, all this preparation, all this action to make sure it works. Was there something that you would go back to? It sounds like maybe it was a version of a rolling break even or a point like that. Was that something that you used?

Bec Clare: Yes, we knew exactly what that break-even point was, and we just wanted to make sure that everything we did, we were just above that, at the very least. In terms of trying to quell our anxiety around the move, it was, okay, let's be really clear on what makes the northern site work. And have we replicated that here? What have we controlled out north that we can control at this space? And let's make sure that we've put that in place. Um, we're really confident in our design in ensuring that we had done the very best that we could.

Ben Lynch: Yeah. Controllable. It's a great mantra to have, control the controllables. I think you want to be as prepared as you possibly can for these sorts of things. I want to talk specifically then about maybe any cash buffers or financing that you had if it didn't play out the way you thought. But just on the rolling breakeven or the breakeven point, just practically for those that aren't members that are listening in, How was that sort of framed or articulated? Was it 52 appointments in the week across the whole team? Was it a certain revenue number? What did that actually come down to in simple terms that you could keep coming back to?

Bec Clare: What we did was we peeled back the numbers and went, right, in order to cover wages and to cover costs, how many appointments is that across the business? And then we said, okay, if we just kept our northern site ticking along like it has been doing, we're not expecting any growth there because we've been really concentrating on this site. Our community model, let's keep that ticking along. Doesn't need to do anything more than that. Let's concentrate over here. And then what we did was we ploughed all of our energy into this move. And we engaged the team and we said, look, we don't want to rest on the fact that moving the clinic is going to be our golden ticket to the growth that we've always wanted at this site. We said, right, we're sitting at this number of clients now. We did this as a six-month lead-in and we had monthly meetings as a group to go, okay, where are we at? We said, here is our current number. We want to have grown by the time we move so that we've got growth momentum and growth mindset as part of our DNA.

Ben Lynch: And so just to clarify, you're saying at your original home-based clinic, you wanted to see growth in terms of appointments per week, revenue, new clients in the lead up to making the move. Yeah.

Bec Clare: Move with momentum was what we had as our catchphrase in clinic, is we're here. We know that we're banking on this new clinic being up here. What can we do in the middle ground so that we've got the ground swell and we're not just then getting to our new Brickworks site and being like, right, okay, where are all the new patients? We've already done some of the work.

Ben Lynch: Speaking of banking, just to come back to that point. How did you put some contingencies in place? You do all this preparation, I guess, part of de-risking it as well as going, well, if we do hit a snag, if this doesn't play out in the first couple of weeks and we are lower than that break-even point, did you have a cash buffer? Was this part of the financing that you got access to? And maybe even some of your thoughts, did you plan for two weeks or four weeks or three months to kind of quote, carry the clinic to get it up on its own two feet? Yeah. Sort of, how did you go about the banking side of things to give you enough money to make it work?

Bec Clare: We decided that we would carry the clinic for six months, should it not work, give it a really good runway. And then the fact that we were able to do that, as I mentioned, we've reached, we've surpassed all of those goals and we're three months in. So we wanted to give us something where we knew we could celebrate success as well.

Ben Lynch: Yes.

Bec Clare: So I feel disappointed directly after moving. We've put a lot of energy and effort into this. I want to celebrate it and not be like, oh my gosh, there's a pit in my tummy that this is not working the way that we want it to. In terms of cash buffer, yes, we asked the bank for more money than we needed to ensure that we had reserves there. And we also ensured that we had other cash reserves. should we need them to. So cash allocations, ensuring they're all in place, that you've got money where it needs to be so that you're not looking for it, you're looking at it.

Ben Lynch: Yep. And that's in your bank account, literally having those separate accounts with whether it's leave liabilities, tax, super, you've got your cash reserves as well. Okay. That's good. We've talked about that on a previous episode for folks that are wondering how to do that well and sleep easy at night. You can go back on some previous episodes and look at cash allocations. Okay. Well, Beck, that's been an incredible insight just to understand the experience, what you feel has worked, what you do differently, how you prepared for all of this, how you manage the project. What do you have as maybe just a final note, as we wrap here, what lessons from this move do you think apply to any clinic owner that's thinking about growth? What do you think they should take away from this?

Bec Clare: Dream big. is what I would say, and then have someone help pressure test your ideas. Because we can get into thinking that this is a really amazing idea, and maybe it is, but we just want to ensure that we're able to articulate what that idea is and pressure test it. We continue. Yes, I'm a coach and consultant with Clinic Mastery. We've also had the amazing support of being coached with Clinic Mastery through this entire process. And being able to pressure test those, being the sounding board when we felt a little bit wobbly from time to time, it was just so incredible to have someone by our side through this whole process. And then to celebrate it with us now is just the most fun.

Ben Lynch: It's great to have a soundboard because we all get stuck in our own thinking here. Just to have someone to say, Hey, am I missing anything here? Or what would you add to this? It's a great way to do it. I love that distinction as well. Dream big, think big. And we've often also said that perhaps it isn't necessarily bigger, but brighter. And certainly with what I've seen in how you've pulled this off, it is brighter. It is an incredible implementation, execution of your brand and how you think about client experiences in healthcare.

Bec Clare: The interesting thing about this space is that it's smaller than our previous clinic by about half. So we are a testament to bigger is not always better, it's brighter. This clinic shines brighter than the other one would have ever done for us. So you can also do something big in a really tight, purposeful space. So you can be brighter.

Ben Lynch: Well done. Big kudos to you and the whole team. I know how hard you've worked on this over many years. Well, we'll put an end to this episode. Incredible Insights as always. Bec, thank you so much. Head along to clinicmastery.com forward slash podcast for the show notes on this episode, also for all previous episodes and come and join us on YouTube. Hit the subscribe button and like button so that you see more videos, more episodes just like this in your feed. Never miss a beat. Alright, we'll see you on another episode very soon. Bye-bye.