Learn more about what starting a private practice is like and how to use Instagram to support and grow your business.
As part of our series on Side Hustle Ideas for Pediatric Therapists, we are doing a deeper dive into some of our favorite hustlers in the business. These therapists have worked tirelessly to grow and develop their businesses from the ground up, adding creative new elements businesses along the way!
In this post, we’ll hear from Stacy Menz, owner and founder of Starfish Therapies. Stacy has built a thriving therapy practice and has also used Instagram as a way to reach a larger audience outside of her local client base.
She has grown her Instagram account rapidly over the past year, sharing resources, information, and activity ideas that pertain to her everyday work as a PT. She discusses developmental milestones and shows videos and pictures of herself facilitating activities with kids as she talks through the skills she is targeting.
One of the things we love most about her account (and likely the reason that her followers keep coming back for more!) is that she also shares real-life, behind the scenes content showing what it’s like to run her business as a busy mom of a toddler. She also demonstrates a lot of activities and facilitation technique with her little guy as a model, and he often becomes the star of the show! :)
We’re excited to have Stacy here today to tell us, in her own words, what it’s like to own and run a pediatric therapy practice and how she’s used Instagram to support and grow her business.
Starting a Private Practice and Using Instagram to Grow Your Business
Hi! I’m Stacy, mom to an active toddler, and the owner and founder of Starfish Therapies, a pediatric therapy company. I founded the company in 2007 based on an opportunity I saw in the marketplace. We started with home based therapy only and we now provide services in a clinic as well as several school districts.
While I was active on Instagram before, it wasn’t until I had my little one and was on maternity leave that I was able to focus on it and develop a community with other professionals as well as provide needed information to families. Instagram has also allowed me to see where there were needs for both parents and professionals. This all coincided with the pandemic, which gave our staff the time to create the resources and services to expand our reach and increase our impact to families directly and through education of professionals.
Owning a business has some amazing perks. We are able to develop intensive programs that allow us to see a difference in some of our more involved kids. We are able to use specialized equipment to target the areas that need the most work. We are also able to coach parents to help integrate skills into their day to day lives so there is carryover at home, which enhances development.
Instagram has been a great tool for our company to build a community of parents and professionals. Through building this community I have been able to learn what is needed/missing in terms of products and services and I can work to develop resources to fill those holes. It’s has been great to be able to act as a resource to parents and professionals alike. And, it has been so valuable to collaborate with other professionals.
There are also some challenges! Whether it’s making sure you have the right staff, dealing with insurance companies, making sure you stay compliant with ever changing regulations, or handling a global pandemic, there is never a shortage of problems to solve!
It can also be challenging because there are never enough hours in the day. I have so many ideas and things I want to get done but I have to learn patience! While Instagram can be great, it can also be challenging because it is time consuming and if you don’t have a clear goal for why you are using it, you may feel like you are throwing time away. Also, you are constantly at the whim of Instagram’s changing algorithm for getting your content noticed. While it is great to have the goal of 10,000 followers to get the swipe up feature, it would be really nice if it was just available to all!
For anyone who wants to find us and see what we have to offer, the first place to start would be our website. On our website you will find our services, as well as our blog and our shop.
We are also on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube (here we have some playlists based on developmental milestones as well as workouts for kids!).
We also have Gross Motor Programs to help with specific motor milestones provide a mentor/collaboration group for therapists across the world and across multiple disciplines!
Come hang out with us on one of our social media channels. We’d love to meet you!