Archive for March, 2010

Marketing a therapy practice can be hard. Choosing a therapist or other mental health practitioner is a deeply personal decision. Most people wouldn’t consider hiring a therapist or counselor based on an advertisement, a Yellow Pages listing or–God forbid–a cold call.

As a result, healers must understand who their perfect clients are, and then figure out who else works with these clients.

Elizabeth McGuire of EMW Consulting owns a consulting and therapy practice that  matches young people and their families with the therapeutic resources they need. I spoke with Elizabeth recently about marketing to her perfect clients.

 

How did you get started?

“I began developing this business in grad school, but didn’t consciously realize that’s what I was doing until the first parent called me to ask for help, referred to me by the headmaster of a treatment program I had talked to while gathering information about all the different programs, schools and institutions available to help adolescents in trouble.

“I’ve always been deeply interested in theory. In graduate school, I was fascinated by the idea that a specific problem with a child or in a family could be most successfully addressed with a program that handled the child (and the family’s) specific issues.

“I didn’t think it was enough for people to look up a program on the internet and randomly choose it because they were desperate, or just because the website might look good. I wanted to match families to exactly the right program, even to the right therapist at a particular program.

“A cluster of symptoms and a label don’t help us define the central disturbance that is manifesting itself and affecting the child and the family. When a family comes to me, I spend time getting to the bottom of whatever the therapeutic issue is, so I make sure I send the child to the right place, and also get the right help for the rest of the family.

“I also provide a lot of support for the parents while the child is receiving treatment. A lot of parents don’t understand why kids need to go away in the first place, but in most cases, the child has to go away for 12-24 months because it takes that long to effect real change. Part of my work is helping the parents do their work at the same time the child is doing his.”

How do you find your clients?

“Initially, all my clients came to me via word-of-mouth advertising. As I helped the first few families, they in turn recommended me to other families. Now I have a website, so people can see that I am a legitimate business. I am also listed on the website www.strugglingteens.org.

“I also began creating relationships with social workers and psychologists I really respected, and who were working with kids in outpatient programs and who were highly skilled in testing kids to understand what their issues were. Once the child was tested, these psychologists would refer their families to me.

“I didn’t think about this consciously, but part of my marketing is doing a really good job; the best job I can do for these families. The other part of my marketing is relationships. I am a relationship person, so I don’t necessarily like to go out and meet a lot of people that I won’t have an ongoing connection with. I like to cultivate deeper relationships with a smaller number of people. I keep in touch with the social workers and psychologists who refer families to me, to tell them about the progress their clients are making, and we support each other in the work we do.”

What’s next for you?

“My clients, especially the families who stay behind while their child goes to treatment or to a school, need a lot of support. Just as the kids need to do their work; so do the parents. In fact, if the parents don’t do their work, the child’s progress is slowed. I am training other people to do what I do, and adding other services like ongoing coaching for the parents, so they are supported just as their child is.

 

“I am an introvert, so I do better with fewer, deeper relationships. In addition to the referrals from former clients, I am also making a point to deepen my relationships with the social workers and psychologists who already refer people to me, and trying to meet a few others.

“I am profoundly passionate about this work, and I think it shows when people talk to me. I think that even though being passionate about (and good at) my work isn’t usually considered to be marketing, I think it’s one of the things that attracts parents to me. They sense I can help them, and they are right.”

What do you think about Elizabeth’s approach to marketing? Post your comments below.

Since last October, several people have persevered in the Numbers Accountability Group. We meet once a month as a group, and I also coach each person individually for 30 minutes.

My idea behind starting this group was two-fold. First, we don’t take the time to review our business numbers thoroughly every month, and we might not review them at all if things aren’t going well. Second, we don’t always know about all the information our business numbers can provide. So I started a group to review our numbers together, and to teach new ways to learn more from them.

We’ve talked about a lot of different concepts: cash flow, breakeven point, the lifetime value of a client, and other business numbers topics.

But last month, I thought it would be a good idea to talk about what to do if we’re  afraid to look at our business numbers.

Nine Suggestions

Here’s what we came up with together. I think you’ll also find these suggestions helpful if you’re afraid to look at your numbers:

1.  Remember my purpose (i.e. why am I doing this business in the first place? Is that purpose still true? Can it sustain you through rough times?).

2.   Talk to other people (do you have people who support you? Fellow business owners, leads group, service club, coach?).

3.  Meditate (and/or pray). A little quiet time can clear the mind and make the next right action clearer.

4.  Take some action (marketing action, perhaps?).

5.Take a break from thinking about my business numbers (sometimes a break creates a breakthrough).

6.    Try to identify what my emotions are. This is a good one. There is the thing happening, and then there’s the story about the thing, i.e. “Sales are down, therefore I am a wretch.” (Only the first half of that sentence is true. Are you telling yourself a nasty story about a neutral fact?)

7. Remember to be kind (to yourself, especially).

8. Remember that business goes up and down in cycles (this is true for every business except possibly tax accountants and morticians, but I think even they are not exempt).

9. Build a prudent reserve (AKA business savings).

Prudence Pays

This last one, “Build a prudent reserve,” is possibly one of the most important. If you don’t have money set aside for emergencies, open a savings account RIGHT NOW and get started. I use www.ingdirect.com, but there are other banks that will automatically take money out of your checking account each month. You can start with as little as $10.00 per month, and create a savings account for both your personal and your business expenses. Even $10.00 builds up. It’s the miracle of two things; regular saving, and compound interest.

Tags: Business Numbers, Business Plans, Fear, Truth