Safest option? Depends on the payers and area competition (which can change).
Best option? That depends on you. If you want to do PP, you've likely known that awhile (I sure did, just didn't have the funding early on).
When you do solo PP, it's very hard to fail. Really hard. Super hard. You have to enter a really saturated area and/or badly overspend on (mostly financed) space, equipment, marketing, etc. You'd have to run out of capital before profitablity, or you'd have to be very low productivity or low likeability (fail to get or keep refers). So yeah, don't do that stuff... start within your mean$, avoid loans entirely if possible, network and get good results.
Partnerships, multiple locations, groups, supergroups, etc fail more (not so much fail... ppl just get mad and leave). There is much higher top end, but a lot more moving parts and many ego issues.
...
Solo PP Benefits: ultimate job security, control of staff/supplies/system/hours/marketing/etc, control finance/billing/etc. Mainly, you
don't have to call another man "my boss" or ask for everything. Of course, you make significantly more money than associate DPMs do - even if you don't do the associates or multiple offices thing. Even if you just do one small office (like me) it can be productive as many things are tax-shielded and you keep much more % than associate. You'll likely get local hospital employ offers once you're an owner too (you're busy and "the guy" for the area), which is kinda funny as you needed those jobs years ago in floundering associate days - but don't need them anymore as you now have better hours and income. Its like how you get the most attention from women when you already have a good one(s).
Solo Downsides: you do everything. Particularly early on, but always. Even if you have a good team, things fall on you. You will work a lot, worry about the biz a lot. Even though you won't work weekends doing much or seeing patients or consulting after the early startup (I hope), you'll sometimes pop in the office to paint, arrange, set up tech stuff, whatever. Like Rich Dad books say, "S" type = "you own a job." You're still the engine, and the more/better you work, the more you make. You do take big hit$$$ when you're out of office, so it's common to take little vaca. .
...Would I do it again? Yeah, 100%....
I wish I could've done it sooner (a few years outta residency, ideally). But I wouldn't change a thing. The low pay jobs or frustration jobs were learning exps... and they made me appreciate what I have now.
I didnt like the
hospital or large group employ: even when you have good admins or team, that never seems to last long (not unique to podiatry). Its not fun being a YES MAN day after day and eating s*** or agreeing to call schedule or attending meetings or adjusting to constant "new policy" you think are bogus. Clipboard nurses were going to make me bald and gray if I'd stayed. These jobs will pay the bills if you can get them, but crap coworkers (pods, wound RN, staff, managers, OR, bean counters and clipboard nurses, etc) or incompetent admins can make it fairly rough, and you have little control of all that. It's rare the organization doc job quality stars align, and they hardly ever stay that way (again, NOT unique to podiatry... MD surgeons paid 500k or 800k+ with full bennies leave or start faking a lot of sick days too!). Many of these are burnout jobs - both mentally/psychologically and sometimes physically.
"Money often isn't worth the cost."
Before that, I didn't realize it as a
pod associate, but I was on the road to bankruptcy with making student loan minimum pays, trying to have some nice clothes and dates and toys, using credit cards, income going nowhere, major setbacks with job relocating or even a few gaps. I would leave one job for a similar; they all had learning value - but all were low pay, tough to bonus, etc. I was happy just to use my skills and ignorant to the money reality at first (thought I'd hit bonus or raise my income soon). Waaay too many of us are in that situ due to massive loans and typically low ROI of podiatry. It's lame.
...but yeah, if you're the type, do PP owner. It's harder as staffing and supplies and rents and insurances have all gone up while Medicare and payers are about same, but it's still very viable. Its not as expensive as we tend to think; you can start cheap and build up.
It'd definitely take at least a 500k job (which doesn't exist in pod) to have me consider leaving or lettingthe hospital run my PP. Most MDs feel the same (very high or no sell price). That attachment to the PP is not because I make that 500k (I do mostly lifestyle now) or because it's easy. It's simply that
I won't go back to putting up with incompetent admins and coworkers/staff if I don't have to. No price.
So, you don't always have the money or the right situ or the right area to start an office, but you'll find it soon enough.... if you want to. If you think you can't afford it, you may later decide you can't afford NOT to do it (you can't put up with being some boss's b***** anymore).
For me, it was always an interest I'd read and talk and learn about (PP, entrepreneur, motivation stuff), but it became a
necessity when i crunched some numbers that I was getting almost nowhere on student debt and felt jacked around at jobs where 100 DPMs could replace me. It made me mad, a bit sad, and wanting to get out of that cycle...
"Necessity is the mother of invention."
"In life you either need inspiration or desperation."
"Procrastination is opportunity’s assassin."
"Luck is found at the crossroads of preparation and opportunity."
"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself."
