If you're thinking about leaving the NHS or leaving another healthcare organisation, public or private, to start your own thing, there's a good chance you're feeling conflicted.
Hi, I'm Toby Goodman from tobygoodman.com. Now, feeling conflicted or uncertain is, of course, completely normal. You might have a pension, healthcare insurance, a company car, a stable salary every month. You know what's coming in, and even though it's never enough, giving that up can feel risky.
Starting your own practice badly is what's risky. Starting your own practice without a plan,
without positioning, without understanding how to attract the right patients or clients.
That's what creates the situation you're scared of because then you haven't built a business. You've just bought yourself another very stressful job, and deep down, that's probably the thing you're actually worried about.
Not whether you're clinically good enough. You already know your stuff. The fear is, "What if I leave and can't get enough patients or clients through the door?"
But here's the part most healthcare professionals never get taught at medical school. In this day and age, with technology where it is, there is a huge amount you can do before you leave your current role. You can build visibility, position yourself properly, refine your messaging, build referral relationships and partnerships, grow an audience, create your own systems, and even test demand.
None of that stuff depends on your technical skill set. Whether you're a physiotherapist, cosmetic surgeon, dentist, therapist, consultant, that part's already there. The real difference is whether clients and patients understand who you help, how you work, and why somebody would choose you specifically. And whether the right people in your network know how to refer you.
Some healthcare professionals think, "Well, if I'm good enough, patients will come."
But it just doesn't work that way because people need context before they make decisions. They need clarity. They need trust. They need understanding. They just need to know who you are and where you fit. And when you build that properly, you stop thinking purely in terms of hours worked and money earned, and you start building an asset. A real business.
Something that has value with its own systems, positioning, clients, referrals, reputation, recurring demand.
And so eventually, your business is no longer dependent on only your personal output. So you can hire clinicians, expand locations, introduce new services, build up teams, step back from delivery, and pay yourself properly.
And over that time, the business itself starts to build independent value. And it's not linked to your time.
And that's the biggest difference between having a job or owning a job and owning a real asset.
Your business can continue generating revenue whether you're physically working that day or not. It can grow, it can scale, and eventually, if you want it to... it can be sold.
A rough rule in business is that companies are often valued at a multiple of three times annual profit or revenue.
So if years from now, if you've built something doing half a million or a million a year, you've built something many people want to buy, and you're in line for a pretty decent payday. And that is a completely different financial future from simply selling your time forever.
So if you're considering leaving the NHS or another public or private healthcare organisation, don't let hope be your strategy. The goal is to plan properly, position properly, and build properly... So when you make the move, you're creating something with long-term value.
And if that's something you're thinking about seriously, you might be a perfect fit for my case study program that helps healthcare professionals plan their exit from time for money into their own business.
