What do you currently do?
I’m the Founder/Director of Physiotherapy Specialists Ltd; responsible for the launch of the UK’s only private physiotherapy clinics to be staffed entirely by teams of physiotherapists who specialise anatomically. So we have: Spinal Specialists, Upper Limb Specialists, Lower Limb Specialists, and Pelvic Specialists.
Although we currently have just just two London clinics, one in Canary Wharf and the other in Marble Arch, the vision is for a National chain..
What is your inspiration in business?
I find the finite nature of life sufficiently inspiring. As the only thing that haunts me is the thought of waking up one morning years from now and thinking ‘if only I’d’.. Being in control of my own destiny, at least that part not controlled by fate/luck, is very important to me; running my own business is therefore simply an extension of that.
If I have an idea, I want to act on it. I don’t want to have the idea tossed around for weeks/months and eventually shrunk and diluted into something similar to that which already exists.
Who do you admire?
I admire anyone with the guts and passion to challenge the status quo. It’s not easy sticking your head out and challenging hardwired precepts; whatever industry they might apply to.
Looking back, are there things you would have done differently?
Absolutely. For reasons of sanity I’d probably have addressed my control issues a little earlier and delegated more. For financial and leverage reasons I’d have paid for fewer things up front; insisting on 50% deposit and 50% on delivery/completion.
What defines your way of doing business?
We spend most of our lives at work, so I want to enjoy it. It’s therefore very important whom I surround myself with. Although I always primarily recruit based on clinical excellence, personality runs a very close second.
With regards to more direct business dealings, to be honest, I think this is probably still under development. As unfortunately some in business seem to misinterpret openness and friendliness as weakness.
What advice would you give to someone just starting out?
I’m not sure I would.. As there was nothing more irritating when I started out than someone proffering advice about my business plans; they having mulled it over for all of a minute, whilst I having mulled it over every waking minute for more than a year!
Besides, if you could see all the hurdles ahead you might not start running; one by one though they’re usually easy enough to contend with, and invariably even the very part of the challenge that makes business fun.
