Mind Your OT Business

Moise Hermantin is owner of Affluent Profit Advisers, a bookkeeping and accounting service primarily focusing on occupational therapy and physical therapy entrepreneurs. He's on a mission to make working on business finances fun and personalized for OT and PT business owners.

Moise and I discuss:

• Why a bookkeeper is one of the first people you should put on your business team!
• Moise recommends Mike Michalowicz' book Profit First (and I DO TOO!)
• Ways to get capital to start your business
• Setting up a business bank account
• Why interviewing a bookkeeper or accountant is important
• Things to know about Quickbooks Online (Moise doesn't like the online version of quickbooks) vs. purchasing a licence for your own Quickbooks.
• Reports that you should know how to read as a business owner:
  • Revenue statement- how much your business made and where the money came from, plus fees you paid to get the money.
  • Profit/Loss statement
  • Balance sheet- shows everything you have in your company vs. how much you actually own in equity vs. how much you have in liabilities (loans, credit card debt, etc.)
  • Your BUDGET!
• Tips for managing billing insurance and getting paid a long time after services are provided
• The difference between cash vs. accrual accounting (and why you must use accrual-based rather than cash-based accounting if you are an insurance based practice.)
• The difference between "receivables" (you're "able" to receive payment; what you're DUE to get) and "payables" (you have to be able to pay these!; what you're mandated to pay in the future).
• How you can save money by giving your bookkeeper or accountant what they need on a monthly basis (rather than letting things pile up for a year and paying a premium)!
• Tips for ways to manage business receipts.

Connect with Moise on Instagram @affluentprofitadvisers or on Facebook or LinkedIn.

My action step from this episode was to ASK QUESTIONS of my bookkeeper and accountant, to stop being afraid to make them explain things to me. What was your main takeaway?

I am so excited to bring Janice McCullough on the podcast today for an on-air coaching call with me. Janice owns a practice in Alberta, Canada called Rest is Best which focuses on the niche of sleep. We discuss marketing, conducting discovery calls, finding ideal clients, making improvements, finding opportunities, and how to be brave and take charge as an OT entrepreneur. I really admire Janice for having the courage to do this coaching call on-air… because it isn't easy to share our entrepreneurial journeys with the whole world! I hope you'll learn a lot from our conversation and be inspired by her!

Janice and I discuss:

• The story of how she started her business, Rest is Best, and what it's all about.
• Identifying her ideal clients.
• Doing internal work to think like an entrepreneur.
• How taglines can work for your marketing.
• How to take charge of a discovery call to protect your time and establish your expertise with potential clients.
• Tips on making online marketing easier for your business.
• Looking for opportunities to connect with her ideal clients.
• Designing products around her niche and thinking about creative ways to deliver value to her ideal customers to make her business even more profitable.

I think Janice had some real breakthroughs on this call and I can't wait to see where she goes with her business in the coming months and years!

Connect with Janice and follow along with the growth of her business at:

Rest is Best Website

Rest is Best: Wellness Through Sleep Facebook

Wellness Through Sleep Instagram

It's been a very hard week…months…decades for black OT practitioners and people of color in our nation here in the United States. I've been personally challenged in how I can be anti-racist as a person, but also as an OT entrepreneur. I'm sharing my heart in this solo episode. I hope you will listen, especially if you are in the 86.2% of United States occupational therapy practitioners who are white. A short list, perhaps not in the order I say it on the podcast episode:

1. White people need to self-reflect deeply on our own biases, our discomfort, our defensiveness. Consider why you might be feeling these things. (Usually it is because we're uncomfortable with our privilege being checked…but we're unaware of it.)

2. Reflect deeply on teaching from black people and people of color…even when it makes you really uncomfortable. This is how we "do the work" to become more anti-racist in our work.

3. Don't ask black people to explain things to you or to teach you or to speak for their entire race. Our job as white colleagues in our profession is to do the work to educate ourselves with the TONS of books, podcasts, social media posts, and content that exists already. A list is below if you want to get started.

