The other day I was consulting on a job advertisement that a therapist I know was writing. She already has a successful practice with several therapist working for her, but their caseloads were full and she needed someone else to take some of the clients that were being turned away.
As we worked on this job advertisement, one of the benefits that we added was that any clinician brought on would not have to worry about billing, about intake calls, or about scheduling. All of those would be handled by the owner’s team.
As I’m helping her write this ad, I realized that one of the issues that may be standing in the way for those that are interested in starting a practice:
You WANT to be a therapist.
It’s all the OTHER work that sounds a lot less fun.
I want to reassure you, however, that not only should those activities not stand in your way – you may not have to do them at all.
Handing Off Other Services
I feel like, compared to many other therapists, I am fairly heavily involved in my practice. I love planning my outreach campaigns, for example, and I typically handle a lot of billing and payroll tasks on my own.
Yet even I, as a person involved, do not do it all. Nor should I. There are plenty of alternatives:
- I automate scheduling as much as possible. I have scheduling tools on my websites, for example, so that clients can schedule themselves.
- I have marketing help. I have a company I trust to grow my practice and find me new clients so that I can focus on the therapy side more.
- I have someone that helps me with bookkeeping, taxes, and other payroll items.
I also have, but do not currently use, access to very low cost HIPAA compliant phone answering services, as well as virtual assistants if needed.
Essentially, I have access to people and products that can do most of the business work for my practice for me, and – with a few exceptions – most of it is not particularly expensive.
How inexpensive? HIPAA compliant phone answering services, for example, can be as little as $40 per month, and handle 100% of all incoming phone calls AND scheduling. The scheduling tools on my website are 100% free (other than the cost of the website itself). The newsletter service I use to keep in touch with clients and calls starts at $29 per month.
I can go on and on, but the main point is this: There are people and products that can handle this for you, and for likely a lot less than you think. You actually CAN focus on therapy. You do not need to manage all the business parts of the business yourself.
Knowing the Business Without Running It
With that in mind, you should be *aware* of what it takes to run a practice before choosing what tasks to give to others. This is for your protection (so you can make sure that nothing is getting missed and you’re working with the right people) and because it helps you understand what tasks you can easily do yourself and what others can help with.
But if you’re concerned that you’ll have to spend too much time running the business itself, rest assured that most successful practices have help. You will be able to focus on your clients and the joy you get providing psychotherapy, and have other people, software, and tools help you with the business side.
Don’t let ANYTHING hold you back from starting a practice if you feel like you’re ready. Reach out to PsychFusion today and let’s launch you forward into your next, best career step.