Captured helps physiotherapist Lisa to get her finances on track

By her own admission, money management wasn’t one of Lisa Crowther’s strong points – but the Captured programme run by Newcastle University Business School helped her to put that right.

A qualified chartered physiotherapist by trade, she spent 16 years working in the NHS before launching her own business, Whitley Bay Clinic, in 2014 to provide specialist physiotherapy, pain management and rehabilitation to clients across the North East.

It was the venture that Lisa had always dreamed of – but she soon discovered she needed more than a vast knowledge of her specialist field to make a success of it.

Lisa explained: “There’s so much more to running a business than just providing a first-class service to clients. You’ve got to do the books, get the right staff in and look after the finances. I realised that I didn’t really have a handle on my turnover and profits, which I needed to if I was going to run the business properly.”

Salvation was at hand, however, in the form of Captured. The scheme enabled Lisa to link up with John Hudson, Chief Financial Officer from Home Group who quickly set about helping her to put the relevant money management systems in place. Spreadsheets are now used to monitor financial performance rather than Word documents, while data management systems have been tightened up to give Lisa more visibility on financial forecasting.

John also helped Lisa to maximise the commercial opportunities provided by the clinic, which has four treatment rooms.

“This has really helped me to secure guaranteed income and makes forecasting a lot easier,” said Lisa. “I now have six people who rent out the rooms, as well as three staff working directly for me.

“John has encouraged me to address my financial blind spot so I can accurately assess individual performance within the clinic and set monthly targets. As a former NHS practitioner and manager, I was new to the power of real financial forecasting. However, I’ve learned that it can be a valuable tool and it has empowered me to understand more about the business and to continue to grow it with more confidence.”

For further information on Whitley Bay Clinic, call 07853 278 964 or visit http://bayclinic.co.uk/.

Last modified: Mon, 25 Apr 2022 10:22:28 BST