Common Questions When Starting A Counseling Practice
The questions below come directly from a coaching session with clinicians. If you are ready to level up your counseling private practice, contact me to get started.
How do I decide between a cash-based practice and taking insurance?
This is a wonderful question. When building your counseling practice, you have the option to create a system that is flexible. You are able to take insurance and accept out-of-pocket payment. The key areas that you want to consider include the following:
- Identifying the key differences between the reimbursement from insurance companies and the cash-based rate.
- Evaluating the amount of additional work connected to accepting insurance compared to operating a cash-based practice.
When should I hire a counselor to join my practice?
You can hire your first counselors when your systems are in order. This answer may be a bit odd. You see, some clinicians hire counselors when their caseload is full, and they notice that they are turning clients away. Others will bring on new counselors when they want a clinical need met.
There is no perfect answer.
The reason I emphasize systems is that the most important element of a successful business is that in how strong and healthy the systems are. If you are operating your counseling business, take time to ensure that all of your systems are in order before hiring. This will decrease the likelihood of your business going downhill.
A simple step by step process that you can follow includes:
- Step 1. Start by getting your systems in order.
- Step 2. Create a system for bringing on new counselors.
If you are interested in starting or growing a group counseling practice, check out my course by CLICKING HERE
What is a superbill?
Check out the video below to learn everything you need to know about creating and using a superbill in your counseling private practice.
Should I have a business website?
The short answer is YES.
In today’s market, it is essential to have a counseling website. The reason is simple. Most people utilize online search engines to find a counselor. If you are not online, you are not necessarily going to fail in business. You are though accepting that you are operating a business with a hole that needs to be filled.
If someone is searching for you, that person needs to have information in front of them to make a decision. If someone doesn’t have information, then they will struggle to make a decision. So, make it easy for potential clients to pick you as their therapist!
How do I get started with creating multiple streams of income as a counselor?
To earn multiple streams of income, clinicians can think about anything they want that relates to their counseling practice. It’s time to be ambitious and curious about what you’re doing. For example, let’s say you are a relationship counselor. You can leverage everything you do in your practice for different products. You can make a book, journal, workbook, minicourse, or walk-through course. Each of those products will serve the people that you work with daily in a beautiful way. So, think about how you can take content from a session and put it into a course.
Personally, I love reading books. However, some people might instead want to meet the author. These differences are just like counseling. Some people might want to go to counseling, whereas some might want to read a book about what is bothering them. Once you know about the product that you want to create, then toss in content. First, think about the result of the workbook. A couple comes in, they argue, and they fight with each other. Put exercises into the workbook that will help that couple. For instance, maybe the husband will say that he’s pissed off at the wife. So think about what content he could benefit from. For example, he should think about how his words affect his partner. In the workbook, the person can work through these questions just like they would in a session.
CLICK HERE to learn more about ways to build multiple streams of income.
Should I have an email list?
As a counselor running a private practice, you can utilize an email list to serve your clients and in addition develop additional avenues of revenue.
We need an email list as counselors. In graduate school, we were not taught the business side of private practice. Instead, we focus on our patients and serving them. That’s why it’s so pivotal to utilize an email list. Your email list is a way to connect with your clients. Audience You need some sort of audience for your email list. As clinicians, the most obvious audience for your email list would be your clients.
How can you serve your audience if you update them once a month?
Here are some ideas about things you can update your clients on:
- When your office is closed.
- About new counselors who join your practice.
- Your office hours have changed.
- Your fees have changed.
- There’s new research in your field of work.
- Any books that you recommend.
- Any courses that you recommend.
- YouTube videos that you recommend.
Your purpose for having an email list can connect with goals. If your audience is your clients, maybe the purpose is happiness and contentment. Overall, you want to serve your clients. So, make sure that your email has a purpose.
For more support on starting an email list as a counselor in private practice click here
Start outsourcing:
Asking for help with starting your counseling business.
- What do you need help with when it comes to your counseling private practice?
- Do you need help with creating your first therapy product?
- Do you need help with creating better conversions for your therapy products?
- Do you need help with increasing your caseload?
Asking for help can level up your practice and help you get closer to your goals.
I use Fiverr.com and strongly recommend them when it comes to getting starting with outsourcing parts of your business. You can hire everything from someone to help you with you Search Engine Optimization to creating paid ad campaigns that you can run on Google or Facebook.
Use the link below to get started with Fiverr.com
