Private Practice Growth with Daniel Lee: My First Five Years as an Owner

Episode Overview

This episode features Daniel Lee DPT, B. Sc (ExSci), APAM, Director and Principal Physiotherapist at Any Stage Physiotherapy & Sports Medicine in Sydney, Australia.

Host Wallace Long explores the journey of starting and growing an allied health practice, including referral building, early clinic challenges, staff recruitment, and business sustainability.

Listeners will hear practical advice for health professionals considering private practice, especially in physiotherapy and sports medicine.

Daniel Lee

As Director and Principal Physiotherapist of Any Stage Physiotherapy (ASP) & Sports Medicine, Daniel founded and built ASP around the principle idea of providing evidence-based treatment and injury prevention, specific to the demands of the individual’s sport, or daily routine.

Daniel Lee

Director & Principal Physiotherapist
Any Stage Physiotherapy & Sports Medicine
0413 708 117
reception@anystagephysio.com
www.anystagephysio.com.au

Disclaimer

This podcast is for informational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the hosts and guests, and does not constitute professional advice. We make no representations or warranties regarding the accuracy, completeness, or applicability of the content. You should consult your professional advisers for specific advice relating to your situation.

Key Topics

Building referral networks as a young allied health professional
Taking a business from solo practitioner to sustainable clinic
Creating a business plan and support team
Winning contracts, managing a team, and leveraging professional networks
Patient acquisition strategies and clinical presentation types
The impact and support of the Australian Physiotherapy Association
Role of personal experience in upper limb rehab and adolescent elite athletics
Managing challenges during the COVID19 pandemic and adapting to remote practice
Working with sports teams including Sydney Blue Sox (baseball) and Giants AFL Academy
Using technology and upgrading digital presence for patient engagement
Recruiting and mentoring staff, building a clinic culture
Innovations in allied health, performance, and wellness models for schools

Guest Highlights & Insights

Daniel reflects on building a niche in upper limb rehab, largely inspired by his experience as a baseball athlete and patient
He emphasises the importance of professionalism, patient experience, and solution-based approaches to growing a client base
Daniel describes the leap to full-time private practice, including the practicalities of starting in a small YMCA room and adapting during COVID lockdowns by running a home-based clinic
The podcast details how proposals and contracts for sports teams evolved, with Daniel
stressing the value of resilience, feedback, and tailoring solutions to organisations – not just clinicians
Mentorship and professional development are core staff retention strategies at Any Stage Physiotherapy, with structured case conferences and Professional Development sessions
Daniel outlines how technology (apps, objective measurement tools) is implemented while keeping care highly individualised
Clinic demographic remains broad, but staff specialisations allow for focused care: Daniel on upper limb and elite athletes, Shannon on back pain, Isaac in sports team support

Actionable Tips

Build strong referral networks through genuine connections – focus on what you can offer others, not what you gain
Donʼt be afraid to start small and stay opportunistic; professionalism and patient experience trump flashy beginnings
When facing setbacks e.g. covid, adapt with efficiency and focus on core business
principles you trust
Solicit and apply honest feedback to improve business proposals and your approach to
partnerships
Invest in technology, but ensure it fits the patientʼs needs – avoid one-size-fits-all protocols
Foster a welcoming clinic culture through mentorship, open communication, and support for individual treatment styles

Resources

Use this link to request the following resources

Ep 3. Growing my Allied Health Practice, Daniel Lee – Podcast summary (PDF)
Subscribe to the free Health Practice Insights Email Newsletter

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Guest: Daniel Lee

Host: Wallace Long

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Transcript

WALLACE LONG

I’m Wallace Long welcome to Health Practice Insights. If you are looking to start an allied health practice, this episode is a must listen. In this episode, I speak with a young, allied health professional about his first five years in business. You’ll hear how he built his referral networks in the early days, his first clinic, employing his first staff member, the challenges he’s faced, and the opportunities along the way.

From a solo practitioner creating a business plan, building a professional support team, winning contracts, managing a team, and building a sustainable business. We discussed what the practice looks like now, including patient acquisition strategies, and clinical presentations, and hear the role the Australian Physiotherapy Association has played in his practice’s success.

While on a baseball scholarship in the United States of America, he obtained a Bachelor of Exercise Science and an associate degree in Applied Science from the University of Indianapolis and Redlands Community College.

He returned to Australia and completed a Doctor of Physiotherapy at Macquarie University, Sydney. Opening in 2020, his physiotherapy practice is built around the principal idea of providing evidence-based treatment and injury prevention specific to the demands of the individual sport or daily routine.

My guest today is Daniel Lee, Director and Principal Physiotherapist at Any Stage Physiotherapy and Sports Medicine. Daniel joins me after the break.

I need to let you know this podcast is for informational purposes only and the views expressed to those of the hosts and guests and do not constitute professional advice, and we make no representations or warranties regarding the accuracy, completeness, or applicability of the content. And you should consult your professional advisors for specific advice relating to your situation.

Daniel Lee, welcome to Health Practice Insights.

DANIEL LEE

G’day Wallace, thanks having me. Great to be here.

WALLACE LONG

Great to have you on the podcast. Really looking forward to your story and how you built your business. But let’s start off in your decision to do a Doctor of Physiotherapy degree at Macquarie University.

