What do you do between finishing your Doctorate of Physical Therapy and your Board
Examinations? Start a business, of course.
Meet Blade Rohloff from Michigan, USA. Blade is an outdoorsman. To the uninitiated that means
he likes to hike, fish, hunt and scuba dive in his spare time.
Throughout his physical therapy (PT) education Blade recognised that for many outdoorsmen (and
women) their physical disabilities are strong impediments to their full and thorough enjoyment of
their leisure pursuits. Or in PT language, they are scoring low on their Patient Specific Functional
Scale.
Blade recalled his own father developing a shoulder problem that forced him to drop the traditional
Bow to hunt and to move to cross bow. And through his Social Media groups he reads of
outdoorsmen lamenting that they can no longer climb into a tree stand or cross rough terrain.
Somewhat surprisingly Blade is also a technophile and it is through the marriage of physical therapy,
information technology and the niche of outdoor activities that Blade is seeking to build his business.
So meet the Outdoor Physio.
When asked why as a PT would he use the phrase Physio?, Blade explained that he grew up with
the term watching and playing soccer. He likes the way it smoothly rolls of the tongue and feels that
it is no less well known than the term ‘physical therapy’. And as Blade’s ambition is to take his
business global, it is best that he uses the global term.
How will Blade go global? Through the extraordinary power of the Internet, of course. Right now
Blade’s exact-match website at www.outdoor.physio is acting as a brochure for his Telehealth
consultations. He can communicate with outdoorsmen anytime, anywhere (even in the Great
Outdoors).
The real power however, will come from turning his website into ‘the’ information resource for the
Good Health of Outdoorsmen. Blade will begin by producing relevant blog posts that he will
promote through his Social Media groups and accounts. Next he will produce a couple of pamphlets
that he will offer to visitors in return for their email address. And as he grows his database of
outdoorsmen he will begin to offer payable products and services.
This strategy of identifying a niche audience and providing useful information will build a loyal
following, which in turn will become a strong customer base ensuring long term business success.
Outdoorsmen necessarily enjoy adventure and challenge. And so to succeed they must be
resourceful and innovative; great traits for a person who early in their career is striking a different
business path.
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