4. Whatever you do: DON'T BE SILENT.* Speak out against racism. It is not enough for us to claim we're not racist as individuals (which is not true no matter what because we ALL have biases). The key is to check your bias, examine your privilege, and to be actively ANTI-RACIST in our interactions in the world and in our work. And among our colleagues in our profession…as the story I share in the podcast so unfortunately illustrates. We have WORK to do. (*Shout out to @marvelousmirracles.ot and @doctorconners on Instagram. Their posts moved me to action and for that I am grateful. I can't wait to meet you both in person one day and am so glad you are part of our profession.)

Here's a short list of resources. There are MANY more, but when you read/consume these, you will find many other voices to help inform your work in becoming more anti-racist in your work in our world. I have mainly focused on female activists and authors because those are the voices I want to learn from.

On Instagram (warning white people: content WILL make you uncomfortable. That's the point. Being uncomfortable is a good thing. It helps you consider other perspectives and your own biases and privileges.)

@laylafsaad Visit her website here: http://laylafsaad.com/

@thegreatunlearn (also @rachel.cargle) Visit her website here: https://www.rachelcargle.com/

@ijeomaoluo Visit her website here: http://www.ijeomaoluo.com/

@ckyourprivilege Website: https://checkyourprivilege.co/

@nowhitesaviors Website: https://nowhitesaviors.org/

@wastefreemarie (Thought-provoking discussions within her instagram feed.)

Reading:

Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack- Peggy McIntosh

Anti-Racist book list recommended by @laylafsaad

Anti-Racist Reading list

And here's a FABULOUS Anti-Racist Resource Guide compiled by Dr. Victoria Alexander.

What else you can do in our profession:

Support the efforts of the Coalition of Occupational Therapy Advocates for Diversity (COTAD)

This is the work of all of us white OT practitioners. As OT entrepreneurs, we are leaders in our profession. We must make it our mission to become anti-racist in our profession and in our work in the world. Being anti-racist has everything to do with our OT entrepreneurship. We must stand up for justice with our black colleagues and with people of color in our nation. We've gotta do the work.

This is the MOST nervous I have ever been about publishing an episode! 😳

Laura Joyce Davis is a dear friend, a talented author, and the creator and host of Shelter in Place- a podcast about "finding daily sanity in a world that feels increasingly insane." (Great tagline, right?)

A few weeks ago, she interviewed ME for her podcast. Then she surprised me by suggesting I share it with all of YOU here on the MYOTBiz podcast. I was rather resistant to this idea but in the end, decided to lean into the discomfort and share it. You'll hear why in my super-nervous intro…

We discuss occupational therapy, entrepreneurship, parenting, and lessons learned during this time of the Coronavirus pandemic. I hope you feel encouraged after listening to our conversation.

What were your takeaways? I would love to hear! Comment below or join us in the Mind Your OT Business Facebook group to discuss your thoughts. 💚

For more thought-provoking content about finding sanity in a world that feels increasingly insane, go to laurajoycedavis.com or listen to Shelter in Place wherever you get your podcast fix

In this value-packed episode, the fabulous OT serial-entrepreneur Tomeico Faison shares how she's strategically built community mental health OT services into her business model at Therapeutic Solutions of NC in North Carolina. She also runs Faison Consulting where she helps therapy entrepreneurs create fun, profitable, and service-oriented lifestyle businesses, particularly for under-served populations. (Such important work…all of it!)

We discuss:

• What community mental health OT actually means.

• Identifying a gap in the market.

• Different ways to get paid to provide community mental health OT services

  • Contracting directly with Intermediate Care Facilities (ICFs) in your state.

  • Pricing services when submitting proposals (A GREAT STORY HERE! You gotta listen!)

  • Responding to government Requests for Proposals (RFPs).

  • Billing insurance.

• Tips for Billing Insurance

  • Know which ICD codes and CPT codes can be billed together.

  • Know your Local Coverage Determination (LCD) codes.

