Ever wonder how it is possible that a company can be up 50% in profit in 12 months?
It’s taken a while, it’s been a bit of a challenge at times, but Avery Schroyer, of Titan PT in Lexington, Kentucky, has cracked it as a small business owner!
Hiring and hiring the right staff has been a test of late. Patience was the key. That trait was rewarded with 3 first-rate hires lined up. Hiring solutions is key for all small business owners and Avery is crushing it.
It’s a story and lesson for many of you to follow and learn from if hiring has proved problematic too.
Titan PT was established 4 years ago. For Avery, it probably felt like it’s taken 4 years to get the right PTs on board.
So how did Avery finish up 50% in profit in the last 12 months?
He smiled: “It’s taken months of advertising for the positions! We have been consistently advertising on job boards and attending local events when possible to try and find candidates. We seemed to have the most success getting to a job fair run by our local University for physical therapy students.
“This has produced 3 solid applicants to come on board in the Fall.”
“The other piece in the jigsaw was hiring our operations manager to help off load several tasks that I was handling. This allowed updates to current job listings to be more current.”
Avery added: “It took us over 18 months to find our second PT. We continually reviewed our listings and reworded them several times over that period. We also became clearer on exactly the type of therapist we are looking for to help us grow our practice. We held back on several potential hires because they were not the right fit. We had to become comfortable with wearing many hats for an extended time period.
“That was not always easy, and at times just exhausting, but it has been well worth the wait. I feel our Progress Group has helped me learn a few lessons second hand and one of them is that no hire is better than the wrong hire.”
Here at Paul Gough HQ, Luke attacks hiring with a passion. He’s there for all of you 4% Club members to lean on when you get stuck. A call or 2 is all it takes to get you on the right track.
Ensure you read his column in this very issue and it’s certainly a font of knowledge Avery dipped into.
On the hiring and interview process he said: “I have spoken to Luke on several occasions throughout this process. He helped reiterate the idea of staying consistent. He gave some ideas on other places to look for applicants as well: people you come in contact with in your regular life (such as your bank teller, coffee barista, HVAC sales representative).
“At the granular level he was able to help us become clearer with the wording of several ads.”
Another big factor has been the Progress Group. With a 100 percent attendance record in 2022, Avery makes the very most of the opportunity to share information with his peers. Start The Madness is their name, but it’s more about focus and getting answers than sheer madness!
He admitted: “Those calls are a critical part right now to our success. The two-week follow-up helps keep me accountable and on task. We have a lot of projects running these days and it is important to be able to talk through opportunities and hiccups with the group.
“I value the thoughts and opinions of everyone in the Progress Group and I also know they will be brutally honest. I have been able to place these on the alternate week of my ops manager’s Scorecard meeting, so that means every week I am tuned into what is going on with the business.”
He added: “A big assistance for me is the number of actual resources available when it comes to ideas and implementation. The other big plus is the community itself. It is good to see others that are in the trenches and how we all struggle with the same things and successfully get through them.
“I feel a tremendous amount can be learned from seeing what others are doing. I hope to avoid some of the mistakes others have made and hopefully others can learn from some of the mistakes I have made.”
So with new staff ready to join, Titan PT and Avery are in a good place right now. He was at our last Mastermind event in Celebration, FL in March and understands the value in attending. It’s all lining up quite nicely right now, with profit up.
“We are currently up 50% in profit from last year,” he said. “We are getting closer to hitting our financial metrics that were discussed at the last Mastermind event of staff 40%, marketing 10%, OPEX 30%, COGS 5% and profit of 15%.
“We are in the process of finding staff to open our second location here in town, which will allow us to triple our staff and potential number of people we currently serve. We are also working with the Sherpa program to help increase our reach to the local market and widen our current patient population.
“Several things have helped us grow over the past few months. First was being able to hire an Operations Manager. This has allowed me more time to work on other parts of the business. I find the problems I spend time on are the ones that get solved.
“Second is being consistent. I set out this year with the plan to work on stabilization for the business. That is still the focus, but we are on track to double our profit from last year and open a second location. This focus on setting our processes is allowing for other growth opportunities to occur.
“Third is meeting regularly with my staff. We have scheduled time out every two weeks for me to sit down with them and keep them focused on the tasks at hand. On the off weeks they meet with each other to keep themselves accountable.
“Fourth is marketing always. This is a topic I have been talking to my staff about regularly the past couple months. It is important that I keep our messaging going out to the public, but equally it is important that whenever they have the right opportunity to remind people of the value we provide and the other options they have to continue to work with us it is critical that they do.”
Titan’s Perfect Patient is an active 72-year-old woman who is the matriarch of her family. She helps take care of her grandchildren and still helps her husband with his work.
Avery said: “I first ran across Paul about 5 and a half years ago. I began listening and reading his content. I have been on his email list and off it several times. I have always appreciated his overall message, but was often distracted to apply it.
“I finally had the pleasure of meeting him for the first time in Clearwater, FL at a Mastermind event. Several others that are here on Planet Paul were there too. Paul told me to increase my rates and use the extra money to help generate an advertising budget. When I came back from that meeting, I bumped my OON rates from $180 to $250 and increased my marketing budget.
“I finally signed up and went through Accelerator. Not long into it Covid hit, but with some new tactics in play, we continued to grow. We are incredibly pleased to have finally listened to Paul and several others in this group and signed up.”
Avery’s first impression of Paul was that he was “finally someone who is not full of shit” – a feeling he still owns today and both Avery and his wife appreciate that quality.
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