When you’re starting your practice, the first step is trying to find clients to fill your caseload. At this stage, it can feel a little desperate at times. You need clients in order for your practice to *survive* let alone thrive, because a successful practice requires income of some kind to be sustainable.
We all understand that. We know that we need to fill our caseloads as much as possible.
But what happens when a caseload is full? Some therapists use this as an opportunity to stop finding clients. They turn off their adds. They stop marketing. They cut costs where they can so that they can coast on their success.
There are situation when this will work for you. But there are many other situations where not only is this a good time to keep marketing – this is the BEST time to keep marketing.
Why?
Let’s talk about the doors that open up for you if you continue to work on finding new clients even when your caseload is full, and why there’s value in continuing onward indefinitely as you try to grow and build a sustainable practice.
What Happens When a Caseload is Full?
Okay, so you have a full caseload. What value can new leads and new clients bring? Why would you want to continue investing in ways to bring on new clientele?
There are actually many, many reasons:
- You Can Charge More
We want to believe that people choose us because of the quality of our services, but one of the main reasons that we’re picked as therapists is cost. With or without insurance, everyone is looking closely at their budget.
Now, envision that you have this full caseload at the rate that you’ve chosen for your private practice, and then you get someone calling you for services. Because your caseload is already full, there is nothing stopping you from charging more for your services. If your rate is $100 per hour, you can ask for $125 per hour, or even $150. And if they accept, you now have your first higher paying client.
Many people go from insurance to cash clients using this approach. Once their insurance caseload is full, they begin only accepting clients that are willing and able to pay in cash. This may temporarily mean that they have to work a little extra in the short term (for example, a night or a weekend), but in the long term it means that when one insurance client is finished with therapy, you have already replaced them with a cash paying, higher paying client. This is how many practices become financially successful practices.
- You Can Choose Your Clientele
Similarly, I have met therapists that really prefer working with one specific population. I have worked with some, for example, that can only “take on” a few couples before they become too emotionally drained, or they prefer not to work with clients with depression because they have trauma associated with depression in their past.
I do this myself in some ways with my existing practice. I used to work with those that struggled with hearing loss. Now I frequently and almost entirely work with clients that have anxiety.
When you’re “full,” you can still consider accepting a few extra clients, but you can choose them. For example, if you want to be a therapist for women’s issues, you can set the stage to do that. If you want to be someone that works with the disabled, you can set the stage to do that. Once again, it might mean that you have to take on a few extra clients, but it’s something you can do temporarily until your case load starts to decrease again.
- You Can Create a Waitlist
If you’re not willing to take on more clients beyond your caseload, or you have already done that and you’ve actually reached your true “peak,” then you can create a waitlist. Waitlists can be immensely valuable, as they ensure that you have people waiting for you should you ever lose any clients – preventing you from ever taking significant losses as clients start to move on.
Waitlists aren’t a guarantee that you have people waiting for you. After all, these are individuals that need therapy, and they may choose to find a therapist rather than wait for you, but the existence of a waitlist can be very helpful as you’re trying to create a sustainable practice.
- You Can Afford It
Every single practice should be marketing their business in some way, through a website, social media, or other means. Every. Single. One. But there’s something really important to understand about marketing these days:
It’s expensive.
It takes time.
I have seen therapists that turned off their marketing, lost clients for one reason or another (usually due to a change in insurance or finances), and then became desperate to find new clients only for their marketing efforts to take months at great expense – all at a time when they’re financially at their worst.
In many ways, the best time to invest in marketing is when you’re successful, because it won’t cause a burden and protects you from experiencing financial distress in the future. Even if you don’t need clients, you may someday, and this ensures that you have more coming in.
- You Can Grow
Many therapists want to be solo-member businesses. But others have dreams for something more. We can make a lot of money with our own private practice. But we can make even more money if we have staff that can also provide therapy. In order to do that, you have to be able to hire someone and fill THEIR caseload. That’s something that becomes possible when your caseload is full but the phone keeps ringing.
Always Be Growing
Freedom is one of the best benefits to having your own practice. But freedom doesn’t mean getting complacent. Clients will come and go. The best, most successful practices, are the ones that always work to have more coming in and make sure that they’re making an effort to keep their caseload full, even when they’re not planning on accepting new clients.
Looking for help growing your private practice? Reach out to PsychFusion, today!