When you build a solid financial foundation into your private practice, you set yourself up for success in the future! There are a number of ways you can begin building your foundation, such as automating financial systems, providing yourself a consistent paycheck, and familiarizing yourself with key business financial terms and practices.

Linzy Bonham is a therapist in private practice, a consultant who helps therapists feel calm and in control of their finances, and the creator of the Money Skills for Therapists course. As the daughter of an accountant, Linzy inherited a good dose of bookkeeping brain. She's half therapist, half bookkeeper! So when she went into private practice, she dug right into all the ways to build a healthy business that pays for her life and always has extra money in the bank. Now Linzy helps therapists develop peace of mind about their money. Since so many therapists were never taught about money, she focuses on the 'how' of making the financial side of private practice doable, and even super satisfying!

Episode Highlights:

• Figuring out your financial "baggage"
  • What is your money story? Do you have a habit of overspending and then feeling guilty immediately? Do you find yourself anxiously setting aside so much money that you aren't allowing yourself a comfortable income?
  • Once you determine your financial habits and the emotions that are tied to them, you can figure out what changes you would like to make and learn the skills to make those changes possible
• Separating yourself from the emotion of money
  • Therapists often feel guilty when putting a price on their services - often times, this leads to feeling a lot of fear and anxiety around your finances
  • Rather than focusing on the negative, take the time to value your skills - the work you do is very important, and you deserve to afford to eat well and take a vacation every once in a while!

Links & Resources:
Linzy Bonham
Money Nuts & Bolts
Profit First by Mike Michalowicz
GreenOak Accounting
Therapy For Your Money Podcast

Are you looking for ways to level up your private practice? Well, look no further! We're sitting down with Kasey Compton to talk about her new book, Fix This Next for Healthcare Providers. She breaks down the hierarchy of needs for private practices and provides you with an awesome workbook of activities to help you apply the concepts in the book!

Kasey Compton is on a mission to help business owners find entrepreneurial confidence. She went from bankrupt to Boss Babe when she took her first company from zero to three million in less than three years without ditching her life to do it. She owns three other businesses that have accumulated assets of over three million and growing by the day. Her superpowers include cutting through the clutter to identify a strategic starting point, increasing efficiency through systems, and tapping into a person's highest potential. She helps others by designing maps for their entrepreneurial journeys, while she stands confidently as their guide.

Episode Highlights:

• Fix This Next for Healthcare Providers Hierarchy of Needs
  • Notice the present problems in your practice
  • Understand your baseline
  • Use the PASS Method (or your own method) to brainstorm interventions
  • Write a treatment plan for your goals
  • Evaluate your progress
• Healthcare providers face unique problems in their businesses that require unique solutions
• Treat your practice like a patient
  • Separate yourself from the emotion of money
  • Make sure profitability comes FIRST

Links & Resources:
Kasey Compton
Consulting with KC
Fix This Next for Healthcare Providers Book
Fix This Next for Healthcare Providers Workbook
GreenOak Accounting
Therapy For Your Money

Today, we're tackling a polarizing topic - Dave Ramsey's Baby Steps! We're looking at how each step can be applied to your personal life, as well as your business.

Episode Highlights:

• Dave Ramsey's 7 Baby Steps:
  • Step 1: Save $1,000 for a starter emergency fund
  • Step 2: Pay off all debt using the debt snowball (with the exception of your house)
  • Step 3: Save 3-6 months of expenses in a fully funded emergency fund
  • Step 4: Invest 15% of your household income into retirement
  • Step 5: Save for your children's college fund
  • Step 6: Pay off your home early
  • Step 7: Build wealth and give
• How to apply each step to your business:
  • Step 1: Having at least $1,000 set aside in a separate account could help during a slow period, to pay an unexpected bill, etc.
  • Step 2: Start with paying off your lowest debt first (not the lowest interest rate), to pay off your credit cards or open loans
  • Step 3: Calculate how much your expenses are for a 3-6 month period to keep your business afloat - don't forget about payroll!
  • Step 4: Taking extra draws from the business and investing into your retirement will help you better prepare for your future
  • Step 5: This step can be used to offer extra benefits to your employees, such as PTO or a 401K match
  • Step 6: If you decide to purchase an office space instead of lease, focus on increasing your payments in order to reap the benefits of ownership early
  • Step 7: Watch your profits grow and give back to your community!

