Tampa Clinic Grows while Treating Patients Like Family
Go Medical Clinic of Hillsborough County
At a Tampa-based clinic, Go Medical Clinic, every patient is more than a chart or appointment—they’re treated like family. Co-Owners, George Layton and Gilbert Hernandez welcome patients with open arms, ready to help them through their health journey. Whether it’s a mom, a brother, or a daughter, the philosophy behind the practice is simple: deliver care with the same dedication and emotion you would give to your own loved ones.
“They’re going to get celebrated when they lose weight. They’re gonna get yelled at when they gain it,” says Gilbert. “We literally care about our patients, and that’s what we feel differentiates us from other doctors’ offices.”
This heartfelt approach to healthcare inspired the launch of the business, but bringing the vision to life required more than compassion—it needed a solid business plan and financial backing. That’s where the Florida SBDC at USF stepped in.
“We were just getting started and we didn’t know what to do next so we got on the website, we contacted SBDC, and told them where we were in the process and shortly thereafter I received an email from Brad and he jumped right in and helped us to get everything ready so that we could get a business loan and get started and put us in contact with the bank people in order to make it all happen,” George said.
Working with Florida SBDC at USF business consultant Brad Owens, the clinic’s owners received expert guidance on business planning and financial projections. That support played a crucial role in securing a loan from TD Bank, making it possible to open the clinic’s doors.
“Our business has grown tremendously and actually took off because we were at a point where we didn’t know what to do next or how to come up with the funding in order to start the business. So, thanks to the SBDC and Brad we were able to put together a business plan and he put us in contact with the person from TD Bank and helped us to where we could get a loan so we could get started. So, everything you see here basically came from that. We went from nothing to being able to actually start our business,” Gilbert said.
Since launching, the clinic has grown steadily, earning the trust and loyalty of the Tampa community. We were pretty happy to have had our first patient, and we celebrated our first patient. It’s been slow at the beginning, but we met up to about 500 patients in the last six months. In this first quarter we should be seeing greater than that…so we are growing exponentially but it definitely has to do with the preparations when we first started. I think the SBDC Center at USF with Mr. Brad Owens really prepared us to get us the financial capital to get started and it’s been really helpful since then,” George said.
With plans to expand services and deepen community ties, the owners see the Florida SBDC at USF as an ongoing partner in their journey.
“I think that the SBDC in the future we might be using them for marketing strategies, things to promote and help our business grow. Previously, what we used the SBDC for was to get it started, now that it’s started, we need to help promote it and grow and I think that the SBC could probably help us with marketing,” Gilbert mentioned.
When asked what advice they would give to other small business owners, Hernandez said “I think if you are going to be starting a business, contacting the SBDC is the best way to get your questions answered and actually be able to put it all together, because otherwise there are so many options and so many unknowns, and the SBDC puts the right people with the right answers in front of you to answer your questions.”
