Building Bridges to a Brighter Future

When a new small business opens its doors, they have no way of knowing how successful it will be.

Marla Mann of South Forsyth found out quickly that if you serve a need, business will abound.

“It’s been really surprising,” she said.

Mann owns and operates Building Bridges Therapy, which offers speech, occupational and physical therapy for infants through young adults.

“After our first year, we were in one location and busting at the seams. We’ve now moved to a place double that size and a little over a year later, we’re full there as well,” Mann said. “It really just speaks to the need in this area for therapy services, which is great for my business, but it’s sad at the same time that there are that many kids and young adults that need our services.”

Young people come with issues that range from mild to severe, including Autism, traumatic brain injuries, problems due to prematurity, Down Syndrome, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, mitochondrial diseases, metabolic diseases, global delays, and speech impediments.

That’s a wide spectrum of needs, and that has not gone unnoticed by bigger businesses. Children’s Healthcare of Forsyth is moving into The Avenue on June 1 (see story). They’ll provide many of those same services, and offer labs, x-rays, immediate care, orthotics and prosthetics, among other specialty services.

Colleen Hicks is the parent of  two sons, age 12 and nearly 10 with special needs. She’s been with Building Bridges since it opened.

“They’re extremely patient,” she said. “My son walks in the door and acts like he’s on a roller coaster. He’s very animated and active when he gets in there, and she’s able to overlook the insanity.”

Although business has been good, Mann said she is concerned about Children’s arrival impacting growth in the future.

“It would be a huge competition because it’s a huge name coming in,” she said. “Other small clinics like mine are kind of worried about what that’s going to do to our referral base. The doctors are going to refer to Children’s because it’s a big name and the doctors are affiliated with Children’s.”

Meg Flynn is Public Relations Coordinator with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and said the need in Forsyth County is so great, all service providers will be very busy.

“Between 2010 and 2015, we predict pediatric needs to grow by a record 21.9 percent, so the population will be exploding,” she said. “We definitely don’t want to come in and cannibalize. Forsyth is underrepresented in staff for this, so it’s more about us coming in now to meet that growing demand,” she added.

Mann at Building Bridges says she’s making an effort to diversify to keep and grow the business. She’s adding aquatic therapy and behavioral therapy, for example, and Mann says they offer flexible scheduling and in-home services.

Colleen Hicks says Mann offers personal care, and for her, that makes all the difference.

“Obviously I was going to pay anything to get my children their services, and get their needs met, but with Marla, Marla is not the typical person out to make a buck. Her waiting room is always full. She has great social skills classes, she’s talking about camps, she goes to our Autism support meetings. She’s very big in the community and I don’t think she’ll have any problem. I enjoy talking to her. I can tell she loves children.”

Competition or not, Mann says she’s committed to serving kids long term, because it offers much more than a financial reward. 

“I’ve had babies come off feeding tubes and go to a bottle. You get to see big steps like that,” she said. “Our physical therapists work with kids on walking. You’re there with the parent, and you think of a parent with a typical child and that’s huge. To have a child that’s two and not walking and work constantly on that, we get to see those huge milestones and help the parents reach it and that just makes it all worth it.”