  • Look at the Medicare, Medicaid, or insurance companies billing codes to see what they will reimburse for.

  • Find your "Fiscal Intermediary" (FI) who manages billing and regulations for your geographical area for Medicare.

• Why you need to be looking at the numbers in your business.

• Considerations to make when conducting occupational therapy groups.

• How you CAN advocate the value of OT to insurance companies!

• Ways to ensure your business is profitable even when you serve underserved populations: multiple streams of income OR scaling your business.

• How you need to have tenacity as an entrepreneur to keep you going when things are hard.

• What are Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and why you need to consider them in your business.

• How to gather an advisory board to help keep you honest about all the numbers in your business.

• Recommended book: Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

• Why we MUST remember "It is NOT about us; it is about the people we're serving." Tomeico says: "If service is at the center, it attracts money. If you truly understand the 'why', you can get to the 'how'."

Want to hear Tomeico talk more, specifically about government contracting? (Seriously can't get enough of her. I could have talked to her forever!) She's speaking at the OT Entrepreneur Summit (May 11-20) and registration just opened ! Click HERE to check out all the details and register TODAY with early-bird pricing only through May 4, 2020! See you at the Summit! ⛰

Until next time, Mind Your OT Business!

In this episode, I have a conversation with my Outdoor Kids OT Practice Manager, Nicole Storms. Nicole is a certified OT assistant and an online business manager. She is an admin nerd who is productivity-obsessed. She is also a pediatric Occupational Therapy provider with over 15 years of experience. Nicole's goal is to make your life in business as easy as possible. We talk about the top 3 mistakes she sees that business owners make. There are so many key takeaways from this episode and I'm so excited to share this with you.

Nicole and I discuss:

• Nicole's work as a Practice Manager of Outdoor Kids OT.
• The story of how she started Your Admin Solution and where it is today.
• Top things business owners should look for when hiring for an admin role.
• Three biggest mistakes business owners make:
  • Not having SOPs.
  • Giving bad customer experience.
  • Not hiring people to fill the other holes in your business.
• Planning for your business' future.
• How success doesn't look the same for everyone.
• Takeaways from the episode

Links:

• Your Admin Solution
• Nicole Storms LinkedIn
• Email Nicole

• Business Bedrocks Group Coaching Program
• Laura Park Figueroa Instagram

The fabulous Sarah Lyon is an occupational therapist and founder of the OT Potential Club, an online membership site dedicated to helping all occupational therapists implement evidence-based practice.

Since Sarah and I recorded this episode only 2 short weeks ago, so much has changed. The COVID-19 virus pandemic resulted in the cancellation of the AOTA conference, followed by a "shelter in place" mandate in my area. At this time, we are only allowed to leave our homes for essentials (like groceries or medicine) or to recreate outdoors while practicing social distancing. There is just so much uncertainty, in our families and communities and especially in our businesses. If you are a business owner feeling uncertain and anxious - we are all in this together. Don't do it alone! Reach out and find community- it is so important during this time!

I believe this episode is the positive boost you need right now. Sarah is such an optimistic person and it's so interesting how serendipitous it is that this is the episode I had previously scheduled to release in the midst of all this. Sarah has so much optimism for our profession and for the potential of our profession to do such great things in the world. The world needs what we have to offer as occupational therapists. We will survive this and we will emerge stronger than ever!

Sarah and I discuss:

● Sarah shares how OT Potential started and how it looks today.

● Starting her blog and monetizing it.

● The resources that are available in the OT Potential Club.

● Surprises she has found out in her research.

● How OTs will be more valued in the future.

● Sarah shares the critical things she did to replace her clinical income with her website in a span of 5 years.

● Why affiliate marketing is not passive income.

● Why it's important to use evidence-based practice.

○ Recommended Video: OT Potential Club

● Why being a business owner is not for everyone

● The importance of being members of our state and national (AOTA) professional organizations.

● The biggest failure she has had in her business and her advice about working with contractors.

