Compleet Feet started as Foot Mechanic September 4th, 2007. It was just me with no receptionist and a just a handful patients booked in. I cannot start to convey how immensely proud and excited I was, although there was an underlying nervousness and trepidation. So much hinged on making my new private podiatry practice a success. I had signed a 5 year lease. Frightening thought back then especially as it was right at the start of the recession. An inauspicious time.
I had previously worked 12 years for the Ministry of Defence at Royal Hospital Haslar, Gosport, Hampshire as the MOD’s clinical lead. I was closeted, institutionalised. Going out on my own, with no assurances private practice would work was scary, could I do it? In reality, the process of getting a business loan, kitting out a clinic was fun was relatively easy. I really enjoyed the ‘set-up’ phase. You discover you have different skill sets and are a lot braver than you think you are.
Sometimes you feel fate is on your side. The timing of finding the ideal refurbished retail unit in Alton was actually perfect. Number 14, Normandy Street had just become available and the landlady was a Waller like me! It was just the right size fora small reception area and clinical room.Once I secured change of use from A retail to D medical I was on a roll.
Did you know that category D is the same as if I was opening up a hospital? I then found the courage to write to my competitor to ask if he had ever considered retiring? I offered to buy his goodwill. He accepted which gave me a small client base, about 300. In reality consisting of just 100 regular attendees. Buying ‘goodwill’ is risky as it guarantees no assurances patients will come to you. It is difficult to put a cost on, but the value was giving me a competitive edge and to stop me twiddling my fingers in the early weeks. I now have over 7,250 patients on my database!
There is so much to do running a private practice and I was largely doing it on my own, with not even a receptionist. Patients would arrive, wait whilst I finished treatment on the last one, then be patient whilst I took payment and rebooked. I had to put so much trust in leaving the reception area unmanned which was not ideal. Three months after starting I had my handbag nabbed from behind the reception desk, then to make me feel more vulnerable a brick was thrown through my front door. Luckily at night so nobody hurt. It was time to get a receptionist, and it was lovely to start building a ‘team’, in which my husband Mark started to get involved utilising his accountancy background to help. One was now 3! Actually, the team was 4. I used to bring my puppy Beagle Jasper to work who was kept in the back. He once escaped and was brought back to me by one of my patients. You soon begin to become part of the community.
Was Alton a safe place to be working in? Yes, it is. I have only ever had another unwanted incident happen in 10 years and that was a silly lad messing around with his friends practising his ‘one-punch’ trick on the shop window. Ouch all round! It is the other logistical aspects of running a business that are outside of your control which can challenge you, and sometimes really make you wonder why you are doing it? Six months after starting I had to change the name Footmechanic, as a I received a solicitor’s letter to say it had just been trademarked by another podiatrist. Hefty third party compensation to payes if I did not, so hence today’s name of Compleet Feet. I would love ’Complete’, but already taken. I was not going to be caught twice and you need to ensure you can secure an email domain for the name. Always so much to consider and often I have learnt the hard way.
Compleet Feet went from strength to strength, and I began to build on my skill set. I extended my scope of clinical practice to become a specialist in aesthetic medicine. In 2009 the Podiatry profession opened up to a small contingency of podiatrists to train in aesthetic procedures. I always felt I wanted to progress and push the boundaries of my profession. Podiatrists generally are a safe group who do not like to be pushed out of their comfort zone or raise their heads above the parapet. I believe this has been detrimental to the profession when often the common concept is that podiatrists or ‘chiropodists’, as we are often annoyingly referred to, only cut nails and hard skin. We really do so much more, even other medical professionalisms put us in a very small bracket of what we can do. It is our fault as we are dreadful at promoting our skills. For me going into aesthetic medicine was a natural progression, as I was already skilled in skin care and minor surgery techniques. I just expanded on that and underpinned my knowledge.
In 2011 after 2 years of training I purchased my first laser. I needed to have a piece of equipment that would allow me to combine both aesthetic and podiatric skills. A powerful Nd:YAG thermal laser that treated both fungal toenails, verrucae and allowed me to banish broken veins and unwanted hair growth. Now not your average podiatrist, but with expanding my skills I needed the actual room to expand.
14 Normandy Street was now getting too small, so I rented 2 upstairs rooms across the road at number 5a. Compleet Aesthetics was born, my sister Medispa business. Many a time I risked life and limb running across a busy road between the 2 clinics swapping professional heads which was Changes needed to be made. Bigger premises and dedicated aesthetic staff. I thus moved lock stock and barrel across the road. From having just one clinical room I now have 6, and 11 employed members of staff. I soon became an accredited clinic. Having accreditation demonstrates we adhere to The Society of Chiropodist and Podiatrist’s best clinical practices.
I was the very first dedicated laser fungal nail clinic in the Southeast. Patients came as far as from St. Ives Cornwall and Guernsey to be treated. Compleet Feet was living up to it’s name, but a good clinic must never rest on its laurels. I constantly work on promotional behind the scenes activities e.g. Facebook, blogging to keep it current and relevant. It is also important for me to keep the clinic ‘one-step-ahead’, hence I am always looking for advancements in podiatric treatments to be able to offer my patients ‘state-of-the-art’ clinically proven treatments. We regularly invest in new equipment with our latest purchase being a Swift device which uses targeted microwave energy to effectively eradicate viral verrucae. Our next investment will be to manufacture specialist orthotic insoles in-house.
Oh, I forget to mention we have a small laser fungal nail clinic in Brighton and have a new embryonic clinic in Southsea which we hope to expand, by securing a dedicated premise there in the future. This sound as if it is all my hard work, but none of these great developments or strong day to day growth would happen if I did not have an amazing team of people around me. A successful business is only as good as the people who work for it. I like to use the word ‘complete’ to refer to my team, they help to make it all possible. We have had staff hiccups along the way, but I am always being told by other business owners this goes with the territory. Keeps us on our toes!
My husband Mark is the real unsung hero. He is the one behind the scenes who secures the foundations, keeps control of the necessities like finances to allow the pods to get on with the clinical practice. There are then the admin team who have the most amazing patience in the world in dealing with the front-line end of the business, the patients. They are the glue helping to ensure clinics run smoothly for the pods who are always so incredibly busy.
As a podiatry clinic, it is hard to find good podiatrists, as nationally we are relatively low in numbers, and have varying skill sets and experience. I currently have a wonderful strong cohesive team of pods working with me. I have been qualified over 30 years and have built up a wealth of experience which I enjoy imparting on to them. I like to try and encourage my pods to become the best they can by learning new skills and ‘thinking out of the box’ when they get a new podiatry problem. Being a good podiatrist is to draw on all that you have learnt to find solutions and not to settle for what we call in the business a ‘cut and come again’ attitude. There are solutions to most presenting patient problems, and as a clinic we offer so many tools to at least try and find a resolution, like our low level lasers to accelerate healing and modulate pain.
I have never wanted Compleet Feet to stand still, but to be the very best that it can. All the wonderful patients who have walked through our doors deserve the very best private practice podiatry can offer. We want to invest in them as much as they invest in us. My loyal patients have seen me go through many highs and lows, especially after the loss of my son, that often I wonder who is supporting who? I value them all so very much. Alton has been good to me.
Here is a toast to the next 10 years. It will be interesting to see what being in private practice podiatry brings.
