What to do next if you are thinking of buying, starting, or planning a structured exit from a podiatry business
The team at Podiatry Business Central (PBC) have been working with healthcare professionals like you for over 30 years. So, if you are thinking about buying, preparing for an optimal practice exit, or looking for help to value a practice then get in touch to find out how best we can help:
Podiatry Business Central
We help business owners to make good decisions
Life used to be more straight forward for qualified Podiatrists, but with significant changes in recent years, it is becoming ever more complicated.
Whether you are considering buying or selling an existing chiropody business – or starting your own podiatry practice from scratch – an understanding of the current key market drivers and dynamics, and an appreciation of where the market is likely to be heading, are essential. This will help you make the optimal decision and select the best approach and timeframe for your specific set up, situation and goals.
Practice growth
Maximising the worth and potential of your business
Practice valuation
Establish the true worth of your business
Practice sales
The right deal at the right price
Client Feedback
What our
clients are saying
“We arranged for an evaluation of our business as well as a valuation. I must say that the money was probably one of the best value pieces of advice I have ever personally paid for. The suggestions were fair, practical and positive. Nobody likes to hear that their business is not perfect, but the professional and detailed assessment I received was constructive, professional and a fair assessment of the practice. The result being that we added some serious value to the business over the next 18 months …”
(now)retired business owner, Surrey
Market Outlook
“There is a perfect storm brewing in the chiropody sector”
When it comes to the demand levels for the services you offer, there is something of a perfect storm brewing in the chiropody sector, with many factors at play that look set to combine to accelerate and reinforce the overarching trend further.
These factors include:
- The UK’s rapidly ageing population
- Rapidly rising levels of obesity and type 2 diabetes are now impacting not only on the elderly, but increasingly on younger members of the population.
- The NHS budget and infrastructure are creaking under the weight of demand. This has led to an unofficial rationing of many healthcare services. This, together with post-Covid changes to GP accessibility, is covertly acting as a significant barrier to entry into the NHS for a range of services.
- Opportunities for diversification to create new niches, income streams, and a more varied range of work. Segments of the younger population are becoming increasingly health conscious, creating new, affluent patient groups e.g. middle-aged runners. These private patients are prepared to pay well for both remedial and preventative treatments.
- With just under 10,000 podiatrists registered with the Health and Care Professions Council there is a severely limited supply of podiatry professionals (To put this in perspective, this equates to just one foot-care professional per 5,500 residents in England, and that number is expected to decline with many professionals close to retirement age.)
- The distribution of clinical professionals is not homogenous – some areas are better supplied than others with podiatry professionals. This means that the specific area you operate in may dictate the approach you take.
It is against the context of this backdrop that key decisions for any practice purchase, exit plan or practice sale need to be made.
Make sure you are on the right side of the supply and demand equation
A shortage of podiatry professionals in the private sector has 2 main impacts for HCPC registered professionals working within chiropody businesses:
- With increasing demand for services and decreasing supply of human resources/capacity to fulfil the demand, natural economic forces determine that it should be possible to increase prices and to charge patients more per unit of private clinical time
- However, this maybe something of a double-edged sword; For larger practices that run multiple clinics – or businesses where the owner wishes to work less and bring in locum or employed chiropodists to allow them to do this – many are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain suitable staff to facilitate this.
In some areas where there is an acute scarcity of podiatry Human Resources, the salaries/locum day rates/remuneration levels the severely limited pool of resource can command can significantly reduce practice profit margins.
Not Just a single market
For those looking to buy, start or sell a podiatry business it is essential to understand that the UK independent podiatry sector is not a single market, it is a ‘market of markets’, a sector with substantial regional and even local variation and variance in operating models.
Some practices are highly profitable commercial enterprises, others are small lifestyle businesses that earn little more than the owner would earn on a salaried basis.
Whether your motivation is simply to be your own boss, or you have your sights set on a highly profitable, multi-clinic operation – with the right business model – the overarching trend of increasing demand for podiatry services, offers huge financial and lifestyle opportunities.
If you are seeking to start or buy a practice, the purchase of a solid existing practice can offer an excellent foundation for you to take on and evolve an established patient base and fast-track your plans to a larger, more profitable enterprise.
Towards the other end of a career, when you are planning on selling your practice in the next few years, careful preparation and modifications to your business model can make a huge difference to the ‘salability’ of your enterprise and the price and commercial terms achievable.
Buy or build from scratch?
Should you start a podiatry business from scratch or purchase an established practice?
To find out, visit our latest business insight article for prospective podiatry business owners.
Our people
Our expert team
We are a cohesive team, led by Dominic Watson and Georgina Myers. Our team comprises experts in Exit Planning, Sales Negotiation, and Business Growth. We are united in our passion for always doing the best for our clients. (And by our love of cake!)
Exit planning
Business growth
Sales negotiation
Should you start a podiatry business from scratch or purchase an established practice?
Our team can help you make the most of your business and achieve an optimal exit.