Executive Summary
This Shopify store for sale is a physician-led virtual mental-health clinic operating in Alberta that delivers publicly-funded psychotherapy and psychiatry through contracted physicians who bill the provincial payer (AHCIP). The company runs a low-overhead, revenue-share model (reported 12–20% share), claims strong unmet demand (long waitlist), and has historically generated meaningful top-line revenue with tight margins and significant month-to-month volatility. The business is operationally turnkey (domain, EMR setup, workflows, physician relationships included), which presents a fast scale opportunity for a buyer able to recruit physicians, tighten operations, and expand province-by-province, but it also carries material verification, regulatory and supply (physician availability) risks that must be resolved before any offer.
Detailed Analysis
Website performance & metrics
Publicly verifiable:
The site presents a full service offering (virtual counselling/therapy and psychiatry) covered by Alberta health (AHCIP) with booking, FAQs and referral resources. The site positions the clinic as province-wide and highlights up to 20 therapy sessions and virtual convenience.
What is not verifiable publicly and must be requested from the seller (high priority):
Website speed & technical metrics: Lighthouse scores (mobile/desktop), Core Web Vitals, page load times, mobile conversion. Request read-only Google Search Console + PageSpeed/Lighthouse reports.
Traffic & conversion: GA4 (or UA) access to validate unique visitors, sessions, bounce, conversion funnel (site → intake form → booked appointment), conversion rate, and referral sources.
Product variation / “SKUs”: This is a service business. The equivalent SKUs are service types (family physician therapy, psychiatric consults, group programs, workshops). Get a SKU-level booking/export (service codes, duration, billed amount).
AOV / CLV / Repeat rate: AOV here equates to revenue per booking or revenue per patient over a timeframe. The seller data shows monthly revenues but you must request an order/appointment export to calculate true CLV and repeat rates.
Waitlist metrics/capacity: Request the waitlist export (size, referral rate, no-show rate, average time to first appointment) to quantify the claimed “long waitlist.”
Email & social metrics: Export list size, recent open/click rates and SSA (spam) complaints; request social channel insights (followers, engagement).
Portal/EMR access: confirm EMR (Jane / SimplePractice) configuration, appointment flow, and data export capabilities. Cherry/clinic listings indicate use of an EMR and a 21–50 employee size profile in partner directories. Validation needed.
Finances
Claims provided (from your summary):
Annual revenue (reported): $512,422; annual profit: $29,674; monthly revenue ~$42,701; monthly profit ~$2,472. Seller-listed multiples: profit multiple 5.1x, revenue multiple 0.3x.
Monthly P&L series (Jun 2024 → May 2025) shows high volatility with several loss months and several profitable months; swings driven by physician capacity, pay cycles and payroll/contractor payout timing.
Assessment & critical verification steps
Verify merchant/booking payouts: Request bank statements, Stripe/merchant payouts and accounting exports (QuickBooks/Xero) to reconcile revenue and expense timing (month-end reporting vs cash receipts). The monthly P&L you provided shows large swings in expenses. Be sure to verify whether those are payroll, onboarding/physician payouts, or one-time costs.
Revenue recognition & timing: Since providers bill the government directly and the clinic retains a revenue share, confirm the exact cash flow cadence (who collects first, net vs gross reporting). Confirm if any receivables to/from physicians exist.
Normalization: Prepare an adjusted EBITDA / normalized profit schedule (remove one-offs, founder salaries, build-phase investments) to evaluate sustainable earnings.
Gross margin per service: Request SKU/service-level margin analysis (physician payout %, admin cost per appointment, EMR/subscription costs).
Financial risk flags
The low reported profit margin and monthly volatility increase buyer risk. Given the clinic relies on contracted clinicians, physician recruitment/retention dynamics (see Operational section) will directly affect revenue. Validate historical physician hours and utilization.
Marketing (Paid & Organic)
Current state (from site/listing):
Minimal marketing to date; growth largely word-of-mouth among physicians and patients. Website and social channels exist; referral pages for doctors suggest organic provider referrals are a major channel.
Opportunities
Provider recruitment as growth engine: Conferences, residency fairs, direct outreach to family physicians/psychiatrists. The supply constraint (physicians) is the primary scale limiter; investing in recruitment yields direct capacity.
Referral & partnership channels: Formalize partnerships with primary care clinics, hospital outpatient services and community orgs to drive referrals. Listings on clinic aggregator platforms (Cherry/clinic pages) already exist (expand from there).
Paid acquisition & awareness: Limited prior paid spend makes this a clean test: targeted digital ads to Alberta residents and physician-facing recruitment campaigns. Conversion funnels need to be built (landing pages, intake opt-ins, physician recruitment funnels).
Patient retention & ancillary services: Offer group programming, educational workshops, or employer-sponsored programs (benefits partnerships) to increase revenue per patient where permissible.
What to measure before scaling
CAC by channel (referral, organic search, paid search, social), LTV per patient, waitlist conversion rate (waitlist → booked appointment). Request historic marketing/CRM data.
Operational efficiency & scalability
Current model (public):
Remote operations; small support team with co-founders managing admin and EMR. The model is lean (low fixed overhead) and relies on contractor physicians who bill government directly; the clinic retains a percent share.
Key operational strengths
Low fixed cost base thanks to revenue-share contracting and remote care model. Use of an EMR (Jane / SimplePractice) provides a standard operational backbone.
Operational risks & required diligence
Physician onboarding & credentialing: Documented SOPs for credentialing, provincial billing enrollment, EMR access, clinical protocols, and quality assurance are essential. Verify the time/cost to onboard a physician and historical churn.