Links & Resources:
GreenOak Accounting
Therapy For Your Money Podcast
Dave Ramsey's 7 Baby Steps

Tracking KPIs is VITAL to the health of your business! This week, we're here to breakdown some of the most common KPIs found in private practice, give you some examples of how the numbers work, and explain how to understand them.

If you're interested in learning more about what KPIs to track in your business, click HERE to check out our blog post all about KPIs!

Episode Highlights:

• KPIs - What are they?
  • KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator
  • They help you track different facets in your business, such as finances, capacity, profitability and so much more
• There are no right or wrong numbers
  • Every business's KPIs look different based on what metrics the owner is focused on, so don't feel pressured to track the same KPIs as someone else! Focus on the goals of your business and decide what KPIs to track from there.
  • KPIs will ebb and flow with your business - not everything will be stagnant and that's okay!
• Keep your focus specific
  • In order to make effect changes in your business, focus on tracking 2-3 KPIs at a time - any more than that can get overwhelming and pull you in too many directions
  • It is important to change the KPIs you're tracking as the needs of your business changes - trying to track everything at once will lose it's overall value to your business because you will be unable to make changes effectively
• Lagging vs. Leading
  • Lagging indicators help you take a look back and evaluate what you can do differently in the future
  • Leading indicators happen in advance of something else and give you a realistic look at what you can anticipate will happen within a certain amount of time
• Common KPIs to track in private practice
  • Average fee per session
  • Average profit per session
  • Income per therapist
  • Profit per therapist
  • Cash on hand/cash reserves (in months)
  • Capacity utilization (space vs. schedule)
  • Marketing inquiries & conversion

Links & Resources
GreenOak Accounting
Therapy For Your Money Podcast
Private Practice Budgets (Solo & Group)

This week, we’re answering YOUR questions! We asked our listeners to submit questions and we are excited to sit down and work through them. Today, we will be covering topics from credit card processing and Profit First, to compensation and legal entities.
 
 If you are interested in submitting a question for a future Q&A episode, make sure to click HERE!

 LINKS & RESOURCES:
GreenOak Accounting
Therapy For Your Money Podcast
Q&A Submission Form

As your group practice grows, you might assume that automatically increases your profits, but that isn’t always the case! Adding more clinicians to your team can increase your expenses in ways you might not have thought, which may eat away at the revenue you’re bringing in. This week, we’re chatting with John Clarke about how to build your group practice while being mindful maximizing your profitability.

John Clarke is a successful private practice owner and business coach! He offers coaching sessions and courses for group practice owners that are looking to become highly profitable. John is the host of the Private Practice Workshop Podcast, and has thousands of views on his Private Practice Workshop YouTube channel.

Episode Highlights:

• Every private practice has a number of processes that should be set-up with the intention to scale
  • Types of processes: Financial, Marketing, Operations, Computer Systems, etc.
• Don't compare your practice to other practices - do what is best for YOUR business
  • Take your time to be methodical about how you set your private practice up for financial success. Meet with a financial advisor to determine a compensation structure for yourself and your clinicians that your business can healthily manage. Once you have those pieces in place, you can focus on how to manage your remaining profit.
• There are a number of expenses that incur when bringing on new clinicians
  • On top of paying your clinicians a fair compensation, you will also pay for software, advertisements, office space, upfront costs (such as headshots), training, and more. These costs can add up and quickly cause a reduction in profits.

Links & Resources:
John Clarke
Private Practice Workshop
Private Practice Workshop Podcast
Private Practice Workshop YouTube
Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey
The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman
Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim
GreenOak Accounting
Therapy For Your Money Podcast

Are you looking for a new way to market your private practice? We've got a great idea for you! Utilizing TV appearances, such as morning news shows or reality TV, can be a great benefit for your practice. There are a number of ways to get your foot in the door to get started in TV, and we're here to help!

