December 2016 | Business View Magazine

34 35 FYZICAL Therapy & Balance Centers is a national franchise company offering physical therapy, balance retraining and fall prevention, sports rehabilitation, and individualized fitness and wellness programs. The com- pany was founded in 2012 by Jim Abrams, an original franchisee of the Weight Watchers company, who went on to found several other successful, national franchise brands, including Service Experts, Clockwork Home Ser- vices, One-Hour Heating and Air Conditioning, Benjamin Franklin Plumb- ing, and Mr. Sparky Electrical Services. FYZICAL Therapy began franchising in 2013, and today, has a total of 192 locations, 17 of which are company-owned. Recently, Business View Magazine spoke with Matt DiMauro, Senior Vice President for Marketing & Franchise Development. The following is an edited transcript of that conversation: BVM: Can you begin by talking a little bit about Jim Abrams and the founding of FYZICAL Therapy? DiMauro: “Jim has a history of disrupting industries. His specialty is business. In every industry he entered, he began providing small business expertise to small business owners that had never received formalized business training or education. When thinking about physical therapy, and the medical profession as a whole, he discovered that physical therapists – PTs – did not receive any formal business education while in PT school. So, identifying a need, where the industry is comprised of thousands of independent physical therapists who, traditionally, don’t know anything about business, he felt there was a real opportunity in terms of applying FYZICAL THERAPY AND BALANCE CENTERS FYZiCAL therapy & Balance Centers STAYING BALANCED his business knowledge acquired over decades building big, national brands, into a niche area. “When he was looking at how he would build an organiza- tion, studying macro-healthcare trends, he saw America is ag- ing – we have ten thousand Baby Boomers retiring every single day. He realized that balance and vestibular dysfunctions were a huge, unmet need in the United States and would continue to increase as America ages. So, early on, he went to look for a balance program that he would be able to formalize up and export into franchisee’s businesses. “After months and months, he finally found a company called the Werner Institute of Balance. Ultimately, he ended up ac- quiring that practice because it had the best balance protocols that existed in the world. Once we had the Werner Institute of Balance, we were able to export all the intellectual, proprietary information that this organization had built over two decades, AT A GLANCE FYZICAL THERAPY & BALANCE CENTERS WHAT: A national franchise compa- ny that offer physical therapy and balance programs WHERE: Headquarters in Sarasota, Florida WEBSITE: www.fyzical.com