In this episode of the Cash Physical Therapy Headquarters Podcast, we break down how Ben reached an incredible milestone—$236,000 a month in revenue at a 35% profit margin—without relying on flashy promotions or temporary tricks. Ben has been on this journey for over six years, but this record month wasn’t just luck. Instead, it’s the result of consistent, strategic actions that most cash physical therapists overlook.
Today, we’re diving into the three key secrets that made this success possible and how you can apply them to your practice.
1. Buy Back Your Time by Delegating the Right Tasks
The first major lesson that Ben learned while scaling his business was the importance of buying back his time. When you’re running a cash-based physical therapy practice, it’s easy to get stuck doing everything yourself, but if you want to grow, you have to let go of the things that take up your time, especially the tasks you’re best at.
For Ben, that meant delegating patient care as soon as possible. It’s easy to cling to patient care because it’s what brought you into the profession, but it’s also the most time-consuming part of your business. By hiring a physical therapist early on, Ben was able to focus on growing his business rather than spending all day treating patients.
Most physical therapy owners try to delegate the front desk first, thinking that this is where the help is needed most. However, the most important part of a business—the lifeline—is the first phone call, and it’s critical that you know how to handle that well before you hand it off to someone else.
Key takeaway: Delegate the tasks you’re the best at (such as patient care) first to create the time and space to work on growing the business. If you haven’t perfected the systems, don’t delegate them yet.
2. Focus: Follow One Course Until Success
Another vital lesson in scaling a cash practice is focus. Far too many practice owners jump from one idea to another without ever giving a plan the time it needs to succeed.
Ben’s key insight here was identifying the biggest constraint in his business and solving that problem first. The most important step for growing a practice is understanding where the biggest bottleneck lies, and then focusing all your energy on solving that.
For many practice owners, the natural instinct is to go after more leads, but that’s often not the solution. Increasing patient retention can be a far more effective way to grow. By improving how long patients stay in care, you don’t need to double your leads to increase revenue.
Key takeaway: Don’t get distracted by the latest trend. Focus on solving the biggest constraint in your business—whether it’s leads, conversions, or retention—and master it before moving on to the next issue.
3. Leadership and Team Retention: Creating a Winning Culture
The third critical element to scaling a successful cash-based practice is leadership and team retention. Without a great team, your practice won’t scale. But more importantly, if you don’t nurture your team, they won’t stay long enough to help you reach the level of success you want.
Ben learned that culture plays a major role in retaining top talent. While many practices compete on pay, Ben’s practice excels because of its culture, the relationships within the team, and the meaningful work that the staff does. His team members are growth-oriented and have opportunities for leadership roles as the practice expands. And perhaps most importantly, they buy into Ben’s bigger mission: revolutionizing the cash-based PT industry.
Key takeaway: To retain top talent, you need a culture that values growth, development, and alignment with a bigger mission. Without this, you risk high turnover, which costs both time and money.
Putting It All Together
Scaling a successful cash physical therapy practice is much simpler than it seems. It doesn’t require gimmicks or gimmicky promotions; it’s about building systems, focusing on the right priorities, and leading a strong team.
Ben’s $236,000 month at a 35% profit margin wasn’t a one-time achievement—it’s part of a bigger, sustainable growth plan. By delegating tasks (especially those he was best at), focusing on the biggest bottleneck (whether that’s leads, conversions, or retention), and leading his team with a strong culture that aligns with his mission, Ben is setting his practice up for long-term success.
Now that you know the three secrets to scaling, it’s time to apply them to your practice. Start by delegating the right tasks, focusing on the biggest constraint, and building a great team. These three keys will not only help you grow your practice but also ensure you have a thriving business that works for you—rather than the other way around.
Watch and Listen to the Full Video
For a deeper dive into a cash physical therapists’ journeys, make sure to listen to the full video: Achieving 236K Annually With 35% Profits: Strategies for Cash PT Success
About Author:
Although the company eventually failed, it provided Jordan with invaluable learning experiences. He became passionate about designing world-class patient experiences and building efficient marketing & sales funnels for cash physical therapists. Utilizing this expertise, Jordan became the CMO of a well-known physical therapy media company, and consulted for and built marketing funnels for some of the top physical therapy business coaches.
Eventually growing tired of the typical agency and consulting grind, Jordan, alongside Max Zirbel, founded Clinical Marketer. They infused it with the hands-on support and mentorship that they benefited from in their initial venture. The company was a success from the start, aiding clinics in scaling to 6 and 7 figures in revenue. During its first launch, Jordan and his team met Dr. Ben Bagge, whom they later partnered with after helping him grow his business from $200K/year to over $1M/year in three years.
