30 Little-Known Facts About Office Ergonomics That Could Help You Profit in 2026 (Part 2 of 2)

In Part 1, I shared 15 facts about the office ergonomics market that most healthcare professionals have never heard, from the staggering shortage of qualified practitioners to the reason pointing device recommendations fail more often than any other intervention.

If you haven’t read Part 1 yet, start there. It’ll give you the foundation for everything we’re covering today.

Now let’s dive into Part 2; these next 15 facts cover the money side, the clinical side, and the career side of office ergonomics. Some of them might challenge what you’ve assumed about this field. Good... That’s the point!

The Money You’re Leaving on the Table

16. Most practitioners undercharge for ergonomic assessments by 40% to 60%.

This is the fact that makes people uncomfortable, so let’s address it directly. A comprehensive ergonomic assessment requires clinical expertise, specialized knowledge, workstation analysis, and a written report with specific recommendations. That’s a professional service. Yet many practitioners charge $75–$125 for it. For context, a plumber charges $150 just for showing up. An electrician charges $200 for a diagnostic visit. Your assessment can prevent a $30,000–$60,000 workers’ comp claim. Price accordingly. $200–$500 per assessment is not aggressive. It’s appropriate.

17. Separating ‘equipment recommendations’ as a line item can boost your revenue by 30%.  (I know, this is a crazy idea)

Here’s a simple structural change if you are uncomfortable with charging higher prices for your services (and for the record, this is a brainstorming suggestion. I believe that you should just charge more, but if you just can't, try this out), Instead of bundling equipment recommendations into your assessment fee, offer them as a separate deliverable: a detailed equipment recommendation report with specific products, justifications, alternatives, and purchasing links. Many practitioners charge $50–$150 for this document alone. Clients value it because it gives procurement a clear, actionable document. You’re not adding unnecessary fees, you’re providing a premium deliverable that earns its price.

18. Companies pay 2–3x more for a practitioner who demonstrates a systematic framework.

This is the difference between “someone who does ergonomics” and “a clinical expert.” When you walk into a corporate meeting and present a five-step assessment protocol, a clinical decision matrix for equipment selection, and a structured approach to employee compliance, you’re no longer competing on price. You’re competing on methodology. Companies don’t want cheap. They want reliable, repeatable, and defensible. A framework gives them all three.

19. The average practitioner loses 3–5 clients per year because they can’t confidently answer questions about pointing devices.

This is the moment that kills referrals. The client asks, “What about my mouse? My wrist hurts when I use it.” The practitioner hesitates. They suggest a generic vertical mouse because they saw it on a blog. This can erode trust immediately. And a client who doesn’t fully trust you is a client who doesn’t refer you. Confidence with pointing devices isn’t optional. It’s a direct revenue multiplier.

20. Follow-up assessments are where the real profit lives.

The initial assessment gets you in the door. The follow-up, two to four weeks later, checking on equipment adaptation, refining recommendations, addressing new issues, cements the relationship and generates additional revenue. Follow-ups are faster, typically 20 to 30 minutes, but you can charge 60–75% of your full assessment rate because you’re providing ongoing clinical value. Most practitioners do the assessment and vanish. The ones who schedule follow-ups keep clients for years. Word to the wise - work the costs into your original contract or add it as a line item. 

The Clinical Details That Separate Amateurs From Experts

21. Carpal tunnel and tennis elbow require completely different pointing device strategies.

This seems obvious, but in practice, many practitioners treat all upper extremity conditions with the same recommendation. Carpal tunnel syndrome involves reducing wrist extension and pressure on the carpal tunnel, a vertical mouse or centrally-located device often works well. Tennis elbow involves reducing forearm pronation and gripping force, a finger-operated trackball may be a better starting point. That's why this training is going to be so useful for you. A single default recommendation for all conditions is clinical guesswork.

22. The “best ergonomic mouse” doesn’t exist.

I get this question more than any other: “Darcie, what’s the best mouse?” The answer is always the same: there is no universal best. There’s the best mouse for this person, with this condition, with this hand size, doing this type of work, for this many hours per day. A graphic designer using a mouse eight hours daily with thumb pain needs something entirely different from an accountant with wrist extension issues who mouses intermittently. The job of a skilled ergonomist isn’t to recommend products. It’s to perform reasoning and solve problems.

