In this episode, we're covering the fundamentals of running a business and what you need to know, do, & believe in order to have the thriving private practice that you've worked so hard to build.
We'll explore what it takes to run a solo private practice, the challenges that come with it, & how to simplify things over time.
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Copyright 2024 Aisha R. Shabazz
You know the story of the three little pigs.
Aisha:The one pig built their house out of straw, the other out of sticks, and the
Aisha:last one built their house out of bricks.
Aisha:Now, what does this little fairytale have to do with running a private practice?
Aisha:Well, the reason why the little pig that built their house out of bricks
Aisha:lasted beyond the huffs and pups of the big bad wolf is because their
Aisha:house was built on a solid foundation.
Aisha:Today on the podcast, we are going to be talking all about the fundamentals
Aisha:of running a business and what you need to know, do and believe in order
Aisha:to have the thriving private practice that you've worked so hard to build.
Aisha:Last time on the podcast we talked all about how you know whether or
Aisha:not you're getting closer to reaching your private practice goals and.
Aisha:Many therapists that reach out to me really have some reluctance in building
Aisha:a business because they think that there are too many moving pieces.
Aisha:And I'm here to tell you that there are a lot of moving
Aisha:pieces to running a business.
Aisha:However, if we go back to the fundamentals of what it means to
Aisha:run a business and have a thriving private practice, we can put the pieces
Aisha:together so that they make sense.
Aisha:So first things first.
Aisha:What do you need to know in order to have a thriving private practice?
Aisha:Well, the first thing that you need to know, which is probably
Aisha:not what you want to hear.
Aisha:But running a private practice, especially running a solo private
Aisha:practice, is very challenging.
Aisha:And the reason why I add that caveat of a solo private practice is
Aisha:because you at the very beginning are doing a lot of things on your own.
Aisha:You are the captain of the ship, so to speak, and so the opportunity to
Aisha:lean on somebody, Else to pick up.
Aisha:The heavy lifting of running your private practice on a day-to-day basis
Aisha:is just not there, and that's the biggest difference between being an
Aisha:entrepreneur and being an employee when you are an employee of your agency.
Aisha:Nonprofit.
Aisha:Hospital company, you had a team of people behind you, even if you didn't work with
Aisha:that team on a daily basis you had an accounting department that made sure that
Aisha:you got paid on time, you had a human resources department to make sure that you
Aisha:were given your time off appropriately.
Aisha:You were given.
Aisha:An opportunity to probably be a part of a morale committee where they
Aisha:planned special events to make sure that morale was high throughout the
Aisha:department and throughout the year.
Aisha:There are all these different departments that you probably had no idea existed
Aisha:until you interfaced with them and yet, They helped everything run smoothly in
Aisha:the organization that used to work for.
Aisha:Now that you're running your private practice, it's just you and you have
Aisha:to pick up all of the slack that you probably didn't realize existed.
Aisha:Now, the good thing is, is that it doesn't have to be challenging forever.
Aisha:There are ways that you can simplify running your private
Aisha:practice over time, but.
Aisha:Really, the only way that it gets more simple is if you're trying, so trial
Aisha:and error is one of the biggest things of running your private practice.
Aisha:If you're feeling a little reluctant to dive headfirst into new tech tools,
Aisha:into your business, or implementing new strategies, or even just
Aisha:putting into practice some policies, procedures, and expectations, I.
Aisha:Not just for you, but also for the benefit of your therapy clients.
Aisha:This could be an opportunity for you to explore, well, what do I know
Aisha:about running a business and is there something else that I could learn
Aisha:along the way to make things easier?
Aisha:That's why the Thriving Therapist Shop exists, there are different
Aisha:guidebooks available for you to learn a little bit more about what it takes
Aisha:to run a thriving private practice.
Aisha:If you haven't had an opportunity to check out some of the materials
Aisha:available there, you can click the link and the show notes below.
Aisha:The second thing that's important when you are running a thriving private
Aisha:practice is making sure that you believe that running a business is a skill.
Aisha:So just like riding a bicycle, running your private practice is a
Aisha:skill, and what that means is that you have the potential to get better
Aisha:at it the more that you practice.
Aisha:I'll tell you a little story.
Aisha:So when I was a little girl, I learned how to ride a bicycle when I was in
Aisha:first grade, and one of my mother's.
Aisha:Comrades in the military taught me how to ride a bicycle, and Paula was probably
Aisha:one of the most kind and gentle souls that I had met at that point in my life.
Aisha:And she was very patient with me.
Aisha:And from what I recall, I picked up riding a bicycle pretty quickly.