DANIEL LEE

It’s a big decision. I have to say, Sydney was probably the last city in Australia I would’ve thought I’d be living in, but here we are and it’s been a great journey so far. I guess the doctor or physiotherapy degree came about when I moved back from the states and I was applying. Really to any university around Australia that would accept me with the prerequisites that I had done in the States and came about that the doctor of physio degree here at Macquarie, doctor of Physio degree at Melbourne University and Bond University, as well as Curtin University in Western Australia were the ones that I was going to be able to apply for.

It then came about that Macquarie started, or they had a midyear intake, so that that was a really big thing for me. I had to do a little bit of a bridging course to get a couple of extra units in anatomy to meet the prerequisite. The staff at Macquarie were amazing. They guided me through that. Before I had applied, you know, I received good marks in that extra unit, applied for Macquarie, and was accepted into it.

In the meantime, I did go down to Melbourne, and I sat the multi-mini interviews, which the medical students and the physiotherapy students sit before they’re accepted. I was accepted into Melbourne as well, had already started at Macquarie and thought, well, let’s give it a good run and see where it takes us.

WALLACE LONG

So as at Macquarie University, understand that’s when you started thinking about starting your own business. How did that come about?

DANIEL LEE

I did write my business plan as part of one of the units at Macquarie. Being a business owner was something that had started well before that while I was in America personally, having gone through quite a few injuries, unfortunately, like a lot of physios have, I’d seen several different models of care from when I was much younger in Australia to when I was in America, and seeing the different systems and approaches to rehab.

There were certainly areas where I felt like I could really create a niche area of interest for myself. The business side of things always interested me, managing a team, having staff who you know, aligned with similar values to me. It was really a driving force behind it. Macquarie had a unit around developing a business plan and understanding the backend of physiotherapy, private practice.

That was just perfect. And rather than letting that opportunity slip, I kind of knuckled down and spent a lot of time developing that plan, which by and large is what I’m implementing today.

WALLACE LONG

And how did that come about? Who was on your team at that time to support you as you developed this business plan?

DANIEL LEE

Early on, there wasn’t too many on the team. I have to say. It was probably something that I kept quite close to my chest because there was some pretty elaborate thoughts flying around. So, I probably felt as though if I could keep it pretty tight, be able to develop it out into a way that fit my idea and, my areas of interest and would likely see it develop as it did develop into something that I saw, that could become a potential business.

That’s certainly when I needed to find an accountant and figure out how to link up with a lawyer and, and that was very foundational. That was just very organic conversations that I had with contacts that I had developed through sports teams here in Sydney and connections back in Adelaide, and it was utilising those contacts and having people in my corner and who were willing to help me in those early stages.

WALLACE LONG

So, you created Any Stage Physiotherapy and Sports Medicine. Can you talk to me about the business? What did it look like?

DANIEL LEE

When I first graduated from Macquarie, I picked up a job at where I conducted my final placement when at Uni. I stayed on and worked there and at that stage the business plan was what I thought to be quite solid, but I knew that I needed some hands-on experience.

I needed to be working with patients. I needed to be seeing a wide demographic of patients, conversing with GPs and specialists, and really get a good insight into how the industry works.

I was really open with them about my plan. I remember my first meeting where they offered me the contract and they asked me what my plans were, and I said, ideally, in two years, I’m working for myself and have opened a private practice.

Fast forward two years, it was the week of my two-year work anniversary that I put in my resignation and jumped in full time for myself. Over those two years, I developed a really keen interest in upper limb rehabilitation, so shoulder and elbow rehab, and that was generated from my personal experience having played baseball and having a shoulder reconstruction and going through the rehab myself.

I found that particularly in Australia, by and large, our knowledge of particularly end stage upper limb rehab is rudimentary, maybe at best. Certainly, there are clinicians who excel at it. I felt as though that is an area that I wanted to really progress through, as well as developing a keen interest in elite adolescent rehab, which is part of what we saw in my initial clinic.

Those two years were just about really, getting my hands dirty, to be honest, I took on students as a clinical educator, so that challenged me in communicating what I was learning, what I was experiencing. If I was going to be a business owner, I knew that there was going to be that area I needed to progress through.

I needed to make sure that my staff were being challenged and if they had a challenging presentation that I was going to be knowledgeable in helping them through it. Taking on those students early on was hugely valuable. Those two years initially in my private practice experience was enormous. You know, all the way to the part where I was catching two buses each way to and from work, spending an hour and a half traveling and, and it would be sitting on the bus and studying if I was seeing something during the day I needed to get better at, or I needed to know how to progress that or what to expect next.

Really those two years, there was never too much downtime that that were the two years that I needed to make the most of, if I was going to progress to being a business owner.

WALLACE LONG

And when you became a business owner, where were you working from?

DANIEL LEE

I had Fridays off at my first clinic. I rang around and found any available space that I could nearby, and it came about that there was a little room in the back of the Epping YMCA gym and they used to run birthday parties out of, and they said, look, you can take it on and do what you like with it. So, I did at that stage.

Going back to your question about who was on my team. My team had really evolved. I had my now wife was a huge support. There were countless hours after work on weekends, we were in that room and repainting walls and doing our own fit out. My initial thought around the business was that it needed to be professional, it needed to have a professional feel. It was all about the patient experience.

So, if I could make the environment as professional as possible, then that was going to be a great start. It was a dingy little room that we turned into a nice little clinic out the back and I would work for myself all day Fridays and Saturday mornings, as well as doing home visits after work during the week to develop a client base.

