5 Steps To Transforming Your Practice Into A Thriving Business

Guest post by Edita Atteck

I believe I know who you are. You are here to be of service to others and you want to create a thriving business. You want to get client referrals, retain existing clients, and you don’t want to live from paycheck to paycheck.  You want to have a good reputation and earn client's trust.

I know first hand how starting a business is a challenge. I’ve been there and I fully respect your feelings. I left my corporate career to pursue my passion and committed to turning it into a business helping one person at a time. And I am here today to share with you six steps I believe can help guide you to building a practice that will help you and your business to thrive.

1) Crystal clear profit clarity

Just like any creation, your business starts with a foundation. Be very clear on how your business makes money. Who is your ideal client and how do you stand out from your competition? Review your current revenue model and identify gaps. What is the minimum income you need to make and what is your ideal annual income? Use these numbers to work backwards to figure out the number of hours, clients, sessions you need to have to arrive at the income you want to make. Address gaps creatively.

2) Create a website that attracts clients

Do you have a website that conveys a clear message and exceptional content to your target audience? Have you Googled your name lately? If so, what search results did you get?  Think of the words or phrases your ideal client would use in a Google search? Can s/he find you? Be visible in the digital world and that includes social media.  Just think of the hundreds of potential clients hanging out on Facebook or Twitter.  Allow your website to be a dynamic platform where clients can tap into an expanding knowledge base and valuable resources. Leveraging your online presence is essential to your success.

3) Communication and client list building

How do you communicate and build client lists? Having effective open channels of communication with your existing and prospective clients is a key to creating trusting relationships. You want to be the “go to” person when people are trying to solve their problems. Create a blog where you post valuable tips weekly or a newsletter that offers relevant content. Stay in touch with your client base. Even if some people may never book an appointment with you, they may recommend you to their family and friends because they hear from you regularly.

4) Create excellent products, services, and marketing

Brainstorm on the possibility of creating unique service offerings or value packages. It’s your job to prove to your clients that you are the solution to their problems and not the other way around.  And don’t be afraid of marketing.  I used to think that certain industries should not use marketing otherwise they may be perceived as "sleazy".  I was wrong!  Create marketing that is completely honest, ethical, and truthful and your clients will love you for that.

5) Infuse your personality into your brand

Do you incorporate your personality into your practice brand? If not, I suggest you get creative and infuse your unique personality into your brand. While many therapists can offer good therapy, nobody can replicate YOU. Step outside of the box and allow creative thinking to develop an image that is uniquely yours, draws on your strengths, and attracts the clients that you want to work with. And while you may want to be tempted to look for inspiration inside your industry, I challenge you to step outside. The biggest breakthroughs come from getting insights from professionals in other industries.

If you want to learn more about these steps, I highly recommend you enroll in Marie Forleo’s b-school program. I am a proud graduate and an affiliate.

Edita Atteck entered the world of healing, empowering, and motivating people as a result of her passion to make a difference.  Edita’s mission is to inspire her clients to overcome stress, deepen their intuition, achieve a quieter mind, heal their lives, and fall in love with their lives. The result of her passion led to founding Journey to Healing, a company dedicated to helping people live more healing, empowered, and joyful life. You can connect with Edita through her website, editaatteck.com, Facebook, or Twitter.

Plant photo (c) Canstock.com

5 Elements Of An Effective Practice Website

An effective website is key to building a thriving private practice in the digital age.

According to Pew Research, 80% of internet users look online for health information, making it the third most popular online pursuit following email and using a search engine. Additionally, 44% of internet users look online for information about doctors or other health professionals.

Since the majority of people are looking for your services online, your website is the heart of your professional web presence. All other online efforts should focus primarily on directing potential clients to your website where they will get to know who you are and how you can help them. Your website is your first impression, your "billboard", and your best chance to build trust with potential clients. I suggest these 5 C's when building your private practice website.

