![\"Two](\"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Life-Ready-Pilates.jpg\")
Ellison founded Life Ready Physio and Pilates when she was just 23 years old.<\/p>\n
She had recently returned from a year working abroad when she was contacted by Trinh, a fellow physiotherapy graduate, to see if she wanted to start up a low-cost physiotherapy clinic with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe chatted about how much our previous jobs had disappointed us. We had just both been really uninspired: the lack of autonomy, the lack of passion, the lack of direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe started to imagine what we could do if we hired friendly receptionists, offered clients free coffee in beautiful waiting rooms and charged them competitive rates.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trinh saved enough money to buy a practice in Yokine, north of Perth \u2013 a quaint and unassuming building a short drive from Wanneroo Road.<\/p>\n
Before long, Trinh and Ellison opened a second clinic in a spare room in a friend\u2019s dentistry practice in Perth central business district. The third was opened with the help of another classmate, Matt Thomas, in Inglewood.<\/p>\n
The organisation\u2019s rapid growth has been helped by its unusual business structure, a 50\/50 partnership model, in which Life Ready Health Group \u2013 mostly owned by Trinh and Ellison \u2013 own 50 per cent of a clinic, with the other 50 per cent owned by a managing partner who works at the clinic.<\/p>\n
But even though Life Ready Physio and Pilates has experienced exponential growth, Ellison and Trinh never forgot the outcomes of their initial meeting: the coffee in each clinic\u2019s waiting room is still free and the organisation is still guided by its values.<\/p>\n \u201cWe made a commitment that no matter how big we got, we would always feel like a small business. We still hire people on character over competency,\u201d Ellison says.<\/p>\n \u201cOur values \u2013 passion, family, authenticity, proactive not reactive, strength focused, and embracers and drivers of change \u2013 were articulated by our staff when we were still small. It sounds clich\u00e9 to say but we are very much a values-driven company.\u201d<\/p>\n This past year, with Trinh relocating to Melbourne to grow Life Ready Physio and Pilates interstate, Ellison has taken greater control of the organisation in Perth.<\/p>\n Recently, she launched Life Ready Open House, a pro-bono initiative where physiotherapists at the organisation\u2019s clinics offer three free sessions to those who can\u2019t afford physiotherapy under the recommendation of their GP.<\/p>\n \u201cWe did a survey about 18 months ago asking if our staff wanted to get involved in some sort of charity program, and they indicated they wanted to volunteer their skills.<\/p>\n \u201cThe idea is that each clinic opens their doors for a window every fortnight. It\u2019s up to our staff and the time they can volunteer.\u201d<\/p>\n The initiative was recognised in the 2019 40under40 Awards in which Ellison was named one of the award winners. The awards celebrate young business people for their personal, commercial and philanthropic achievements.<\/p>\n But despite her meteoric rise in the business world, Ellison keeps her feet planted firmly on the ground, still enjoying treating patients personally.<\/p>\n \u201cAt Curtin I remember being taught to \u2018assess, then reassess\u2019, over and over again in our musculoskeletal classes,\u201d Ellison says.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what I do as a physiotherapist and I think it\u2019s what you have to do in a business as well, all the time: assess the problem and then assess if your solution worked.\u201d<\/p>\n Eight years ago, Jessica Ellison would never have predicted that her organisation would become WA\u2019s market leader in physiotherapy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4275,"featured_media":7565,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-7564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"Graduate snapshot","content":" Name:<\/b><\/strong> Jessica Ellison<\/p>\n Role:<\/b><\/strong> Chief Operations Officer and Physiotherapist, Life Ready Physio and Pilates<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Life](\"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Life-Ready_Camberwell-Clinic.jpg\")
![\"Massage](\"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Life-Ready_Bayswater_Consulting-Room.jpg\")