And it was through the baseball club that I was playing for and local GPs who I connected with. And it grew from there. And having that initial space was, it was the start of it. The overheads were low, which is what I needed. And you know, the YMCA were great support,

WALLACE LONG

Really smart move, low overheads to start with, build your brand. As you started out, how did you build your client base?

DANIEL LEE

It’s personal connections initially as a relatively young business owner. I had to be opportunistic. It was seeing opportunities and jumping on them, wasn’t hesitating. It wasn’t thinking, oh, it’s not the perfect time.

It’s, I don’t have this in place, or anything like that. It was, this is where I want to be working. This is the clientele I want to be seeing and assisting and jumping into it.

The baseball club would run several, almost come and try days or tryouts for rep teams, and I just offered my services, and I said I’d be there to assess players, assess their range of motion, their strength, advise on any injuries that might be there. And that came to fruition. They supported that. I was able to set up a little table in the change rooms and had the players filter through, and they were young players, so their families would then be there.

I’d provide really concise handouts of information based on how they were presenting. I had a business card. I had a nice layout on a table. Again, going back to professionalism, it was a change room. It was one table. The feel was professional. The player and the family were going to get the information and advice they were after.

And then from there it was great, you connected with the families. Next minute we are having phone calls with mom and dad who have back pain, and we have the sisters gone in for ankle surgery and this was at the time where I was doing home visits while I was working elsewhere and still had the clinic developing on a Friday.

It really springboarded from there. And the approach that I took was quite a solutions based approach. It was a yes and make it work sort of situation, and that’s how that generated more of the private patient. From the GP perspective, it was, you know, doing a really basic Google search, seeing the GPs around me, making contact with the practice manager, organising a time to meet the GP, introduce myself, introduce my approach, my space, my areas of interest, how I can help them and their patient was the premise of those conversations.

At no point, still to this day, there’s never a point where I have a conversation with an Allied Health Professional about what I can get out of a conversation. It’s about what I can provide to them and how can I help them and their patient.

That’s what generates mutual respect and the support for one another, and that’s how it started. And then referrals came through from the GPs. The clientele who I was seeing was, you know, so broad. I was seeing culturally diverse people, the age demographic was, a huge spread. I was seeing back pain and osteoarthritis and post-surgery rehabilitation, all the while still niching into my areas of interest of adolescent elite athletes and upper limb rehab.

There was still that point where I needed to see as much as I could and generate those relationships with the local GPs, and that’s how it started.

WALLACE LONG

What else were you doing? Did you have a website? Were you doing social media?

DANIEL LEE

I knew early on there were areas that I had to prioritise from a business perspective.

I had to make sure that the basics of how the clinic were run were ticked off. I needed to make sure that I had a point of sales facility. I had business management software, and then from there, obviously a website. My initial website, I sat countless weekends developing my own website on Wix. It was watching tutorials on YouTube and systematically going through step by step on how to create my own website.

I wrote all my own copy on the website. I had someone develop a logo. I had some very basic photos that we put up, and that was the start of the website. Had a nice, book now button that spoke to my business management software and that was it.

At that point before I went full-time for myself, I was working full-time somewhere else. I couldn’t answer the phone, I wasn’t online or anything like that. So that was really the start. It was a very basic website, had all the information. It was very concise. It had that professional feel that I was developing.

From a social media perspective still now, I’m very, very basic on that. There’s no doubt that I’m certainly not comfortable on social media. I’m not very good at it. I do feel quite conscious about the content I’m putting out there. That’s certainly changing, but initially it wasn’t an area that I was going to focus my time and energy on. It was going to be more beneficial, more efficient, and more effective for me to spend my time elsewhere rather than trying to figure out social media, which wasn’t going to have a huge effect on my business at that time.

Prioritising the main framework of how the business and clinic was going to run, was what I needed to develop, and it was just me. It was me developing it and, and putting it together and, and making it work.

WALLACE LONG

Daniel, you mentioned earlier about elite sports people. Was there anything you were doing in that area?

DANIEL LEE

It was a time where elite sport was becoming more and more mainstream for female athletes, particularly in sports that hadn’t previously had it, AFL Rugby League. Having a background from Adelaide in a AFL, that was area for me and my physio experience to help these athletes develop.

That’s where it started. Level Up Women’s AFL Program, which was obviously tailored to girls and women who were interested in playing AFL. It incorporated a biomechanical movement pattern approach to it, specific to the demands of AFL. There was then a technical approach to it, but also more specifically from a physio perspective was, how does a female’s body respond to the demand of AFL?

The energy demand and stress on a female’s body is quite different to male, and that was an area that I really developed that started at the end of 2019 and worked its way through 2020. And I was working with females after work, and we’d go to the oval near where they lived and set it up. It was great.

It was getting good traction, good response from the girls themselves and their families. It was really supporting them in an area where the support was quite varied at the time. That really again, sparked my interest in that elite athlete space. That was more obviously in the female space, but it did filter into the male space.

Going back to my Macquarie University days, I did a placement with the GWS Giants AFL Academy Program. That was great. And that was exactly the space that I wanted to be in. As I was working, I would fill in and cover a couple of the academy games when the physio was away and, I was able to put into practice what I was developing with a Level Up Women’s AFL Program in patients who I was seeing in the clinic at my first job.

