Grow Your Therapy Business

Did you find When you first started in business you were just so grateful that someone would actually pay you money that you would agree to any time any discount….well I know I did ! As you become more established though and you have been working long hours there is a fear about not having enough clients ( operating from a place of lack rather than a place of abundance).

Talking to lots of small business people, especially therapists, this is a familiar scenario: you decides to have a Friday off, to do Christmas shopping or some such ( and be honest don’t we feel we have to justify it even to ourselves). then a client phones you up and asks if they can have a session on. Friday at 10, so you think well you can still go shopping in. The afternoon and before you know where you are you have booked up three more appointments so you can only squeeze in the shopping between 11:30 and 1:30.

So ask yourself. ( and I have to ask myself this – regularly I’m very conscious that this is do as I say not do as I do!)
How effective is your no?
I don’t mean that you are rude but if someone asks “can I see you at 4:30 on Friday evening?” don’t

if you ever watch dragons den they will reject investing in a business if it is not scaleable. But what does that mean? It means that you find a process that works for selling your products or services in an efficient, profitable manner and repeat it and expand it.

For products, take the ipad for example… it is designed in California but is manufactured and assembled in Asia at a minimum cost and then transported around the world for different markets. The focus of Apple is to market the product ( by selling the why people should need it and creating a buzz so people lined up around the block to be the first to get their hands on it). The same process of anticipation and excess demand is replicated in different markets.

It is easy to see how Mcdonalds hamburgers were scaleable… by setting up new franchises that repeated the pattern, adhered to some very strict guidelines about menus, ingredients etc and sharing the marketing and administration costs. Of course Macdonalds does not make money from selling hamburgers as most of the outlets are franchised. They make money by holding real estate which is rented out to franchisees ( and they choose prime locations to allow for maximum trade) and from franchise fees.

With services, such as a therapy business it is more tricky to see how it can be scaled. The problem with an individual who is trading time for money is that they can only earn a certain amount of money in a week because there are only so many hours. How do you make that scaleable?

1. sell other products and services and derive other forms of income to supplement the business.
2. take on additional staff. Obviously the risk is that you ned to ensure that they re fully occupied as they will demand to be paid whether they are working or not.
3. Replicate a successful brand/ business by setting up other branches and training others to follow the ” successful recipe”.

So as a business you can leverage time. You can also leverage cash.. so you either get others to invest in your business or provide a loan that you can use to expand the successful formula.

Of course if something is very successful it will be copied by others trying to tap into the market.

I have always had poor hand-eye coordination – I blame poor eyesight aggravated by low physical fitness during my earlier years and thinking academic work much more important that sport- yes I know, I know I got that wrong…. When I discovered aerobics in my thirties, which was competing against myself, especially when accompanied by upbeat music, I started to take fitness seriously and subsequently went on to run in half marathons, 10k runs etc.

It wasn’t until my late thirties that I also started wearing varifocals when I played sport and it was like a miracle… I could actually see the ball… Or the shuttlecock. Instead of a blurred mess coming towards me and trying to judge the trajectory I could actually see the ball hitting the racket head, but perhaps even more importantly, for the first time in my life I could see the ball coming over the net which gave me an extra split second to attempt for the ball. I wish I had discovered this earlier when my knees and back didn’t ache and I could have been more capable and maybe I would have actually been chosen to play for a team rather than left on the sidelines.

So it is in business- you need to keep your eye on the ball and watch what is going on with your cash flow and your business and what your competitors are doing… If you can see the ball coming at you it is easier to position yourself to hit it back.

How closely have you been keeping your eye on the ball in business?

It is human nature to slack off a little when we think we have something “sussed” especially in business where there is always so much that needs attention.. We can easily turn our focus away from the basics -selling and delivering our products and services in a profitable way generating enough cash flow to cover our expenses, profit and growth.

How healthy is your business right now?

I’ve been coaching a business this week who have forgotten to keep their eye on the ball – they have a great business and have been growing but have had short term cash flow problems trying to fund that growth organically, to the extent that they have had to sacrifice some profit ( and growth) in order to balance their cash flow. we looked at what they could have done and found that they could have anticipated the problem coming… If they had been watching their cash-flow and comparing that against their cash flow forecast.

The decline was not particularly rapid… It wasn’t as if they had gone out and had a spending spree, but they had been tying up more cash in working capital ( stock and debtors) and hadn’t really noticed that it was slowly declining week by week – it is very easy when there is so much going on to forget about the basics. However we are looking at putting systems in place to flag up potential problems and having one person with a KPI ( key performance indicator) for managing cash. They also took the precaution of talking to the bank and discussed the overdraft facility and the need to extend it in the near term. Taking action and notifying them has averted being out on the bank watch list.

So looking at your own business
Where Have You taken Your Eye off the Ball?

And having worked that out ask yourself the supplementary question
What action do you need to do today to address the issue?

Today – pick a problem…it could be personal or professional… any type will do. But this time, instead of seeking a solution outside (books, blogs, friends, mentors, etc…) spend an hour or two thinking things through.

How could you be the cause of it?

What would you do if your life depended on solving it today and you couldn’t ask anyone for advice?

More often than not – you’ll find your answer.

When my mentor finally arrived – I told him the problem… I told him what I had figured out – the cause and the solution… And he said “I couldn’t agree with you more.” And we spent the rest of the night swapping stories. Alright, that’s all I’ve got for today.

Most people know the story of Donald Trump who made and lost a fortune. Went bankrupt and had made a fortune again in three years.

And we’ve all heard of the lottery winners who “spend spend spend” and are as broke as they were before in three years.

why? Because of their money mindset.

