Setting the goals for your psychology or therapy practice in 2022. Painless goal setting.

Get clear on your vision, values and mission FIRST.

Why don’t we all have a clear vision in our business?

The secret to remaining motivated and happy running a business is congruence. If your business gives you the life you want to live and it fulfils your professionally you will not burn out. We need to be very clear on why we are in business (vision), what our values are (the person we want to be in our business) and how we are going to achieve it (mission). The problem is most of us feel vulnerable when we think about designing a business this way and that leads us to jump into goal setting to avoid those feelings.

What goes wrong when we don’t have a clear vision?

In private practice that can mean taking on any sort of work that you can get and charging whatever “seems reasonable” without really thinking about what you want from your practice. In an employed role that can look like taking any job that comes along, or staying in the same job for a long time without ever really thinking about whether it brings you true fulfilment. I have been guilty of doing both of those in the past. The most obvious example was when I set up my private practice. I had a clear vision of how I wanted to help people (trauma work) but did not consider how I wanted my life to look so I built a busy clinic with no consideration of my family life. 

Definitions of vision, values and mission

Vision - what is the change in the world you want to create? Be grand! How do you want your personal life to look? If your business is a massive success how will your life be different and how will the world change?

Values - how are you going to be in your business? What personal qualities are important to you? Values determine how you will behave in your business (and life in general). Everything from who you work with/for, who you hire etc.

May relate to key areas such as:

Health, family, work, creativity, social life, social change, a cause you care deeply about.

Examples: I want to be as fit and healthy as I can be. I want to be creative. I want to be generous and compassionate in my work. I want to be calm and kind as a parent. I want to be an innovator. 

Mission - how are you going to take action towards creating that vision. Your mission is the vehicle that takes you towards your vision and lets you live your values. 

Goals - The specific and measurable actions you take. Only when you have vision, values and mission that make sense can you even start to think about goal setting.

Notice your barriers!

Notice that barriers that make it hard for you to think about your business vision. Are there thoughts that are hard to see past? Feelings that are difficult to tolerate? I know I didn’t really think about my business vision until a year ago because I just felt like such an imposter whenever I let myself dream big that I shut it down and went and busied myself in a spreadsheet instead. It is SO worth powering through those difficult feelings in order to build a business or shape a career that fulfils you

Reach out

It can feel vulnerable to admit to a grand vision. If you are a student on Psychology Business School we will work through those barriers together in sessions and members of PBS or the Do More Than Therapy membership can bring them to peer supervision or office hours. If not then reach out to people who you trust and let them help you think your ideas through. No one lands on a perfect vision or mission statement in one shot. You need to talk it through and think about it with others before you can create something that feels solid. 

Reflect on what has happened this year

Now you know your business vision and values, take a look at everything you have done over the past year (you may need to get your physical or digital diary out to help you with this) and take some stock.

What were your three biggest wins this year? What did you do that took you towards your vision?

I usually find this really hard so often need to talk to my mentors and dig out physical evidence of successes in order to recognise them. After a bit of a process however, I actually landed on 4 when I did this for 2021!

1. 19,000 downloads of the Business of Psychology Podcast 🤯4000 psychologists and therapists have joined my mailing list 
2. I've supported over 120 of you through Psychology Business School & DMTT 
3. Revenue from this project has provided the stability I needed to grow the offers I can make to struggling parents (more on that after maternity leave!)

What were the three key learning points that you will be taking away from this year? This will probably come to the forefront of your mind a bit easier if you are anything like me. And as I am all about being transparent about the ups and downs of business I will be totally honest about mine here:

1. Increased revenue does not mean increased profit. The rise in Facebook Ads costs meant that, even though aspects of my business grew massively over the course of the year, our profits stayed stable and in one case, actually declined. This is why it is SOOOO important to track your numbers very carefully when you invest in paid advertising. Thankfully we do track carefully so we spotted this and have a plan to improve profitability for next year but it was a painful lesson!
2. My physical health is really important and I can’t do all the stuff I want to do.
3. I have to actually manage my team… Something I don’t feel equipped to do very well but is essential as the business grows. A couple of projects didn’t quite come together in the way I wanted them to this year and it was no individual person’s fault. It was generally communication errors that I could have foreseen if I had more management experience. I hope my MBA is going to help me develop my management skills over the next year but I also recognise that I need to learn from the experiences I’ve had this year and step into the role more than I have done in the past.

Rules for goal setting that is painless and helpful

I’m not going to tell you how to set a SMART goal because I know that you already know that. But here are some rules for goal setting you might not have thought about before.

1. Make at least one of your goals values-based rather than achievement-based. Pick something you want to BE more of and set an intention to make time and space for it. That way you can't fail and you will be moving towards living your values.
2. Make your achievement-based goals time-bound and genuinely realistic for the number of hours you have available. Avoid comparisonitis. Just because someone else thinks launching an online course in 90 days is a good time frame doesn't mean it is right for you. If you need a year (or longer) give yourself that time frame.
3. Be flexible. If something changes so must your goal. I keep my business plan as a working document that is open at all times and I will change things depending on what is happening in the business and my personal life. Holding on too tightly is a recipe for getting to December 31st feeling like a failure.

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Links:

Podcast Episode 44: Don’t set goals without a clear vision, values and mission! Why psychologists and therapists usually fail at goal setting and how to plan better: https://psychologybusinessschool.com/the-business-of-psychology/vision-values-and-mission-psychologists-and-therapists-goal-setting/

Psychology Business School https://psychologybusinessschool.com

DMTT Membership: https://psychologybusinessschool.com/the-do-more-than-therapy-membership/

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Just starting out in private practice?

Do you sometimes wake up at 2 am worried that you’ve made a terrible error that will bring professional ruin upon you and disgrace your family?

I’m laughing now but when I first set up in private practice I was completely terrified that I had “missed” something big when setting up insurance or data protection.

Even now, three years in, I sometimes catch myself wondering if I have really covered all the bases. 

It is hard, no impossible, to think creatively and have the impact you should be having in your practice if you aren’t confident that you have a secure business. BUT it can be overwhelming to figure out exactly what you need to prioritise before those clients start coming in.

I’ve created a free checklist (plus resources list) to take the thinking out of it. Tick off every box and you can see your clients confident in the knowledge that you have everything in place for your security and theirs. 

Download it now from https://psychologybusinessschool.com/client-checklist

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Are you looking to build an independent practice that is fulfilling, impactful and financially rewarding? Did you know that I run a business course that is designed to help you do exactly that without making all the mistakes I made along the way? Over 12 weeks we take you through everything you need to know to set up a practice that lets you live your values. Through a combination of teaching from experts, legal templates to make sure your practice is covered, peer support and group coaching sessions this is the place for anyone looking to get off the starting blocks in private practice.

The course is always accessible in pre-recorded format and three times a year we run a live cohort so what are you waiting for? Join us at:

https://psychologybusinessschool.com/the-psychology-business-school/

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Thank you for listening to this week's episode of the Business of Psychology podcast. If you share my passion for doing more than therapy, then make sure you come over and join my free Do More Than Therapy Facebook community, where you can work on getting your big ideas off the ground with like minded psychologists and therapists. I'd also love it if you could leave the show a five star review wherever you listen to your podcasts. It will help more of the people who need it to find it.