7 Key Processes Every Private Practice Needs

Setting up processes and systems for your private practice can seem REALLY tedious, but they’re critical to running your business smoothly. And, as you might notice by looking at the length of our video, it’s essential to get these locked down so your private practice functions effectively. Read along as we share the processes and systems every private practice owner needs!

How to Run a Private Practice: Why Do You Need Systems?

It doesn't help anyone if everything it takes to run a private practice is sitting up in your brain. It's gotta be documented, thorough and systematized so you can delegate and refine what you do. Getting your systems and processes organized and refined is another way of how you show up for you business is out of respect for yourself, your clients, and your staff. Systems move the business out of the way of the clinical work, so it can flourish.

Why Are Business Processes Important to Private Practice?

Just as we therapists teach others to have boundaries in their relationship because it’s healthy, processes are the boundaries for your business. For example, imagine how nice it would be for a first-time caller to go through your intake process that you have prepared and planned. It puts them at ease as you take care of them and help them so they don’t have to stress about whether you know what you are doing.

Here are the reasons business processes are so vital to your private practice:

• Help you delegate and refine what you do.

• Allow you to be more organized.

• Provide you, your clients, and your staff with peace of mind. 

• Bring more ease into your day and the way your business functions.

There is a lot to cover when you run a business. Believe us, we cover it all in our Business School for Therapists. But we thought we would pull out our top 7 processes that every practice needs for success. Click the video to get the details of what each area means to you, your clients and your business.

Top 7 Processes/Systems for Private Practices

1. Marketing Your Practice

Let’s say you have a plan in place for how you do marketing. You’ve done the work on your vision and your message so you know where to market and reach your ideal clients. You have time set aside weekly for working on these processes. You even know what needs to be done and by whom. Everything is aligned with the core values and mission.

This is what it means to have marketing processes in place. It’s about consistently showing up for future clients, connecting with them authentically, and ensuring they are informed to make the best decision for themselves from the start. This is much better for you and your clients than random attempts at marketing, without planning, tools, or support.

2. Private Practice Intake Process

Your potential client calls, you take them through a process to ensure clinical fit, empower them to make a good decision and understand what they are committing to, making it easy for the to access mental health care in their community with a clinician who is passionate about helping them. Doesn’t that feel great? The intake process sets the framework for the therapeutic relationship and is crucial to your client outcomes. You also are providing a service to the community when you refer out and have organization about how you do this.

3. Private Practice Outcomes Process

Private practice isn’t about profit. Profit is what allows you to keep your business doors open and serve others. We want not just a profitable practice we want to have a practice that provides great outcomes to clients. This helps you know what processes to improve, gives you direction for future training and growth, and allows you to lead better if you have a team. It’s time to start measuring outcomes as part of your business plan and therapy process.

4. Financial Processes for Therapists

Payroll, budgets, cash flow, projections, fee setting, investing and growth - whew, there is a lot. Kelly covers some of the key people who can help with your processes (financial advisor, bookkeeper, accountant) but regardless of your team, you’ve got to look at the numbers and make decisions based on them. Scheduling time, planning, and using financial tools can help you and your business to grow.

5. Clinical Supervision/ Case Consultation

You need processes to ensure the development and growth of clinical skills along with improved outcomes with clients. This can be a core value of your practice, whether you are solo and seek this out on your own, or run a practice and provide this to your staff.

6. HR Processes for Private Practice

Hiring, onboarding, management, employee development - Oh my! We love this stuff because it is a way a business owner gives back to the field when they take the time to care for and invest in their staff. Having the right team starts from your vision all the way to signing on the new team member.

7. Business Planning for Therapists

You want a process for evaluation, visioning, planning, and delegating to solidify your business plan. We teach our clients about how to look at numbers, check in with their intuition, look at behaviors and understand the bigger picture so they can continue to tweak processes, make business decisions and grow personally all for the betterment of their business, the clients they serve, and themselves.

Each of these areas has a direct impact on clinical outcomes as well. They provide a win-win for you and your clients, whether you are a solo practitioner or a group practice owner. How you organize these processes can vary - there are online tools for collaboration such as asana, Trello or Slack as well as google suite apps to get you organized.

If you are just getting started, look at each area and see what processes you already have in place. Choose a method for documenting - Google file, Trello board, etc. Start thinking through other processes that you haven’t addressed before. Evaluate what is necessary, what can be eliminated, and what can be delegated.

Want more support streamlining business processes in your private practice? Learn more about our Business School for Therapists where you can find the support you deserve!