Business finance for physiotherapy & sports-therapy clinics

Why physiotherapy cash flow lags the diary

A physiotherapy or sports-therapy clinic spends heavily before it earns. A treatment room has to be fitted out, plinths and rehab equipment bought, and clinicians brought on — often weeks before the diary is full enough to cover them. Then the income itself arrives on a delay: self-pay patients pay on the day, but private medical insurer (PMI) work is invoiced and settled days or weeks later, and many clinics blend the two. The clinic can be fully booked and still short of cash in the month the bills land.

New clinics feel it hardest. Building a patient base takes time, so the gap between opening the doors and reaching break-even is funded entirely by the practice — rent, software, insurance and wages all running before referral volume catches up.

Where the cash gets stuck

The pinch points are familiar across hands-on healthcare:

• Fit-out and equipment. Plinths, exercise rehab kit, electrotherapy or shockwave machines and clinic software are paid for up front, long before they have earned their keep.
• The insurer-payment gap. PMI and medico-legal work is settled in arrears, so a busy month of insured patients is a busy month of unpaid invoices.
• Clinician wages. Employed physios are paid through the month whether or not the diary was full.

Add a second site or a sports-rehab gym area and each location needs its own equipment float before it pulls its weight.

What physio clinics use funding for

Common, sensible uses include fitting out a new treatment room or clinic, buying a piece of equipment that opens a new income stream — shockwave therapy, a rehab gym, gait analysis — bridging the wait on insurer invoices, and steadying payroll while a new clinician's diary fills. The logic is to fund capacity that pays for itself: a room or machine that is booked out covers the cost of the finance and then keeps earning. Model whether the kit pays back inside the facility with the return on borrowing calculator.

What to weigh before borrowing

Sense-check the borrowing against your realistic utilisation: how many chargeable appointments a new room or clinician will actually take in a week, and how fast the diary fills. Match repayments to your takings rhythm rather than to opening day, and keep a clear view of how much PMI income is sitting unpaid. Ask for the total repayable, not just a rate — read business finance fees explained and how to calculate affordability first. This is general information, not advice on your accounts.

How short-term company finance fits — no personal guarantee

Credicorp lends to the limited company, not to you personally, so there is no personal guarantee and your home is not pledged against the facility. As an exempt business lender, Credicorp provides working capital to UK companies rather than regulated consumer credit, which keeps the assessment on how the clinic trades. A business loan or the flexible Credicorp Flex line gives a clinic a controlled pot to fit out, buy equipment or bridge insurer lag — repaid as the diary and the claims come in. You can apply online.