4 minute read
Startup Success
It would be nice if a startup business went in a straight line to success,but the reality is the track of a startup tends to be more like the game of Chutes and Ladders — two upward moves, one sliding back, and soon. Take heart, it doesn’t have to be that way. We can show you howto avoid the pitfalls and keep moving to the top.
ONE STARTUP STORY AMONG MANY:
Moving to the top is what Dr. Sarah Churchill and soon-tobe-partner Molly McClelland have in mind for their newly opened practice, Churchill Chiropractic, and they’re willing to go through the ups and downs of business to get there. Whatever the challenges, they have set their sights on multiple locations and $1 million in annual revenue in just five years. Churchill says, “When we do things, we don’t tend to think small.”
They are part of a record-breaking number of people who are starting businesses, despite the pandemic. According to U.S. Census Bureau data, the number of business startup applications hit 5.4 million in 2021. The year before was also record-breaking. More than ever before, people are choosing to follow their dreams.
New business owner Sarah Churchill
Churchill understands why. After working as an associate doctor for other chiropractic businesses for years, Churchill decided she wanted to take a different approach to the kind of care that was given. On top of that, some of the businesses took a substantial cut of the revenue she brought in. She says she finally asked herself, “If I am not in alignment with what I was seeing, and the finances are also not in alignment, then what am I waiting for?”
She began to explore whether having her own business made sense — she quickly found that it did. First, the Nashua area market seemed primed for a new chiropractic business. “People are looking for things that are preventative versus always relying on medications to control their pain,” Churchill says. “I think this is the right time to be in the business.”
Then there were the finances. “Even with taking out a mortgage for a location and a loan for the startup, I had the potential to be making more money,” she says. Another plus, she would have control over the kind of care that was given. The decision was made.
She would set up Churchill Chiropractic, offering chiropractic, acupuncture and spinal decompression. For a business structure, she chose an LLC, which protects owners from personal responsibility for its debts or liabilities. But that was the easy part.
She then began what she calls “the wild ride” of completing the process — lots of paperwork, staying current with state regulations, and so on. “It was all stuff I never had to think about as a practitioner,” she says. “It was nuts. I would do all these things only to find out there was one missing piece.”
Then, she says, “God smiled down on me.” McClelland, a longtime friend with extensive experience managing chiropractic and wellness centers, was suddenly available to become Office Manager and help navigate through the bureaucratic thickets.
Soon-to-be partner at Churchill Chiropractic, Molly McClelland
In the process, they decided to switch their banking business to Service Credit Union. “It made a huge difference once we switched to Service Credit Union,” Churchill says. “It went so much smoother. If we open a second location, we’ll be doing things in a drastically different way, and one of them will be making use of what Service Credit Union offers.”
For now, she works alone with her rapidly increasing clientele while McClelland manages the office. She has no regrets about her decision to start her own business: “I can’t think of a time that I have felt so relaxed. It doesn’t feel like we’re going to work. It just feels like this is what we were supposed to be doing all along.” n
