Owning a Private Practice: It's an Investment

updated 1/18/23

Owning a private practice is an investment, and like all investments, you need to figure out how well it’s performing and if it’s worth your time. Check out our tips on owning a private practice as an investment below.

Tips on Determining if Your Private Practice is an Investment

Figure Out What Your ROI Is

Marketing your practice is all about getting your message of help and healing out to the world. There are several ways to do that - word of mouth, one on ones, events, online, newsletters, etc. Once you choose to purchase an ad or have coffee with someone, how do you assess if it was worth it to you?

First Off, Is It Worth Your Time?

Before you go dropping a ton of cash on something or someone, let's talk about getting a return on your investment. First - let's talk about your time. What is it worth to you? My hourly rate is $150/hr. Totally cool except sometimes I do networking in the evening and that puts me away from my daughter. I draw the line there. If it takes me away from my normal business hours and away from family time - the hourly rate really doubled or quadrupled in my mind. But for the purposes of this exercise let's stick with the $150/hr.

What Is a Client Worth to You?

Second - let's talk about what a client is worth to you. Now, there is the esoteric value of what we do. That is another blog altogether. This is about the business side of your business. If my average client sees me for 6 months at $150/hr and I see that client weekly - my client average is $3,600. This is a lot easier if you have a program, product or package. For example, if I offered a meditation program for $500 then that is the value I go with. So - for every client I get - I will average $3,600. 

How Much Time Do You Have to Grow Your Business?

Third - ask yourself how much time do you have to grow your business. I know when I started my practice, I needed 10 clients in 6 months or I was going to have to find a job elsewhere. I gave myself a limit and set a goal. Some people have time...for various reasons - a spouse supports them, this is more of their hobby, they have a trust fund, or they have another job they don't want to leave. Others of us, don't have much time and really need to make some major shifts in income. Typically the less time you have, the bigger the investment you need to make. 

You have coffee with Mr. X who is a therapist in your area. He specializes in working with men and you specialize in working with women. That coffee was for about an hour of your time - $150 investment. Now if Mr. X just wanted clients and didn't really care about working with you to heal the world...then that was a bummer. BUT if Mr. X sent you a referral a few weeks later - you spent $150 to get $3,600. Now, I have also seen it where it is a year later and Mr. X send you a referral after you have kept in touch via email. So it took in that scenario - a year to get your return.

This goes for hiring a coach. You hire Super Coach at $250/hr and invest over the year $3,000 of your income. Whoa! That seems like a lot of money, but in the year since you have been working with them, you implemented specific practices that doubled your caseload. If you went from 10 to 20 clients...that was a $36,000 increase in income. $3,000 for $36,000. That is pretty rockin'! Bigger investment but it was a bigger gain than with Mr. X.

Are you getting the idea yet?

You Will Need to Invest in Your Private Practice

As much as we want a free way to get our business out there...there really isn't anything free. It will cost you something at some point. The thing that is totally awesome is YOU get to decide how you invest in your practice. So whether you have a website built, send out a newsletter campaign, or purchase a Google or Facebook ad it all comes down to - Are you getting a return on your investment like you need? 

This week's challenge - look at all the investments made in your practice - whether financial, time, or effort and see where you are getting the biggest returns.