What To Do Next
As Small Business Week comes to a close, the focus shifts from navigating challenges to building what comes next. The right financial tools—and the right partners—can do more than help you manage day-to-day operations. They can position your business for growth while helping you protect it from emerging risks.
If you are an independent healthcare practice owner, you’re the backbone of your community—and probably juggling a dozen roles before your first cup of coffee. In addition to being a patient caregiver, you’re the quality lead, head of HR, chief marketer, and often, the last one turning off the lights. This all-in commitment is exactly what makes your business indispensable.
But it also creates a real tension.
On one side: rising overhead, staffing challenges, and endless admin.1 On the other: a massive fast-growing wave of consumer demand. The health & wellness market is expected to hit $11.61 trillion by 2035—driven by people who are more invested in their care than ever before.
So, how do you actually seize this opportunity while keeping the day-to-day running? It starts with a mindset shift: Seeing your financial tools not as a cost center, but as a growth engine. And that means moving beyond transactional vendors and to a true financial partner.
The Bandwidth Bottleneck
For most practice owners, the issue isn’t ambition—it may be bandwidth.
Our Synchrony research shows that while 59% of consumers choose where to get care based on available financing options, 56% of providers report lacking the staff or resources to help patients find them.
That gap may be even wider for small businesses. Your team is focused on care—not untangling complex payment workflows. But when the payment experience breaks down, so does the opportunity.
If a patient wants care but can’t pay upfront, and the path forward isn’t clear, you’re not just losing a transaction; you’re losing a long-term relationship.
From Vendor to Partner: Streamlining Your Internal Engine
A vendor sells you a product. A partner helps you grow. You see the difference in your day-to-day operations.
A true financial partner removes friction by integrating directly into the systems and software you already use—becoming an extension of your team when it comes to payments and collections.
Picture this: your system automatically flags pre-approved patients. Your staff can offer financing options right in their existing workflow. Payments are processed in just a few clicks. That’s not aspirational—it’s already possible through advancements in leading practice management software.
The result? Less admin, fast payments, and a smoother experience for everyone involved. Your team spends less time frustrated, your cash flow improves, and patients move from uncertainty to confidence about paying for care.
Widening the Door: Saying “Yes” More—Responsibly
Once your operations are running smoothly, the next question is growth: how do you serve more patients?
Cost is one of the biggest barriers to care. And often, helping someone say “yes” comes down to offering the right way to pay.
That’s where your financing partner really matters.
Traditional credit models rely on a single snapshot – a static credit score. But that approach misses a huge portion of creditworthy consumers, especially those with limited credit histories. A more modern approach, like Synchrony PRISM technology, conducts a deeper assessment, reviewing a broader set of data of 9,000 diverse data attributes, from cash flow to rent payments to purchasing behavior, to build a more complete financial picture. The result: a more dynamic, comprehensive financial profile, providing the opportunity for more approvals, made responsibly, and for more patients to move forward with care.
And for those who still don’t qualify? Multi-source financing (MSF) options connect them to a network of credible lenders, helping them structure payments for the care they desire— seamlessly and without adding work for your team.
It’s a single, integrated process that helps expand access—and opens the door wider for the patients who want care.
Building for Long-Term Growth
As National Small Business Week comes to a close, it’s worth taking a closer look at the partnerships that power your business. Are your current financial tools truly supporting both practice and patient success? Are they limiting access to care for patients, or actively seeking to expand it?
The right partner doesn’t just solve for today’s challenges – they help you grow into tomorrow’s opportunities. With smarter financial tools in place, you can reduce admin friction, support your team, and make it easier for more patients to get the care they need. That’s what it really comes down to: stronger practices, stronger communities, and a future where independent businesses continue to thrive.
Alberto (Beto) Casellas is Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of the Health & Wellness platform of Synchrony, one of the nation’s premier consumer financial services companies. Beto oversees the CareCredit health and wellness credit card, designed to provide financing for health and wellness care for themselves, their families, and their pets.
Photo courtesy Getty Images for Unsplash+
