How to Turbo-Charge Your Private Practice

1. How to Turbo-Charge Your Private Practice Kathleen Brehony, Ph.D.

2. The Business of Clinical or Coaching Practice As a Clinician or Coach, you are a small business and must think like a business person especially in terms of your marketing efforts.

3. Tools of the Trade

4. The Business of Building and Growing a Clinical or Coaching Practice • Develop a Business Plan • Goals (e.g., How many clients do you want to work with? Will you specialize?, etc.) • Values • Culture • Time Frame for Accomplishment of Goals • Action Steps • Create Supportive Materials (e.g., intake forms, pricing, agreement forms, etc.) • Create Marketing Plan to realize and align business/professional objectives with behavior

5. Why every private practitioner needs a business plan APA Monitor: Volume 31, No.6, June 2000

6. Business Plan “Do’s” • Develop a vision • Conduct market research • Analyze your competition • Set financial goals • Create a marketing plan • Adapt standard business plan templates • Get feedback • Revise as you go along

7. Brainstorm! But be aware that there are significant differences between the way you may ethically market a coaching versus a clinical practice (e.g., testimonials, etc.)

8. Target Your Market • What kind of clients most interest you? • What kind of clients are you trained to work with? • What are you good at? • What do you love? • Why do you want to be a clinician or coach? • What are your professional and personal experiences?

9. Personal Branding What is your practice or coaching company name? Do you need one? Do you have/need a logo? Your service niche - Positioning How do you “package” yourself and your business?

10. Who will be your clients? • Age • Gender • Educational Level • Geographical Location • Income Level • Ethnicity • Profession/Industry • Psychological Needs • Personal Interests

11. Understand the Marketing Cycle in order to get clients in the pipeline Prospects Contacts Leads Referrals = CLIENTS

12. Manage and Keep Track of Your Prospects, Contacts, and Leads

13. Marketing – Get the Word OUT! • The “Four P’s”: Price, Product, Place, Promotion • Target Markets (Who are your ideal clients?) • How best to reach your target? • Website and Electronic Media • Direct Mail • Advertising/Publicity • Public Speaking • Writing/Publishing • Referrals and Strategic Partnerships

14. The Four “P’s” of Marketing PRODUCT PRICE PLACE PROMOTION

15. Promotion

16. Professional Marketer’s believe that capturing the prospect’s attention accounts for at least 80% of the effectiveness of a marketing campaign

17. All Marketing Efforts should focus on BENEFITS to the prospect, not on yourself

18. Attention Interest Desire Action

19. Specific Marketing Goals REQUIRE Specific Action Steps that are: • Dynamic • Doable • Something you’re good at or willing to learn • Effective and Cost-Effective • Consistent

20. How do you stand out in a sea of other coaches or clinicians?

21. CoachingThe Bottom Line • 73% of all coaches make less than $10,000 in their first year • Only 60% of all second-year coaches have managed to find 10 paying clients • Less than 11% of all coaches make more than $50,000 by their second year in practice • The average coaching fee is $160/hour yet, 53% of coaches make less than $20,000 a year • 30% of all coaches are still not able to generate 10 paying clients • Only 9% of coaches make more than $100,000 a year Source: Stephen G. Fairley and Chris E. Stout Getting Started in Personal and Executive Coaching

22. Becoming one of the 9% of Coaches who earn more than $100,000/year “Professional coaching is no different from any other small business. To be successful in coaching, you must become successful in running a small business.” Source: Stephen G. Fairley and Chris E. Stout Getting Started in Personal and Executive Coaching

23. A survey published by Psychotherapy Finances (October, 2000) found that 23 percent of clinicians are taking steps to leave their practices. The constraints of managed care - limitations on treatment plans, more paperwork, and lower fees - were commonly cited reasons.

24. …20% of Psychotherapists now include “Coaching” as part of the professional services they offer. Source: Psychotherapy Finances Newsletter, September 2000

25. 1999 Income Survey American Psychological Association Median income for doctoral level clinical psychologists working full-time (35+ hours/week) - $65,000Median decrease in income due to managed care from 1998-1999 was 15%

26. Building Your Practice Through: Advertising • Can be very expensive • Need to look at cost/value ratios (e.g., CPM) • Typically, Advertising is least effective for: Small-business owners Companies with small marketing budgets Businesses that offer services rather than products • Carefully target your market • Experts suggest you need to run ads in a series of five or six before you can see your true response rate • Understand and respect the ethical standards for your therapy disciplinewith regard to advertising

27. Most cost-effective Marketing Tool isPublicity

28. Elements of an Effective Press Release 1. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 2. Contact Information 3. Headline 4. Dateline 5. “Five W’s”: Who, What,Where, When, Why 6. Recap

29. More About Press Releases Only issue a press release for a newsworthy event or occasion Define and Identify Target Press/Media Capture attention with a vibrant, powerful headline Double-space Press Release Press Release should be no more than three pages. Ideally it will be one page. Carefully target your editors and producers Put your Press Release on your website (more on websites later)

30. Promoting Yourself in Print Flyers Letters Display AdsBrochures

31. Use Words that Sell… Did you know that the difference between the right word and the almost right word is the same as the difference between lightning and a lightning bug? Mark Twain

32. Building Your Coaching Practice Through: Columns and Articles

33. Building Your Coaching Practice Through: Publishing • Books • Magazine Articles • e-Books and Online Publishing • Self-Publishing

34. Roles in the Book Publishing Business Publisher Agent Editor Writer

35. The Literary Agent Why you need a literary agent to sell your book manuscript: The “over the transom” days are gone. Agents create a filter that screens submissions for editors. Editors Agents

36. 4 Functions of a Literary Agent • Commissioned Salesperson • Literary Legal Counsel • Editor • Intermediary Between Author and Publisher

37. But… Do you want to write? Or do you want to HAVE WRITTEN?

38. In order to author a book, you must love the creative process of writing

39. Options for publishing a book if you don’t love (or want) to write • Ghost Writer • Co-Author

40. Myth About Writing and the Creative Process A major myth about writing is that writers never make false starts or mistakes and that every word flows smoothly and perfectly onto the page. That myth is believed because we only see products not process.

41. We can all improve our writing skills if we are motivated and persevere

42. Writing is a Two-Stage Process 1. The Muse 2. The Container

43. The Muse Letting things flow Don’t worry about details Right Brain

44. We are naturally creative and this creativity pours through us when we get out of its way.

45. “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” -- Pablo Picasso Picasso is Correct Dream by Pablo Picasso

46. Our Natural Creativity Declines with Age Research by George Land and Beth Jarman reveals that we are all creative. Their data show that 98% of children (ages 3-5) score at genius level creativity. Only 32% of 8-10 year olds, 10% of 13-15 year olds, and less than 2% of 25+ year olds score similarly. From Breaking Point and Beyond. SF: Harper Business, 1993.

47. The Container The Skill and Craft of Writing Left Brain

48. Fear feeds the Inner Critic • Failure • Rejection • Ridicule • Exposure • Success • Change

49. It is dangerous to bring the Inner Editor in too early in the writing process We get stuck or we stop

50. First Stage of WritingStart with a Writing Exercise • Get in a relaxed state of mind • Ignore punctuation, spelling, syntax, pagination etc. • Write quickly • Ignore the Inner Critic