That GWS Giants AFL Academy Program Physio was then moving to the UK and before he had mentioned it to the academy, we had a great conversation and he said, look, I’d like to put your name forward for taking over the role once I leave. Would you be comfortable with it? And of course seeing an opportunity, like I mentioned before, it was in a space that I wanted to be in a space where I was developing some pretty solid experience in, and doing some work outside of the Academy already, and it took off from there.

Giving you a quick snapshot. I was still working four days a week at another clinic. I was working Fridays for myself and Saturdays for myself. I was doing home visits for private patients. I was working with female AFL athletes.

WALLACE LONG

Daniel, you then transitioned to working full-time for yourself and soon after, COVID appeared.

DANIEL LEE

It was kind of a background conversation that was being had and all over the news and didn’t really know what was going to happen. And you know, next minute everything’s kind of shut down. And that meant for me, the YMCA, the gym closed its doors, that was it gone, and it was a quite a, a messy time.

I had only several weeks before the first lockdown I had resigned from my first job. I was working full time for myself. I felt like I had great momentum going, and next minute I’ve got a call from the YMCA saying, you’ve got one-day to come and get all your gear out, we’re closing the doors in a couple of days, and you won’t have access.

I didn’t really spend too much time dwelling on it and thinking, you know, the worst. That’s it, you just have to accept it. I loaded up the car with all my stuff, as much as I could fit in. There was a lot of stuff I left there. I took it all back into our little one bedroom apartment, and then a couple of days later had set up a clinic in our living room.

That was going to be the new norm, and you know, it ended up being there for six months. In the mornings, the dining room table would be moved into the kitchen. The couch is up against the wall. The portable physio table would be set up. Couple of chairs, bit of equipment. The Olympics were getting spoken about coming up in 2021, and we had the TV on when people were coming in and the QR code on the screen door as they walked in and grabbed my point of sales facility and everything I could, and set it up on the kitchen bench, and next minute I’m seeing patients out of our living room.

Unfortunately, in that time, the Level Up Women’s AFL Program did take a bit of a hit, and that was something that I wasn’t going to be able to continue just based on travel restrictions.

Going back to a comment I made before, it wasn’t about trying to make something work, which wasn’t going to happen. It was all about how I can use my time efficiently to keep moving forward and staying really strong to the business plan that I had, in a time where there was a lot of unknown. It was coming back to things that I could trust, things that I could rely on.

My wife was a huge supporter of that. She was working at a hospital and she was working full time and I had lost, you know, almost 80% of the business overnight. We were on one income, like a lot of other families, no doubt. And like I said, just had to make it work. And what eventuated from there was, you know, other opportunities that did come up coming out of COVID.

WALLACE LONG

You mentioned that opportunities came up post COVID. What happened after that?

DANIEL LEE

During COVID, I think that’s when it was all about looking for what was going to come when the world opened up. The Giants AFL Program had stopped overnight, so there was continued conversations with them about what would happen when the program kicked off again and my role in that space, and that was confirmed.

So I knew that there was going to be that position for me when that started up again. At the same time, there was the Sydney Blue Sox baseball team of the Australian Baseball League. I was in frequent conversation with them about how I could assist the team as the head physio.

COVID time gave me time, and time is hugely valuable to anyone in business.

I took every day as a working day. I’d get up. I had a routine, and there was very clear and deliberate. Things that I’d be working on each day and one of them was the Sydney Blue Sox proposal. It ended up being a structured proposal, including financials, and how I could use my personal experience in baseball and understanding the demands and technical aspects of the game, and marrying that up with my physio knowledge and particular area of interest in upper limb rehab.

Conversations through COVID were really positive and I was fortunate enough to be brought on as the head physio for the Sydney Blue Sox for the ABL season, for whenever that was going to start up again. And that was really the main two things that came from the time during COVID. And once things did open up, it was then again, I went back into the YMCA and started working again and almost had to reconnect with the GPs, my referral partners, and build that clientele.

And unfortunately, the YMCA turned around only a couple of weeks into that and said, look, we’re going to renovate this room. It’ll happen over the next six months, so there’s no rush. But, you know, long-term we can’t have you here. And again, I had to make a decision and I made it pretty well on the spot that I’d rather move sooner rather than later.

And we’ve moved forward a little bit here. We’re into 2021 again, overnight I was talking to real estate agents, and I was talking to property managers and understanding proper lease agreements. The YMCA was a handshake agreement, a couple hundred dollars a week and just do what you like with the space. Just keep it neat, sort of situation.

And now I’m talking to property managers who manage large spaces, and the landlords are, federal agencies who, I’m going to be dealing with some people who have some significant experience, some big players in the world. And it was another challenge for me, which was kind of fun. It was great. It was another learning curve.

And again, my team around me, my accountant was amazing. He was going, yes, look, this is what you can afford. This is what you should look at in your contract. You need to be getting this sort of lawyer involved.

Again, personally my wife and I at the time, you know, it was just us. We had a one bedroom apartment. Our personal rent was low enough, and our lifestyles were supportive enough that I was going to be able to take a bit of a risk here.

Long story short, I found a space not far from where we lived. It was certainly a space that I envisioned being in in the next 10 years. Certainly not at that point in time. It was still just me. I didn’t have a receptionist. I didn’t have other staff, no one. I was on the phone. I was doing all of my admin. I was doing my basic accountant work, and I took on this big space that had three private treatment rooms, had a functional gym space.