● Things that are going well in her business and what she recommends for others to have the same success.

Connect with Sarah and all her resources at:

● OT Potential Website

● OT Potential Club

● OT Potential Podcast

Want to discuss this episode? Join us on the new Mind Your OT Business Group on Facebook for discussion on topics from this episode! Let's support one another through these unprecedented times.

In this solo episode, I share some BIG announcements + 10 surefire ways to get new clients…and you'll get 2 more here in the show notes. :)

First for the announcements!

• We now have a FREE Facebook group now for Mind Your OT Business listeners to interact and discuss content from episodes! I would love to meet you there and welcome you to this community. JOIN HERE!

• The OT Entrepreneur Summit is coming May 11-20! Trish Williams and I have curated a highly-qualified list of speakers who have agreed to take you "behind the scenes" of their success as OT entrepreneurs! Interviews will be sent via email to attendees (so you can watch on your own schedule) and we will have a FB group open till the end of May for us to discuss topics.

• Finally, I just opened registration for the 2020 dates for Therapy in the Great Outdoors- A Training Retreat for Pediatric Practitioners. Early bird rates till April 1!

1. Make a list of everyone you know and send a personal email letting them know about your services. Make sure to make it EASY for them to send referrals your way by including relevant content in the email to allow them to simply forward to a friend.

2. Give a discount or other incentive to get people to sign up for new services by a specific deadline, and advertise this heavily in social media and in paper flyers/postcards locally.

3. Do a brainstorm about where your ideal clients hang out locally and then leave postcards in all of those locations.

4. Offer 15-minute inquiry calls or consultation calls to interested clients (then OVER-deliver and spend 30 minutes talking to them). During the call, simply aim to HELP in some way...not necessarily get them to pay you for services...but really it will be people who are a bit interested. This builds "know, like and trust" value with people in your community. Even if the person doesn't become your client, they have had a good experience with you being helpful...which means they may mention it to others in your community.

5. Offer free or low-cost one-time sessions for interested people, and then have a specific offer for them if they sign up by a certain date for an assessment or services.

6. Share relevant and helpful content (NOT just info about your services) on social media. Aim to HELP people...NOT sell your services. Every now and then, have a special offer for people who take advantage of the offer by a specific deadline.

7. Do research on Facebook and other social media about where your ideal clients hang out online, and offer meaningful and relevant comments in these forums. (Again, aim to be helpful, not sell your services. You are building your expertise in these communities, and by helping, you will get people to know, like & trust you as a provider.)

8. Face-to-face networking and personal connections are the BEST way to find new clients….this also takes the most time. Put yourself out there! Offer free in-services for people in your target market, or attend networking events that are NOT just for therapists.

9. Ask your current or past clients to refer their friends, or leave online reviews of your business. Send a very specific email asking them to send new referrals your way. Make sure to make THEM the HERO! Emphasize how they will be helping others by leaving a review, as it will help people find the services they need. Provide links directly in the email so they can easily click and write a quick review.

10. Build an email list! Most of the people who visit your website are NOT going to purchase services right at that second! You MUST have a way to capture their email to stay in touch with them because they are potential future clients! Make a short list of valuable tips or advice for your clients' problems and give it away for free to people who sign up for your email list. (Do some research on how to make a great "lead magnet" online. Also make sure to be GDPR compliant with your emails...I'll let you research that piece online.)

11. After you have an email list, start a drip email marketing campaign to help potential clients and stay top-of-mind in your clients' and interested parties' minds. This is NOT to just bombard your audience with a request to purchase your services; it IS a series of helpful emails you send to your list on a regular basis to give them FREE helpful tips or advice to serve and care for them and their needs. Mine are set up once-a-month and I simply add an email every 30 days. When someone joins the email list, they get the first email, then the 2nd 30 days later, and so on. I have about 6 in the "bank" now that auto-send to new subscribers… this automatically allows my business to provide value to people every month for 6 months after they subscribe. (I'm aiming to get at least 2 years of emails in the bank...adding one a month right now.)

