Therapeutic Company Goes the Extra Mile, Empowering Families Near and Far
Collaborative Therapies of Orange County
After her son was diagnosed with autism, Tiye Huertas, founder of Collaborative Therapies, felt a calling to create a business that could help families access life-changing therapeutic services. Inspired by her own journey, Huertas launched a multi-disciplinary therapeutic company that operates statewide and in Georgia, providing families—especially those with children who have special needs—with the tools and resources they need to thrive.
“There’s a lot of services that many people are unaware of, and being presented with the information that those resources, the majority are free, is my mission,” Tiye Huertas shared.
Starting a business with such a meaningful purpose came with challenges, but Huertas credits the Florida SBDC at Hillsborough County and her business consultant, Retta Parsons, with helping her achieve her vision.
“I chose to launch this type of business because when working in the school system, it felt very linear, like you couldn’t progress, so I felt like my impact wasn’t as widespread and it was very small. Now when you launch a business, we’re helping more people, more families get accessible therapeutic services state-wide,” Tiye Huertas said.
Together, they worked on key foundational elements, including business structure, organization, and identifying platforms to streamline operations. The guidance she received helped her refine her onboarding processes for therapists and employees, enabling her to grow and scale more efficiently.
“When I reached out to the SBDC, my back office, I can say, wasn’t as organized, so Retta has helped us become more organized, figure out our business structure, figure out platforms that we can utilize to increase our profitability and our structure and processes to help us onboard therapists and employees much faster and help us grow in scale,” Tiye Huertas expressed.
Since working with the Florida SBDC at Hillsborough County, the business has grown significantly, reaching more families and improving access to critical services. “Since working with the Florida SBDC at Hillsborough County, our company has secured 12 contracts this year. We have also established contracts outside of Florida so we’re now providing services in Georgia. Now we’re impacting more families, and more families are getting access to accessible therapeutic services,” Tiye Huertas mentioned.
“Our biggest success so far has been the lives we’ve impacted and changed due to our therapeutic services that we’re providing in-house, in schools, and in clinics,” Tiye Huertas said. She also included, “and the therapists who now have jobs.”
Looking ahead, she plans to continue leveraging the Florida SBDC’s expertise as her company scales. “Moving forward I would like to work with Retta at the Florida SBDC at Hillsborough County, to attend their workshops. Their workshops have been very instrumental in our scalability and our ability to grow rapidly,” Tiye Huertas said.
Her advice to other entrepreneurs? “To other small businesses, I would say that the Florida SBDC at Hillsborough County has been so helpful. Very helpful with business structure, really helpful with bookkeeping, very helpful with information and profitability. Checking your profitability, making sure you’re profiting and not losing money,” Tiye Huertas expressed.
Through her work, Huertas is not only paying it forward but also creating a lasting impact on families across the state.
She ended with the following, “I want to send a special thank you to the Florida SBDC at Hillsborough County. They have provided so many opportunities, like this interview right here,” she said. “I’ve gone to many of their events, and I’ve met so many people that I continue to work with throughout the community and you never know what will flourish from taking a chance and betting on yourself,” she added with a smile.
