152. Can You Start an OT Business Straight Out of University? With Rebecca Haythorne
Every newly qualified OT hears some version of the same advice. Get a few years under your belt. Build your clinical experience. Wait until you know what you are doing.
But wait for what, exactly? And who decided?
In this episode Beki Eakins is joined by Rebecca Haythorne, Senior Lecturer and Practice Placement Tutor on the MSc and BSc Occupational Therapy pre-registration programmes at Leeds Beckett University. Rebecca moved into academia from clinical practice, having qualified as a mature student after a first degree in psychology and criminology and a spell working as an OT assistant. She is also currently working towards a PhD at the University of York.
Which makes her a useful person to ask, because she is the one preparing students for practice and watching where they actually end up.
The conversation covers what has changed in OT education, why placements now put students into settings that barely existed a decade ago, and what that means for the shape of a career. It also covers the part nobody puts in a prospectus: how much of the "wait your turn" message is genuine professional caution and how much is institutional habit that nobody has revisited.
Beki is honest about her own route. She qualified, went into the system, stayed thirteen years and left after burning out. Whether she would do it differently now is a question she answers directly.
In this episode:
- Whether a newly qualified OT can realistically start a business, and what has to be in place first
- Why "get experience first" is sometimes right and sometimes just repeated
- How contemporary placements are changing what students expect from a career
- The rise of hybrid roles that sit between traditional practice and something of your own
- Why mature students often move faster, and what the rest of us can learn from that
- Where the professional responsibilities sit, and why building a business does not mean abandoning them
- What Rebecca sees in students now that she did not see in her own cohort
This one is for OT students, newly qualified OTs, and anyone further along who has quietly wondered whether they waited longer than they needed to.
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About the guest
Rebecca Haythorne is a Senior Lecturer and Practice Placement Tutor in the School of Health at Leeds Beckett University, teaching on the pre-registration MSc and BSc Occupational Therapy programmes. She qualified in 2016 and spent several years in clinical practice with an NHS trust, working across care homes, eating disorders and community learning disabilities, before moving into academia. She is currently completing a PhD in Health Sciences at the University of York and has published widely in OT practice journals.
About the Host
Beki Eakins is a business mindset and lifestyle coach for occupational therapists. After leaving traditional OT practice, she has helped hundreds of OTs worldwide design aligned online businesses that support freedom, income, and purpose, without burning out.