Compliance & quality assurance: Confirm clinical governance, supervision models, and malpractice/indemnity cover for contracted physicians.
Scalability constraints: The business is supply-constrained. Growth depends on recruiting and retaining physicians and ensuring administrative capacity for scheduling and triage.
Founder dependence & process maturity: Determine how much of operations are founder-dependent (e.g., physician relationships) and request SOPs, documented processes and staff org chart.
Customer data & relationships
Public signals: website states >1000 Albertans helped (site claims) and social presence
Data diligence to request
Patient/appointment exports: anonymized patient counts, unique patients per period, repeat visits, no-show rates.
Waitlist data: size, referral sources, average waiting time, drop-off rates.
Email/CRM health: list size, consent records, open/click rates, unsubscribe rates. Verify marketing permissions.
Patient satisfaction: ask for NPS, reviews, complaint history, and any litigation or regulatory complaints.
Privacy & security considerations
Ensure patient information handling is compliant with Alberta health privacy laws (PHIA) and EMR hosting requirements. Confirm business’s privacy policy and data storage standards.
Legal & compliance due diligence
High priority checks
Provincial billing & regulatory compliance: Confirm physicians are properly credentialed and registered to bill AHCIP and that the clinic’s contractual model complies with provincial billing/contracting rules. (Because services are AHCIP-covered, small errors could trigger clawbacks).
Provider contracts: Review revenue-share contracts, non-compete/NDAs, indemnity, and termination terms. Ensure no outstanding liabilities or contingent obligations.
Clinical governance & malpractice: Confirm malpractice insurance coverage and confirm processes for adverse events, incident reporting and quality review.
Data protection: Validate EMR vendor contracts, data hosting location, consent capture, and whether records are stored in Canada (important for PHIA/health data laws).
Corporate & tax: Review corporate structure, taxes, any outstanding liabilities, and the transferability of contracts.
Key Insights
Demand > Supply: Long waitlist and provincial coverage means patient demand exists at essentially zero out-of-pocket cost. Scale is limited by clinician supply not patient willingness.
Low fixed cost base: Revenue-share model keeps overhead low, making incremental physician onboarding highly accretive to EBITDA when properly managed.
Turnkey operations: Domain, EMR, workflows and established physician relationships lower time-to-scale for a buyer with clinician recruitment capability.
Volatility in monthly profit: The monthly P&L shows uneven profitability. This is likely driven by timing of clinician payouts, part-time staffing, and variable demand. This increases the need for working-capital planning. (Your monthly P&L extract shows this volatility.)
Challenges Identified
Verification of reported financials and revenue flow. The monthly P&L swings and small reported net profit require bank/merchant verification and normalization.
Physician supply constraint & onboarding speed. Growth depends on recruiting physicians. This is operationally hard and time-consuming.
Regulatory exposure. Because physicians bill public payer directly, invoicing and compliance mistakes could lead to clawbacks or penalties. Confirm all past audit history.
Patient privacy & EMR hosting. Ensure clinical records and patient data handling comply with provincial health privacy laws.
Founder/customer/physician concentration risk. If relationships with core physicians or the co-founders are central, losing them could materially affect service delivery.
Working capital & negative months. Several months show negative profit; buyer must be prepared for cash flow seasonality and possible upfront investment (recruitment, marketing) to scale.
Recommendations
Pre-offer (must have before any binding offer)
Data room: require read-only access to (a) EMR appointment export; (b) accounting (QuickBooks/Xero) and bank statements for last 24 months; (c) clinician contracts and credentialing docs; (d) detailed P&L and cash flow; (e) waitlist exports and marketing/CRM exports.
Legal review: allocate counsel to review clinician contracts, provincial billing compliance and privacy/EMR agreements.
Operational interview: 1:1 calls with core clinicians and the admin team to assess dependence on founders and confirm intent to continue (or not).
Clinical audit: request summary of any government audits, complaints or adverse incidents.
Deal structure suggestions
Holdback/escrow (6–12 months): given revenue volatility and verification needs, structure a portion of price in escrow or through an earnings-based earn-out tied to verified net revenue or gross margin.
Inventory/receivables carveouts: there are no physical inventory concerns, but confirm receivables (if any) and ensure payer collections continue seamlessly.
Transition support: require 60–90 days paid transition and introductions to clinicians and suppliers.
0–90 day operational playbook (post-close)
Immediate: onboard access to EMR and billing, change passwords, begin credential reconfirmation.
Stabilize finances: reconcile last 12 months, set up cash flow forecasting, ensure payroll and clinician payouts are automated.
Recruitment sprint: hire or contract a physician recruitment lead; set target physician onboarding timelines to convert waitlist to appointments.
Marketing & conversion: build physician-facing recruitment funnels and patient conversion funnels (search, social, employer partnerships). Run small paid tests and measure CAC → LTV.
Compliance & QA: implement clinical governance framework, incident reporting, and SOPs for billing compliance.
Valuation & Offer Guidance
Do not rely solely on seller multiples. Given the reported EBITDA is low and monthly volatility high, valuation should be based on verified normalized EBITDA. Consider an upfront payment based on verified trailing EBITDA with an earn-out for performance. The reported low revenue multiple (0.3x) and profit multiple (5.1x) may be reasonable ranges. But be sure to confirm with normalized figures and risk adjustments for physician supply and regulatory exposure.
Closing Caveats & Next Steps
All analysis here depends on public site information and the financials you provided. The most important immediate next steps are to obtain the data room items listed above (Shopify/EMR/merchant statements are not applicable here. Replace with EMR/merchant/ bank statements, clinician contracts, and the P&L exports).