It had a Pilates room. And like I said, if there was going to be a time to take a risk, that was going to be it. I bet on myself. Really is, is what it comes down to. I had put in the work during the time on COVID where I knew I was going to have some confirmed work with those sports teams. I had the referral partnerships generating enough patient work that I could do it.

There were goals where I’d be happy to see 20 patients a week, and I was fine with that because it was still a work in progress and I stuck true to myself, could have gone to the GPs and said I’m going to bulk bill all of your Medicare patients, and I would’ve filled my books overnight. That would’ve given me some financial security, no doubt about it, and certainly not saying it’s the wrong model, but it wasn’t the model for me.

I wanted to be able to offer my premium level of service. I wanted to be a consistent resource for the community to trust, and I wanted to develop the patient network that reflected my personal values as well. I look at the type of patient that I’m looking to work with. It’s someone who’s investing in their health and someone who I can then invest my experience in as well and see them through to meeting their goals, whether it’s playing with the grandkids or returning to sport.

It was certainly the longer road to take in terms of generating patient consultations, but it’s certainly the one that I took and I’m proud of that. And then again, now that I’ve got staff, it’s something that they appreciate as well.

WALLACE LONG

2021, you’ve moved in three private rooms. At what point did you get your first staff?

DANIEL LEE

It’s a great story. My wife, she’s also a physiotherapist. She works at Macquarie University in the clinical education team, and there was a physio who had recently graduated who they had hired to help on the staff at Macquarie.

And my wife Kate, knew that I was looking to hire someone. I’m vacuuming the clinic. I get a call from Kate saying, Shannon, she’ll be happy for me to use her name. She’s here, she’s keen to come and have a look at the space. I’m going to bring her over. I showed her the space, kind of explained the approach that I was taking to business, and the clientele we were seeing.

Without even knowing her clinical experience or anything like that, it’s going back to the conversation around values. Shannon’s personality was incredible. There was a similar upbringing to myself and a similar understanding of communication with people, the empathy and understanding, and the soft skills were off the charts.

If she was happy with what I was going to be able to provide from a contract perspective, from a business development perspective, from a professional development perspective, clinically, then I was going to do anything I could do to make this work. And so, Shannon was my first hire, and that would’ve been 2022.

We spent a lot of time clinically working together, developing our own skills. It was utilising that time to help Shannon go from a new graduate position to now a really proficient, senior physiotherapist. I appreciate everything she’s done, and it’s actually developed into a really solid friendship now, and you know, someone I can trust both in the clinic, out of the clinic from a business perspective, personal perspective, the whole thing. I’ve been very fortunate.

WALLACE LONG

Daniel, we’re going to move on to 2025 and your current setup. Before we do, you’ve mentioned that you’ve done a lot of proposals into the elite athletic space. One with the Sydney Blue Sox, a space you know well, and also with the Greater Western Sydney Giants and their Academy.

Were all your proposals successful?

DANIEL LEE

The short answer to that’s certainly not, no. And that’s probably where I saw those as, as not necessarily failing at that. It’s learning how different organisations were working, and what they were after really. And even with the Blue Sox and the Giants, the initial proposals were modified. There were aspects of those that needed to change, and developments that were made over time.

I really see the proposal for Allied Health High Performance and Wellness Models of Care for high schools. It’s a really interesting space and I’ve presented them to several schools throughout Sydney. There’s been times where, I have gone for a position as providing the physio services for the school and it hasn’t come through.

And that’s absolutely fine. One particular experience where I proposed quite early on, and I made it right through to the final interview process where on the interview panel there were some people in the physio space who I respect highly and they’re absolute experts in their field.

And to know that I was in the same room as them and being interviewed was a huge thing for me. And for that not to have come through, it was something that I learned from. I know now where I could’ve done better and it’s at some point it was going to be an experience thing. And this is a couple years ago.

So took a lot on from that, modified the models of care that I was putting together, and have since proposed them again. And I now know the staffing required for it, how schools operate from a business perspective. Really then the outlook from a student care, and how to manage the school community, the families, the community, or the public.

Using the school space is a really important thing to think about, and the proposals that I’ve got now are being accepted. There’s no doubt early on it’s not easy and thinking that you’ve got a great proposal sitting in front of you, that you trust and know can be implemented quite successfully, to then be knocked back is not easy.

Do not spend too much time dwelling on it. Take the feedback on, modify the proposal, keep working on it. You know, if you truly trust it and believe in it and communicate it in a way that’s going to benefit others, that’s what’s going to work best. Understanding who you are proposing it to, their approach, the way that they run their school or the business or the organisation is really important because it’s about making the proposal fit to their expectations and being able to support them rather than supporting my own interests.

That’s probably the biggest thing that I took away from the early proposals. I probably came at it from a personal perspective, whereas now, it’s very much putting a proposal together that’s going to benefit the organisation or whoever the proposal is for. It’s how can I benefit them the most?

WALLACE LONG

A baseball batter, if they get one in three hits, safely to first base, that’s considered a great average. One in three, do you think that’s a fair number, around your success rate?

DANIEL LEE

Well, early on, certainly not even that high. I had proposals that I presented to some big organisations, and they were met with some quite honest feedback, and I wasn’t given those contracts after those initial proposals.

And there’s a lot of things that I learned from those times in front of those organisations. The feedback that I received, which I was really proactive in seeking, there were a lot of times where it was quite a cold email, thanks for your time, unsuccessful. See you later, sort of situation. And I took it upon myself to reach out again and ask for the feedback and they were great.

