From COVID Collapse to Record Profit and a Bigger MSK Vision | Bruno de Jongh, BOAC #61

 In this episode of The Business of a Clinic, Jared speaks with Bruno, a physio and clinic founder/director, about the honest reality of building a clinic when the business model, the team, and the founder’s mindset are not where they need to be.Bruno started like many clinicians do: as a sole trader who had learned how to be a physio, but not how to run a business. Over time, he built a team and the clinic was profitable, but COVID exposed how fragile the model really was. The business started to crumble, and Bruno describes reaching a point where the clinic was heading toward a crash.This is one of the most candid BOAC conversations so far. Bruno talks openly about anxiety, poor sleep, avoiding the numbers, and using video games as a coping mechanism while things were going wrong in the business and in his personal life.The turning point came when he finally asked for help and joined Thrive Business Coaching. At first, he focused on tactics and checklists. But the real change came when he started working on mindset, self-worth, and the beliefs that were stopping him from changing. He shares why he tried to leave the programme just before his breakthrough, how a seven-day gratitude exercise helped shift his self-worth, and why he now believes many clinic owners are more afraid of success than failure.Jared and Bruno also discuss the operational side of the turnaround: rebuilding the team, hiring around core values, choosing providers more carefully, using transparency as a filter, measuring KPIs, fixing leaky buckets, and moving patient recall work away from therapists who were not wired to do outreach.They also talk about why emails and SMS were not enough to bring patients back, how specialist recall support helped re-engage old patients, and why freeing clinicians from admin-heavy follow-up can help them focus on the clinical work they are trained to do.The episode closes with Bruno’s next chapter: a planned flagship site between Waterloo and Canary Wharf, with treatment rooms, a rehab room, and a Pilates studio designed to support continuation of care. For Bruno, the bigger vision is not just more appointments or more sites. It is helping people live well for longer.In this episodeStarting as a sole-trader physiotherapistWhy clinicians are not taught how to run a businessHow COVID exposed weaknesses in the clinic modelAnxiety, avoidance, poor sleep, and gaming as a coping mechanismAsking for help before the business crashedJoining Thrive Business CoachingWhy tactics and checklists were not enoughThe mindset work behind the turnaroundTrying to quit just before the breakthroughSelf-worth and the seven-day gratitude exerciseWhy some clinic owners fear success more than failureRebuilding almost the entire teamHiring around values and mindsetWhy only one team member stayed through the changeChoosing external providers through transparency and shared valuesWhy clinic owners need to measure the right KPIsFixing leaky buckets inside the businessWhy software recalls were not enoughBringing back patients from years agoWhy therapists are not always the right people to do follow-up callsHow specialist recalls can free up clinical timeThe hidden cost of admin work in MSK clinicsThe plan for a new flagship sitePilates, rehab, and continuation of careHelping patients live well for longerKey ideaA clinic turnaround is not just about systems, strategy, or marketing. Bruno’s story shows how much depends on mindset, self-worth, team alignment, values, measurement, and the willingness to face the parts of the business that are easiest to avoid.About the showThe Business of a Clinic explores how private healthcare clinics can grow by improving patient relationships, patient engagement, clinic operations, retention, follow-up, commercial systems, and the overall patient experience.