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Insulating Your Therapy Business From Coronavirus Disruption

Posted on March 1, 2020November 25, 2020 by Martina McKeough

Therapy business coronavirus When it comes to running a therapy practice you never know what is around the corner and this is certainly the case when it comes to the latest news about Coronavirus. If you haven’t realised it yet this virus is likely to create some short term disruption for your therapy business so I thought I would give some pointers as to what you could do to insulate yourself and your income from its impact. In addition I thought I would discuss some things that you probably haven’t thought about so that you are ready for what may be to come. This post is not designed to make you panic but it has been written to make sure that you are prepared. Every other business in the UK is currently planning for what is to come so you need to as well.

In the UK as I am writing this there are now 35 cases but this is growing day by day. It is only a matter of time before measures are put in place by the government to try and contain the spread. Here is what could happen over the next few weeks and months.

Non-essential work travel is likely to be stopped
Employees may be asked to work from home
Some work will stop completely as people park new ventures until this blows over
People will be more reluctant to visit busy areas
Major tourist attractions are likely to shut (The Louvre has just closed as I am writing this)
More people are likely to be self quarantining
Schools are likely to close and children sent home

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Coronavirus Is Likely to Hit Your Profits

These are potential problems that I think you may see as a self-employed therapist.

Childcare

If you have children and they are sent home from school you may have problems running your business and looking after the kids. Start to think about what you could do to make sure that you can carry on working (if possible). Look at sharing childcare with friends and family or if you have a partner in a different industry splitting the hours you work so you can both carry on making a living.

Therapy Centres

As people begin to avoid non-essential travel there are likely to be issues with those of you that work in big therapy centres especially in large towns and cities. Are you tied in to paying for a room that you might not be using? Are you temporarily able to stop using that room and setting up at home instead? Home setups are not always so professional looking (depending on your circumstances) but they cost nothing and don’t have the foot fall of a busy therapy centre which might put some people off. Have some plans in place in case you need to juggle things around. In China only 30% of small businesses were able to stay open during this outbreak how can you ensure that you are one of them.

Online Therapy

This is the absolute perfect time to talk about online therapy sessions. Nobody has to leave their house to conduct the sessions which means it is highly suitable for what is to come. If your therapy business isn’t geared up for online sessions get this organised right now so that you can stay working.

Contracts

All of you should have written contracts with your clients detailing what you provide and how much it costs. Now is the time to write an extra clause to outline what will happen if sessions are disrupted due to Coronavirus. You need to think about what you should do with all new and existing clients (especially those who have signed up with you for a number of sessions). Make them aware that face to face sessions may need to be changed to online sessions. Get your existing clients ready for this and in your intake forms get their online details.

Therapy Training Providers

If you run therapy training courses or CPD days and have taken money in advance what are you going to do if you are unable to complete the courses because your venues have closed or people are unable to attend? Again try and make arrangements to come up with alternatives such as training online so that people are able to complete their courses even if they aren’t coming to a venue.

20 Passive Income Ideas for Therapists

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Diversifying Therapy Income

The economy, in general, is going to be impacted in the short term because of this virus. As an example say you work in the retail sector (which is already suffering) and people stay away from the shops in droves. It is only a matter of time before there are layoffs and redundancies as companies cannot afford to pay staff. Less money in the economy means that therapy will feel less affordable to some or sessions will be parked until the crisis blows over. Diversifying your income is always a good idea to insulate your therapy business from these ups and downs.

Adapting Your Therapy Services

Before I ever worked as a therapy marketer I used to be a trader. I know from my experience world events had a big impact on prices and demand and that is something I can see happening right now. Shares in Ryanair and other airlines are tanking for a good reason. The market expects far fewer people to travel in the near future and that is impacting the valuation of those companies. Now start to apply that to what you are selling in your therapy business. Clearly, you are going to get fewer customers for fear of flying and public speaking. Equally, I would expect an upturn in anxiety and sleep problems.

Insurance

If you do have business interruption insurance now is the time to pull out your policy and check to see whether you are covered for any loss of income related to Coronavirus. Have these discussions now and not later when it may be more difficult to get an answer.

On the Positive Side

It is not all doom and gloom. If you are forced to take some time out over the coming months then this is the perfect time to work on growing a stronger business for the future. Creating passive income products is a great way of doing this so that is more likely to get money coming into your practice even when things are not going to plan. Also setting up your website so that you can attract and adapt to new market situations is important. Do you have a website that can do this? If not learn how with my Make Your Therapy Website Into a Client Magnet course.