23. Mouse grip style directly affects which conditions develop and which devices work.

There are three primary grip styles: palm grip (full hand contact), claw grip (arched fingers), and fingertip grip (only fingertips touching). Each loads different tissue structures differently. Palm grippers tend toward wrist extension issues. Claw grippers are more susceptible to forearm and finger tension. Fingertip grippers often develop precision-related strain. Assessing grip style takes five seconds of observation, and it’s a critical diagnostic variable that almost nobody checks.

24. Most “ergonomic” mice sold online are designed for marketing, not clinical outcomes.

The consumer ergonomic mouse market is driven by aesthetics, packaging, and five-star reviews from people who don’t have clinical conditions. An actual clinical-grade pointing device might not look sleek or come in a premium box. But it’s designed around biomechanical research. Your value as a practitioner is the ability to cut through marketing noise and recommend based on evidence—not based on whatever is trending on Amazon this month.

25. Alternating between two different devices throughout the day often outperforms using one “perfect” device.

This is counterintuitive but well-supported. Using the same input device in the same position for eight hours creates repetitive strain on identical tissue structures. Alternating a vertical mouse in the morning, a centrally-located trackball in the afternoon, for instance, distributes load across different muscle groups and joint positions. It’s the same principle behind cross-training in athletics or rotating running shoes. Variety reduces cumulative tissue stress. When I share this strategy with practitioners, it’s consistently one of the biggest lightbulb moments.

Your Career, Your Credentials, and the Path Forward

26. You don’t need Board Certification to start doing profitable ergonomics work.

The BCPE credential is excellent, and if it’s your long-term goal, pursue it. But you do not need it to begin offering office ergonomic assessments. If you’re a licensed PT, OT, chiropractor, safety professional, or other health professional, your clinical foundation is more than sufficient to start. What you need is a structured framework, guided practice, and mentorship, not a two-year credentialing process before you earn your first dollar.

27. Virtual assessments opened a market that didn’t exist five years ago.

Before 2020, remote ergonomic assessments were essentially unheard of. Now they’re mainstream. Companies hire practitioners to assess remote workers via video call, and an effective assessment is absolutely possible over Zoom when you know what to observe and how to guide the client through self-measurement. This eliminates geographic constraints entirely. A practitioner in rural Florida can assess a tech worker in San Francisco. The barriers to entry have never been lower. [Fun fact: Our "How to do Remote Ergonomics Assessments course as a bonus when you enroll in the Ergonomics Blueprint].

28. Your best referral source isn’t doctors or HR. It’s satisfied clients.

After tracking referral patterns across our ergo community for years, the data is consistent: the single most effective marketing channel is the person whose problem you solved. When you fix someone’s chronic wrist pain with exactly the right pointing device and properly set expectations, that person evangelizes you to coworkers, managers, and HR. One excellent outcome can cascade into 5, 10, 15 additional assessments from the same organization. Your clinical competence, especially with the details others get wrong, is your best marketing investment.

29. Structured training pays for itself within 2–3 client engagements.

I’ll be transparent: this relates directly to our Ergonomics Blueprint program. But the math holds regardless of where you train. When a practitioner invests in structured learning, including frameworks, protocols, clinical decision matrices, business models, they don’t start from zero with their first client. They arrive with confidence, a methodology, and the ability to charge accordingly. The ROI on structured training isn’t theoretical. It’s measurable within the first month of practice.

30. 2026 is the single best year in history to launch an office ergonomics practice.

I don’t say this to be hyperbolic. The convergence of factors right now is genuinely unprecedented. Millions of remote and hybrid workers with suboptimal setups. Expanding employer liability for those workers. A dramatic shortage of qualified practitioners. Companies willing to pay premium prices for systematic, evidence-based expertise. And technology (virtual assessments, digital tools, online training platforms), that makes building and scaling a practice more accessible than ever before. If you’ve been considering this path, if you’ve been on the fence, the window is open and the conditions are as favorable as they’re ever going to get.

The One Training You Can’t Afford to Miss

Thirty facts. Two posts. And all of them point to the same conclusion: office ergonomics is a massive, underserved, highly profitable market—and the single skill that separates the practitioners who thrive from those who struggle is the ability to get the clinical details right. Especially the details everyone else gets wrong.

The MOUSE.

If you’re ready to close that gap, I’ve built a training specifically for you.

If you’ve read both of these posts all the way through, you’re not casually browsing. You’re someone who’s serious about building something real in this space. Show up on February 25th. Bring your questions. ⬇️