As a certified therapist you are trained to address issues your clients face. You are proficient in your practice and have developed a unique approach that works time after time.
But let me ask you a question… and lets be honest about it because no one is judging….
Do you feel confident that you have the tools you need to run your therapy practice to maximize your earnings?
Well, isn’t it at least as important to think about the financial health of your practice as it is to think about the client’s’ issues and your approach to resolving those? A practice that is financially healthy can afford the luxury necessecity to stick to a much higher ethical standard. Such a practice will be viable over the long run and will therefore be a reliable resource for the local community to depend upon.
So, how does one maximize earnings?
The most important action you can take is to allocate and invest the time needed to generate and nourish new inquiries. Increasingly, prospective clients search on their smartphones to find therapists in their city or neighborhood who can help them. They look through the therapist’s website, credentials, areas of expertise and approach and prioritize which 1, 2 or 3 to call and use that call to determine if a meeting makes sense.
In this blog post I itemize the first meaningful steps you can take right away to ensure when clients in your neighborhood need you, they can find you and will be motivated to call you.
Before we get into that, lets start with a seemingly rhetoric question.
Is it important to maximize earnings?
Silly? …Not so fast!
Lets do an inventory of how much time/effort you put into maximizing earnings in the last few weeks or months. Mind you, earnings are different than revenue or client billings. Earnings is what’s left behind after you have paid the bills related to generating the revenues.
While, you might be billing @ rate of $100 – $150 per hr, and your billings are your rate x # of hrs biled; Earnings are what is left after you have paid for the expenses for the month like rents, phone bills, office expenses etc.
If you are not fully booked, you are not earning to your maximum potential as a solo practitioner. If you are like most therapists, you are going through cycles when you are fully booked and then times when you have lot of open slots. And when you have open slots you probably start to think about ways of generating new client bookings.
As you can probably see, that leads itself to a unending cycle of ebbs and flows. This, in turn, limits you from planning your life or allocating the time and money for the things you enjoy doing.
The key then to maximizing earnings is to ensure a steady stream of new client conversations that results in “ideal client engagements.“
So, what is the single most important thing you can do to maximize earnings?
Have conversations with prospective clients.
Once you have the system in place to generate a steady stream of new prospective clients, then and only then can you afford to replace the lower revenue producing clients with the higher income producing clients.
As a therapist, you are naturally constrainted to how much “capacity” or “inventory” you have. As a result, the only path to maximizing earnings to to have clients that yield higher billing rates per hour.
..and, what is the single most important thing you can do to have more prospective client conversations?
Lets take a look at how new clients go through their decision making cycle.
When clients feel they are in need of a therapist to talk to, they go on to the Internet, most likely on their smartphones, and conduct a search. This might include keywords like.
“San Jose Therapists”
“Marriage counselor in san Jose”
“Depressions/Anxiety therapy in San Jose” etc.
Mind you, “San Jose” could be replaced with your City or Neighborhood. Fact is they want someone local that they can talk to and they go visit the websites of the therapists in their city or neighborhood who showed up on the first page of search results.
They try and understand the profile of the therapists looking through the credentials, their unique approach, their specialisations and kind of situations they have helped other clients. Specializations or expertise highlighted on the website that resonates well with the problem they are currently looking to address.
Based on credentials and the overall connection they get from the information on the sites they visit, they prioritize the 1, 2 or 3 therapists they will call.
If your clients were to search for you right now on their smartphones, what will they see?
First thank you for reading this up until here. Now here are some things I want you to do and note down the results carefully – Again its all you and no judgments – This will be the first and meaningful step you can take right now towards maximizing your earnings and it will not take you more than 5 more minutes.
Step 1: SEARCH
Take your smartphone and conduct a search, just like your clients would, for example:
“<Marriage Counseling> in <San Jose, CA>” (enter your specialization and city name in <>)
Step 2: SEARCH RESULTS
See which practices show up on page 1, where do you show up? Will that prompt a prospective client to click through and learn more?
Step 3: YOUR SITE ON A SMART PHONE
On your smartphone, click through to your website. If you do not show up on search results, then go directly to your website on your smartphone. Is your site easily readable or do you have to “pinch-out” to be able to read.
Now, compare that experience to the site that showed up first in the search results. Will that prompt users to call you?
Now visit the site for some of our clients like www.woodrichconsultationcenter.org or www.dihcenter.com or www.o2underpressure.com
If its not clear what you should be looking at, please feel free to schedule a time with me to review this further.
Key take-aways
In summary, the key take-aways for therpaists looking to maximize earnings are:
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The most important thing you can do is to be directly engaged in conversations with prospective clients.
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To get new clients
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Have an clear un-distracting website that..
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Shows up on page 1 of Google when people search for your services in your neighborhood
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Ensure that the site is mobile friendly
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If it is not clear how this can be done, please schedule a time to speak with me or one of our consultants.
You have invested your entire life until now in developing your skills as a therapist. You have had great teachers and mentors. You have helped many clients solve their problems. Now its time to improve the financial health of your practice and to put the technology tools and services available on mobile phones to work for you.
About Evergreen Software Co.
Evergreen Software Co. is a Web Development and Internet marketing company with a proven track record of over 10 years. Evergreen enables small business owners and professional service providers like Therapists, Dentists, Attorneys, Contractors and Spa & Salons attract and retain more local customers through cost effective, high value packages for mobile website development and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) packages.
CONTACT US TODAY to get started or to learn more. (877) 932 380