Also as a trained therapist, this is the perfect time to advertise your services as a health anxiety expert. Many people with anxiety are going to have mental health issues because of the worries about this virus. This is your time to step in and help those people to feel calmer and more in control while the newspapers write headlines designed to scare everyone to death! This is going to be a thriving therapy business market.

Things will inevitably pass as they always do but the lay of the land may be very different when this scare is over. I can see that this virus will reduce the pool of therapists out there. This is because many will find it difficult dealing with lower or no income over the coming months and are likely to retrain or go back to salaried jobs. As ever in times of economic upheaval the strong and prepared businesses will thrive whilst the weaker will shut up shop. Make sure you are the former!

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Finally Look After Yourself

As a therapist, your are your income. If you are ill then your therapy business is impacted as well. Make sure that you are firm about not only keeping your clients safe but yourself as well. Be firm with clients and tell them you will not see them if they are showing any signs of a cough or a cold. Make sure that you wipe down therapy couches, door handles and surfaces clients may have touched to prevent the spread. Place hand sanitiser by your door for everyone to use. Don’t shake hands with clients or if you do wash them immediately after. If your clients use your toilet make sure that you stop using normal towels and instead get them to use disposable hand towels. Make sure that you clean the toilet after each use. These common-sense approaches that will keep you well and working.

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Don’t Set Up a Therapy Practice Without Reading This!

Posted on February 4, 2020November 25, 2020 by Martina McKeough

set up a therapy business I felt I had to write this post because of the sheer volume of new therapists out there who are currently setting up their practices who have zero clue about business. In particular the hypnotherapy industry that I am part has a ton of training schools churning out would-be therapists. These therapists are ready and prepared to see clients but a good percentage have not thought through what happens next which is how to set up a therapy practice and make money. This is naive at best and completely insane in reality. Do not set up a therapy practice without reading this first!

It is not the job of the therapy courses to teach business and marketing (even though some touch on the subject). Why should they? It is the therapists responsibility to set themselves up for success by investing some time, energy and money into learning what happens next. Yet time and time again I come across therapists who forget this essential part of the process. They think they can create a website (or get someone else to do it for them) and their phone will be ringing off the hook – it won’t!

Therapy Marketing Essentials

So I thought I would write this post and detail some of the things you will have to know if you are running your own business particularly with regard to marketing. If you don’t know or understand what these are then you need to take a course, get a mentor, do some detailed research or alternatively have plenty of money behind you to pay for someone else to do you work for you.

Just remember that when you pay someone else to do stuff for you they don’t always understand your niche, charge for every change and some disappear completely. Also, these people are often only as good as the instructions you give them. So if you tell them you want purple unicorns on your website that is what they will give you. Most therapists have little idea on what converts browsers into buyers on a website so from a business perspective you are likely to make some expensive mistakes.

Understanding why you need things structured in a certain way is hugely important otherwise you are going to end up wasting a ton of time, energy and money. In fact, you may not even realise you have made a big mistake until months or even years later. Being a sole trader at the start of your self-employment means being a bit of a jack of all trades and that is especially so when you set up a therapy practice.

So what potentially would you need to know to make money?

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Setting up a Therapy Website

Before you set up your website you need to choose a name for your business and buy a domain name. This domain name can be a .com or related to your country such as a .co.uk or even be a .org or .online and so on. Do you know what domain is best for your business model?

Next, you will need hosting in order to get your website onto the internet. Do you know what to buy and why? Does your web host offer backups? Do they have good uptime? Are they suitable for the size of your business?

Once you have your hosting your domain has to be linked to it. If the host and the domain name provider are different you will have to change the nameservers. Do you know how to do this?

Once the host and website are linked do you know how to set up a WordPress site in the control panel? If you aren’t using WordPress why not?

Once you have the WordPress dashboard can you upload and choose a theme for your site? Do you understand the implications for your business when you choose a specific theme? Does it have the functionality you need?

If you can’t do this can you afford a web developer to do this for you? Alternatively, if you buy a website template from a therapy marketing website provider are you happy paying money month after month? Does the website they build you allow you to change things easily, add plugins or grow with your business? Do they charge for every change they make? Can you afford this?