Aisha:Now, Paula explained to me the mechanics of riding a bicycle, everything that she
Aisha:thought I needed to know to be successful.
Aisha:And lo and behold, She was good at what she did because I learned
Aisha:how to ride a bike very quickly.
Aisha:Now, as I was navigating the neighborhood, as my mother outlined for me, she said, I
Aisha:have to keep my bicycle on the sidewalk.
Aisha:And I'm sure for those of you that have ever taught a child how to
Aisha:ride a bicycle, you need to put in parameters around their bicycle riding.
Aisha:I followed my mother's instructions and said, okay, I will keep
Aisha:my bicycle on the sidewalk.
Aisha:I was able to ride my bicycle up and down our block and was able
Aisha:to turn around at the curve.
Aisha:So I'm pedaling my bicycle away, and I believed at the time that my
Aisha:bicycle turned with the sidewalk.
Aisha:Yep.
Aisha:I'll say that again.
Aisha:I believed that my bicycle turned with the sidewalk, that I didn't even need to
Aisha:turn my handlebars in order to navigate around the twisting turns of the concrete.
Aisha:So one day I'm riding my bicycle as quickly as I could, moving my feet and.
Aisha:My bicycle didn't turn.
Aisha:And what happened?
Aisha:Instead of my bicycle going to the right following the sidewalk, it actually
Aisha:cored into a bush in front of me.
Aisha:And sadly, I skinned both of my knees and I was sad and I cried because it hurt.
Aisha:And I injured myself so badly that I didn't have the strength
Aisha:to pedal myself back home.
Aisha:I had to walk my bicycle back and then someone saw that I was, you know,
Aisha:sad and crying and limping home and they escorted me home and you know,
Aisha:there my mother was very sad trying to find out, well, what happened?
Aisha:How did I have an accident?
Aisha:At that point in time, I shared with my mom.
Aisha:Uh, my bicycle didn't turn, and she looks at me confused and she's
Aisha:like, she's inspecting the bicycle.
Aisha:And she's like, well, did the wheels lock up?
Aisha:You know, did you pedal backwards?
Aisha:Did you the brakes?
Aisha:Did you push the handle brakes?
Aisha:And I said, no, mom.
Aisha:My bicycle didn't turn when the road turned.
Aisha:Every time I turned, my bicycle turns.
Aisha:And she looked at me with her sweet smile and she said, sweetie, your
Aisha:bicycle doesn't turn with the road.
Aisha:Now, in that moment, I believed my mom.
Aisha:You know why?
Aisha:Because I had that accident that proved to me that my bicycle
Aisha:did not turn with the road.
Aisha:If someone would have heard me say that proclamation before I crashed, I
Aisha:don't know if I would've believed them,
Aisha:I'm telling you that story because there are some limiting beliefs
Aisha:that you might have when it comes to running your business.
Aisha:You might believe that you don't need to consistently market your
Aisha:practice in order to get clients.
Aisha:So many therapists share with me, I don't need to market my practice yet.
Aisha:And I listen and I hear it, and I ask them stories about, well, why is it that you
Aisha:don't need to market your practice yet?
Aisha:And they share with me, well, I started my private practice with
Aisha:clients from a previous employer, and I've been full ever since.
Aisha:Okay.
Aisha:That's information that they have shared, another reason why people think
Aisha:that they don't need to market their practice yet is because most of them are
Aisha:getting referrals from networking calls.
Aisha:Okay?
Aisha:Now, networking is a type of marketing.
Aisha:It's considered word of mouth marketing, but I take in that
Aisha:information and I hear them clearly.
Aisha:Other people have said to me, well, I know someone else that doesn't have a website,
Aisha:and they have clients . Okay, so when we're thinking of all of these examples,
Aisha:that is information that they have, and I know, and there are many business owners
Aisha:from across the world that know that it's only a matter of time before you
Aisha:need to diversify your marketing efforts in order to keep the business flowing.
Aisha:So the only time that some people believe me when I say you have to
Aisha:market your practice consistently and diversify your marketing efforts
Aisha:is when their caseload is drying up.
Aisha:And then that's when they realize I don't have any clients.
Aisha:That are about to come through the door.
Aisha:What am I going to do?
Aisha:I did what I used to do.
Aisha:I went on networking calls, and that's not resulting in clients.
Aisha:I don't have any other former clients because I worked with all of them and
Aisha:they've graduated from therapy or I.
Aisha:I guess I can start building a website now, but that's gonna take
Aisha:me a long time to build that website.