This week, Julie sits down with Esther Boykin to discuss TV appearances and how it's helped her grow her private practice! Esther Boykin is a psychotherapist who wants to live in a world where everyone believes that Therapy Is Not A Dirty Word. As the CEO of Group Therapy Associates, a private practice in the DC metro area, she works every day to make mental health accessible, innovative, and culturally relevant for all people. In 2017, Esther launched Therapy Is Not A Dirty Word, a brand new division of GTA designed to bring mental health conversation outside the traditional office setting and into the community through media, webinars, social events, and retreats. In addition to her role as a licensed marriage & family therapist and CEO, Esther is also an adjunct professor at Virginia Tech teaching the business of therapy, author of The Date Deck, and a sought-after relationship and mental health expert. She was recently named a top 21 relationship expert to follow by Cosmopolitan magazine and has appeared on Bravo's Real Housewives of Potomac, HuffPost, Good Morning Washington, the Wall Street Journal, Refinery 29, and a myriad of other media outlets. 

Episode Highlights:

• If you want to get started, just say YES!
  • Focus on social media to make connections - Follow TV hosts and their crew (producers, content creators, marketers, etc.) and introduce yourself. Expand your network and present opportunities to collaborate.
  • If someone reaches out to you, step out of your comfort zone and say yes (even if it is something completely new to you!)
• Utilize freelance services to build up your skills
  • You can use services, such as Help A Reporter Out, to connect with professionals that are looking for experts to quote in their work. This will help you develop talking points and become more confident speaking about your profession.
• Remember, YOU are the expert
  • As you are reaching out (and people start to reach out to you), keep in mind that you are the expert in the segments you're being featured in. Confidence and energy are key.

Links & Resources:
Esther Boykin
Group Therapy Associates
Therapy Is Not A Dirty Word
The Business of Therapy
The Date Deck by Esther Boykin
The E-Myth by Michael E. Gerber
Help A Reporter Out (HARO)
GreenOak Accounting
Therapy For Your Money Podcast

When it comes to growing your private practice, there may be a lot of obstacles you'll face! Making decisions when it comes to finances isn't always easy, so we break down some of the hurdles you might have to leap over when it's time to expand.

Kelly is apart of the accounting team at GreenOak Accounting. She is a team leader and strives to provide the best service to all of our clients. Kelly specializes in Profit First implementation and ongoing support, and enjoys teaching our team members her methods so they can also assist their clients with implementing Profit First!

Episode Highlights:

• Opening a new location doesn't fix cash flow issues
  • The estimated cost/time of opening a new office is often greater than anticipated
  • You have to consider upfront costs (like building out new spaces, furniture, deposits, legal fees, etc.), as well as ongoing expenses (such as rent, utilities, administrative hiring, etc.)
  • While it will increase your profit down the road, it's best to make sure you have a decent safety net of cash in the beginning. Expanding prematurely can cause additional stress!
• When does it make sense to grow?
  • Once you've reached about 70-80% space capacity (not schedule capacity), you should start to consider expanding
  • Typically, when you are in that 70-80% range, you should be bringing in enough profit to set money aside for expansion
• Keep an eye on your KPIs
  • We recommend taking a look at your overall capacity, how many days a week your practice is open, and how many sessions you take each day per clinician to get started
• How can Profit First help?
  • The Profit First methodology includes utilizing 5 separate bank accounts, including Income, Profit, Owner's Pay, Tax, and Operating Expenses.
  • You can set up additional accounts to assist with specific goals, such as a "Future Office Savings" account. You can set a specific percentage of money aside into this account to go directly towards your expansion.

Links & Resources:
GreenOak Accounting
GreenOak Accounting Consultations
Profit First by Mike Michalowicz
Therapy For Your Money Podcast

Adding a Personal Financial Planner to your business team can help you better manage your business by guiding you in clearly defining your goals. They can also help you tie your business goals into your personal life by explaining how much profit you should be making at each stage of your business and how to use that money to live comfortably.

