You may have noticed that this latest blog post is slightly later than usual. This is because I am planning to move house and having sold in one area I am frantically trying to find somewhere to buy in another part of the country. Moving house of course is only part of the issue because it also means that I will have to move my business as well. Not just a few miles away but to an entirely different area where I currently have no customers or clients who will have seen me. Am I worried? Well no because I believe that my business model will work in any area that I relocate to. The question is can you say the same for your business?
Even though you have no intention of leaving your current location and moving cross country at this time you never know what will happen to you in the future. I know that I had no plans five years ago to leave London but circumstances change. It therefore makes common sense to consider all possibilities when you set up your business as to what would happen if you had to move premises, town or even to another country.
Moving Premises
Unless you work from home or in a very small area with limited choice of rented rooms then it is very likely that you will move premises at least once during your therapy career. I know that I have moved premises a number of times in the areas where I have worked. Mainly because I was always looking for the best premises for myself and my clients. I always recommend that wherever you set up your hypnotherapy business you look at a location where you have a choice of premises. This means that if one place closes or becomes unsuitable you always have other locations where you can move without any disruption to your income. Income stability should be a big consideration when planning your business strategy.
When you choose your business location then I would suggest that you make sure that the set up is such that either you are the only hypnotherapist at that location or you have full control of your phone number and advertising. Why? Well let us say that you decide to work at a natural health clinic in your local town or city. You rent the room space, they field your calls and there is some form of joint advertising. In other words they advertise the clinic so you may get some business that way but the onus is on you to bring in the bulk of the customers.
So you begin to optimise your website for that location, link your Google places account to the same premises and generally get calls flooding in to the receptionist at the clinic. Then they decide to hire out another one of their rooms to another hypnotherapist. Now what happens? Well firstly the receptionist no longer knows who brought in the customer. That means that the new hypnotherapist could potentially be getting business because of your hard work. Always keep control of the phone number that you have on your websites. That way you get the calls and you book the people. If the other therapists are not proactive in their advertising they will have empty slots and you will be the busy one.
Moving Location
A loss of income when you move your therapy location is almost impossible to avoid unless your earn substantial amounts of passive income. However this reduction in income can be minimal if you have a great business model.
Websites – When you understand SEO and website design it can be really easy to replicate a winning formula and simply transfer it to another area. Of course organic rankings take time no matter how great you are but in the short term using pay per click will get you customers in through your door.
Understanding what Sells – If you really understand clients problems, know what they need resolved and provide them information on how you can eradicate their issues then you have a winning formula. It does not matter where you are in the Western world as the problems are always going to be the same. People always want to lose weight, there is always anxiety and confidence is always going to be lacking in some people. Show people how you can resolve these and your bank balance will always be positive.
Online – If you haven’t caught on to the online revolution yet then it is time to dip your toe in the water. Conducting therapy online is a great growth area. It means that not matter where you are based or where your clients are. Providing you have reasonable website access you will be able to do therapy sessions. Even better create an online course which does not even require you to be involved and you can earn money whilst you are asleep.
Passive Income – Never rely totally on income from one to one clients. Try and create income streams in other areas as well. That means that there will always be some money entering into your business. Selling audios, video courses, eBooks never rely on location and can be bought by people all over the world. Oh and don’t forget to collect those emails. Google may change and alter its algorithm but if you have a large database of email addresses of people you can sell to then you will never go hungry.
So if you want a great hypnotherapy business spent some time thinking about the what ifs. Remember change is inevitable at some point so you may as well have contingency plans just in case it happens to you.