A physiotherapy clinic in Stevenage is thriving as it celebrates its tenth anniversary.
Sarah Kinsella founded ASK Physio in 2013, with her first patient coming through the doors on June 24. Ten years on, 5,000 patients have been treated by Sarah, her husband Steve, and their team of eight part-time physiotherapists.
When Sarah launched the business, she was still working as an NHS physiotherapist, where she had been for 17 years. Such was the success of her new venture that within five months, she was able to take on ASK Physio as a full-time endeavour and expand to hire more physiotherapists.
A year after launching, in November 2014, ASK Physio won Best New Business at the Hertfordshire Business Awards, and took home another gong the following year for Best Business in Health & Wellness at the Best Business Women Awards.
In 2017, ASK Physio became a family affair as Sarah's husband, Steve, left his job as an NHS parademic to become practice manager, and later a qualified sports massage therapist.
Things got more difficult when the Covid pandemic arrived and the clinic was forced to stop face-to-face consultations during the lockdown.
She says: "We were allowed to do phone and video consultations and, although there was an initial hesitancy from clients to do that, people did take it up - in the first couple of months we conducted 250 video appointments.
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"We had never done anything like it before as physios so it meant a lot of adaptation, and using technology in new ways, but it showed what is possible for our clients by providing them with the right advice.
"As a family business with two children, we had a big drop in income which was stressful at first but thankfully we were able to weather the storm.
"I'm proud that we survived it and have come out the other side."
Since the pandemic, ASK Physio has gone from strength to strength, and Sarah says that she is most proud of "the comments we see on Facebook and in community groups, where people ask for physio recommendations and they mention our name".
"When I set out, my vision was to become the go to physiotherapist in Stevenage, so it's amazing to see lots of people recommending our services."
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