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Money Anxiety: Letting Go of Fear to Grow Your Business
I know therapists who've spent $50,000+ to get their degrees. They willingly spend thousands of dollars each year to learn ever more therapeutic skills. But when it comes to investing in their businesses, they get stuck. I believe that therapists have this funny kind of money anxiety because they don't understand business.
The Wrong Training Ground
Many of you (like me) come from social services fields where you were paid very little to work with clients who had even less. Many of you (like me) were trained in your ethics courses to offer services on a scale or pro-bono. Many of you have gotten into the insurance loop - dependent on insurers for client referrals - but at a terrible price to your bottom line as well as self-esteem. None of these is a bad thing (except maybe the insurance part). But it's not good training ground for business.
The Employee Mindset
If you've always worked for someone else, it may feel easier to invest in education that builds technical skills because you still see yourself primarily as a Technician. This is an employee mindset - a limited focus only on the service you provide. It's too common for therapists to allow insurance companies to act as employers - setting their fees and describing how work is to be performed.
The Business Owner's Mindset
A business person wouldn't waste precious time or resources railing against insurance companies. He or she would INVEST that time and energy in developing other sources of referrals that are better. Business owners think about how to turn adversity into opportunity. If insurance is not a good customer, if they don't pay their bills on time (or at all), if they demand discounts, then a business person might wonder, "Okay, what are insurance companies good at providing?" The answer is referrals. The business person then might wonder, "How do I take those referrals and turn them into private-pay clients?"
From Dependency to Empowerment
Becoming a business person allows you to move out of the role or mindset of the employee (which is a child-like role of dependency and disempowerment) and into a state of empowerment and interdependence. Ultimately it is a process that is freeing, deeply growth oriented, and self-actualizing. But it can also feel intimidating - at least at first.
New Roles
When you take ownership of your practice, you become much more than a technician. You are also a Manager - in charge of the administrative aspects of your business. And you are an Entrepreneur - in charge of bringing in new business, and ensuring that your company operates profitably. Of these three roles - technician, manager and entrepreneur, therapists usually feel most comfortable as technicians first, managers second, and entrepreneurs at a distant third.
Overcoming Self-Limiting Beliefs
You may even feel an aversion to words like business, marketing, sales, or profit. These neutral words may have been assigned a meaning for you like "exploitative." Or you may feel anxiety when people talk about business planning, marketing strategy, or return on investment. You may get overwhelmed, again hearing the neutral words, but perceiving something big, difficult to understand, or out of your league.
When therapists come to me for business coaching, this is what I see over and over. Their aversion about exploitive business practices and their fears about learning business skills create a short-circuit effect, leaving them paralyzed. That's when they say, "I just want to practice therapy and not have to think about all this stuff." And I'm guessing a lot of you feel the same way.
Developing managerial and entrepreneurial skills is not a bad thing - and doesn' t have to be a difficult thing. Being a business person gives us an opportunity to redefine business principles and practices so they reflect our integrity and our desire to create more emotional safety, peace, happiness and wellbeing in the world.
Now is the BEST Time to Start
The timing really couldn't be better. The economic downturn means that more people need more help finding meaning and security within themselves and their family relationships. There is a growing awareness that insurance is SO NOT the protector of our health and wellness, but rather an exploiter of consumers and providers alike. Potential clients are waiting for you to learn the skills you need to reach them, to discover or invent innovative ways that they can afford your services.
It may be time to put aside everything you've wrongly been led to believe. Here are some things that I know to be true:
- There are more clients than therapists can serve - even in the Bay Area
- You don't have to depend on low-paying insurance companies to stay in business
- You don't have to take every client that knocks on the door
- You can make a good living being a therapist and still have time for a life
- You can develop strong business skills without compromising your ethics
- You can learn marketing skills and strategies without having an aneurism
- Your business can be a reflection of your personality (you don't have to squeeze yourself into Casey Truffo's marketing box)
- Becoming a business person, rather than a technician ultimately feels GOOD
Don't let fear and lack of knowledge get in the way of having the practice you really want. If you're smart enough to have gotten through graduate school, then you're smart enough to learn everything you need to know to make your business a success. Imagine how wonderful it would feel to know that you are in control of your business - regardless of the economy, regardless of insurance practices.
For more information about the three roles, Technician, Manager and Entrepreneur, please check out Michael Gerber's E-Myth series of books. When you arrive at the virtual bookstore, click "General Business" in the upper right corner to see Mr. Gerber's books.
[ Go to Part 2 in this Series ]
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