The 5 C's of an effective website:

1) Clean design

Overall design feel should look uncluttered and cohesive. Here's an example of a clean looking practice website from The Healing Group. When designing your site focus on the following:

• Use only 1-2 type fonts
• Select a cohesive color scheme
• Avoid DIY look
• Visually appealing to your ideal client

2) Clear Navigation

Is your site navigation user friendly? Can visitors quickly find what they are looking for? When I redesigned my practice website I selected the order of navigation buttons based on the Google Analytics statistics pages views. Then I put the navigation buttons in order according to what the site's previous visitors were looking for. Here were the top 5

• Home
• Meet Therapists
• Services
• Appointments
• About Us

3) Compelling copy

Does the text on your website pages accurately describe your practice  and your services? Does the copy engage your visitors and give them a feel for who you are? Here are a few tips to write more compelling copy:

• Speak in first person
• Answer your potential client’s pain
• Highlight the benefits of your services
• Conversational writing style is the new "professional"
• Use keywords throughout your text on website pages. Keywords are  words or phrases that describe your services that ideal clients would likely type into a search to find the services you provide.

4) Contact Information

One of the biggest mistakes therapists make is making potential clients work too hard to find contact information. Here are some suggestions to make sure that potential clients can easily contact you. Keep in mind that the primary  goal of a website is to get potential clients to become your clients. Make sure that you include your contact information and your location on every page.

5) Consistent Content

It's important to give visitors a reason to come back to your website on a regular basis. Creating valuable content makes your site a valuable resource, increases traffic, and helps build your clientele. Here are some examples of types of content that I create regularly on my private practice website:

• Blog Articles
• Videos
• Audio (mp3s, podcasts)
• Social/Visual (graphics, pictures)
• Newsletter

Take a look at your practice website. If you have incorporated these 5 elements then you're in good shape! If not, look at where you can improve. Maybe you can add "Spruce up my private practice website" to your New Year's Resolution list.

Feel free to post your practice website link in the comments below and ask for feedback from colleagues. I encourage you to give feedback to other practitioners on their practice websites.

Therapist Media Cheat Sheet: Look Good And Sound Smart On TV

TV interviews are a great way to educate about relationship and mental health topics and to raise visibility for your private practice. Over the past few years, I've actively sought out interview opportunities and have found that over time, they have bolstered my credibility, fostered trust in my knowledge and clinical skills, and raised visibility of my private practice. Thanks to social media, TV interviews can reach beyond the viewership of the live broadcast to a larger audience. One example is this short, live interview for a local Utah TV lifestyle program.  "How To Handle A Narcissistic Mother" has had over 9000 views on YouTube (and yes, I'm still working on not saying ,"um").

I reached out to other therapists to find out what they'd learned from their TV interview experience, what advice they'd give to therapists preparing for their first TV interview, and how these interviews have impacted their practice.

Here are 10 Tips to help you look and sound like an expert when TV interviews come your way.

1 - Do your homework

Find out who is interviewing you, how long the interview will be, and who watches the show so you can tailor your interview to fit the format and show yourself in your best light. Therapist Sharon Rivkin, MA, MFT and author of Breaking the Argument Cycle: How to Stop Fighting Without Therapy suggests researching the show's demographics, audience, and format so you can tailor the interview to the show's viewers. Before his local television news interview, Psychotherapist John Sovec, M.A., LMFT went online and found clips of the newscaster who'd be interviewing him to get familiar with his interview style.

2 - Develop talking points

From my own TV experience, mapping out 5-6 talking points is crucial to building my confidence, producers' confidence and interviewers appreciate the direction. Sovec adds, "The TV world moves fast and I always find that talking points help me to stay centered." Texas Psychologist Susan Fletcher, Ph.D., author of Working in the Smart Zone: Smart Strategies to be a Top Performer at Work and at Home found that "some TV anchors will stick to the talking points while others will veer off. Be prepared to go a little off topic and be flexible. You can always work your way back to the topic."

