In this solo podcast episode, Kelly Alhooie explains why many healthcare providers stay in full‑time patient care far longer than is optimal. She attributes this to a comfort‑zone feedback loop, fear of unfamiliar business tasks, and lack of leadership skills. Kelly argues that a coach can help clinicians identify the right moment to transition out of direct treatment, which varies based on personal debt, cash reserves, and practice size. Drawing from experience coaching over 450 providers, she outlines a practical revenue benchmark: once a practice has two providers and generates roughly $60‑70K per month, the owner can safely pull back from patient care and focus on scaling. She also discusses alternative strategies such as hiring additional clinicians, reducing personal patient load, and the dangers of stagnation—burnout, capped growth, and limiting team members’ aspirations. Kelly emphasizes that true leadership means fostering infinite dreams for the team, investing in people, and continuously growing the business. The episode concludes with a call‑to‑action to contact PelviBiz on Instagram for ready‑made systems and coaching to accelerate this transition.
Chapters
When to stop treating full-time and start to run an actual business. Let's get into it. So in general, most people, I believe, stay in the freaking treatment with the patients way too freaking long because we're scared, because we're really good at what we do and treating, treating actual patients, but we don't know what to do with our time, ourselves, or anything. If you're like, oh my gosh, you got to run this company, like, we don't know. So I believe a lot of us just stay in our comfort zone because, A, we get amazing feedback from our clients. They're like, yes, you're awesome, you're amazing. Like, why wouldn't we want to do that every single day? Comparatively, shoot, we got to now learn leadership skills, we got to learn how to budget, we got to learn taxes, we got to learn like marketing. Like, oh, that just sounds so overwhelming. Let me just do what I know I'm best at, and that's treating. And that's where I find most providers stay in treatment because It's a positive feedback loop, so they are afraid to give it up. And they like it. They like it because they're just good at it. They don't like taxes because they don't know how to do taxes. I mean, who likes taxes? But like, so I find they're scared and reluctant to actually go and do that because they just don't have that skill set. So instead of being scared of it, you invest in a coach. The coach helps you understand Well, when is the right time for myself to pull out of treatment? You know, and when do I stop that to truly be able to elevate the business? And I think for different people, it's different depending on your situation. So like provider 1 could have tons of debt. Maybe they have credit card debt, maybe they have student loan debt, and they are also treating patients. Well, we have to come up with a pathway of how to actually especially pay down the credit card debt first. The loans will take care of like in one day, but like the credit card debt, I got to pay that down as fast as possible. So for like that provider, I would recommend trying to be in the treatment, get the money, and then put it all towards credit card debt. Comparatively, if I have a provider that has no debt, they are in it. They're in there and they have maybe, I don't know, $20,000 in the bank. Well, I 100% am begging them to hire someone immediately and start paying them, uh, and get out of treatment as fast as possible because there's no need for them to do that if we can scale this thing. So it is different, which is why you have a coach to coach you through when is the right move for you to specifically get out of treatment. Now I'm going to generalize this. That doesn't mean this is for everyone, but I'm going to in general, because we've coached over 450 providers and, and businesses across the US, is typically when you have about 2 providers on, then that is when you would completely pull out of patient care. 2 providers on, you completely pull out of patient care because that is when basically you are making, uh, about $60,000 to $70,000 a month, and you can afford to pay your salary, their salary, and potentially admin salary, and still have profit for, you know, and pay rent and still have profit to be able to keep running the business, whether or not you want to do ads or whether or not you want to invest in a reformer, like whatever it may be, right? So That is when I would pull myself out. Conversely, you could also, if you have a full-time provider on, so let's say full-time provider is on and then it's you and you're maybe seeing patients like 15 patients a week and they're seeing 35, you could also decrease your hours like 7, have them see patients for 35, and that also still could work for the salary potentially that you want. And, um, you know, for you to get your time back. Now, will you be capped? 100%. So this is why I don't stay in this zone, because if you stay in this zone, I believe you will become burnt out. Because ultimately, that number that you said is okay at first will have to move up because your expenses each year will go up. Whether or not you have a coach, whether or not you're investing in people, whether or not you're investing in ads, whether or not you're investing in growing the company— maybe you have to redo your website. Maybe you have to invest in more equipment. Maybe you have to send people to ConEd. Maybe you have to— like, all that stuff keeps adding up, and it only goes up every single year. So like, you just can't stay stagnant, which is why I preach to keep moving and growing. Because the second you stay stagnant and just say, I'm good with like one provider because I don't want this company to be too big, you're stuck, you're capped. And actually, the team member that works for you, I feel bad for them because because they are also capped. Because now you just cap their dreams because you just feel good about it and you feel comfortable. And now it's actually very selfish because you're just now capping everyone in your company. And maybe even your admin too, you're capping her too because you can't, you can't give them more because now you just cap the company. So as a leader and as a business owner, you cannot cap. You cannot. And I don't think, I don't think, I don't think 99% of people understand this. I don't. Because you as the leader, if you are a true leader, you have to have an infinite amount of dream so that anyone that works for you, you can make their dreams come true. That's a number one— that's your number one job as a leader is to make anyone that's on your team their dreams come true, period. That's it. And I, I did not understand this, and I'm speaking to myself here. I did not understand this for at least probably four years. I didn't. I just thought it's like let's build a company, and it's like no, actually build the people in the company. That's really that's our job. And so if you don't understand that as a leader or know how to do that, your company will have a very hard time growing because why would people want to work for you? If you say I'm good, good luck guys. Everyone will leave. They will leave. Been there, done it. So you can't— as a leader, you have to continue to grow. You have to grow yourself. You have to grow your team. You have to invest in your team. Um, and if you stay solo, guess what? I'm speaking to all you solo people. You'll become burnt out, resentful, and you will quit. You will. And you'll be like, oh, it's time. Like, I just had someone come back into my world that was with me 2 years ago, came back. She's like, Kelly, I know, but I'm back now. Like, it's time for me to elevate after 2 years of just being on the hamster wheel. She's got a waitlist until October. Why? Why are you torturing yourself? New mom, like, come on. So she's like, I'm tired of torturing myself. I'm like, I know, I know. Some of y'all, it may take a year. Some of y'all make 2, 3. I don't know. But eventually you're gonna have to get off the hamster wheel. You can't do it all. So I think this is a really important lesson, um, of when you have to stop trading full-time to actually elevate the business, because you have employees counting on you to make their dreams come true. And if you don't pull yourself out because you selfishly want the feedback of how amazing you are as a provider, then you can't grow a company and you will be capped and stuck. So if you guys are a solopreneur and you're capped and stuck, please reach out to me. Like, I love helping you at this phase because we have all the systems for this. We hand them to you. You don't have to create it. You don't have to spend the over $200,000 to create what we've created. You don't have to wait 3 years to create all this. You get it, and it's like, here you go. And so if you want that, like, please reach out at PelviBiz on Instagram, P-E-L-V-I-B-I-Z, and happy to chat. Bye-bye.
