By Dave DeWitte
dave@corridorbusiness.com
The winner of the Thomas L. Cardella Entrepreneur of the Year Award has 21 employees, two physical therapy clinics, a dazzling growth rate and a profoundly simple mission statement: getting better together.
Ted Kepros of Kepros Physical Therapy & Performance in Cedar Rapids has done all that in less than four years since he split off from a big physical therapy chain and opened what he thought would be a temporary, part-time office in Mount Vernon.
Kepros Physical Therapy provides physical rehabilitation services for patients facing challenges ranging from sports, automobile and workplace injuries to genetic disorders that can reduce life expectancies. It also offers services to boost performance in sports such as golf and running.
Award presenter Tom Cardella, himself a former patient, joked that Mr. Kepros spends 45-50 minutes with the typical patient creating “an unbelievable amount of pain,” but getting to the root cause of problems such as underlying scar tissue. He also praised Mr. Kepros’ work ethic, saying that if he’s too busy to see a patient in his regular schedule, he’s liable to come into the office at 5 a.m. to see them if they’ll do the same.
Kepros Physical Therapy has grown its revenues more than 60 percent annually since Mr. Kepros started out in August 2013.
“It’s been literally one patient at a time,” he said, adding that the three guiding principles of the business have been providing the highest quality of patient care, building strong relationships and financial responsibility. The staff works collaboratively, and each patient is treated by a two-member team to make scheduling easier and provide more perspectives on their treatment.
“We say, ‘What is the difference between average and great? What makes that happen, and how do we implement that?’” Mr. Kepros said.
The story of Kepros Physical Therapy did not begin happily, however.
Mr. Kepros spent his early career with one of the nation’s largest physical therapy chains. He began as an exercise technician under a program that paid for his college if he stuck with the company for three years. He became a physical therapist with the company, was promoted to a clinic director and then became a small group director overseeing nine clinics.
The Iowa clinics Mr. Kepros led consistently performed in the chain’s top 25 percent, Mr. Kepros said, but beginning in 2007, his employer went through a series of ownership changes. Each brought its own procedures and standards; some pressed for the clinics to care for more patients and maintain the same quality with fewer resources, while others resisted reinvestment in the clinics, buying locally or supporting community events.
“As this became more apparent and challenging, I started to understand that my mission would not work with the company as it existed,” Mr. Kepros said. “If I wanted to focus on the patient and our staff, I would need to start a clinic of my own.”
In 2013, Mr. Kepros decided to start his own clinic in Fairfax, just southwest of Cedar Rapids. His legal advisor indicated it would not violate his non-compete agreement, but as he prepared to open the newly leased space, his former employer threatened him with legal action if he proceeded.
Resigned to avoiding the legal risk, Mr. Kepros decided to take up an offer to lease office space from a friend who operates Iowa Physical Therapy in Mount Vernon.
“At this point I was exhausted, I’d lost weight and I was so fatigued that I was going to take a month off, regroup and then maybe go to the clinic twice a week,” he recalled.
But the following Saturday, before his month of leisure could begin, word got out. He received six phone calls that day at home requesting appointments, and no one was put off by the 15-mile drive from Cedar Rapids. Within two weeks, he was working full-time, and within a few months, he had so much business that he had to hire an associate.
Although Mr. Kepros and his wife, Sara, have four children, he elected not to take a salary that year in order to ensure the business could survive and grow. One of the big challenges was the time it took to obtain credentialing for reimbursement for insurance companies, meaning that in the first three months the clinic took in only about $18,600.
The couple cut back on home expenses, took out a small loan from Mount Vernon Bank and Trust Co., and lived on Ms. Kepros’ salary as an instructor at Kirkwood Community College.
Things changed once the clinic was credentialed for reimbursement, and once Mr. Kepros’ noncompete expired, he leased office space from Fred Timko in a historic building that formerly housed the Wells Fargo Bank at 101 Third Ave. SW, Cedar Rapids. By the time he opened in September 2014, he had paid off his bank loan and had saved enough cash to open the Cedar Rapids location debt-free.
The office was 6,000 square feet – about four times the size of the office he had planned in Fairfax – and he worried that he would never use it all. But Mr. Kepros, who grew up on the west side of Cedar Rapids, was excited to be part of its revival from the flood of 2008.
By the end of 2014, Kepros Physical Therapy had six employees and had grown 95 percent from 2013 levels. By September 2016, there were more patients than the clinic could see in Cedar Rapids, and Mr. Kepros opened a second clinic in 3,000 square feet of leased space near Linn-Mar Community Schools at 917 Barrington Parkway in Marion.
Halfway through 2017, the company’s sales are well into seven figures, and growing. Mr. Kepros said he has drawn inspiration from successful business figures like Barry Boyer, formerly of Van Meter Inc., Mary Quass, CEO of New Radio Group, Lura McBride, CEO of Van Meter Inc., and Rocki Shepard, president of Highway Equipment Co.
However, Mr. Kepros said his passion for the business primarily comes from working with his patients and employees.
“That’s where my passion came from – I really enjoy seeing the development of individuals, whether it be my folks that work with me or my patients,” he noted. “There is an inherent growth within most individuals that they would like to better themselves. All of us have that optimal level and we’re trying to reach it.”
One of Mr. Kepros’ more memorable clients was a marathoner who came to him after receiving treatment for a broken femur from an orthopedic doctor. The injury healed, but the doctor said the risk of further injury was serious enough that he should give up running.
Listening to the patient’s passion for running, Mr. Kepros advised him to cut back his mileage, change his running style and begin cross-training. The patient went on to achieve his best marathon time, and then run 165 more marathons in 16 years.
