This Week’s Real-Life Lesson:

I had a coaching session this week with a physician whose story reflects something I’m seeing more and more across medicine: clinicians realizing that the traditional W-2 world no longer fits the life they want to live.

He didn’t say it exactly this way, but the essence was unmistakable: “I want my career to match the life I’m trying to build… not the other way around.”

He had spent years in a demanding hospital-based specialty, bound by rigid schedules, locked into systems that reward compliance over creativity, and exhausted from institutional politics. Yet what stood out wasn’t burnout, it was clarity. He’d reached a point where the professional life he inherited no longer aligned with the personal life he wanted to create.

And what he wanted was bold: the ability to work internationally, craft a flexible schedule that honored some personal health realities, and build a portfolio career where 1099 income would support sustainability, not strain.

In many ways, he was exactly where I stood years ago when I stepped off the conveyor belt of traditional employment and began living life as a micro-business owner. But what struck me most was not the ambition, it was the intentionality. He wasn’t chasing more. He was building different.

Where I Was

We met over Zoom. He was calling from a his East Coast apartment, balancing a part-time W-2 role and exploring the possibility of independent contracting. The city behind him was loud, kinetic, and full of opportunity, but his professional life felt increasingly constrained.

I recognized the look in his eyes. That mixture of determination and apprehension. That early tug toward autonomy that many physicians try to ignore… until ignoring it becomes harder than following it.

He told me he needed a work life he could carry with him—to another state, another country, another season of life. He wanted the freedom to practice medicine in different environments, to teach, to write, to travel, and to take time when his health required it. He wanted a professional structure that didn’t force him to choose between earning and living.

I nodded. I’ve been there. Most physician entrepreneurs I coach have been there too.

What Happened

As he described his goals, the roadmap became clear.

A traditional W-2 job couldn’t give him the freedom or flexibility he needed, not without sacrificing financial opportunity or international mobility. But a micro-corporation combined with independent contracting could.

We walked through the key turning points:

1. The shift from W-2 to 1099 isn’t just financial. It’s identity.

It’s moving from “I work for a system” to “My professional services are my business.” Once you see yourself as the owner of your own labor, everything else shifts with it.

2. A professional corporation (PC/PLLC taxed as an S-Corp) becomes the vehicle.

For physicians earning at least $30,000/year in 1099 income, the S-Corp structure often becomes the dividing line between trading time for dollars and building a scalable engine for your career. Through this structure, you can:

• Control your tax strategy

• Set your own retirement contribution levels

• Deduct legitimate business expenses

• Access entrepreneurial opportunities W-2 physicians can't

• Build margin for international work, writing, teaching, or locums

This is the backbone of the micro-business lifestyle I teach at PEA-SimpliMD.

3. Flexibility becomes the new currency.

Because he lives with a chronic health condition, traditional full-time work created strain. Independent contracting, however, created space:

• Work on your good days

• Adjust during your bad ones

• Build multiple streams of income

• Maintain insurance, licensing, and credentialing on your terms

That is the unexpected gift of micro-business: the ability to practice medicine without surrendering your personal life to it.

4. International medicine becomes possible again.

Because he is licensed outside the US and trained in another system, the ability to work globally matters to him. Independent contracting, rather than a rigid W-2 job, is the only structure that allows true cross-border mobility.

And in that moment, the realization hit him:

His professional future wasn’t shrinking— it was expanding.

What I Learned (Again)

Every coaching call teaches me something. This one reminded me:

Physicians don’t want out of medicine. They want out of someone else’s version of what their medical career is supposed to be.

When clinicians discover the micro-business path, they experience a shift that goes beyond taxes or entity structure. They rediscover agency.

This is why so many physicians—hospitalists, anesthesiologists, pediatricians, psychiatrists, surgeons—are transitioning to:

• Independent contracting

• Locums work

• Telemedicine

• International assignments

• Teaching and consulting

• Portfolio careers

Not because they’re running away from medicine… but because they’re running toward a more aligned way of practicing it.

If you want inspiration around these options, I recommend reading my free eBook “Job Options for Independent Physicians: Breaking Free from Corporate Medicine”

It captures exactly what this physician—and thousands of others—are feeling in this moment in healthcare.

The Surprising Micro-Business Insight

Here’s the moment that made the call unforgettable.

After we mapped out the practical steps, he paused and said:

“I just want a life I don’t have to recover from.”

Powerful. True. And something I think many of us feel but rarely say out loud.

That is the entrepreneurial mindset in its purest form.

Micro-business is not about building an empire. It’s about building alignment.

It’s about creating a structure that allows you to:

• Live where you want

• Work how you want

• Travel when you want

• Protect your health

• Practice medicine on your own terms

For him, that meant forming a professional corporation, transitioning to independent contracting, and designing a career that could travel with him across borders.

For you, it may mean something different. But the principle is the same:

You can build a life-first career in medicine.

And micro-business is the doorway.

If you want to explore that doorway, start with my free e-book:

👉 Design Your Career Around Your Life: The Physician’s Guide to Professional Freedom

Is This Deductible?

Buying a Vehicle for My Wife—Does It Count?

A PEA coaching client recently purchased a vehicle for his wife, who is not a physician and not an employee of his PC. Naturally, he would ask:

“Tod… is that deductible?”

Short answer: No. Personal-use vehicles purchased for a non-employee spouse do not qualify as a business expense— even if the business owner is a physician with a professional corporation.

But here's what is deductible:

• A vehicle used >50% for business

• A Section 179 SUV (over 6,000 lbs) used primarily for business

• Mileage, maintenance, and actual expenses related to legitimate business use

To learn how to navigate these rules confidently, grab my free resource:

🚙 The Independent Physician’s Guide to Tax Deductions & Business Expenses

Join the Movement: Choose Freedom Over Tradition

“Entrepreneurs aren’t people who want more—they are people who want different.”

Every week, physicians are breaking free from corporate models and rediscovering autonomy through micro-business ownership.

Ready to join them?

👉 Become a PEA Explorer Member

https://www.simplimd.com/PEAMembership

And to support you on your journey, download my free e-book:

👉 The Entrepreneur Physician’s Guide to ESCAPING Corporate Medicine