There were times where we’d conduct Zoom meetings and it was feedback that was very specific to the proposal that I presented and I took it on board, and that’s helped me to the present day when I conduct these proposals where they’re very concise. They’re very specific. They’re very tailored to the organisation who I’m proposing them to.

I have a team around me who I present the proposal to before I even get to the table. So, I know that I’ve ironed out some of the creases. I know some of the questions that I might be asked, or the perspective from a parent or from a stakeholder in the organisation, from a business perspective. So, I know each of the angles that I need to take on the proposal, and there’s no doubt that the strike rate currently, is a lot higher than where it was initially.

WALLACE LONG

Also, as a healthcare practitioner, you’ve created a reputation over the last eight years or so. I’m sure that’s giving them confidence.

DANIEL LEE

Definitely. There’s no doubt. You know, the reputation is a big and important thing, in any industry, certainly in ours, where it’s a very face-to-face, service providing industry.

People need to be able to connect with you really, and that’s to the foundation of this, and that comes from the patient connecting with the physio, it’s the staff connecting to the boss. It’s the boss connecting to their staff. It’s then the organisation. If you’re working with sports teams, schools, it’s how, as a service provider, do we connect with them?

What’s the reputation, and understanding we have for one another, and the respect that’s generated from that.

WALLACE LONG

Let’s turn our attention to 2025. What does your business look like now?

DANILE LEE

Our conversation around the space, the three rooms and the functional space that we have, we have the staff occupying those rooms. Now, we have staff who have the experience to manage their patients independently. The business side of things, it’s about consistency.

For someone coming into our clinic looking for help, getting out of pain, reaching a goal, or whatever it might be, they know that they can trust a consistent premium level of care that we’re going to continue to provide. From my perspective, it’s supporting my staff in professional development. It’s identifying areas of interest for them that we can start to create niche areas of work for them. That includes sports teams and working with surgeons.

I can’t leave myself out of this. My areas of interest continue to be elite adolescent sport and upper limb rehabilitation. So, I knew that for that to progress, I needed to be around industry experts. Two years ago, I identified an upper limb surgeon who was just that, an expert in their field, and for nine months I sat on their admin desks, and I spoke to their patients and interacted with them, and learned from him.

Again, right place, right time. An opportunity came up, to then work alongside him as his consulting physiotherapist, which I do now once a week, I’m in his rooms and consult with his patients at their two, six, and 12 week follow ups. And in between those follow ups and for the journey of their rehabilitation, we follow up with them in the clinic.

From an elite adolescent athlete perspective, there’s a lot that’s changing in that space. We’re finding that the term elite and the demand on these players is being seen down the age chain. You know, we’re seeing young athletes really being pushed to meet high demand of their sport. That continues to be an area that personally I’d like to continue working in.

And we see those athletes through the clinic and that then again, from a clinic perspective opens up to assisting the families, mom and dad and caregivers and brothers and sisters. From A clinic perspective, we’ve developed our own little community. The setup is nice and open. There’s a lot of natural light.

It’s a nice flow. And at the core of it, it’s about the patient experience. It’s how can we greet the patient? How does their interaction with our physios meet their expectations? And then, you know, as they finish a consultation, how do they leave feeling? You know, really, that’s a big part of it.

So that’s the clinic side of things. Outside of the clinic, we we’re continuing to work with those teams that we’ve mentioned before, the Giants AFL Academy Program. The Sydney Blue Sox space has changed and evolved. Our position is slightly different, as a preferred provider, but we’re working heavily in the community baseball space.

Outside of that, the Gordon District Cricket Club is an area that we do a lot of work in. We assist with their fielding, as their coach, and then also from a physio perspective, we’re out there periodically at trainings, assisting the players, both the men’s and women’s clubs out there.

Additionally, to that, going back to our conversation about proposals, we’ve developed some really innovative allied health, high performance wellness models of care for schools, which we’re presenting to schools and they’re being received with good support.

I think from patient experience perspective; it’s about our consistency in the clinic of providing premium level of care that the community can trust.

WALLACE LONG

What percentage of your patients would be private?

DANILE LEE

It’s definitely the majority. We have a percentage of Workcover patients and comprehensive third party patients, and NDIS patients.

We certainly provide care to people who have unfortunately gone through experiences such as a car accident or a workplace incident. From the disability space, which is ever evolving and something we have to keep up with. You know, there are certain plans that we can provide care for those people on an NDIS package.

So, your question there, high percentage of our patients are private patients, doesn’t change our care. If they are a Workcover patient, we know that we’re going to provide our level of care to them, and that’s not going to waiver.

WALLACE LONG

How many days are you open and how many full-time equivalent staff do you have?

DANIEL LEE

So, the days that we’re open does vary depending on the sports season. We do pick up a Saturday morning kind of between winter and summer sports seasons. But certainly, once those seasons kick off, the weekend clinic opening time, it becomes hard to manage. During the week though, we’re Monday to Friday, eight till seven.

They are long hours, and from my perspective, means I have to manage my staff and make sure they’re getting to Friday being able to provide an energetic approach to their consultation. So, look, all of our staff are on slightly different hours, and we each have a day off, or several half days to assist with that.

WALLACE LONG

And from a technology point of view, has anything changed? You mentioned previously that everything was done on a self-built Wix website.