12. Learn copywriting. Honestly, this is my one best tip for therapy practice owners. Most therapy websites are SO BAD at communicating our value to clients. Learning basic copywriting will COMPLETELY change how you write your marketing materials. My favorite resources online are Neville Medhora's Kopywriting Kourse and (Sign up for Neville's emails. They are HILARIOUS and you'll love reading them every month, all while learning how to write your own advertising / marketing / website content in an engaging way that your clients will resonate with and understand!) Building a Storybrand by Donald Miller is the BEST book resource I have found related to this topic. A must-read for all business owners.

This episode is unlike any of my past episodes because it's the first time I've done an on-air coaching call! Abilgail Wool-Biringer is the owner of Kids Empowered for Life. She had some questions on focusing, growing, and scaling her business. This is a behind-the-scenes glimpse into what business coaching looks like. I love Abigail's vulnerability to talk publicly about her business and the way she is already thinking like a boss! I hope this episode shows how working with a business coach can not only be a fun conversation, but can help you gain clarity, solve problems, and forge a path forward to grow your business on your own terms!

Abigail and I discuss:

• Abigail's work and business background.
• Identifying the top 3 issues that Abigail has in her business.
• The good things Abigail is doing on her website: parent Facebook group and email marketing to capture and nurture her potential clients.
• Why no one can help everyone! (Remember: "The riches are in the niches." Focus on your specializations- start small and grow from there.)
• How to make your website effectively speak to your potential clients: make it clear how you can solve their problems!
• • Podcast Recommendation: Building a Storybrand with Donald Miller
• How to take control of inquiry calls from the beginning by using a clear system (This is also discussed in previous MYOTBiz episodes here:)
• • Podcast Episode Recommendation: How to Create the Ultimate Customer Experience with Rafael Salazar
  • Podcast Episode Recommendation: Building Multiple Streams of Income with Kelly Beins
• Systems and structures to put in place to ensure your business has a strong foundation to scale and grow.
• Abigail's main takeaways from our coaching session and changes she plans to make.

Connect with Abigail at:

• Kids Empowered 4 Life
• Abigail's free Facebook group for parents: Facebook Group for ADHD Parent Support

It was such an honor to interview Melissa LaPointe on this episode! Melissa is an occupational therapist-turned-consultant who is an expert in online business and entrepreneurial leadership. After running a brick-and-mortar practice, she transitioned to full-time online business ownership and is now location independent. She helps occupational therapists market and sell their digital products and coaching programs with confidence. There is SO much in this conversation for all entrepreneurs- even if your business in not online! Truly, the main theme throughout was how to think and act and BE an intentional and wise CEO of your own business. You will learn so much from Melissa's thoughtful and intentional approach to entrepreneurship in this episode!

Melissa and I discuss:

• How she transitioned from brick-and-mortar practice owner to online business owner

• Systems she uses to organize her online work and her team

  • Recommended book: Traction- Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman

• How we can develop online course modules using a brain-based approach to learning

• Why occupational therapy school sets us up to FAIL as business owners. (This starts at 28:30!)

• Why we need to explore our mindset around time and money to be healthy entrepreneurs

• Being a CEO…what does it mean? How to think like and embody the actions of good leadership as a CEO of your company. (36:27)

• What Melissa's experience has been getting business coaching for herself to build her business.

• Why business coaching does NOT mean you're admitting "weakness" or failure. (It actually means the opposite…that you're thinking like an entrepreneur and wanting to thoughtfully grow your business.)

• Podcast recommendation: Screw the Nine to Five

• How to SELL your service or product and feel great about it!

• Minimalism and organization as a business owner.

• How to attract your ideal clients.

Connect with Melissa and all her resources at:

www.melissalapointe.com

Free Facebook group: The Virtual Therapist - OTs + Online Revenue Streams

Remember: small steps make great gains over time. So until next time, Mind Your OT Business! ♥️