It’s been exactly one year – today – since my first paying client walked through my private practice office door and sat on the couch. It’s been a great year, and I’ve been doing a ton of reflecting on the past 12 months. There are things I’ve done right, many I’ve done wrong and just about everything in between.
I’ve loved writing about my experience in my “Private Practice Chronicles” series, and due to the positive feedback I’ve received, I plan to continue to write about the things I learn in the upcoming year.
For this anniversary post, I’m sharing a few thoughts on my past year, and the most important things I’ve learned:
You Can’t Network Too Much – My daughter is a competitive baton twirler, and when she complains about practice time, I always remind her that no one has ever gone to a competition and said, “I practiced too much.” But the opposite is certainly true. The same goes for business networking – you can’t do “too much” of it! My networking has been an important and crucial part of growing my practice. The coffees, lunches, tours, emails, cold calls and meetings have been invaluable for making new contacts in my industry – as well as referrals.
Trust the Process – When I graduated from my Master’s, one of my favorite professors gave me a bookmark and wrote this phrase on the back. I didn’t quite understand what she meant at the time, but now I do. Therapy is a process. Owning a business is a process. There are ups and downs, and quite honestly, some days are better than others. Mistakes are made, but you learn from them and move on. But you must trust the process, and each and every lesson it teaches.
Diversify – Besides my private practice, I also write this blog, contract with a local opioid clinic and write and handle social media for other therapists. I am also working on a few other collaborative therapy-related business ventures. Don’t pigeon-hole yourself into only seeing clients in your clinic in case there is a slow month (and there will be slow months!) Have other options – and other revenue sources.
Enjoy Yourself – opening up your own business is scary, and there are lots of unknowns. There’s no steady paycheck, paid vacation time, insurance benefits or matching 401(k). There were times in the past year when my phone was silent and my clinic was empty, and other weeks where I couldn’t keep up with the demand. Through it all, I’ve enjoyed every minute of it and am excited and energized to see where my business goes -and grows – in the upcoming years. I love what I do, and the best feeling in the world is when a client tells me how much I’ve helped them or changed their life.
I can’t imagine going back to work for someone else again after taking the plunge and venturing out on my own. It was a long and thought-out decision, and one I’m happy I made. I find it an honor and a privilege to work with my clients. I love meeting and connecting with new people in my industry. Every day I walk into my cozy office and I can’t believe I get to do what I do for a living. I’ve never been more energized or excited about my work.
Happy Anniversary to me, and hopefully, many, many more!
I am nine months-plus into owning and running my private practice. From my first night in grad school through successive various agency work, it was my goal to work for myself as a sole practitioner. I opened my official doors on August 1, 2016 and want to share with you so far what I’ve learned.
There have been successes and set backs, and pretty much everything in between. I’m going to write about all of them here. I want to teach others who are considering hanging their own shingle over a shop certain things to do, and absolutely what not to do based on my own humble (and eye-opening) experience.
There’s a huge misconception in the mental health field about opening up your own business. The misconception is this: that people will care. I mean….don’t flatter yourself. You might be great at what you do. You might be marginally good-looking and charming. But you are 100%, absolutely, completely, unequivocally wrong that anyone will care. Trust me, I was one of those people with the same misperception before I started.
No one, I repeat, no one cares about your business.
Yeah, I said it.
Why does no one care? Because. Because there are other people out there that have the exact same thing, offer the exact same service or the exact same product. They’ve done it longer than you. They know more about it than you. Even if they don’t do it better than you, no one cares about that, either.
But you care. Of course you do, otherwise you wouldn’t have taken the leap of faith and done it.
So how do you make other people care? Here are five things I did to make my private practice turn a reasonable profit in nine short months, and to make people care about (and utilize) my business:
- Find Your Niche – In San Antonio, counselors are everywhere. In my zip code alone, there are 40+ counselors within a 10-mile radius. So why choose me? Because I meet people in their homes. Because I provide “Walk & Talk” sessions, where I meet people at work, parks, trails, etc. Because I have dual licenses in Counseling and Substance Abuse. None of those other 40+ people do what I do. And that’s not an accident on my part.
- Hustle – I am a constant marketer. I tell people what I do all the time and am shameless about self-promotion. In the hours I am not seeing client, I am busy marketing. I launched this website (with help). I had marketing materials and business cards made that I hand out on the regular. I’ll write more in-depth about my marketing practices – and the hustle – in future posts.
- LinkedIn Yoself – LinkedIn has been invaluable for me in reaching out to the local mental health community (and beyond) to let people know I am available. I engage with local businesses and agencies as well as individuals about my practice.
- Meet Up – My goal this year is to have one meeting per week with an agency, individual or company that could utilize my services (and that I can refer clients to if needed). This has proved invaluable during the hours that I don’t see clients. If I have a blank day (and believe me, there are some of those), I reach out and set up a meeting or tour of a facility. I’ve had three of those “meetings” so far this week. I’m aiming for 52 meetings (minimum) in 2017.
- Social Media-ize – Build a social media presence for your counseling practice. It doesn’t take a ton of time or energy, just some effort and advance planning. You can find me on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook as @jenniferseelpc. I am on Linkedin as well (see #3). I have a blog on my website (duh, obviously, you are reading). All of these help build my presence and spread my message, as well as connect with a vast audience and potential future clients.
I care about my business. I care about it a lot. I know you care about your counseling practice, too. So start making others care about it. Good luck to you, and check back here for more Private Practice Chronicles.
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