In 2020, Dr. Jay Christensen purchased North Shore Foot and Ankle, a podiatry clinic in Appleton, from Dr. Barry Erdman, who had been practicing for nearly 30 years in the Appleton area. Utilizing a SBA 504 loan through WBD, with financing through Horicon Bank, Dr. Christensen was able to purchase the business to start his own practice, adding jobs and helping to improve the economy of Outagamie County.
With North Shore having been open for nearly 20 years, Dr. Christensen was able to build on the podiatry practice, serving those patients seen by Dr. Erdman, as well as to be able to bring in previous patients Jay treated in the Sheboygan and Manitowoc areas. At North Shore, each client receives a diagnosis, early intervention, and essential care to treat the patient's feet. They offer a variety of podiatric services from reconstructive foot and ankle surgery to sports medicine to arthritic disease care.
Dr. Christensen graciously provided us some insight on his business success, challenges, and experience with WBD.
WBD: Can you tell us a little about your success so far?
"Our success stems from being a small clinic, where we've been able to adapt fairly easily to challenges with insurance providers and the business aspects of the clinic. My wife has been instrumental along with Dr. Erdman's help to transition the clinic to our vision."
WBD: What projects, both real estate and equipment, has WBD and namely the SBA 504 program worked with you on and how has it enabled you to meet your expansion goals – production, new products, better serve customers?
"The SBA 504 loan allowed us to purchase the clinic building, which has significant name and location recognition, as well as having been built specifically for a podiatry practice. The great interest rate has allowed us to use the capital from revenue to begin remodeling some of the facilities and purchase more equipment, allowing me to more effectively see patients. The ability to use the capital saved from the 504 loan's low, fixed interest rates that we've used towards new equipment has already been noticed by many of the long time patients as we create a more comfortable experience for our patients."
WBD: Did you have a good experience working with WBD? Would you work with us again?
"We had a great experience with WBD. Like any loan there were challenges such as finding the proper paperwork and making sure they had access to documents such as insurance policies. We were able to bring all of the aspects of the process together quite quickly, in 3 months with help from WBD's loan officer Matt Wilcox, which as I look back at the process was much more streamlined and effective than other banking processes. I would definitely use WBD again, but would allow more time than what I had expected."
WBD: What have been your keys to success so far – employees, timing, hard work? Challenges?
"The success so far has come from the willingness to work long and occasionally frustrating days with my wife to ensure all the business components of the practice are connected. The great staff, who have been willing to learn with us as we grow, have been instrumental in our success. In addition to staff and elbow grease, timing has helped us greatly, especially with starting to market the office with the services we offer. Covid presented everyone with new challenges to the medical community, as people have waited to seek treatment not only for foot and ankle issues but other elective office visits. We have positioned ourselves to grow at the perfect time when patients are in need of our services while they are starting to venture out more."
WBD: Do you have any advice for other business owners in taking that next step to growing their business?
"My advice is to start planning early and allow more time than you think for the process. We have been able to set our plan for the next year and three and five years down the road knowing we have the support and stability of WBD."
Congratulations Dr. Christensen and thank you for working with WBD and Horicon Bank to help purchase your clinic. We wish you the best of luck, and we appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule for this interview. For our readers, please visit https://www.northshorefootandanklewi.com/ for more information. And remember to support your local small businesses.