On this week's episode, Julie is joined by Ariel Ward! Ariel Ward, CFP® is a financial advisor at Abacus Wealth Partners. She has over a decade of experience in the field of personal financial services and in helping clients develop financial clarity. She is passionate about helping business owners grow their net worth and make better decisions with their money. Ariel helps her clients define their goals, stay focused on what's important and work toward building a more abundant financial future. She believes having a clearly defined financial plan gives her clients the ability to be more present with their families and friends and gives them the freedom to enjoy their life.

Episode Highlights:

• To get started, you want to sit down and picture how you would like your life to look. Family planning, retirement, emergency funds, vacations, and insurance are all things to take into consideration when sitting down with a financial planner.
  
  
• Accountability
  • Your financial planner will refer back to the goals you set during your consultation when assisting you with making financial decisions. They will also help you determine all of your options and how each option can help you achieve your goals. They will also periodically sit down to revisit the original goals you set to make sure they are still relevant.
• When does it make sense to make a retirement plan?
  • As soon as you can afford to! You want to begin a retirement plan once your business's net income has grown to a place that exceeds covering your basic needs and living expenses.
• Different types of retirement plans
  • SEP
  • 401K
  • Simple IRA
  • Roth IRA
  • ... and so many more!
• What should you look for in a financial planner?
  • How the person offers guidance
  • How often you would like to work with them
  • What kind of services do they offer? (Monthly, Quarterly, Annually, etc.)
  • Someone who understands different business entities and how finances work for each entity
  • Someone that will put your best interests first

Links & Resources:
Ariel Ward - Abacus Wealth Partners
The E-Myth Revisited
GreenOak Accounting
Therapy For Your Money Podcast

While insurance companies take care of the majority of  client referrals for insurance-based practices, marketing a cash-pay only private practice is a different ball game! Generating your own leads can be a challenge, and we want to give you the basics to get started.

Today, Julie is joined by Whitney Owens, a Licensed Professional Counselor and Private Practice Consultant in Savannah, Georgia. In addition to running her practice, she offers individual and group consulting through Practice of the Practice. Whitney places a special emphasis on helping clinicians start and grow faith-based practices. She hosts a podcast to help faith-based practice owners called the Faith in Practice Podcast!

Episode Highlights:

• Draw your clients in with an eye-catching website
  • Focus on your SEO (Search Engine Optimization), hire a professional to make sure your website has an eye-catching look, make sure you clearly explain that you are cash-pay only on your website (not on the home page
• SEO Conversion
  • Make sure to utilize your SEO on whichever website platform you use in order to generate organic leads
  • Online reviews help boost SEO conversion - reach out to friends, family, and neighbors to leave you positive and genuine reviews in order to build up your SEO. Then, continue to ask your clients to write reviews towards the end of their sessions.
• Referral relationships are important
  • Take time to attend functions to meet people
  • Invite potential referral partners out for coffee
  • Continue to reach out to prospective referral sources
  • Consistency is key!
• Phone Services
  • Make sure you have someone who can consistently answer the phones and turn those calls into clients
  • Ensure your staff knows how to discuss being cash-pay only - they should be knowledgeable in explaining why you are cash-pay only, superbills, and how out of network benefits work
• How much should someone spend on marketing?
  • This depends on how you are trying to grow
  • SEO and website optimization is a great investment
  • Focus more on creating genuine connections with referral sources rather than trying to run ads all over the place
• Make sure to measure your marketing
  • Track metrics to know where your leads are coming from and what areas of your marketing are most effective - intake calls, Google searches, doctors referrals, etc.
  • KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)
    • Google Analytics
    • Social Media (Facebook & Instagram offer metrics)
    • Email Tracking

Links & Resources:
Water's Edge Counseling
Practice Of The Practice - Whitney Owens
Practice Of The Practice - Group Practice Boss
Faith In Practice Podcast
Clockwork by Mike Michalowicz
GreenOak Accounting
Therapy For Your Money Podcast