I agree with you overhead kills therapists. I saw this happen to my clinical supervisor early on. I have low overhead. I use space at a youth center for free in exchange for seeing their kids at a reduced rate. My mistake is not charging enough early on. If you are not charging at least what insurance or EAP pays then you are losing money! I would say that it is good to get on panels early on. My mistake is not signing up for online billing or a company to help with that. It took longer than it should to get paid. I did stay at my job while I started private practice. This was a good idea until I started to make money
I went through the journey of starting a private practice once before and learned a lot along the way. My principle mistake was not sitting down and really thinking about what my wife and I wanted to do with our lives in the next year or two. I was about to launch, with a split one year lease and realized the timing was wrong. We wanted to buy a bigger house and start a family. Four years or so removed, we’re living in a different city and now I’m taking the steps to figure out my next private practice.
Timing is really important, and growing a business means you should plan to stay in that location for at least the next 3-5 years. Let me know how your practice is doing now!
Great tips. Having too much overhead too soon was one thing was very mindful of. I treated it as a process. I sublet one evening as an "experiment" to play around with (see what worked versus what didn't), and as I built up, added one extra evening every couple of months until I was ready to ditch the day job.
Thanks Shane--I plan to keep doing these for as long as people are tuning in! The principles I teach are definitely very applicable even to therapists in the UK. Where in the UK are you? I am hosting a small therapist meet up in London this Thursday--if you can make it, shoot me an email at john@privatepracticeworkshop.com for the details!
@@privatepracticeworkshop5045 arrrgh for some reason I've only seen this a year on. Please bear me in mind if you do any seminars again. I'm in West London at The Metanoia Institute.
I've struggled mostly with having consistent referrals, and keeping clients for more than a few sessions. I'd love to have 15-20 consistent clients, but have bounced between 7 to 12 per week for the past year. I work in a college town, so the best referral source we have is the state university that has no real counseling department and refers students to outside practitioners. I'd love to have referrals from doctors, churches, ect., but haven't been able to make them work. I also made the mistake of renting an office with a psychiatrist and her husband who, at least initially, told me to not worry about rent until I had stable income. I thought that was an awesome deal. I should have gotten it in writing, because when they said to not worry, they didn't mean I wasn't being charged and recently her husband handed me a massive bill of back rent!
Hard lessons but important ones! I think it's crucial that you set up referral streams (hint: Google) that do NOT rely entirely on other people...because the reality is, people are inconsistent, so your referrals are going to be inconsistent and can stop coming at any moment. Tough about the sublease too, but another good lesson learned! Keep your head up!
@@privatepracticeworkshop5045 Thanks! The university has been a fairly good referral source, and I signed up with a EAP company. I have a Google ad running , but haven't been impressed with the results. Do you know of anywhere I can check on market saturation for therapists? Maybe I'm just in an over-served area.
@@trmblingblustar hey there--in my opinion there is really no such thing as an over-saturated therapist market. If you live in a place with lots of people, that just means there are not only more therapists but also more potential clients. There are a LOT of reasons why most therapists fail with Google Ads :) but it can be a powerful method of getting clients consistently. You should check out our free training here: privatepracticeworkshop.com/getclients
I like the logo I made myself with a logo program but I don't have it out there yet. I wonder if you have any ideas for how I might 'market test it' other than asking friends if they like it - of course they will say yes. Thanks for the fresh outlook. Love the way you talk with your hands.
Hey Margaret! I would simply add it to your website, and test it directly with the market...study how many people go from your website onto a call with you. For instance, maybe 100 people visited your website in a week, and 7 reached out = a website conversion rate of 7%. Study this rate carefully, make only 1 change to your website at a time, and then study the conversion rate again. Hope this helps!
How do you protect your IP or approach to therapy, say like a system of process that is unique to you. Have you ever had a therapist steal a modality from another therapist and incorporate it into their own method while capitalizing on your work without any recourse. Worst still, if said therapist was a dominant player in your area and decided to vet you out b/c you were making waves in the community, which in turn, the act of plagiarizing you lessens your market-share by default. Should we trademark and copyright our materials including our method? The upfront cost would be much more then.
Great advice! I’m taking the group private practice route first with a good referral stream, possible help with insurance panels, and a 50/50 split. A few of my colleagues have successfully made that transition and feel good about it as a first step. I’d like to learn the ropes and then eventually go out on my own.
I think that's a good plan--make sure that when you leave the group practice, that you also have a solid plan to keep getting more clients, to account for the natural attrition that will happen with your starting caseload!
Can you help me understand how a private practice can increase their prices while taking insurance? Is raising/setting prices relevant only when talking about cash paying clients?
Hey Taylor, you can send a letter to request a reimbursement increase from insurance companies, but that's typically all you can do. I recommend sending these letters at least once per year. Hope this helps!
I agree with you overhead kills therapists. I saw this happen to my clinical supervisor early on. I have low overhead. I use space at a youth center for free in exchange for seeing their kids at a reduced rate. My mistake is not charging enough early on. If you are not charging at least what insurance or EAP pays then you are losing money! I would say that it is good to get on panels early on. My mistake is not signing up for online billing or a company to help with that. It took longer than it should to get paid. I did stay at my job while I started private practice. This was a good idea until I started to make money
I went through the journey of starting a private practice once before and learned a lot along the way. My principle mistake was not sitting down and really thinking about what my wife and I wanted to do with our lives in the next year or two. I was about to launch, with a split one year lease and realized the timing was wrong. We wanted to buy a bigger house and start a family. Four years or so removed, we’re living in a different city and now I’m taking the steps to figure out my next private practice.
