Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in mental wellness but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Adam Ratner, Co-Founder of Grow Wellness Group, located in Naperville, IL, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

In 2019, Grow Wellness Group was founded to do my part in addressing the growing mental health crisis facing our country, and more specifically, in Naperville, IL, and the surrounding suburbs. Grow Wellness Group is a Naperville, IL-based provider of therapy, counseling, life coaching, yoga therapy, and neuropsychological & psychological testing. Our guiding principles are hiring highly qualified and experienced clinicians, improving access to mental health services, providing exemplary client care, sustaining our fun and collaborative culture, and making as large of an impact as possible across as many communities as possible in DuPage and Will Counties.

We are proud to provide an exemplary client experience – focused on both the quality of our services and the overall client care provided. Further, due to our belief in the power of the bridge between our mind and our body, we have established alliances with other mind and body wellness service providers in the communities we serve. In doing so, we can offer wellness service referrals to create a personalized and comprehensive wellness experience for each and every client. In addition, Grow Wellness Group offers yoga therapy to create the balance between mind and body, which is highly effective for a range of both mental and physical challenges.

Our typical customers are adults, teens, children, and couples experiencing personal or interpersonal challenges who desire tools, resources, and support in their journey towards contentment and fulfillment. These challenges include but are not limited to: Depression, Anxiety, Trauma, PTSD, OCD, Grief & Loss, Behavioral Challenges, Attachment Disorders in children, ADHD, Major Life Transitions, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Divorce & Separation, Blended Families and Co-Parenting, Post-Partum Depression, Personality Disorders and much more.

Tell us about yourself

I am going to do the best I can to summarize my journey as it has been an interesting one. I was an economics major at DePauw University, then spent seven years in management consulting with a Chicago-based consulting company – traveling weekly and solving problems for Fortune 500 companies. I received my MBA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, during which time I actually spent all my free time outside of class starting and operating a non-profit focused on improving the quality of life for those living on the Pine Ridge Reservation in Southwest South Dakota. The more I invested my time in this pursuit, the more I realized that I might need to redefine what “value” means to me. Historically, there was a correlation for me between “value” and dollars earned. As time progressed, however, a tremendous shift took place. It had to – I knew fulfillment for me would come from bettering the lives of others. The compensation and bonuses that come in the consulting world, while lucrative, were not personally fulfilling.

Consequently, I decided to go back to school once again to break into the helping field to make some sort of difference in the lives of those who are suffering. I received my Masters in Social Work 2 years later and immediately began learning and strategizing how I wanted to utilize my business background with my clinical expertise. Eight years later, here we are.

We identified an opportunity that was missing from mental health groups in the area – creating a business model founded on providing wrap-around care for our client's mental and physical wellness – i.e., integrating the care our clients receive with those who provide physical wellness services including our own offering of yoga therapy.

Additionally, we found that many other practices were treating clinicians as numbers and revenue generators and not human beings who have invested so much time in helping others. In these situations, as a result of stress on mental health workers, in particular, I watched as the quality of care provided to those in need deteriorated. It has been painful to watch over the past number of years. So, we decided to do better. Here we are three years later, with a staff of over 30 and growing, providing therapy and counseling, psychological testing, yoga therapy, and life coaching services to DuPage and Will Counties. On average, we serve over 800 individuals, families, and couples on a monthly basis. We have achieved this while creating an awesome culture founded on collaboration, support, individual growth, transparency, and fair compensation, and given our intentionally created flat organizational structure and opportunities to make a difference within Grow Wellness Group or the communities, we serve with financial and time support.

Each and every day poses new challenges – both operationally running a business and clinically, as I still see clients. I welcome both wholeheartedly as the end product is content and a cohesive clinical team with a laser focus on client care. I know our group has saved lives and certainly improved the quality of life for countless more. I cannot think of a field more personally fulfilling, and I can sleep well at night knowing we are treating our clients in the manner they deserve.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Tough one. One of my personal improvement areas is celebrating personal accomplishments more rather than staying laser-focused on continuous improvement for our clients and employees.

That said I would say my biggest accomplishment as a business owner is an external reputation we have built and the impact made in the communities we serve in an extraordinarily short period of time – both by word of mouth and through relationships with other wellness providers. We are well known as a practice that goes above and beyond for our clients – from their first call to us through their last session. We collaborate and are connected with Physicians, Physical Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Behavioral Pediatricians, Psychiatrists, Nutritionists, Chiropractors, and more through our work over the past three years. Our team continues to produce results, and our partners see it – evidenced by their continued belief in what we do and how we do it with the clients they send our way to achieve better comprehensive wellness services. Our clients obviously see it as well based on the number of new client referrals we receive from existing or past clients.

Further, we have been recognized for our tremendous culture. Our growth is truly a testament to the time, and sweat equity put into the business by our clinical team and the leadership group that supports them. And it translates to lower employee turnover and a larger impact on the clients we serve.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

One of the hardest things that come with being a business owner is switching out of “work mode” and maintaining a work-life balance. This was actually much easier to do when I worked for someone else – at the end of the day, I knew I was expendable and that the business with which I worked would be just fine without me there or when I “clock out.”

This was especially true during years 1 and 2. This challenge stems from the mere fact that we generally get out what we put in. The more we put into our business, the more impactful and lucrative it can be. However, there is clearly a cost that comes with this. An opportunity cost. By expending significant effort on my business, the opportunity cost is less time to engage with my wife and three boys and less time to partake in activities in which I am most passionate outside of work. As I have grown as a business owner, I have learned to coach up and rely on the exemplary team we have. While balance is still a challenge, the work is in progress.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Be prepared to deviate from the original, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th iteration of your plan and be nimble while still staying true to the guiding principles or values of your business. Business conditions can change quickly – new competitors arise, industry growth/customer demand, insurance reimbursement (pricing), and of course, a pandemic.
  2. Be prepared to have setbacks. Not every strategic endeavor you launch will gain traction. Each setback is a growth opportunity. You have two options – sit with the failure and experience self-loathing and regret OR manage to change perspectives to see the setback as a growth opportunity both as a business owner and the value you are attempting to achieve with your business.
  3. Make sure you have some sort of passion for what your business does and the customers it serves. Without it, we are just trying to manage an organization for the sake of financial gain and, potentially, care for employees’ livelihoods. This tip is based on the very fact that we will work harder for something we are passionate about than one in which we are not. This is not to say it is not possible to be successful in owning a business in an industry in which you do not have tremendous passion. Many business owners just love being entrepreneurial and solving very challenging problems. However, for those that are not serial entrepreneurs, the commitment can waver during times of extreme stress in the absence of passion for what needs your business addresses.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?

If something does not work the first time, do not just discard the idea. First, try to look for other solutions to the same problem as the problem you are trying to address could have other solutions than the one you initially decided upon for your business. That is not to say we should hang on to a business that is struggling on an ongoing basis. However, I’ve seen too many business owners throw in the towel as a result of the fear of uncertainty about what the future holds financially in favor of going back to a more secure job with greater certainty – most often working for someone else.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://growwellnessgroup.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/growwellnessgroup/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/growwellnessgroup/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wellness_grow
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/grow-wellness-group/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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