About this episode
Everyone talks about buying clinics like it’s a cheat code to success. The reality is debt, staff friction, culture clashes and years of delayed payoff. In this episode, Michael Schumacher sits down with Leeds-based clinic owner Ove Indergaard to break down the truth behind MSK acquisitions and what really happens after completion.
Show Notes
On social media, clinic M&A looks glamorous. In practice, it’s risk, spreadsheets, hard conversations and short-term pain disguised as growth.
Ove has built a four-clinic group through acquisitions and new sites. On paper, it sounds smooth. In reality, it has been unstable cash flow, exhausted teams, and Ove stepping back into clinical hours just to keep things alive.
In this episode, Michael and Ove strip out the fantasy and talk about:
• How deals are actually structured: deposits, deferred payments, loans
• Why acquisitions often produce zero personal income for years
• The cultural collision when an old team meets a new owner
• Why staff pushback is the hardest part of buying a clinic
• How integration breaks even the most organised owner
• The hidden cost of multiple PMS, systems and processes
• Why standardising workflows is harder than scaling revenue
• When you should not buy a second clinic
• The emotional cost nobody talks about: stress, doubt, and the “what have I done?” moment
They also cover operational traps:
• Hiring when cash is tight
• Why stepping back from clinical work too fast destroys revenue
• Why “bad care but good marketing” is not a stable business model
• The reality of PVA, retention and how long turnarounds actually take
• Why owners obsess about top-line revenue and forget about margin
Finally, they dive into whether consolidation is good for the industry, why many buyers overpay, and why spreadsheet logic collapses the minute you step inside a real clinic with real staff and real patients.
If you are romanticising multi-site ownership, this is the episode that forces you to think in years, not months.
What You’ll Learn
• The unglamorous reality of clinic acquisitions
• How to judge whether a clinic is fixable
• What integration actually involves
• The difference between scaling and overextending
• How to avoid crippling early mistakes when expanding
• Why most owners underestimate culture and overestimate numbers
Who This Episode is For
• Clinic owners thinking about buying a second site
• Single-site owners debating whether to scale or optimise
• Anyone being sold the “clinic empire” dream
• MSK owners who want honesty, not hype
Guest Details
Guest: Ove Indergaard
Profession: Chartered Physiotherapist
Role: Owner of Indergaard Physiotherapy (multi-clinic group)
Specialisms: MSK rehab, shockwave, clinic operations, acquisitions
Location: Leeds, UK
