This year we opened clinic four. Clinic five was meant to open this month. As I write this, it’s only just starting renovation.
Around the time clinic four opened, I wrote down a rule for myself: nothing new until both have at least twelve months of operating data.
That puts the next expansion well into 2028.
The delay makes the case for me. Plans slip. A gate that counted from the plan would already be wrong. This one counts from the day the doors open.
The default
When things are going well, the pull is to keep going. Momentum feels like information. There’s always a location that looks perfect, a deal that won’t wait.
But every new clinic carries a ramp. Costs before revenue, staff before patients, months before it pays for itself. Stack ramps on top of ramps and you’re betting the whole group on everything going right at once.
The rule
Each clinic proves the model before it funds the next one.
Twelve months gives me a full cycle. Every school holiday, every festive dip, every seasonal trough Singapore throws at a clinic. One good quarter can lie. A full year mostly can’t.
What I learned writing it
When I mapped out what expansion actually needed, I expected money to be the constraint. It wasn’t.
The constraint was people. Finding and keeping good therapists for each new location. You can raise money. You can’t raise trust and competence on a timeline.
A clinic that opens without the right team isn’t a growth step. It’s a liability with signage.
Why write it down
Because in the moment, I’ll want to break it. Some opportunity will look too good to wait. Writing the gate while I was calm means future me has to argue with past me’s reasoning, not just a feeling.
A gate needs a date or an event. “When it makes sense” isn’t a gate. It’s a door you’ll walk through the moment you’re excited.
Twelve months of data. Then we talk.