I interviewed Oliver Brown, a successful nurse practitioner entrepreneur who started his own stem cell and regenerative medicine practice last year. He sort of “fell into it” through his concierge primary care practice. What he found was that the stem cell service line was far more profitable than primary care. Here are the highlights of the interview:

Why did you decide to open your own practice?

Basically, I got tired of the work drama and being a slave to a dead-end job.  I wanted to be more proactive and productive without having to beg anyone else to try my ideas.  I was tired of the limited income and I wanted more out of life with the privilege of making my own hours without the fear of getting fired.

How did you get started with stem cells and regenerative medicine?

While on vacation out west, I was in a snow-skiing accident where I had some knee damage.  I was recommended to try stem cell injections over surgery (I was scared of surgery by the way).  After seeing quicker than expected results, I started doing my own research to add this to my concierge practice.  I never planned on this turning into an entirely separate business and income source, but to save others from having to deal with the risks of irreversible surgery, additional pain, downtime, and uncertainty for my primary care patients.

Did you find learning how to utilize stem cells to be difficult?

It was a learning curve for sure… But with the proper preparation and the willingness to take a risk and give it a try, I found that it is pretty simple. The stem cell part is a breeze, but you need to know how to do injections. I already knew how to inject shoulders and knees, but I had to learn how to inject other areas such as elbows, feet, and ankles. These are not hard and can be learned by watching videos and understanding anatomy. I have upped my game and recently learned how to do ultrasound guided injections. I am doing hip injections all the time now. I took a 3-day crash course and purchased a used ultrasound machine off eBay for $1,500. It was a great investment. If I had took a course like what we developed before I started, I would have already opened my 2nd or 3rd clinic by now.

Did you find partnering with a physician to be a barrier?

Yes, I did.  Every physician that I encountered was either scared to help an NP or wanted a substantial amount of money for merely viewing a few charts per week.  I felt like I was getting into bed with the mafia.  The more money I made, the more money the physician wanted. I did finally find a physician supervisor who I partnered with. She sees patients as well, therefore we have equal equity stakes in the practice. Regardless though, I do not need a supervisor for this, it is really simple, and she contributes nothing other than being the requirement demanded by the state.  This is why I am currently opening another practice in an independent state in the next 2-3 months. I will fly out and see patients 2-3 times a month and make a nice chunk of change.

How much time and money did it take you to start this practice?

Starting any practice can be costly.  You have to stop and explore unique options when starting out.  Since I was limited on funds, I started out in another private practice (that I didn’t belong to) and rented out a single clinic room by the month for my concierge practice.  I put out small yard signs that you can have made at any office supply store.  These signs stated “Concierge care and stem cell therapy! Now accepting new patients” and it had my website and phone number on it.  When I had a patient with chronic or acute knee pain, I would talk to them about stem cells.  This is where it all began.  Word of mouth soon got out and I had some referrals.  I started putting ads in the town newspaper for brunches/seminars.  I slowly ramped up marketing to include social media.  There were also postcard mailers that helped bring people to the promotional brunches/seminars I was hosting.  All of this took approximately 3-4 months to start having a steady flow of patients.  I wasn’t even heavily marketing at this point.  I would say that I was spending around $500 per month at first.  One patient covered expenses and also added some profit to the practice.  In approximately 6 months, I was seeing more than one patient per week and profits increased. This is when I branched off my concierge practice and focused strictly on stem cell therapies. I now spend a lot more money marketing which pays off. Profits depend on how much you charge so exploring the area for current practices and their prices are important when dictating your pricing. To answer your question, I would say I invested about $5,000 into this. This is the cheapest and highest revenue business a nurse practitioner can start. It is so simple and I wish I knew about this years ago.

When did you start seeing significant returns?

I started seeing returns with my first patient.  This was in my first month.  After 3 months, I was beginning to get excited with increased profits.  By 6 months, I was averaging 4-5 figures per week. At an average of $5,000 per injection, it became profitable very fast.

How much are you consistently bringing in every month now?

On average, I bring in approximately $50K per month and my supervisor brings in a similar amount.  This number will be determined by how much you decided to charge and how many patients you see.  Some of these patients are not included in marketing costs since they come from my primary care patients as well. If I was not required to have a supervisor, I would easily be bringing in $100k a month on my own.

After its all said and done, how much profit do you generate a year?

After marketing and supplies, I average approximately 85% profit margin with my mark-up.  As I previously stated, all of this depends upon your profit margin.  Stem cells can sell anywhere from $2500-$7000 per ml.  The price depends on your area’s market value. My first complete year I had a profit of about $450k. If you include my supervisors portion, we had a profit close to $900k.

What has been your best day?

My best days are when couples come in together for treatments. I had a Valentines special where I was offering a 20% discount to couples.  I only had 6 sets of couples come in for 2ml each.  That ended up being an 8-hour day at around $10,000 each…. total revenue was $75,000. I plan on having a Valentines special every year now. Outside of that, I give discounts for multiple units regularly.

How much time a week do you spend at your stem cell clinic?

I am at the clinic 2-3 days a week for 3-4 hours each day depending on the traffic.  I average seeing up to 4 or 5 patients over the course of the week for stem cell therapy. This time is broken down between patient care and marketing activities.

If there is any piece of advice you can offer to individuals looking to start a stem cell and regenerative medicine clinic, what would it be?

My best advice would be to start off slow.  It only takes one patient to see profits if you price your treatments right.  I would always do this as a side practice and count it as bonus money.  The biggest advice would be to move to a state without having physician collaboration to maximize your income potential and not have to worry about getting squeezed for more money. If you cannot do this, then do not partner with a physician like I did, just pay them a base monthly rate of like $1,500 so you can pocket the majority of the profits.

Oliver has made this very straightforward. It blows me away at how simple this side practice is. I have partnered with Oliver Brown in developing my Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Clinic course. I have had tremendous success implementing this into my practice so far, but nothing like Oliver has had. I have learned a considerable amount from Oliver and wish I would have had this knowledge before getting started… There is no question I would be seeing more patients and offering more products at this point.

Remember, this course will cover and include EVERYTHING you need to start this lucrative side practice. We have really simplified this for all of you. It is one of the least complicated and profitable practices you could start. Oliver has stressed this point to me multiple times… Every single nurse practitioner reading this has the capability of earning a handsome side income offering stem cell injections to your patients. Remember, the official release will be May 26^th at midnight EST. Click HERE for the purchase link!