7. Should I Take Out a Small Business Loan to Grow My Clinic?

Thinking about taking out a loan to grow your independent clinic? It might feel like the fastest way to move forward—but loans can either accelerate your success or speed up your failure. That’s why they demand careful consideration before you sign on the dotted line.

Recently, a physician running a direct care clinic asked me whether it was wise to borrow for marketing and website upgrades. It’s a common question among clinic owners, and it highlights a bigger issue: when does debt actually help a practice grow, and when does it simply add stress?

Over the years, I’ve worked with lending institutions, startups, and physicians. I’ve seen loans act like rocket fuel for growth—and I’ve seen them sink businesses that weren’t ready. Here’s what I’ve learned about how to approach business debt wisely.

My Perspective on Loans 

My views on debt have been shaped by sitting on all sides of the table. Early in my career, I worked at a credit union in New York City and learned what lenders are really looking for. Later, I helped launch the nation’s first cleantech debt fund, which provided working capital to cleantech startups with big purchase orders but no cash to fulfill them.

I’ve also taught financial literacy in low-income communities, where encouraging risky mortgages—even during the housing boom—felt irresponsible. And during COVID, I managed the books for my husband’s small business as loans intended to save it couldn’t stop an industry-wide collapse.

These experiences taught me that loans can be powerful tools—but only if you already have a working business model and a clear growth path.

When Loans Actually Make Sense

The best time to borrow is when you’re financing something that’s already working. In my experience, three situations stand out:

1. Bridging a short-term gap. A business lands a big purchase order but doesn’t have the cash to deliver. A loan helps fill the gap, provided this isn’t a recurring problem.
   
   
2. Managing seasonal swings. Seasonal businesses often need to spend long before revenue comes in. Loans can smooth the timing, though the goal should always be to build reserves over time.
   
   
3. Scaling capacity. When you’ve maxed out your current resources—like a clinic where patient demand exceeds what physicians can handle—borrowing to add staff or equipment makes sense.
   
   

In each case, debt works best when your model is validated and you already have paying customers (or patients) lined up.

When Loans Don’t Work

What loans won’t do is fix fundamental problems. Borrowing won’t make an unprofitable clinic sustainable, or turn an uncertain revenue stream into a steady one. Debt consolidation only helps if it truly reduces total payments and doesn’t keep you trapped in a cycle.

Put simply: if you can’t clearly show how borrowed money will pay for itself, the loan is more likely to become a burden than a benefit.

The Lean Startup Approach

When I work with physicians starting or growing clinics, I often bring in lean startup principles. Instead of investing lots of capital upfront, we build a stripped-down version of the clinic to test assumptions.

That means asking:

• What services does your community actually need?
  
  
• What services are worth investing in right now?
  
  
• What can you postpone until your patient base is stronger?
  
  

In practice, this might mean avoiding long leases or big equipment purchases until the business model is validated. Once you know what works, expansion (and loans) becomes a much safer—and smarter—move.

The Right Questions to Ask Before Borrowing

Back to that physician’s original question about taking out a loan for marketing and website upgrades. Before borrowing, I’d want to know:

• Are you tracking data on how your current marketing performs?
  
  
• What evidence suggests your website is the true barrier to growth?
  
  
• How many new patients would it take to repay this loan, and how confident are you that you’ll reach that number?
  
  

Here’s a quick example. Let’s say website and marketing updates cost $30,000, and you take out a loan at 10% interest. If each patient visit brings in $125, you’d need about 250 new visits just to break even. The real question is: how confident are you that this investment will generate that many new patients?

Smarter Alternatives to Debt

Before investing heavily, I recommend smaller, testable experiments. That might mean A/B testing website elements, running low-budget ad campaigns with clear ROI targets, or even simply visiting referral sources to spark more patient flow.

Your marketing strategy will evolve as your clinic matures. Early on, it may feel experimental and a little messy. That’s okay—it’s not wasted effort if you’re learning and adjusting.

The Bottom Line on Business Loans

I think of business loans like gas in a fuel tank. If you’ve built a strong, efficient vehicle, that fuel can help you go faster and farther. But if the engine isn’t working, more gas won’t help.

Sometimes the problem isn’t a lack of money—it’s a lack of focus. Before borrowing, make sure you love your reasons for taking on debt, you have clear metrics for success, and your strategy is already proving itself.

In many cases, the best growth opportunities are already hiding in your existing patient base, referral network, and community connections (no loan required!).

(Disclaimer: I’m not an accountant or financial professional. Please consult your own advisors before taking out a loan, as there may be important tax and profitability implications.)

If you’re facing these questions in your own clinic, I’d love to help. You can email me at [email protected] or book a free discovery call at www.amandasabicer.com. Let’s talk about how to use debt wisely (or avoid it altogether) so you can build a practice that grows on your terms.