SLP Money

If you’ve ever wondered on how to create a clear brand statement for your target audience and how to identify the best marketing activities to grow your practice, then this episode is for you.

I’m joined by Hannah Boeck, the founder of Cued Creative and The Branded Site, who shares critical questions to ask yourself as you look to create, enhance or completely change your practice's marketing activities.  By working with over 200 private practices, Hannah shares tips and insights on how to identify the best tactics to increase your caseload.  

The 3 big takeaways with Hannah…

1. Niche down and don't try to be everything to everyone. Focusing on a target market will help you streamline your marketing and create a clear brand statement for your target audience. This will be reflected in your website, your pitch, social media, etc. And as you begin to purchase assessments and materials, your investments will go further as you will use these tools over and over.

2. Invest in client retention and word-of-mouth referrals. Make your clients feel like they are your one and only. Branded birthday cards, handwritten thank you notes, graduation certificates, celebrations of major milestones, etc., all leave a lasting impact on your clients that will ensure they shout your name from the rooftops.

3. Marketing is more than throwing spaghetti on the wall and seeing what sticks. Instead of spreading yourself thin trying to hit every marketing channel from Facebook to cold calling, focus on 1-2 strategies at a time. Are your clients searching for you on Instagram? If the answer is probably not, then focus elsewhere. Have several clients come from a social worker in town? Find more referral sources like that one and reach out.

For all resources and show notes, head on over to utterlyfinancial.com/20

My guest on this episode is Hallie Bulkin, the CEO and Founder of a private practice called Little Sprout Speech, LLC. Her business has been incredibly successful as it has doubled annual revenues in each of its first 6 years. As her practice continues to thrive, Hallie began to diversify her revenue by introducing an online course and a membership community.

Hallie and I discuss the following...

• How she grew her practice revenue from $0 to $100,000+ in her first 8 months of business
• Why business owners must be nimble and flexible to account for unexpected life events
• Her insatiable desire to learn about specific disorders led to her focusing on a niche
• The financial investments and capital requirements she needed to launch her online course

For all the resources mentioned on this episode, head on over to utterlyfinancial.com/16

As a reminder, you can also set up a 30 minute introductory consultation to learn a little bit more about what it means to work with our firm and how we serve SLPs and Private Practice owners all over the country.

My guest on this episode of SLP Money is Lana Fox, the CEO of Clinic Note, an EMR designed to help SLPs stay compliant and be more efficient.

While most clinicians know they should be using an EMR, Lana and I spend most of our conversation talking about the attributes that has helped make her a successful CEO. These include...

• Educating your customer on the services that you provide so they can make an informed decision on working with you and your practice. 
• Networking with local programs can accelerate you growth by introducing you to mentors, investors and partnership opportunities
• Taking micro actions and earning small wins is the key to accomplishing your big, scary long-term goals.
• Also, Lana shares an inspirational story of how she overcame the challenges her company faced when it was nearly out of money. She was able to creatively change her ideal customer profile and start focusing on a new type of client to bring in cash flow and keep the business moving forward.

The 3 big takeaways that I had from my conversation with Lana are…

1. Break down your long-term goals into smaller, more achievable micro goals. The positive momentum you build by accomplishing these goals will make the more daunting, large projects seem more attainable.
2. Identify the redundant tasks that you find taking up a large portion of your time and bandwidth. Begin to explore possibilities like hiring another employees, outsourcing to a virtual assistant or partnering with a local university to have an intern.
3. Research the local offerings in your town, county and state to see if they are offering any economic development grants or programs to entice hiring in your communities.  

For all the shownotes, references and links mentioned in today's episode, head on over to utterlyfinancial.com/15

One area of financial planning that is often overlooked by SLPs and many others is disability insurance. If you are unable to work, this coverage provides an ongoing income stream. The ability to earn a paycheck fuels your lifestyle. This is the money you need to pay your bills and the mortgage. In this episode, we discuss the following...

• Why your most valuable asset is your ability to earn an income
• The importance of having an own-occupation definition of your daily job responsibilities as an SLP in your policy
• The 4 main provisions of a disability insurance policy
• Debunking 3 myths that may have prevented you from having disability insurance
• Additional policies you may need if you own a private practice

For more information, head on over to utterlyfinancial.com/disability-insurance-slps/

My guest on this episode of SLP Money is Cameron Huddleston, the author a book titled Mom and Dad, We Need to Talk. Many parents raise their children to position money as a taboo topic that is not discussed with family or friends. Talking about money with our aging parents can be a difficult thing, but it is necessary to do in order to avoid harder situations in the future.

Cameron was inspired to write this book based on her personal experiences. Her father, an attorney by trade, passed away at the early age of 61 and left her family with no will, no trust and no other estate documents. Her mother was diagnosed with Parkinson's which thrust Cameron into becoming her mom's power of attorney and making financial decisions without knowing her true wishes.

If you are fearful of approaching your parents with this talk, Cameron will give you the confidence to have these tough conversation. We discuss the following...

• Getting over your fear of having the money talk with your parents
• Conversation starters with mom and dad to break the ice and address why having this conversation is in everyone's best interest
• Identifying the different reasons why your parents may not want to have this conversation
• A Step-By-Step approach to having a successful conversation
• Why it's in everyone's best interest to have these conversations sooner than later

For all shownotes and resources, head over to utterlyfinancial.com/13

There are many financial considerations that private practice owners must review at various points in the lifecycle of their businesses. Most decisions you make will not be set and forget it.

It is important to ask important questions of yourself and your business to spot proper planning opportunities, minimize complications that may occur, and make sure you are on the right path for your practice.

These issues can be categorized into the following categories…

·        Business Cash Flow

·        Personal Cash Flow

·        Business Formation

·        Taxes and Tax Law Changes

·        Insurance Planning

For all resources and show notes head on over to utterlyfinancial.com/12

My guest on this episode is Jena Castro-Casbon, a private practice consultant who works with SLPs just like you to realize their dream of starting and growing their very own private practice.  Jena has helped over 10,000 SLPs get started and grow their businesses to their definition of success.

We talk about the importance of mentorship and how two colleagues helped inspire her to take the leap and start her own private practice. As Jena says, it only takes 1 client to start your practice, but that 1st client is always the hardest to get. 

We then talk about the 5 P’s to get your practice off the ground, which are to picture, protect, promote, payment (get paid) and prosper.

We wrap up by talking about the common reasons why SLPs are nervous to get started. From waiting until you’re an expert with a specialization to the fear of failure we talk about strategies to overcome these mental hurdles that cause SLPs remain an employee and not an independent clinician.

My 3 big takeaways from this conversation with Jena are...

1.   Use a tool to set the vision for your practice. Jena has a Private Practice Roadmap to help you get started and see if being a private practitioner is the right career path for you.

2.   Seek mentorship from someone who is a private practitioner. Just like Jena received guidance when she got started, many SLPs like to pay it forward and help others. 

3.  There is no perfect time to get started. If you wait until the perfect opportunity, you will never get your practice off the ground.

For all the shownotes, references and links mentioned in today’s episode, head on over to utterlyfinancial.com/11