Are you Filipino?
Timing is really important, and growing a business means you should plan to stay in that location for at least the next 3-5 years. Let me know how your practice is doing now!
Great tips. Having too much overhead too soon was one thing was very mindful of. I treated it as a process. I sublet one evening as an "experiment" to play around with (see what worked versus what didn't), and as I built up, added one extra evening every couple of months until I was ready to ditch the day job.
So important to grow WITH your business rather than too far ahead of it!
I love this and hope you keep doing these. I'm a long way of getting into Private Practice in the UK but this is allapplicable
Thanks Shane--I plan to keep doing these for as long as people are tuning in! The principles I teach are definitely very applicable even to therapists in the UK. Where in the UK are you? I am hosting a small therapist meet up in London this Thursday--if you can make it, shoot me an email at john@privatepracticeworkshop.com for the details!
@@privatepracticeworkshop5045 arrrgh for some reason I've only seen this a year on. Please bear me in mind if you do any seminars again. I'm in West London at The Metanoia Institute.
Recommendations around insurance vs cash?
loved the advices, thank you, any support when you start a business are needed. :)
Starting a business can be tough, but you don't have to do it alone!
I've struggled mostly with having consistent referrals, and keeping clients for more than a few sessions. I'd love to have 15-20 consistent clients, but have bounced between 7 to 12 per week for the past year. I work in a college town, so the best referral source we have is the state university that has no real counseling department and refers students to outside practitioners. I'd love to have referrals from doctors, churches, ect., but haven't been able to make them work. I also made the mistake of renting an office with a psychiatrist and her husband who, at least initially, told me to not worry about rent until I had stable income. I thought that was an awesome deal. I should have gotten it in writing, because when they said to not worry, they didn't mean I wasn't being charged and recently her husband handed me a massive bill of back rent!
Hard lessons but important ones! I think it's crucial that you set up referral streams (hint: Google) that do NOT rely entirely on other people...because the reality is, people are inconsistent, so your referrals are going to be inconsistent and can stop coming at any moment. Tough about the sublease too, but another good lesson learned! Keep your head up!
@@privatepracticeworkshop5045 Thanks! The university has been a fairly good referral source, and I signed up with a EAP company. I have a Google ad running , but haven't been impressed with the results. Do you know of anywhere I can check on market saturation for therapists? Maybe I'm just in an over-served area.
@@trmblingblustar hey there--in my opinion there is really no such thing as an over-saturated therapist market. If you live in a place with lots of people, that just means there are not only more therapists but also more potential clients. There are a LOT of reasons why most therapists fail with Google Ads :) but it can be a powerful method of getting clients consistently. You should check out our free training here: privatepracticeworkshop.com/getclients
@@privatepracticeworkshop5045 Thanks! I'll do that!
Great advice for us therapists!
Thanks a ton :)
I like the logo I made myself with a logo program but I don't have it out there yet. I wonder if you have any ideas for how I might 'market test it' other than asking friends if they like it - of course they will say yes. Thanks for the fresh outlook. Love the way you talk with your hands.
Hey Margaret! I would simply add it to your website, and test it directly with the market...study how many people go from your website onto a call with you. For instance, maybe 100 people visited your website in a week, and 7 reached out = a website conversion rate of 7%. Study this rate carefully, make only 1 change to your website at a time, and then study the conversion rate again. Hope this helps!
Such a great video John!
Thanks!
Thank you!! Great info! Still working on getting everything set up...got my checklist though and getting things done. 😁
Thanks, Christian! Keep up the good work!
How do you protect your IP or approach to therapy, say like a system of process that is unique to you. Have you ever had a therapist steal a modality from another therapist and incorporate it into their own method while capitalizing on your work without any recourse. Worst still, if said therapist was a dominant player in your area and decided to vet you out b/c you were making waves in the community, which in turn, the act of plagiarizing you lessens your market-share by default. Should we trademark and copyright our materials including our method? The upfront cost would be much more then.
Are you referring to Licensed Professional Counselor or some different certification?
Do you still offer coaching?
yes! you can apply here go.privatepracticeworkshop.com/individual-coaching
Great advice! I’m taking the group private practice route first with a good referral stream, possible help with insurance panels, and a 50/50 split. A few of my colleagues have successfully made that transition and feel good about it as a first step. I’d like to learn the ropes and then eventually go out on my own.
I think that's a good plan--make sure that when you leave the group practice, that you also have a solid plan to keep getting more clients, to account for the natural attrition that will happen with your starting caseload!
Can you help me understand how a private practice can increase their prices while taking insurance? Is raising/setting prices relevant only when talking about cash paying clients?
Hey Taylor, you can send a letter to request a reimbursement increase from insurance companies, but that's typically all you can do. I recommend sending these letters at least once per year. Hope this helps!
Private Practice Workshop, oh ok. Thank you for the quick reply! Are your comments on raising prices more-so aimed at those with cash paying clients?
@@taylorbaldwin467 Yes, that's right. Love the iron and wine cover btw!
Private Practice Workshop, thank you!!! And thank you for your thoughts! It’s really helpful.
🕊