Starting a Counseling Practice Part 9: Creating a Website

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Starting a Counseling Practice Part 9: Creating a Website

Websites - got one, need one...not sure? One of the main goals of bootcampers is to get their website in tip top shape. 

I started a cash-pay private practice and 95% of my referrals in the first few years came from the Internet. I already shared how many of my colleagues told me that wouldn’t refer to me until I took insurance. And, truth be told, I hadn’t planned for private practice, and that meant I hadn’t done any previous work on developing a referral base for my private practice.

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Starting a Counseling Practice Part 8: Choosing Your Niche

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Starting a Counseling Practice Part 8: Choosing Your Niche

Niche - it should be easy right? It's one of the biggest things we conquered in bootcamp and now we want to help you deal with this too.

Niche by definition is simply a specialized but profitable corner of the market. Choosing a niche gives your private practice a trajectory. When you have a niche, you are able to do market research needed for business planning. You also are clear in your marketing messages about who you help and how. Your niche will also influence your training choices, for example, couples specialist going through Gottman training.

Niche by definition is simply a specialized but profitable corner of the market. Choosing a niche gives your private practice a trajectory. When you have a niche, you are able to do market research needed for business planning. You also are clear in your marketing messages about who you help and how. Your niche will also influence your training choices, for example, couples specialist going through Gottman training.

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Starting a Counseling Practice Part 7: Creating a GOOD Referral Base

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Starting a Counseling Practice Part 7: Creating a GOOD Referral Base

We are back from vacation and bootcamp! Did you miss us? Nope! Because you've been here working. Right?! In honor of this series, join us this week for our upcoming training - Starting a Counseling Practice from Scratch.

If you build it, they will come. I talk to therapists daily who truly believed that if they had an office space, and a website, that clients would find them. The truth is, it isn’t just about building it, people have to be able to FIND you!

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Starting a Counseling Practice Part 6: Do you need an EHR

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Starting a Counseling Practice Part 6: Do you need an EHR

We've revived this series while we are away bootcamping! Bootcamp is now over so now we are resting...but that doesn't mean we can't still help you!

Before you start researching all the different Electronic Health Record (EHR) options out there, how do you know you need an EHR and how do you choose?

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Starting a Counseling Practice Part 5: Getting Paid

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Starting a Counseling Practice Part 5: Getting Paid

While we are in the midst of bootcamp, we are continuing our series of starting a counseling practice. This series is meant to inspire but also to give you specific resources and tools to help you in your practice.

When you start your private practice, part of your business plan is to decide your procedures around payment for your services because you need money to run a business. Before you form your payment policies, first you want to know the types of payments you accept.

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Starting a Counseling Practice Part 4: Choosing an Office Space

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Starting a Counseling Practice Part 4: Choosing an Office Space

Once you have your business plan in place the question remains, where are you going to do business? This is really the first thing many of us want to rush towards first above all else. Based off of your business plan, you might have an idea of where your clients reside or work. With the researching your area, you will also learn of who else is serving through private practice. Why does this matter? This is where you get to establish what sets you apart. (More on that later when we talk about niche later in this series).

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Starting a Counseling Practice Part 3: Your Business Plan

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Starting a Counseling Practice Part 3: Your Business Plan

The four little words that strike fear into the hearts of therapists “Create a Business Plan.” We’ve already talked about how we’ve found that less than 15% of therapists in private practice report having a business plan, and how that negatively impacts them.

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Starting a Counseling Practice Part 2: Giving yourself permission to build something that works for you

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Starting a Counseling Practice Part 2: Giving yourself permission to build something that works for you

Hope you enjoyed really getting to know yourself in Starting a Counseling Practice Part 1. The truth is, getting honest with yourself is only the first step in creating and implementing a great private practice vision. You also have to give yourself permission. I know there are people out there who will give me a hard time and say this is “non-advice, advice.”

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Starting a counseling practice Part 1: Getting honest with yourself

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Starting a counseling practice Part 1: Getting honest with yourself

Launching a private practice is an exciting and terrifying proposition for most therapists. The truth is, many of us were trained in non-profit, agency environments and developing a vision of a for-profit business is foreign.

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Winging it In Private Practice? Why to Prep & Plan

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Winging it In Private Practice? Why to Prep & Plan

Many of us have visions of private practice before entering grad school- but little about our journey in school directly prepares us for private practice. So, when an opportunity or desire for private practice reemerges it can be difficult to know where to start. And, if we were being honest, sitting down to make plans might just freak us out and stop us in our tracks! 

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