3 - Add visuals and examples

Fletcher suggests incorporating visual elements into your TV segments and shares this example: "One of the most visual segments I did was What to do on your Spring Break Staycation and I had visuals for everything you could do with your children. I've also used personal photos to show my points." According to Rivkin, giving specific examples to support your talking points makes interviews more compelling. She's learned through experience to "...be succinct, clear and direct. Give an example of a client you've worked with. Stories are more compelling and paint a clearer picture than descriptions."

4 - Prepare and practice

When preparing for a TV interview Terrence Alspaugh, LPCP, Psychotherapist of Family Solutions of Maryland wrote down and memorized talking points on index cards. "I practiced elaborating on each point with illustrations and examples. I wanted to be sure that I could say more about the points if time allowed." TV veteran Will Courtenay, PhD, LCSW, The Men's Doc always "over-prepares: for interviews and says he's always glad he did.

5 - Remember that you're the expert

If you're feeling a bit anxious about an upcoming TV interview David Simonsen M.S. LMFT of Creative Solutions Counseling suggests, "Remember that you are the expert and they are coming to you. Find comfort in the fact that you know your field and you have knowledge they don't."

6 - Speak in sound bites

A sound bite is a short phrase or a few phrases of information.  Speaking in sound bites requires therapists to use skills that aren't often practiced. Good therapists often speak slowly, reflect back, pause often, and go deeper. However, good TV interview skills require the opposite: speak quickly, don't reflect back, keep the interview moving, and stay on target. For taped TV interviews, remember to pause at the end of each thought or phrase to allow for clean editing.

7 - Wear comfortable and flattering clothing

From my own TV experience, I find it's important to wear something comfortable that reflects my professional personality and my practice. If something you're wearing feels awkward or out of place it will detract your focus from the interview. Here are a few "what to wear" tips:

• Bright solid colors generally look better than prints or white.
• Wear colors that have elicited the most compliments in the past.
• Accessorize close to your face, drawing the eye upward.
• Wear more makeup than usual, even for men. "Wearing some foundation is especially important for men, who often have oily skin -- which will look shiny on screen -- and are more likely to sweat," Courtenay suggests.

8 - Look at the interviewer

Unless instructed otherwise, look at the interviewer. If the show is filming with several cameras, it can be confusing to track which camera to look at. For the record, the camera with the red light is the one currently filming. On her first TV interview Fletcher wasn't sure if she should look at a camera or at the interviewer after the interview was over. She says, "I was advised to continue looking at the TV host."

9 - Be yourself

Rivkin suggests, "Don't be afraid to be yourself and let your personality show. If appropriate, use humor. It can make the interview more interesting." Courtenay gives the following advice for therapists preparing for TV interviews, "Think of your interviewers as friends and remember they really are interested in talking with you. Try to achieve some intimacy, as if you're talking one-on-one to a friend. Don't worry about making mistakes, everyone does; if you misstate something, just simply repeat it."

10 - Don't Expect Immediate Results

Media Psychiatrist Carole Lieberman M.D. and author of Bad Girls: Why Men Love Them & How Good Girls Can Learn Their Secrets says:

Therapists often think that this will grow their practice, but unless you offer some very specific niche therapy that the public may not be familiar with, and patients with this need happen to see your appearance, it is not the most efficient way to get patients. I do not do it to grow my practice. In fact, TV appearances interfere with practice because you often have to reschedule patients at the last minute to do a TV show.

Of her TV interview experience Melody Brooke, MA, LPC, LMFT, author of Oh Wow This Changes Everything says that they haven't made a difference in her practice. "Its given me a lot of street credibility, but other than that, my practice has not grown at all." Courtenay adds,  "Unfortunately, the impact of my TV appearances are hard to judge. However, many of my clients have told me that they've seen interviews with me before we met." Sovec says that he usually gets some calls after TV interviews but sees them as another step toward building public awareness about his work and to build his credibility as an expert.

In an upcoming post I'll share tips to maximize your TV exposure. Until then, watch and learn from these seasoned therapists' TV interviews.

Watch Dr. Will Courtenay

Watch Dr. Susan Fletcher

Dr. Carole Lieberman