Aisha:So sometimes it takes us to have a belief and then have that belief challenge in
Aisha:order for us to see things differently.
Aisha:So I want to encourage you to know that you have to believe that running a
Aisha:business is a skill, and there are many skills that you will learn along the way.
Aisha:There's an exercise that I do with the coaching clients that I have,
Aisha:and I want to give you an opportunity to explore that for yourself.
Aisha:One question that I want you to ask for yourself is, what capacity
Aisha:do you have to learn a new skill?
Aisha:Do you have the time to learn the new skill?
Aisha:Do you have the energy to learn the new skill?
Aisha:Do you have the get up and go, like the effort that it takes to learn a new skill?
Aisha:Do you think that you can muster that up?
Aisha:Do you have the attention and focus to learn a new skill, and for some of us in
Aisha:order to learn a new skill, We can do it on our own, we can do a DIY solution, and
Aisha:for some of you, you might have to invest and spend some money to learn a new skill.
Aisha:Some of you will learn the hard way, and some of you will learn through the
Aisha:teachings that I share, not only on the podcast, but through my workshops and
Aisha:group coaching programs, and through the materials in the Thriving Therapist Shop.
Aisha:Regardless of how you learn these lessons, just know that.
Aisha:There's no wrong way to learn.
Aisha:There are opportunities for you to learn every step of the way, but if you do
Aisha:have an opportunity to learn a lesson, write down what you've learned, and then
Aisha:take those learnings with you into the next phase or season of your business.
Aisha:The third component of reaching towards your thriving private practice is doing,
Aisha:so you have to implement along the way.
Aisha:It's not enough to collect information and say to yourself, okay, I
Aisha:know exactly what I need to do.
Aisha:You might know exactly what you need to do, but in order to know
Aisha:if it's gonna work for you, you have to put it into practice.
Aisha:Life is not a spectator sport.
Aisha:You can't sit on the bench and wait for things to happen to you.
Aisha:You have to go in there and try, There are many people out there that think
Aisha:of this quote and they get inspired.
Aisha:I wholeheartedly believe that you have to go in there and do something in
Aisha:order to figure out if it works for you.
Aisha:If you've noticed that you've been sitting on the sidelines and soaking up all the
Aisha:information that you can, and yet you have not implemented it yet, My question
Aisha:to you is what are you waiting for
Aisha:now again, there's no right or wrong way to do it, but in order for you to
Aisha:lean more into your private practice goals and keep the private practice
Aisha:that you've worked so hard to build, it's important for you to remember
Aisha:that a private practice is a business.
Aisha:know that running a business is challenging.
Aisha:You have to believe that you are building up skills over time, and you
Aisha:have to do what it takes to put into practice the information, because
Aisha:collecting information is not enough.
Aisha:If you are someone who's listening to the podcast today and you're thinking
Aisha:to yourself, well, I don't even know where to get the information.
Aisha:You are in a great place to learn information.
Aisha:If you're a graduate student who is so excited to walk across the stage with your
Aisha:graduate degree, but you're not there yet and you wanna learn more about private
Aisha:practice, you can grab the path to private practice guide for graduate students.
Aisha:If you're a medical social worker like me.
Aisha:And you're like, you know what?
Aisha:I wanna think about running a private practice one day, but I
Aisha:don't necessarily think I need to take the leap in order to learn.
Aisha:I can actually watch and learn from somebody else.
Aisha:You can grab the Path to private practice guide for Medical social workers, and
Aisha:if you're currently a 10 99 contractor, if you're working for a group practice
Aisha:or even a community mental health agency and you're thinking to yourself, Hmm.
Aisha:I think I wanna go off on my own but I want to look before I leap.
Aisha:You can grab the Path to Private Practice guide for 10 99 contractors
Aisha:and after you explore this guide, you will have everything you need to know
Aisha:in order to figure out if private practice is something that you wanna
Aisha:do one day, or you'll have everything that you need to start your private
Aisha:practice when the time is right for you.
Aisha:I am someone who took years to really explore and figure out if
Aisha:private practice was right for me.
Aisha:And I'm so glad that I took the time that I needed because my timeline was very
Aisha:different than other people's timelines.
Aisha:I'm someone that learns from other people, from watching others, and sometimes
Aisha:I make a few mistakes along the way.
Aisha:But if it wasn't for the mentorship that I had from not only colleagues,
Aisha:but also people that I met, Through professional organizations and along the
Aisha:way through the different places that I've worked in the hospital systems,
Aisha:I would not have had the courage to take the leap into private practice.
Aisha:I put all the things in place so that I could be successful , and