Often the decision to open your first medical clinic has been a burning desire for quite some time. Possibly you have driven past a medical construction happening close to home, maybe a colleague might have taken a leap of faith or maybe you wish to be your own boss,regardless, here are some ideas to help you succeed.
Whether you are interested in building or renovating a medical clinic, veterinary practice, dental surgery, physiotherapist, podiatrist or even a radiology clinic the process is similar. We often find that first time investors find the hardest part is where to start.
To avoid wasting time or running on the spot, often the most important action undertaken is the first phone call. And this should be to a specialist financier to understand how much you can borrow. Even if you can self-fund the investment it would be prudent to seek a financial adviser who can help structure the investment to ensure you obtain all available tax benefits
Things to consider in the short term
After you have your budget sorted, it’s time to really consider what your first medical practice will look like. Really important things to consider would be how many doctors, dentists or medical professionals your practice may wish to house. How many administration staff might be necessary? What location might suit your first specialty practice. Whether you are you considering a new suburb or if you wish to remain in an area that you might be familiar with. Lots of things will run through your mind during this stage.
Realistically you will not have any definite answers at this stage but at the very least your vision for your fist medical investment is beginning to take shape.
What next?
After you understand your project budget and considered the size of the practice you wish to undertake – the leg work begins. Searching for prospective locations for your first medical clinic can be time consuming but it can also add fuel to the fire within you.
If you are considering investing in your first medical construction, then quite possibly you might be looking for vacant land in a newer suburb or potentially a run-down property to knock down in an establish area. All in all, there is no right or wrong – and quite often your available budget will help make this decision for you.
If you are wishing to renovate an existing building, then your foot work might take you in a different direction searching for a suitable property.
Remember, there is no such thing as a perfect size, but the size of a prospective property will help dictate how many consulting rooms might be available to you in that location. This alone can rule out some properties.
Often at this stage there is a desire to approach a designer/architect etc – but before you do this, we highly suggest you pick up the phone and call a specialist healthcare construction/fit out company.
Often an initial phone call with a specialist medical company can provide insight as to whether a location might be suitable for your first health care clinic. Specialist medical builders will either do a site visit or can talk you through things to consider like local council regulation that can help identify quickly if a property might be suitable or not.
Then What?
Once you find the ideal location you will need to find yourself a designer who has medical construction knowledge otherwise your investment in your first healthcare clinic might not come together as you may wish. The driving force behind having drawings created by a specialist, is they will draw plans to your budget. This will be a huge factor in ensuring your budget does not blow out.
Your design specialist will design your first healthcare clinic with care and precision. Your designer will have a series of questions to help them identify the key factors in your first healthcare practice. At this time colour schemes will be discussed, possibly 3D renders will be created and detailed space planning will be undertaken.
Quite often a good idea is to approach a one stop design and construction company. The key factor here is the fact that their internal design team will design your first healthcare clinic to budget. This can alleviate enormous angst for first time investors when they realise their beautiful plans are way outside their budget.
Ok, what is next?
After all parties are happy with the design, then the exciting time begins – construction.
This stage proves itself to be very testing and tiring on investors – and even more so if it is your first medical construction. If you have partnered with a medical construction specialist, then often this stage is buffered. Simply because of their knowledge they will help guide you through and will shoulder much of the load.
This stage can last 8 weeks to 18 months depending of the extent of works you require. If you are trying to work a full-time job as well this can be challenging but it is certainly possible with good time management and the right partner.
So you still wish to continue?
If you still wish to go ahead with investing in your first medical construction, then pick you that phone and ring a medical building and construction specialist.
