Paul Hedges

In Episode 32 of The Business of Allied Health, host Barry sits down with Paul Hedges, co-owner of a thriving 9-physio practice in the Adelaide Hills and founder of Rate My Clinic. Paul brings a refreshingly honest perspective—having spent 23 years in the trenches growing, expanding to 3.5 locations, and ultimately making the bold strategic decision to "shrink to grow" back to a single, highly profitable flagship location. Paul shares why bigger isn't always better, the massive financial and stability advantages of purchasing your clinic's freehold building, and why obsessing over data (like Net Promoter Score and team feedback) helped them achieve an astonishing average staff tenure of 13.2 years. Plus, Paul breaks down what he’s learned from benchmarking over 120 Australian clinics through Rate My Clinic. Timestamps:00:00 Introduction: Meeting Paul Hedges and the 23-year journey of their Adelaide Hills clinic.01:53 The early days: Running Pilates classes in church halls and processing paper bookings.03:07 "Shrink to Grow": Why Paul and his wife decided to downsize from 3.5 locations back to 1 flagship clinic.04:44 Buying your clinic's freehold building: The financial advantages of becoming your own landlord.06:58 What drives sustainable growth? The power of deep communication and team engagement.08:52 The data that matters: Achieving a 13.2-year average staff tenure and using NPS for client feedback.12:59 The uncomfortable truth: Why practice owners wait too long to take action on staff who aren't the right fit.14:40 Introducing Rate My Clinic: Benchmarking over 120 Australian clinics to discover what high performers do differently.16:05 Final thoughts and how to connect with Paul Hedges at ratemyclinic.com.au.