The FARM (Functional Athletic Rehabilitation and Medicine)

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For Dr. Beau Beard and Dr. Sloan Burdick, launching a chiropractor’s office in Chelsea was never part of their life plans.

In May 2013, the couple were preparing to graduate from Logan College of Chiropractic in Missouri. After that, they intended to move to Florida to begin their chiropractic careers. 

While returning from a visit to Burdick’s family in Tallahassee, however, the couple’s car broke down on Interstate 65 in Birmingham. A local car dealership stepped in to help, offering everything from food for their dog to a borrowed car to return to Missouri. Despite having neither friends nor family in the city, this Southern hospitality made Beard and Burdick decide to relocate to Birmingham.

“We had all these future plans,” Burdick said. “Then they fell through, and the very next day we broke down here. So it was kind of like a sign.”

Soon after moving to Birmingham, the couple decided to take the ambitious step of opening their own practice. On Valentine’s Day 2014, the FARM – Functional Athletic Rehabilitation and Medicine – opened its doors in Chelsea. While the FARM is a general chiropractic office, Beard and Burdick specialize in athletes of all ages, from the casual weekend runner to the college football player preparing for a professional career. 

“Every patient that walks through our door, we think of them as an athlete. Your body is your biggest asset, so take care of yourself like a pro athlete does,” Beard said.

The FARM offers chiropractic adjusting, injury rehabilitation, soft tissue therapy and other services to decrease pain and improve their patients’ athletic ability. The couple are also working to develop relationships with local high schools and universities to provide chiropractic services and assessments for student athletes.

“At school, we worked with the University of Missouri, with their football team, and that’s what we’re trying to develop here. That’s really the fun side of it for us,” Beard said. “Those are the athletes that are really motivated.”

Beard and Burdick became interested in chiropractic sports medicine because of their own athletic injuries. Beard, an avid runner, experienced a fractured femur that kept him from running for months, and Burdick’s competitive gymnastic career was almost ended by an injury in middle school. The help of a chiropractor allowed her to compete for seven more years. 

The FARM’s growth is almost entirely based on word of mouth and community involvement. Beard and Burdick volunteer at runs throughout the year to get to know local athletes and bring in potential clients.

“We have fun talking to people, but then they get to see what we do,” Beard said. “And that’s really our bread and butter.”

Running their own practice immediately after graduation has been difficult, as they have to balance their roles as doctors and business owners. Since they knew no one in the area, Beard and Burdick had to build their network and list of patients from scratch. The experience has given them new appreciation for the hard work and advice of other small business owners in the area.

“It’s put me in a different perspective. I want to seek out all the small businesses. If I’m buying or purchasing something, I want to use the little guy,” Burdick said.

Despite the challenges of building a new business in an unknown city, their car breakdown in Birmingham gave Beard and Burdick a new life and career they love.

“I get a lot of fulfillment knowing we created all this, and then having someone leave this telling us ‘Thank you’ or ‘Wow, you helped me,’” Burdick said. “Where we are, we knew no one. And to think how far we’ve come since starting here, that’s really cool.”