44 min

Reflections From My Private Practice Journey | TPOT 199 The Practice of Therapy Podcast

    • Careers

I learned a lot of things about starting a private practice the hard way. I'm grateful to share the lessons that I learned from my journey and help you not make the same mistakes that I did. First, I speak about the importance of knowing your 'why' on starting a private practice. Once you know your 'why,' other aspects of your business will begin to fall into place. Tune in as I dive deep into lessons learned around finances, marketing, outsourcing, and systems. Plus, I direct you to all sorts of resources that will help you on your journey. Thanks for being with me!
Knowing Your 'Why' For Private Practice Why did you want to go into this profession, to begin with? Why did you want to go into clinical work, become a therapist, a social worker, psychologist, marriage and family therapist, licensed professional counselor, or whatever you are within this particular profession? Your 'why' is an important piece to keep in mind as you build your private practice. So, I invite you to think about your inspiration. When we get busy with business, we can lose sight of our inspiration, and eventually, we will feel a little burnt out. Private practice is hard work! We have experienced a lot of struggles because of Covid, so knowing your why is more important than ever.
Private Practice Isn't For Everyone One of the things that you need is a sense of wanting to feed the creative side of yourself. We can all feed our creative selves differently, but is a private practice adding to your creative side? One of the things that you need to be successful in private practice is an entrepreneurial spirit. In other words, you need to accept challenges along the way on your private practice journey. I love to learn about the business side of things; it's what inspired me to start The Practice of Therapy back in 2016. I started this podcast so I could share lessons learned around the business aspects of private practice.
Learning About The Financial Side of Private Practice One of the first things you have to learn about private practice is the money side of the business. I put together a course on teaching people about the financial side of private practice. When you go into business, you need to have some money to kind of back that up. A lot of traditional companies do it through investors. In other words, they get people to give them money for some return on that investment. When we go into private practice, we want to be self-sufficient. If you're interested in learning more about managing the financial side of your practice, check out my course Money Matters In Private Practice.
Have Money Saved Before Starting Your Private Practice So, I started in private practice, doing it part-time and working for an agency. The extra income took the pressure off of me when I built my private practice. I wouldn't recommend diving into private practice unless you have enough money to back yourself up. I spent a year saving money, so I had a reserve. That way, if something happened, I had a buffer to protect me through emergencies. You need at least three to six months of income and expenses saved away before you jump into full-time. It will take a tremendous amount of pressure off of yourself.
There Is More Than Enough Business For All of Us One thing that I've learned during the pandemic is that there is more than enough business for all of us. It's a matter of being able to put yourself out there and market your practice in a way that people can find you. That's all marketing is, is just making sure that you've got a website that is performing well and you are networking with the right people. If you are insurance-based, you need to be on the right insurance panels. I have a Facebook Live where I give all sorts of marketing ideas. You can watch the replay HERE.
Keep It Simple When I first started my practice, I made my systems and processes much more complicated than they needed to be. So one of the things I would recommend is to keep it simple an

I learned a lot of things about starting a private practice the hard way. I'm grateful to share the lessons that I learned from my journey and help you not make the same mistakes that I did. First, I speak about the importance of knowing your 'why' on starting a private practice. Once you know your 'why,' other aspects of your business will begin to fall into place. Tune in as I dive deep into lessons learned around finances, marketing, outsourcing, and systems. Plus, I direct you to all sorts of resources that will help you on your journey. Thanks for being with me!
Knowing Your 'Why' For Private Practice Why did you want to go into this profession, to begin with? Why did you want to go into clinical work, become a therapist, a social worker, psychologist, marriage and family therapist, licensed professional counselor, or whatever you are within this particular profession? Your 'why' is an important piece to keep in mind as you build your private practice. So, I invite you to think about your inspiration. When we get busy with business, we can lose sight of our inspiration, and eventually, we will feel a little burnt out. Private practice is hard work! We have experienced a lot of struggles because of Covid, so knowing your why is more important than ever.
Private Practice Isn't For Everyone One of the things that you need is a sense of wanting to feed the creative side of yourself. We can all feed our creative selves differently, but is a private practice adding to your creative side? One of the things that you need to be successful in private practice is an entrepreneurial spirit. In other words, you need to accept challenges along the way on your private practice journey. I love to learn about the business side of things; it's what inspired me to start The Practice of Therapy back in 2016. I started this podcast so I could share lessons learned around the business aspects of private practice.
Learning About The Financial Side of Private Practice One of the first things you have to learn about private practice is the money side of the business. I put together a course on teaching people about the financial side of private practice. When you go into business, you need to have some money to kind of back that up. A lot of traditional companies do it through investors. In other words, they get people to give them money for some return on that investment. When we go into private practice, we want to be self-sufficient. If you're interested in learning more about managing the financial side of your practice, check out my course Money Matters In Private Practice.
Have Money Saved Before Starting Your Private Practice So, I started in private practice, doing it part-time and working for an agency. The extra income took the pressure off of me when I built my private practice. I wouldn't recommend diving into private practice unless you have enough money to back yourself up. I spent a year saving money, so I had a reserve. That way, if something happened, I had a buffer to protect me through emergencies. You need at least three to six months of income and expenses saved away before you jump into full-time. It will take a tremendous amount of pressure off of yourself.
There Is More Than Enough Business For All of Us One thing that I've learned during the pandemic is that there is more than enough business for all of us. It's a matter of being able to put yourself out there and market your practice in a way that people can find you. That's all marketing is, is just making sure that you've got a website that is performing well and you are networking with the right people. If you are insurance-based, you need to be on the right insurance panels. I have a Facebook Live where I give all sorts of marketing ideas. You can watch the replay HERE.
Keep It Simple When I first started my practice, I made my systems and processes much more complicated than they needed to be. So one of the things I would recommend is to keep it simple an

44 min