Sports Therapists: coping with COVID-19

I recently went on to Instagram Live to chat through the effects of COVID-19 on Sports Therapy businesses and importantly... What can you be doing now in order to make the most of a bad situation!?

As soon as the current situation started I had a flood of messages on from Sports Therapists asking me... could they stay open? Could they do hands on treatment? What were the membership bodies doing?

So before I get into what you are doing here is how it has effected me...

Firstly, as a University Lecturer we have had to prepare online materials and lectures, as well as planning for alternative assessments. Secondly, I have had to cancel two events that I had planned; an Emergency First Aid at Work course and the Sports Therapy Business Owners Implementation Day. And lastly, I paused all payments on The Online Sports Therapy Community until 1st June 2020 at the earliest which obviously has a financial impact, as I was still paying for all the apps and programmes that are involved in the website and on the platform...

...but I knew that Sports Therapists really needed this resource to support them.

I posted this and is definitely worth sharing…

I have heard Practitioners talking about 'starting again from scratch', but this could be viewed in both positive and negative ways... make sure that you turn this into a positive... less mistakes, more efficient, more profitable and more supportive of the lifestyle that you want to lead.

This may provide you with an opportunity to grow your business in a different way, to create different marketing materials, batch content your blog or have more telethealth consultations with your patients. Whenever would we get the time to do this normally?

OK, so what can you start to do right now?

Here are a few ideas of how website Members are making use of their time:

- Working out and keeping physically active.

- Getting job applications completed.

- Reading journal articles.

- Developing social media posts.

- Searching for CPD events (if you have any CPD events coming up then please feel free to send them to me).

- Designing prehabilitation plans.

- Designing a new monthly newsletter.

- Applications for the Government grants.

If you are running a clinic at the moment then you may want to take the following steps:

• stabilise and stop panicking, you need to be able to make rational and well informed decisions.

• review your bank statements - what are you spending that doesn’t make you a better Therapist or doesn’t generate money for your business.

• You could use this as a time to create cash by selling things that you don’t use.

• Develop a new strategy to generate money within your business.

• Contact patients to see if there is anything that you can do for them at this moment in time.

• You have the potential to re-package what you do - is telehealth something that you would consider?

• Once your clinic reopens then where are your new patients going to come from? is there something that you could be doing now to acquire those patients?

• Renting out your rehab equipment - kettlebells are sold out and patients don't necessarily have their own equipment to train, so is this an avenue that you could explore?

• You could sponsor an athlete with your gym/rehabilitation equipment while its not being used.

• Free group coaching calls to your current classes/groups.

• Change your payment structure - suspend it or defer the payments if you can afford to. Your patients/customers will appreciate it in the long run.

There are so many ideas here. Consider everything carefully and then create a 60, 90 and 180 day business plan that financially makes sense. This may fundamentally change the way your business operates.

To share...

My immediate plan is that memberships will be free to join for 90 days. This will then end on Sunday (5th), when I can dive in and start to really help the members of the group for three months. Over the next week I will be formulating my 180 day plan to ensure that I can provide continuity on the services that I have previously provided and cover the costs associated with the Community.

In the comments below...

1. List what you are finding difficult at the minute.

2. List three things that you want to achieve by the time your clinic reopens.

To recap on what you could be doing right now:

1. Stabilise and organise where you are up to in your business.

2. Decide on what you actually need in your business vs what you want - Does your business model need to change?

3. Plan for the next 60, 90 and 180 days

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