Irina began her career in Kansas but moved to Texas in 2010 and joined Elgin Physical Therapy as a PTA. The clinic was then owned by Candy Clark, PT, DPT, who decided to retire in late 2020 and approached Irina about buying the clinic, which she did in 2021. Although she had never run a business, she saw the move as her “next big challenge,” and that even though she didn’t have a business background, she loved what she did and knew it was the natural next step in a rewarding career.

As with any new business owner, Irina faced many challenges in ensuring that her small business not only survived but thrived. One of the first big challenges she faced was the fact that as a clinic not tied to a larger corporation, any changes in the medical insurance industry had an oversized impact on her business’s bottom line. For example, insurance companies recently began to cut the reimbursement rates and payout times can sometimes take up to two months. Payroll and other overhead costs, however, do not wait. That meant Irina had to find a solution to meet these gaps when they arose. Luckily for Irina, her bookkeeper knew about BCL of Texas because she had seen BCL help other small businesses. BCL was able to assist Irina with special funding for Rural Business Lending from the United States Department of Agriculture which is geared to help grow our rural communities.

Once Irina connected with BCL, Raquel Valdez Sanchez came to the clinic and she and Irina “had a wonderful conversation.” Irina gave her a tour of the clinic and told her about her goals. “I thought that it was a very easy process. It didn’t take hardly any time,” said Irina. “It was just so easy. So, all of that went so smoothly, and again, the communication was so helpful and user-friendly,” she continued.

When asked what she would say to other small business owners like herself, Irina said: “Gosh, I wish I would have found BCL sooner because when I took over this business I had no background [in owning a business] and I was just kind of hustled into it – in a positive way not a negative way – it was just like, okay I have to hurry up and learn everything. And it has been a process, so I wish I would have had BCL sooner because I really was revealed to some of the things that was going on with the billing, as far as the insurance reimbursements go, if I would have sought them sooner, I don’t even think I would have had the debt that I had to go into just to make ends meet. I would just say again the sooner you can connect with BCL, the better off you are because they have so many resources to offer to help guide you to be successful and be able to grow the way that you want to in your business projections.”

Irina and Elgin Physical Therapy are now onto bigger things like growing revenues so they can afford to offer more competitive wages and attract more qualified clinicians to their clinic, which is in a rural community. She would also like to purchase the building her clinic currently occupies and renovate or expand it.

Those are two great goals and BCL is proud to have helped Irina begin her progress toward achieving them. That’s why BCL exists is to help people like Irina, who concluded, “It’s been a journey, but it’s been great. It’s a new challenge that I’m willing to meet. If there’s any way to make [BCL] more known so that other small businesses or people that are wanting to become business owners and branch out, that they have somebody that will back them up and then can guide them so they can be successful. I’m just super appreciative of them.”