What is money mindset?
It comprises a number of different aspects:

What is your money attitude?
your attitude to money – often picked up from when you were growing up

Did money give you choices?
Or were people with money ” fat cats” or filthy rich?
Was your family’s attitude to money that there was more than enough to go round or never enough?
What are your beliefs around money?
By going through our learned attitude to money we can find out where we sabotage ourselves.

What is your money altitude?
We each have a level of monetary wealth at which we fel comfortable like a thermostat if you will. I prefer to think of it as being told to fly at a certain level by an air traffic controller and if you sink below that level you have to boost the power and make corrections to maintain level and if you are taken higher by a thermal for example you need to drop speed and can coast to maintain your height.

And although the air traffic controller may tell you at which height to fly you need to ensure that you are flying high enough to cover the terrain you are flying over. So if you are flying over the fens or other low lying land you don’t need to fly too high to avoid obstacles, but if you are flying over the Alps you will need to get to a higher altitude in order to clear the mountains.

So you can decide in both your business and your life to fly over the low level easy terrain or you can decide to fly over mountains and take on lots of financial responsibilities – big house, car etc In each case as your own air traffic controller you need to decide what level you need to fly at and stick to that height. A lot of people decide it is boring flying over the fens and want to fly over the alps, but don’t think through the implications of how much money they need to maintain that lifestyle.

What is your worth?
As a business we calculate the net worth of a business by using the balance sheet. It always fascinates me what people pay for a particular product or service an hour’s worth of work. How much we are charged will depend partly on the value we perceive , which in turn will be determined partly by what the individual feels they are providing.
As an individual we have an internal measure of self worth – what we deserve. Obviously this is linked to our attitude to money and our self esteem. Certainly with coaching clients I have found that by working on self esteem and what we contribute to the world there is a shift in the physical realm of personal wealth.

what is your relative worth?
. This is not just about how much money you have in your bank account. When I worked in big corporates and everyone was well paid you wouldnt believe the complaints and dissatisfaction when we were told our bonuses – because they were based on individual performance people thought they deserved more or that Simon got more because he went round telling everyone how wonderful he was and was a member of the Carlton Club or Clare had more because she was sleeping with one of the partners! ( I use false names obviously to protect the guilty but you know what I mean).

What makes you feel wealthy?
The next issue is often having to address what makes us feel wealthy. In my village a neighbour of one my aunts lived in rural poverty: she had less than fifty pounds in the bank when she died, the cottage she had lived in had to be pulled down as uninhabitable. And yet she used to say she was wealthy – because she could grow vegetables in her garden and watch the robins, and delight in nature. she had enough for her needs, and also used to take round the excess to my aunt and other needy people in the village.

By contrast I know two millionaires who are constantly fearful they don’t have enough and feel insecure in their wealth.
A sense of wealth is not just about money in the bank but how secure you feel and what you enjoy. By changing your standards of what wealthy means you can achieve greater satisfaction and feel happier.. And isn’t that what it’s all about?

What has this to do with business you may be asking?
Well your attitude to money will determine how far you drive your business to earn more money. Your need to make a profit but is a certain amount of profit enough or are you going to be pushing for more growth?
Well you are either growing or declining so

Is your wealth growing or declining?

Sent from my iPad

Sometimes we get stuck in business, we feel like the proverbial hamster in the wheel racing around working harder and harder trying to make ends meet… Inevitably we are the person who cuts our wages in order that the business will survive or thrive. The trouble is sometimes we cannot take the perspective we need on our business, we become mire exhausted ( and ratty I have noticed in myself and those around me). This is when you you (I!) need to take a step back and ask yourself some challenging questions

What is the biggest issue in the business right now?
Usually this is around time, cash-flow, staffing or getting enough customers

what would Richard Branson do with this business? ( or lord sugar .. Although you might discover he might say ” you’re fired” just imagine you had them and their expertise for a day what would they say you need to focus on, what do you need to do first, what do you need to drop, what extra resources do you need? What part of the business could be automated? Or scaled? Or dropped completely? What part fo the business has the biggest opportunity for growth?
by taking a step back and imagining what a really successful business person would do in the same situation you can see not just an “objective” perspective but also an idea of the action steps you need to take.

Of course if you are still stuck that is when it is worth getting yourself a coach and mentor to challenge you and hold you to account. you need someone who has actually been there – who has the background and the experience of knowing what it is like to run both successful businesses and who has made mistakes along the way…. And learnt from them. As a business woman, chartered accountant and business and executive coach I specialise in helping people who are stuck in their business. i have run my own successful businesses, tripling the value of one in three years and had my mistakes too…. And of course I learnt much more with the mistakes around focus and trust and actually came up against my own inadequacies as a business person. for one I hated asking people for money…. I can’t honestly say I relish it now but I realise that unless I charge for what I do peeople don’t value it. have you noticed that?

So if you have been following this series from the beginning you will know that you have been given some very valuable information and if you have Ben asking yourself the questions you will have been getting some insight into your business and how to take it to the next level. So have you taken it the next level? If not why not? I would hazard a guess it is because you have not take consistent action…. If you have not taken it to the next level I would love to know why …. Do reply in the comment box.

if you are busy unless you are very disciplined and focused it can be difficult to sustain the level of action you need to do to make a difference… Which is where a good coach and mentor comes in.. They can show you perspective and hold you tO account.

I f you really want to make a difference and take yourself to the next level do contact me at gill. Warren13 (@) gmail.com and ask about having a free introductory discussion about business/ executive coaching with me.
I do not have many spaces available ( genuinely, this is not marketing hype) so if you are serious about moving forward in your business do contact me. If you are not serious about it then I will make you the same offer in a year’s time or five year’s time when you are still stuck in the same place!
So ask yourself
What would Richard Branson do?