DANIEL LEE

The poor old Wix website that has definitely gone and been upgraded. We have a third party managing our online presence. They’re based in Melbourne. They’re great to work with.

We have monthly catchups. We have strategic plans that we put in place for how we’re viewed online and how accessible we are to people searching for physios near us. The website itself has a completely different look to what it did. Again, just nice and clean, concise information, in depth information about each of our physios.

I really believe in the patient connecting to the physios. So, if we can provide a good profile of each of our physios before the patient even arrives, they’ve got a good understanding of who they’re working with. Other technology: fortunately, have been exposed to lots of it with high level and well run sporting organisations, which we implement into our clinic.

So, force decks and being able to measure strength through dynamometers objective measurement is huge and does guide treatment and rehabilitation. The other thing now is that we’re finding the health literacy of the community is exceptional. Before there would be a low expectation on what a physio can provide or what the patient’s going to get out of a treatment session, and we would almost have to sell our service a little bit.

Whereas now what we see from the most part is people coming to the clinic already with an idea of what’s going to help them. They just need the guidance on how to do it, how often to do it, and progressions through their rehab. So, it certainly keeps us accountable. It means that we have to keep up with the latest research and evidence that we then implement into our sessions.

So, from a technology perspective, I think it’s all around us. I think we have to appreciate it and keep up with it. But not stray away from still being able to provide the evidence-based approach that’s going to be specific to the individual in front of us and not just implementing a generic rehab protocol.

Other technology. There are certainly apps that we provide exercises on for people to follow at home that is met with varying acceptance, I have to say, for certain patients that still handwritten notes or videos on their phone or notes on their phone. Having access to apps that have the exercise and the sets and reps and how to do it, that’s changed our space dramatically as well.

It’s not a space where one size fits all. The approach we take is very much an individual approach, and if we know that this way is not going to work for our patient, we need to be able to adapt and provide the way that is going to work best for them.

WALLACE LONG

How many physiotherapists do you have?

DANIEL LEE

We have three full-time physios. We have several contractors who help out with the sports teams. We have final year students who are involved in that as well. In-house, full-time, three physios. We also have a full-time receptionist who’s great and essentially a 2IC for me. The team that we have in the clinic at the moment is great and we work really well together, and that’s projected onto our patients.

WALLACE LONG

One of the biggest challenges with health practices at the moment is sourcing and retaining health professional staff. You mentioned there’s a great connection and things worked out very well with Shannon. What are the other things that you do from a values, a culture piece that helps your team?

DANIEL LEE

There’s, certainly a few things. The professional development side of things and mentorship is a big point that physiotherapists look for in a clinic. So being able to provide fortnightly group professional development time is huge. So, each of us, we go on a rotating roster. If I’m on it this week, the previous week, I have the time to identify an area that I’m going to present on.

There are certainly websites with this information that we use. We then pass on that research article or the tutorial that we’re referencing to the rest of the staff. They watch that, read it, understand it, and then we come together. Whoever’s presenting that week goes through it. It’s quite interactive.

Generally, it’s an area that we’ve seen several patients present with, so it’s front of mind for most of us. And from there, from a mentor perspective, myself and Shannon and Isaac, our other staff member, we have time to together to help each other. We do almost a mini case conference if we have a difficult presentation.

It’s blocking off a time in our schedules to meet and go; this is what I’m working with. This is how I’ve approached it so far. This is where I’d like to go with it. What are your thoughts? Am I on the right track? Where should I go next? And it just provides us with some reassurance.

I’m really supportive of the fact of each of us developing our own treatment style. I don’t expect any of the physios who I hire to treat exactly like me, and I’ll always support them developing their own treatment style, their own communication style. It’s just some input that I might be able to provide to get them thinking in a different direction, and they might turn around and not like that direction, and that’s absolutely fine.

As long as we’re keeping the patient safe and we’re meeting their expectations and we’re progressing through their diagnosis, then that’s the main outcome. Being able to have those times of structured mentorship, professional development is really important for us.

WALLACE LONG

The Australian Physiotherapy Association (APA) is your professional body. How have they supported you over the years?

DANIEL LEE

The APA run courses throughout the year, and fortunately, they’re right across the road from us. We identify throughout the year courses that each of us would like to attend and we book them. From a business perspective there’s a professional development allowance that I provide our physios, so for them to be able to go, it’s financially supported.

The courses are great. There’s a lot of advocacy from the APA, which has been great. The most recent conversation is around the bulk billing model, and how the GP space has changed, and whether that should be reflected from a physiotherapy practice. Keeping up with the relevancy on that is important.

The APA run a great HR consultancy service, which if you sign up to, you have access to contract templates, phone calls with lawyers and accountants and that sort of thing, which provide the advice generically around the situation. But it certainly points you in the right direction.

That’s something I utilised heavily early on, and continue to do so, as the business evolves. So, the APA has great services. The courses are great from a professional development perspective, and we utilise them year round.

WALLACE LONG

You mentioned earlier that you’ve invested in a more advanced digital presence, the core piece of that being your website.

I’m interested to understand from your referral base and also from people coming in off their own bat, where does that sit now in regard to proportion of patients that you have?

Let’s just focus on the private patients. you’ve got those that’ll come through the digital assets that you have online, and then also those through the connections that you’ve established through your sporting connections.

Also, then you’ve got your GP referral partners. Can you give me an idea of how that’s working? Has it shifted over the years?