Are you aware that Google does not trust new websites and older ones are more likely to get more traffic? It can take months to get any organic traffic and more than a year or more to build it to something that will earn you money. Have you got plans to earn money whilst you are waiting?

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Website Structure

Now you have the bare bones of a website do you know how to use WordPress? If not learn because you will need to know how to add content, change menus, upload pictures, host videos and so on.

Do you know the essential elements you need to add to your menu? Don’t copy everyone else because I can guarantee you that most of them are missing a trick.

Do you know what HTML is and when you might need to use it in your site?

Are you able to add sections to your site? Can you add new pages, buttons, change menus, add email capture forms and links?

Do you know what plugins are? What essential plugins will you need?

How are you keeping your website secure from hackers? What happens if your site does get hacked?

Therapy Website Content

Do you know what SEO /Search Engine Optimisation is? Do you know how to write content that will enable you to be found in the search engines?

Do you understand how to optimise your images and videos to be found across the internet?

Do you know how to create products to sell on your website? Are you able to set up a shop?

Do you understand VAT Moss? Do you understand what will happen after Brexit?

What is your business strategy when you create content?

How are you going to drive traffic to your website?

Are you able to create good quality graphics? If not what will you do? Pay someone or learn how to use software to create them for you?

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Statistics

How are you going to monitor who is visiting your website? What metrics do you need to pay attention to? What actions will you need to take after viewing those metrics?

What systems are you going to use to view your metrics? How are you going to add them to your website?

How often should you be looking at these metrics? What can you do if you see little traffic?

Ideal Therapy Clients

Who is your ideal client? How are you going to attract them? How will you make money from that client? How are you going to solve their problem?

How are you going to take money from them and what will your charge (hint it is not calculated by copying others)?

How can you ensure you don’t get cancellations or no shows?

What contractual arrangements do you have with that client? Do they meet the current regulations and laws in your country?

Where are you going to see them? How much will that cost you?

What are Your Costs?

Have you got a handle on all the costs in your business? Have those costs been factored into the price you are going to charge your client?

What are you going to do in quiet periods? Can you still cover your costs?

Will you have a pension?

How are you going to be able to afford holidays?

Are you able to cover all your outgoings as you set up your business?

How much money do you need to set aside for tax? How do your earnings look once you have taken out the tax and other associated costs? Will you be able to afford to live?

What system are you going to use to log all your incomings and outgoings?

Do you understand what costs can be offset against your tax bill?

Do you know how to do a self-assessment tax form? If not can you afford to hire an accountant?

Day to Day Therapy Marketing

What strategies are you going to use day to day to get clients into your business?

How much money are you prepared to allocate to your marketing efforts?

What marketing can you do for free?

What paid strategies are you prepared to try? Do you know what paid marketing works and which is a waste of money?

Do you know what backlinks are? Do you know how to use them?

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Social Media & Ads

Do you know how to set up business accounts on social media? Do you know how to engage people so that they become interested in your products and services?

What social media platforms are you going to concentrate on and why?

Are you going to use paid advertising? If so what courses and knowledge do you have before you post ads? – Remember most therapists waste hundreds of pounds or more because they don’t know what they are doing and dabble!

How much are you prepared to pay each week in paid advertising? How can you review the metrics on this advertising?

How much time and effort are you willing to spend tweaking your advertising? How will this work if you are seeing clients?

Passive Income for Therapists

Do you know what passive income is?

Are you intending to build passive income into your practice?

What products and services are you going to create to build this passive income? How are you going to sell these?

What platforms and software would you need to use to build these passive income products? How are these going to get to your customer automatically? How are you going to get paid for these?

How are your potential customers going to know your products and services exist?

How will you attract those customers?

Do you know what a funnel is? Do you know how to create one to sell your products and services?

So Setting up a Therapy Practice is Easy You Think!

This post is not intended to overwhelm you but to show you that setting up as a self-employed business is not as easy as those hypnotherapy training courses would have you believe. Running your own business takes significant time and effort and this post shows you some of the elements you are going to have to master if you want to earn a real living from the profession. Now ask yourself is it as easy as you think? Can you figure out this detail yourself? If so how long do you think it will take you and how much are you likely to earn whilst you are trying to work this out?

If you want help to set up a therapy practice I have a ton of free resources for you to download as well as products in my online store to help. For therapy, marketing mentoring just fill out the contact form and I will get back to you.