There are a number of financial hurdles you could face when transitioning from a solo to a group practice, and we're here to break them down for you! On this episode, we are joined by Alison Pidgeon to discuss the ins and outs of growing your team, handling compensation, and how to troubleshoot some problems before you even face them.

Alison Pidgeon is a licensed professional counselor and the owner of Move Forward Counseling. She is also a business consultant for Practice of the Practice, a community that helps therapists start, scale, and succeed in starting their own private practice. Alison finds passion in empowering private practice owners to achieve their dreams of being their own boss!

Episode Highlights:

• Main Challenges You May Face While Transitioning From Solo to Group
  • Adjusting to the increase in transactions being processed in your accounts
  • Understanding the logistics around compensation
  • Contractors vs. Employees
  • Full Time Vs. Part Time
  • What payroll software/system to use
  • How/When to offer benefits to team members
• The first step to transitioning is having an established accounting software (such as QuickBooks Online) to ensure your business and personal finances are separate and organized
• Make sure you have a savings account of at least 3 months of expenses in order to give yourself some wiggle room while adjusting to hiring and adding compensation to your practice
• As you grow, make sure to monitor your schedule closely in order to plan ahead when hiring - you need to consider filtering through candidates, interviewing, credentialing, and building the new hire's schedule when gauging a timeline for bringing on new clinicians
• If you are looking to transition to a group practice in order to remove yourself from the clinical side of your business, it is recommended to slowly start reducing your clinical hours over time - this can take about a year or more!
  • It is easier to do this over time as your case load will dwindle down naturally, rather than try to move your clients around to your new clinicians

Links & Resources
Alison Pidgeon
Move Forward Virtual Assistants
Practice of the Practice
Group Practice Boss
Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
GreenOak Accounting
Therapy For Your Money Podcast