The Joint Franchise Gives Chiropractors an Opportunity for a Brighter Future
The Joint’s director of chiropractic care and compliance opens up about why the fastest growing chiropractic franchise is at the forefront of the industry
The Joint is the largest employer of chiropractors in the world, and with more than 360 locations open across America, the fastest growing chiropractic franchise is a proven business model for chiropractors who want an easier and more sustainable business to run than the traditional clinics chiropractors typically own and operate.
Before The Joint began franchising in 2006, chiropractic students faced an overwhelming reality upon graduation day: opening their own clinic without the experience required to run a successful business. This predicament is exactly what Dr. Knauf, now the director of chiropractic care and compliance with The Joint, experienced when he graduated. Inexperienced in business, Dr. Knauf scrambled to open a private practice in order to start making a living, paying down student loan debt and providing for his family.
“I wish I had known about The Joint when I was starting out and trying to open a practice on my own,” he says. “It was an incredibly stressful time. My wife was pregnant with our first child, and we didn’t have a stable income, which we needed. In chiropractic school, we are trained to be experts in helping people heal and improve quality of life. We aren’t educated in business, which is incredibly important when you’re trying to build a clinic on your own. When I was offered an opportunity to be a chiropractor at The Joint, I abandoned my clinic because I needed to put food on the table. My wife and I needed to be able to sleep at night.”
“You become a doctor because you want to help people,” Dr. Knauf says. “You don’t want to spend half your day arguing with insurance companies.”
Dr. Knauf found that The Joint was a true disruptor of the hard-to-find, often unfriendly and inaccessible traditional chiropractic clinic model. The Joint places its clinics in highly visible retail settings next to local coffee shops and supermarkets. There are no appointments, no insurance and no waiting to see a doctor. The Joint is also far more affordable than traditional chiropractic clinics; the average visit to The Joint costs nearly half as much as the insurance co-pay of a traditional chiropractic visit. As a result, The Joint provides chiropractors the opportunity to treat far more patients than a traditional chiropractic clinic could possibly imagine, without the added hassle of chasing down insurance companies for payment and the hours spent on paperwork required by insurance companies.
“You become a doctor because you want to help people, and with that in mind, you don’t want to spend half of your day on the phone arguing with insurance companies to get paid for services delivered to patients,” Dr. Knauf says. “It’s tremendously rewarding to get back the time you spent with the insurance companies and instead put that into treating more patients. The Joint is a cash business, so the more patients you’re able to treat, the more money you’re able to make. The success of The Joint is that we’re a consumer friendly model that allows doctors to treat a large number of patients on a daily basis, without sacrificing the quality of care that our patients expect. In turn, we’re able to pay chiropractors extremely well, and now, we’re seeing chiropractors opening their own clinics with The Joint in record numbers because they see firsthand how easy The Joint is to operate.”
The Joint is bringing the chiropractic industry into the mainstream
The Joint offers one service: spinal adjustments conducted by hand. This simple, non-invasive practice is chiropractic care as it was meant to be delivered. Because the business model has made chiropractic care consumer friendly, The Joint has helped more people take control of their health and wellness through chiropractic care than ever before. The Joint performs more than 3 million adjustments each year.
There’s a reason for the staggering increase in patient visits to The Joint clinics across the nation: The Global Burden of Disease Study reports that lower back pain is the leading cause of disability, and the last time The American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons measured patient visits for back pain in 2012, they found that 52.4 million more people visited their doctor for back pain than in 2004. According to NPR, those suffering from back pain account for the largest segment of people collecting a government disability check — a number that is likely to rise as our lifestyles become more sedentary and less active, coinciding with record obesity levels and an aging baby boomer population.
“There are more people experiencing back pain than ever before, and The Joint offers an alternative path to wellness without the use of prescription drugs,” Dr. Knauf says. “The spinal cord carries all communication from the brain, and if you pinch it like you would a hose, you’re not functioning at your highest level. We help our patients take the pressure off the nervous system so that they can heal or function at their best.”
The future of The Joint is one of continued excellence in delivering chiropractic care. As the world’s largest employer of chiropractors, Dr. Knauf takes the responsibility of continued training and education extremely seriously.
“We have a responsibility now that we’re becoming much more visible as a brand to ensure that we’re involved with the chiropractic industry at large,” he says. “This year we’re focusing on direct chiropractic training to improve our network of chiropractors’ clinical skills and how they work with their patients, because we have high expectations for care. But we’re also getting more involved in state boards and chiropractic schools to ensure that chiropractors know that The Joint is a great business opportunity that allows chiropractors the chance to do what they love to do and earn a great living at the same time.”
The Joint is a low-cost investment opportunity with high potential returns
With a small footprint, limited overhead and a staff consisting of three to four employees, The Joint is easy to operate and boasts a proven business model that is unique in the $3 trillion healthcare industry. Our membership model eliminates the need for insurance, while providing our franchise owners with a recurring revenue stream that helps to maximize profitability and potentially hasten the return on investment. Our model works for chiropractors seeking to own a simpler business that avoids the nightmare of insurance billing, and it works incredibly well for business investors who see the need for more accessible chiropractic care.
With the total financial estimate to begin operations on a new chiropractic franchise ranging from $216,200 to $331,700, The Joint is a low-cost investment opportunity with potential for high returns. Because our build-out costs are substantially lower than other brands in the healthcare segment, The Joint offers a quicker ramp-up time to allow for a potentially faster return on investment. The franchise fee for your first chiropractic franchise is $39,900.
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For in-depth details about The Joint franchise opportunity, download the free franchise report. You can also learn more by visiting The Joint chiropractic franchise research pages.
