No Longer Self-Employed

Where do I begin? Here's the gist of it. Max is selling Therapist Revolution to Foreman Therapy. In January 2016 Max told me that if he didn't grow his business 10 times bigger this year then these larger physical therapy staffing agencies would just edge him out or buy him out. Fast forward about 9 months up to September 2016 and we have less therapist, less patients, and 1 home health company that owes us $20,000. Max is nice guy, but not a businessman and he likes to see the good in people and give them a 4th, 5th, 6th...10th chance to pay their bill. This has not played out well over the 4 years we have been self-employed. Basically what happens is that the insurance companies are slow to pay the home health companies which are even slower in paying the physical therapists if they pay at all. We are at the mercy of the home health company to pay us and it is so frustrating! And guess what? They aren't all good people! Because of Obama Care and changes in health care and insurance a lot of home health care companies are going under before they pay their therapist. They know it will cost us more money to sue them so they just call our bluff and don't pay. Max has been getting fewer and fewer patients and smaller and smaller checks from the home health companies. Max is a wonderful, excellent physical therapist. People switch health companies just be able to have him as their therapist. I mean really and truly he is a phenomenal therapist, but he is not a businessman and that's ok, but it's not ok if you are trying run your own business.

So in October 2016 Max went to party hosted by Nate Foreman to celebrate his 5 years in therapy staffing. This guy is a phenomenal businessman and grew his business so big so fast. It seems like the perfect thing for Max to be able to do what he most loves and is great at, physical therapy, while working for someone who is good at the business end of it. Nate Foreman is not married and doesn't have kids and did not pay himself for the first 3 years. He had the lowest price for  therapy services and took jobs near and very far away. Things Max couldn't do and wasn't willing to do. He also had a great marketing strategy for constantly getting new therapists, we didn't. He liked Max and offered to buy him out. Max said he didn't feel like he could work for Foreman because he would always be jealous of how he was able to accomplish everything he wanted to accomplish himself. But the money wasn't coming in while the debt was so Max finally just had to swallow his pride and sell the business and go to work for Foreman Therapy. Therapist Revolution was so small and worth nothing that Nate Foreman just bought our accounts receivable except for the company that owes us $20,000. It has been such a blessing and a Godsend to having this money in hand, upfront, without a fight at the exact time we were running dry. We found out that Nate Foreman is in fact a believe, a Christian, and is a member at Watermark Church in Dallas! This eased Max's mind a great deal. 

But as the supportive wife I didn't want to tell my husband to give up on his dream, but his dream wasn't paying the bills for his family of 6 and reality is a hard pill to swallow. I love him so much and I don't want him to feel like a failure. I told him I am so beyond proud of him for being so brave and so bold to start his own business. Being self employed is soooo hard, but he was willing try it. It didn't end they way he imagined, heck it didn't start the way he imagined, but it opened the door for an opportunity he wouldn't have otherwise had access to. An opportunity for a management position in an already vastly growing company! I know once he sees  a regular paycheck coming in that we don't have to fight for he will feel better and be more ok with it. I've been praying Max would see that because of his own efforts over the last 4 years that God is rewarding him with this wonderful opportunity. This guy, Nate Foreman, was really impressed with Max and wants to move him up quickly, but likes to hire from within so Max has to be brought in for a few months before being hired as a manager. I just pray that Max will be impressed with himself one day. Right now, in the thick of it, he needs to grieve the loss of his business then he can move on and look back at how God lead him to this point.

So to top things off the stomach bug hit our house the week of October 17 and kids were dropping like flies and Max threw up the morning he had to go sign the paperwork with Nate Foreman, but he went anyway and fine all day. Thank you God!