Functional Health is a holistic health centre that looks at all aspects of your mental, emotional, physical and chemical wellbeing so you can feel confident that they will get to the root of the problem and give you the tools you need to achieve results beyond what you thought were possible. Wherever you are in your life right now, whatever you’re going through, whatever you’ve been through and however you want to feel, they are here to provide you with the support and guidance to help unlock an incredible potential within yourself and your loved ones. Here, business owner Sheetal Singh talks about the passion behind Functional Health, the challenges she has overcome, and her hopes and dreams for the future.
The passion: What inspired you to set up your business?
In my case, it is a bit different in that I was lucky enough to find myself working at a place I absolutely enjoyed. The values that were held in this practice to provide a safe space that helped people flourish in their lives from a holistic perspective made me fall in love with the business.
So when it came to changing my position from being a worker there to the owner, of course I said yes. Now that’s not to say this wasn’t a challenge. There was a lot of going back and forth, thinking about all the new responsibilities this may entail and change in lifestyle, etc.
However, what inspired me to go ahead was the love for the way, at Functional Health, the whole body is looked at as a whole. The pain someone comes in with is not just seen as that one area of pain, but it is understood that there are many layers to this – physical, emotional, mental, nutritional and others.
When we look at helping someone regain their quality of life, we look at what has caused them the discomfort at its root. This means covering the many layers spoken of above. Quite often, people believe their pain is from lifting something and tweaking their back. The question I then ask them is “How many times have you lifted something and not felt the same pain?”. It is a build-up of other factors that have brought the body to this ‘state of being’ where now lifting this one thing creates such big discomfort.
For example, factors such as improper sleep, injuries, body changes that stay the same (including in pregnancy), food sensitivity…
When I began to understand this on a deeper level, it seemed that by understanding the layers and helping people by working through it, we are literally helping people become themselves again. This is what inspired me to take on the business – to carry on this work.
People were able to be a part of the community, connect with their partners, show up for their children and grandchildren – doing things they valued. And lastly, people enjoyed coming into this space we had created in practice. We would see partners come together to spend time, or parents bring their children – 3 generations of the family together – and see children develop into their best self as they grew.
With all this in mind, I had to ensure I maintained this and grew the Functional Health family more (both ways).
The launch: How did you start out in the beginning?
Although I had already been a part of the business prior to ownership, there was still a lot to learn. The good part was that the community, staff and the team members already knew me well. The transition felt a lot more supported. Additionally, the ex owners were also available to answer questions and encourage me. It did include learning what being a business owner meant though.
The very beginning of this journey, once I had bought the business, went mostly smoothly as I had great support from team members who knew how to do things that I didn’t. That, however, came with the feeling of being under skilled.
As a practitioner, I knew how to provide care for people, help them feel and function better. There was passion there. On the other side though, there was a lack of knowledge with what had been happening behind the scenes. While I was fortunate that everything had been set up with systems in the business to allow for the business to run, I didn’t know what this was. I also felt bad asking others because I thought I should know. Eventually, I let myself be vulnerable, as a good mentor and friend of mine stated that “vulnerability is power”. With that, I allowed myself to ask questions and learn from my staff.
Leaning into my team and what their expertise was allowed me to do my job better as a business owner and a practitioner. Not only me, but this also let the business run smoother, creating a better experience for our community… and that is what we aim for!
I know my answer is a bit different to how people would usually speak about startups. Functional Health had already been set up, so I am answering with regards to my personal lessons. My journey from the beginning included learning how to marry my current knowledge as a practitioner and new knowledge for understanding business to provide the best experience and service for health for our practice members
The innovation: What was the biggest breakthrough for you with your business?
The biggest breakthrough for me was self-growth. As mentioned above, a lot of learning was done.
This included learning to ask, learning to have more structure, learning to understand finances and learning that the best growth happens when we allow the people in their area of expertise to do their job. This learning, which created a lot of internal growth, was my biggest breakthrough.
For example, I know that what I know and would advise to people is not what they would necessarily think of themselves. To get the results they want, or to experience more out of life, I would suggest to them certain exercises or care plans and know that this is what would help them reach their goals. Similarly, I learnt to lean into my coaches to learn more about business as they were the people who knew what to do to help me grow faster.
Allowing myself to recognise there was a lot to learn, then get the answers from the right people, allowed me to then grow myself. When I speak of growth, I don’t only refer to knowledge, but also myself as a person. I have realised this is one of the biggest things anyone could do to get better in any aspect of life – whether this is as a partner, a parent, business owner, etc. Recognising you can grow yourself furthermore means being able to be open to the opportunities there are, being humble and vulnerable.
Yin and Yang: How do you balance work and family?
Actually, this started off as a bit of a challenge in the beginning – learning to take out time for business while also doing my work as a Chiropractor after hours would mean I would take work home. This created some challenges when longer hours were spent. As a normal response, to the ones watching, it seemed like “all my time” was spent there.
However, just like with driving a car, once things become familiar, you don’t have to think twice about it, and the same happens with business. As I became more familiar with the work, it required less time, and I was able to structure that into my schedule better. Of course that also meant understanding that things will be changing in my schedule. As they say, “Change is the only constant”.
This mentality helped with balance. I think true balance is knowing that each day looks different. Some days you will be required more in business and some days you will be giving more time to family or self. That is the biggest mindset that helped. Why do I say mindset? That is what drives us with our actions. If I didn’t understand this, I’d feel more pressured, overwhelmed and lack clarity, which would lead to more stress and when with family, I wouldn’t be present.
