Your Private Practice and Your Lifestyle: Are They In Alignment?
Last week I wonderful visit with a therapist client from Los Angeles who was passing through town. It’s always great to meet clients in person especially after I have worked with them for quite some time.
In my virtual coaching business I have been able to work with all kinds of interesting people from various parts of the world. I love this International aspect to my business and wouldn’t change it for anything.
However, having an International client base is not the only benefit to having a virtual business. A more significant one for me is that my coaching practice is location independent. This means that I can work from any geographical location since I work exclusively by phone and Internet.
In fact, when I began my coaching business over 10 years ago my vision was to spend a fair amount of time working away from my home office in Vancouver. Although I have done this for short periods of time over the years, for one reason or another I have yet work for extended periods away from Vancouver.
After 10 years, I am excited to say that this is about to change…
In the late fall I will be doing some extended travel while running my business (more on this in the coming months).
People often tell me that I am “lucky” because I work at home, set my own hours, can work in my pajamas (even though I don’t) and can work from anywhere. When I hear these comments from others, I inform them that the benefits I enjoy from having a virtual business have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with luck.
Rather, these benefits have to do with having a vision of the kind of lifestyle I wanted and then finding a way to make it happen.
Why am I telling you this story?
I am sharing this with you as a way to encourage you to check in with yourself and assess how closely your business is aligned with the lifestyle that you want to live.
Why Did You Start Your Private Practice? What Was Your Vision?
There are many reasons why you might have gone into private practice. Perhaps it was to have more flexibility and freedom? Or maybe it was to make more money, or to be your own boss or to work with the type of clients that you love to work with? It could also be that you wanted to work from home or to take more holidays?
Whatever your vision was, how close are you to actually achieving this vision?
If you are not living the life you want is it because you have lost touch with your vision? Have you become complacent or discouraged and given up on your dream? Perhaps you are on the path of making it happen but it hasn’t yet come into fruition? Or perhaps you never had a clear vision to begin with?
It goes without saying that the closer you are to living the life that you want, the happier and more fulfilled you will be. In turn, you will provide a better service to your clients and be a better role model for them.
If you are one of the many who has never established a clear vision, perhaps it’s time you did. Having a vision for the kind of life you want, will inspire you in your work and increase your motivation to take the steps necessary to make your vision become a reality.
If you are not yet living the lifestyle you want, what do you need to do differently?
I would love to hear your comments and personal experiences on this topic. Please add your comment below by clicking on the comments button.
Private Practice Fianances Made Easy
It’s true.
- You undervalue yourself and your earning potential and end up earning substantially less than you capable of.
- You find yourself continuously struggling to make it financially in private practice.
- You are tempted to give up on private practice because you can’t figure out how to make enough money, and perhaps you are even heading towards serious financial trouble.
Here is the full scoop:
www.privatepracticefinancesmadeeasy.com
Still Thinking About Starting a Blog to Market Your Practice?
Andy Wibbels from Easy Bake Weblogs summarizes some recent research commissed by Six Apart and Gawker Media in his recent newsletter:
- 30% of all online users in the US visited blogs in the first quarter of 2005
- Political blogs remain the most popular, along with ‘hipster’ lifestyle blogs, gadget blogs and women-authored blogs
- Blog readers younger, more affluent than other online users (and more have high-speed connections)
- Blog readers visit twice as many web pages as other online users
- Blog traffic has increased by 45% since first quarter of 2004
- Blog*Spot now reaches more viewers than NYTimes.com, USAToday.com and WashingtonPost.com (granted Blog*Spot is not a coordinated media presence like those sites).
- Blog readers 11% more likely to have incomes greater than $75K and 11% more likely to be accessing the net with a broadband connection.
You can read more about the study here.
For those who are comtemplating starting a blog to market your practice, perhaps these stats will help entice you.
Blogging for Therapists and Psychologists: Interview with Andy Wibbels
Deborah Harper over at PsychJourney.com interviewed Andy Wibbels, business blogging guru, on the topic of Therapists, Psychologists and blogs. Andy discusses how therapists and other mental health professionals can use blogs for marketing, research and building their business. Check it out.
Blogging FAQ
For all you new bloggers out there and all you blogger-wanna-bes: Andy Wibbels, one of my favorite blogging guru’s, has posted a listed of Frequently asked Questions about Blogging. To view the list go to EasyBake Weblogs.
How To Use Blogs To Market Your Practice
I have searched in various blogging directories (websites that list blogs) and have found very few blogs that are written by counsellors, therapists or other healing professionals. Most of these professionals are not that interested or savvy when it comes to technology so this is not surprising.
While I understand these apprehensions about using technology, I encourage my clients as much as possible to learn about the various methods for using the Internet to market their practices. It is one more way to increase exposure of your private practice. Furthermore, increasingly people are turning to the Internet first when looking for information–and this includes professionals they want to hire. Therefore, if you are not marketing online, you are missing out on getting more clients.
When it comes to blogs, the technology is relatively easy, so why not think about starting one yourself? There are several ways you can utilize a blog to market your practice. For example:
- post interesting information on your blog that is valuable to your clients and potent clients
- link to other websites that provide information that your target market wants or needs
- sell your products or services from your blog
- sell other people’s products (affiliate products) on your blog
- have a sign-up form to your newsletter at your blog
- have a sign-up form so visitors can subscribe to receive notification when your blog has been updated
- have a information-rich, password protected site and charge a fee to join.
- use Google AdSense on your site
- post comments on other blogs that are related to your topic so that you increase your back links to your website (important for Google search engine ranking)
The most important aspect of blogging when it comes to marketing a practice has to do with building a relationship with visitors to your blog and finding ways to nurture this relationship (i.e. encourage visitors to repeatedly come back to your blog). Building relationships with your target audience is key to having a successful practice and blogging is an effective way to do this.
What’s a Blog?
Blogs, short for "Weblogs," are a type of website often defined as an on line journal or diary. They usually focus on a certain topic and have frequent (sometimes daily) posts (or entries).
Bloggers write about their own or other’s opinions and experiences on a topic. Posts often link to other blogs or websites that discuss a similar topic.
Many blogs are set up so that readers can add comments below each blog post.
Blogs have been around for at least 8 years or so. Business blogs have become increasingly popular in the the last couple of years, and especially in the last year.
To find out more about blogging, do visit my blog again soon as I will be writing more about blogging in upcoming posts. You can also visit the blog of one of my favorite blogging gurus, Andy Wibbels, at Easy Bake Weblogs and get a free CD on blogging.