Navigate the Noise of PPS With Purpose and Planning
Ahead of PPS 2024 in Washington, DC, Paul suggests how to choose sessions with purpose, previews his talk on how rate cuts may affect M&A activity, and points to sessions on finance and recruiting.
Full transcript
Generated from the episode audio and lightly edited for readability.
Good afternoon and welcome to another episode of the Martin Rehab M&A advisory. I'm Paul Martin, founder and president of Martin Healthcare Advisors and I am actually talking to you today from the great city of Gettysburg in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. This is where I attended college, played football here, and I am back for tonight, the first Friday night under the lights football game in Gettysburg College history. So, real exciting night here at Gettysburg College. But what's exciting for all of you is today what I want to talk about is how you can pick and choose very carefully the sessions that you will attend at the private practice section conference next week in the great city of Washington DC.
So we are really looking forward to that and I think as I look at the conference this is again we call it the New Year's Eve of the rehabilitation year and just a great time to begin your planning for 2025. You know, we all know there's going to be a lot of talk especially at my session which is on Friday and I hope all of you will come and attend that session. Because I really think that it's going to be important to talk about how the rate cut will impact the merger and acquisition activity in this industry and how there may be some really good news about that, but there also may be some bad news about that for all of you.
So, make sure you attend my session. I think it's going to be really thought-provoking for all of you as you look at your own conference and think of it that way that this is your opportunity to build for 2025. Consider the biggest challenges that you are having in your business and focus on attending those sessions as well as I said last week meeting with those individuals and those people who can give you a lift in those areas. Now, looking at what I just described, which is the bad news we're going to tell you about is that there's going to be a lot of companies that are going to want to try to sell partner during this time when acquirers have capital that's going to be a lot less expensive than it was in 2023.
So, they will be more aggressive, but you want to be at the front of that line, not at the back of that line. So if in 20 late 24 2025 the potential of selling or partnering with a larger partner is something you want to do couple sessions I would strongly suggest that you go to first would be my session as I had said and also visit us at booth 202 come and visit us so you can talk to our professionals at our booth. But another one that I would definitely recommend is a topic called business and financial management.
It's going to be done by Chris Albanese. Chris, as you know, has been in practice for many years as and has built a large b a large business and access PT. And what he's going to be talking about is looking at your business through the lenses of a business person. Not as most of us do. I'm a physical therapist as well as I'm sure most of you looking at it through our clinical eyes. Looking at it through our business eyes. What does our leadership look like?
What do our metrics look like? Are we making decisions based on business principles and business and financial management and are we managing the business financially? I think it's going to be a great session. So I would I would strongly recommend it. Another area of focus that I would say is has got to be for all of us is in the area of recruiting and retention. What we tend to see is that companies and business owners who have a very strong can do positive optimistic you know very what word am I looking for?
High efficiency productive a productive culture tend to not have as much difficulty attracting and keeping staff. So another great topic and I am almost positive that Joe Costello from Spear Physical Therapy is going to be a really good speaker. I know a lot of the folks at Spear and it's just a great practice in New York. But it's called culture, people, scale, grow your practice with intention. We worked with Spear for many years and Dan has done just a phenomenal job and I think that would be a really good session for you to attend especially if you're looking to grow your practice.
You know, if you want to stand out in this current environment, you have to be solid on your operations. And there is someone by the name of Lori Dylan, and she is from Therapeutic Associates, who I am sure you all know. And she's going to do a session. It's called want more joy in work. Measure it, track it, improve it. We have been talking about that since my first conference back in 1999 and I'm real excited to see how she rolls that out for all of you.
Therapeutic Associates, again, one of the largest privately held companies in the country. They just do a phenomenal job and so I'm really anxious to hear this topic for sure. You know, another area of focus as it relates to staffing, attaining staff, building building a strong culture will be a topic by Russell Certo and his topic is called cultivating leadership building a sustainable culture for future success. Seems like in his focus is going to be a little bit more leadershipbased and how you build leadership groups, etc.
So that would be another one on the same lines that I think would be really good. And then finally from Blaine Stimac from HRS Health and Rehabilitation Solutions, I'm sorry. He is going to do a session called use your financials to drive decisionmaking. HRS has done just a phenomenal job in the growth of their business. And what he's going to be stressing is that as physical therapy business owners and physical therapists, and you're going to see behind his name, PTMS, he is a physical therapist. We are just continually looking and refining our clinical models as well as some of our operational models.
But do we ever really use our financials to drive our decision-making? And what at what level should our staffing be as a percentage of revenues? What level should our marketing be as a percentage of revenues? And looking at how you can make sure to do a review of those monthly profit and loss statements as well as that balance sheet to make sure that you're using that to drive your decision making. So key in this current environment. So those are just a few of what will be just an absolutely phenomenal conference.
There are so many good sessions and I know I miss some for sure. So please if you have a session and it's a great one, don't beat me up at the conference. But those were some that stood out for me and again I just want to make sure that all of you are have those on your radar and are absolutely looking to attend those sessions. And I do one more time because I wanted to make sure that you know where my session is. My session is in National Harbor 23.
And again it is on four. It is at 4 o'clock on Thursday. I believe I said Friday, so I can go back and change that. It's at four o'clock on Thursday. And my session is called Navigating the Surge, Mastering the 2024 2025 physical therapy merger and acquisition landscape. This is a topic that's going to be talked about. There's going to be a lot of acquirers there. There's going to be a lot of talk and what we want to be able to do for you is tell you how do you get to the front of the line.
What are the acquirers looking for in this market and how will they behave now that they have cheaper money? They have money that's less expensive to them. How will that change how they approach acquisitions? And I'm excited to know and I apologize saying I'm many times I speak on Friday, but I'm going to be speaking at 4:00 on Thursday this time. So please come and join my session. We we'll be looking for all of you to attend. So if you could just click below if you would like to talk to me about anything that we've talked about today or anything related to how you can prepare your practice for this current market. Just click below and let's talk. I look forward to seeing you all at the private practice section meeting next week. Thanks and have a great weekend.
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