DANIEL LEE

It definitely has. So, you know, I’m still not slow, but it’s probably an area that I haven’t invested in as much. I have to say, probably seeing between eight and 10% of our client population come through our website, which is quite good.

We’re quite happy with, it’s certainly not our main referral stream, so it is an area that we’re going to work in more, absolutely. The strategies around that are quite clear and they do take some time to develop. As we’ve spoken about, there’s been other areas where our referral streams have been more deliberate and taken much more of our time and really initially it came back to the financial costs of investing in the website and what the website could do for us to develop patient referrals.

So early on I was investing that money elsewhere, and glad I did. That’s put us on the path where we are today. It’s now allowed me to work a little bit more into the online space.

Look, the website’s certainly a big point of access for our patients. So yes it would sit around eight and 10%.

WALLACE LONG

Okay, so the rest is referral based, through your GP network and also obviously the orthopaedic surgeon you’re working with.

DANIEL LEE

Yes, that’s correct. So, the orthopaedic surgeon would be about 50%, and then the sporting organisations and the families within those organisations would make up the other sort of majority of that.

WALLACE LONG

Daniel delivering a premium service to your customers must come at a cost, and we know that business costs have increased significantly over the last couple of years. What are the biggest challenges that you are facing, and how are you addressing them to maintain your profitability?

DANILE LEE

There’s been a lot of change.

The big ticket items that hold most of our, overhead costs are going to be the rent, which, you know, I’ve signed two lease extensions and in the time that I’ve been in the space where we are at the moment, it’s increased by 40%. So, we need to be really aware of that. We need to still be able to run a business that’s profitable to be able to then provide the premium level of service to our patients.

So obviously rent’s not something that I can negotiate. Other areas like insurances. We look into different insurance companies and what they can provide at what cost. Just like anyone, we need to keep our costs low, and if there’s going to be fixed costs that are going to be increasing, then we need to turn our attention to costs that we can, have a little bit more say or control over.

But it’s certainly difficult when we have to keep up with it and you have to put a little bit of thought into it rather than just having that direct debit for that insurance that comes out. Each year it’s going, leaving yourself a note the month before to go, right this insurance is coming up. Let’s do a little bit of research into it. Who else is around? What are they providing at what cost? Because if you lose sight of that, your overheads balloon out very quickly.

WALLACE LONG

When you started your business, you had quite a wide range of ages and different types of clinical presentations in your practice. Is that any different now?

DANIEL LEE

It’s not different, no. But what is different is the fact that our staff is different. We now have our areas of interest. So, the patient population who I see is very different to who Shannon sees. It’s different to who Isaac sees, and we’re able to provide the services to the community based on our areas of interest.

So again, I see the majority of my patient population is going to be upper limb rehabilitation. It’s going to be our elite, junior and adult athletes. Shannon is our back pain guru. She sees people across the age demographic but also assists with the upper limb rehab and athlete population. Isaac has great personal experience in specific sports and he’s taken on a great role out the Giants Academy.

His role is ever evolving in that sport space. Really, to answer the question is no, the demographic hasn’t changed, but the way we manage it has.

WALLACE LONG

Daniel, thanks so much. It’s been a great insight, and I think the knowledge that you’ve been prepared to share will be of value to a lot of young healthcare professionals who are looking to start their own business.

What’s next for any stage physio and Daniel Lee?

DANIEL LEE

There’s lots and some of it, I’m still at that point where I’m keeping it close to my chest a little bit. Look there’s certainly conversations around expanding and that happens frequently from what we’re finding and going back to our conversation about overheads and that sort of thing, is the space, being able to position ourselves where our patients are. That’s key.

So rather than having a fixed location and working really hard to attract patients to us, why can’t we put ourselves where our patients are? What we’re taking on now is how can we assist our surgeons? They’ll work out of consulting rooms and there’s generally a room that’s free.

And now the experience that we have providing this model of care to several surgeons is that we look to expand that position ourselves and assist their surgeons and their patients in their rooms. We keep the rehab in-house. We get a direct line of communication between the patient, ourselves and the surgeon.

And if they’re local enough, we see them back in the clinic. That’s an area that will certainly evolve and it’s quite an exciting space. The other one then is proposing these allied health high performance wellness models of care to schools. And that’s something that I’m quite passionate about.

And that’s a really innovative space that is changing and will continue to change. And the experience that I’ve developed over the years in putting these proposals together, having these conversations with these organisations, has developed to the point where I’m confident enough to know that what we can provide can assist the school, can assist their students, can assist the family and the broader school community.

There’s some really exciting things on the horizon, but really again, being able to provide our continued level of premium care in the clinic is a real priority as well.

WALLACE LONG

Daniel, thanks so much for your time. It’s been an absolute privilege to have a chat about your business and thanks for sharing on Health Practice Insights.

DANIEL LEE

Thanks all. It’s been great. Really enjoyed it. Thank you.

WALLACE LONG

Big thanks to Daniel Lee. I very much enjoyed this interview, in particular hearing how he has created business opportunities around his clinical interests. You can find Daniel’s contact details in the show notes. To receive a PDF summary of this episode head to the link in the show notes, or go to our website, www.healthpracticeinsights.com au

You can also sign up to our newsletter, so you never miss an episode. Please follow us on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Health Practice Insights is brought to you by C2M Consulting, marketing advisors to the health sector. I’m Wallace Long. Thanks for listening.