Kayla Reilly is trained as a licensed clinical social worker. But coming from a long line of business owners, she was always an entrepreneur first. Growing up, she watched her parents and grandparents run businesses — from scalloping off Cape Cod to real estate and construction to buying and revitalizing underperforming businesses on the Outer Banks.
So starting her own counseling and wellness practice just a few years after earning her master’s degree in social work from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington didn’t feel like a leap.
“I was always an entrepreneur at heart,” Reilly said.
Today, that business, Wilmington-based Evolution Wellness, is flourishing. And thanks to a loan about a year ago though the Loan Participation Program administered by the NC Rural Center, Reilly was able to open her third location and bring on five more therapists and another administrative team member. Evolution Wellness now has nearly two dozen employees, including 18 clinicians. Expanding the business has allowed Reilly to step away from running its daily operations and working with patients so she can focus on caring for her two young children. She learned about the loan through her banker at First Citizens Bank.
“There was no way I was going to be a present, healthy mother if I’m running this business by myself,” Reilly said. “And in order to really step away, there had to be enough income to provide good salaries to not only retain really good clinicians, but also to support that administrative team and start paying some higher-level people, like a clinical director and practice director, which is just expensive for a small business.”
Her plans have paid off. She currently plays a more strategic role in Evolution Wellness, analyzing business numbers and thinking big picture as she supports its leadership. And business is strong. That’s partly because of a growing interest and need in mental health support and a statewide and nationwide shortage of mental health providers.
“It’s more accepted,” she said of therapy and counseling. “It’s less stigmatized.”
At the same time, people are drawn to the environment she’s built at Evolution Wellness, she said. Her vision for the business was borne from her own firsthand experience working in the industry, where she saw clinicians being underpaid and patients often not receiving adequate care. Her goal has always been to ensure that both clinicians and patients feel valued and get the support they need to thrive.
“I constantly have a waitlist,” she said. “I’m seeing a lot of clients coming from other practices and even therapists coming from other practices.”
But, ever the entrepreneur, Reilly also always has her sights set on what’s next. She’s launched the “Not Your Therapist” podcast, where she’s talked about everything from mom guilt as an entrepreneur to the hidden costs of employing friends. She’s done some business coaching to help other entrepreneurs and plans to start seeing a few patients again.
“Mental health is where my heart’s at,” she said.
This fall, for the first time, she was able to give large bonuses to her staff.
“I got all these emails back [saying], ‘I love working here. I feel supported. I feel heard. I feel pushed to grow. And that’s really touched me,” Reilly said. “It’s awesome to see that I’m actually doing what I wanted to do in the first place.”