The Phone is Ringing (a little bit)

At this point it is February 2010...

I am a one woman show at this point. I bought a cell phone to be used as a business phone and whenever it rang I answered.  I got all the paperwork needed to do intakes, notes, billing, etc. from a colleague, I was using a FREE system to do my billing called Office Ally, I used Propay to accept credit cards and process payments online,  and now all I needed was the clients. That was the catch! In 3 months of being there I only had 2 clients! This would never work. At this rate I would have a total of 8 clients in 1 year!

Lesson: Had I done my research I would have realized Glenridge Connector area is FILLED with alot of psychiatrists, psychologists, and other mental health professionals who have been there for a loooong time and have connections with the Dr's, hospitals, etc.  I didn't have the marketing budget needed to break into this area.

I was still seeing clients at my colleagues practice in Marietta and things were going great. I only had 4 client slots per week available but they were always full.  Hmmm, maybe I need to move my practice to Marietta...

How NOT to Choose a Private Practice Location

While I was oh so happy to be free from the confines of being in the wrong career environment,  It didn't really sink in until my insurance benefits ran out LOL :-).   Ummm brain to Camille " You do realize that you just left a job with benefits as the economy is getting worse and people are losing their sanity because they are losing jobs!"

Sure I knew all of this but since I knew I was led down this path by God, I knew He had me covered. However, I am only human and I sure wished that He would show me the blueprints of this path so I knew what the heck was up ahead. Looking back, maybe if I knew what was ahead I would have chickened out.

First line of business? Find a location to start seeing clients in my own practice and learn what it takes to have your own practice.

I always like it around Perimeter Mall. It's like a little pseudo-city to me and I figured how awesome would it be to set up a practice in a place you really like and is close to home.  So without considering anything else I started looking for places to rent.  On Jan 1 2010,  I opened my practice and I was located in the Regus business building right off of Glenridge Connector!  It was the location I wanted, the building was nice, it came with a receptionist,  it was close to hospitals (I figured I could get referrals from them), and it wasn't far from my house.


Lesson: When choosing where to set up a practice how much you like the location is only a small part of the equation. You should also be asking yourself: How much competition is in this area? Do I have any connections in this area? If I have no connections do I have the marketing budget and ideas needed to break into this area? Is it close to the people I want to offer counseling to? For example, if you work with alot of children a practice location close to school and family neighborhoods is ideal.

Now I wait for the phone to ring...

How My Enemies Helped Me

At the time, 2009, I probably wouldn't have welcomed these struggles but in hind sight I have to say THANK YOU! to all the situations and people who created struggle for me.

While working for a state agency, I got the opportunity to move into a therapist position that allowed me to see an increase in my income.  This coupled with the fact that I was still teaching undergraduate classes and the graduate level internship meant I was feeling pretty comfortable.

You know there is something very interesting with getting "comfortable" in life. I mean for me it can be a place of little growth and productivity because I like the peace that comes with living in a comfort bubble, away from all the stressors of the world. I don't know why it even comes as a surprise to me anymore that the comfort won't always stay and shouldn't if I am meant to grow in life. Somehow, I am allowed to stay comfortable for a short time and then it's as if God said "Break time is over. We've got work to do!" and with a push I'm thrown into another reality. Much like being thrown into the pool when you're not ready.

I could see the winds of change blowing. It started while on the new job position. What started as a few personal attacks from 2 people every now and then, grew to a weekly routine with a star ring leader in a higher position than my own. One day while riding home, from a never ending day at work filled with ever growing rounds of personal attacks and unprofessional behavior, I said OUT LOUD, "That's it! I am working for myself!"  I can remember that day clearly. It was the day I stopped straddling the fence and took a step toward entrepreneurship.


PAUSE BLOG
Side note: See what you don't understand is that I was riding this comfort bubble longer than I am admitting. Actually the promotion in 2009 only made it worse by making me even more comfortable. The desire to start my own practice was laid on my heart in 2008! It just seemed like a pretty big endeavor so I kicked back and didn't do anything that year except come up with a name for my practice, a mission statement, and the vision.
BACK TO SCHEDULED BLOG

In the following weeks, after the drive home, I started thinking "OH MAN!" because I figured with all this drama the current job probably wouldn't last and the program itself seemed to be crumbling under poor management. I wondered if I would be able to get paid my current salary working for myself. Well guess what? The job didn't last and approx. 6 months after my out loud moment in the car, I was transferred to another department.  HAHA This new position was better in the areas that were lacking in the last position but came with its own set of off the wall rules.

Now you might be saying 6 months passed and you were transferred?? I thought you wanted to work for yourself?

Sure I did! However, you must have a plan. I couldn't go all willy nilly just quitting because people were being unkind and unfair. I had to make sure it was the right time and I was kinda still hoping my comfort bubble would come back and save me and that things would return to "normal". I was in denial at times. I also needed to eat and pay my bills :-)

Well as my 4 year anniversary with the state approached, I realized I could no longer take being on call 24/ 7 and getting calls from management at all days and times. (True story! I tried to see if an on-call rotation could be established but I was told no.) In addition I still had the job at the university and I saw clients 1 day a week at my collegues counseling private practice.

So I resigned and my last day was about 3 weeks after my 4 year anniversary.

So THANK YOU to all the instigators, ring leaders, and situations that made my struggles possible! You were instrumental in pushing me to make my passive dream a reality.

Lesson# 3 Darkness and strife don't always have to be dream killers. Look for the message in the storm. Maybe it's telling you to start building your dream!

Lesson #2 Keep Your Eyes on Your Own Lane!

When I started my practice I knew I wanted to help PEOPLE. I love helping with information, education, and emotional support. Helping people to look at life in ways that produce better results for their emotional health. The only problem I had at that time? Too many voices in my head (no not hallucinations!) of other people's visions for how they wanted to run and were running their private practice. It seemed that many people wanted the same thing and I felt a bit lost because none of those things sounded like what I wanted to do.

"So what was the big problem Camille?!"---> CONFIDENCE

My dream seemed so big I just didn't see how I could do it.  However, I got back on track and here's how.

5 STEPS:

1. Went to a quiet place:  Here I could be alone with only my vision.

2. Wrote down the goals I had for the practice:  Have a group of clinicians that offer various counseling services. Cater to various economic needs, so I needed a sliding scale fee, based on annual income. Have free and paying groups for the community. Offer supervision to associate level counselors, etc...

3. Put my goals in a realistic time frame: I tend to want things NOW and business is a building block that takes dedication and patience.

4. Trust that the desire God gave me to start my own practice was exactly what He would help me accomplish. I would meet the right people, go to the right places, acquire the right tools, and I didn't need to be overwhelmed with doing it on my own.

5. BREATHE-- Inhale Exhale and repeat :-)

Once I started doing these things repeatedly I stopped worrying about everyone else's progress and what they were doing. 

After talking with several other therapists I also realized that seeing is not always believing. Just because a person has a website with a million therapists in their practice doesn't mean they are full and it doesn't mean they are successful financially or in their community connections. 

WOW, who knew, and here I was looking into other people's lanes and almost missed my exit.

I'm Back!! How I Started My Private Practice Journey

Well here it is over a year later and I have returned, just as promised. There are so many different things that have happened. I will break down my journey to starting my own counseling practice in several different posts. I hope that this helps someone who just needs the information and may not have a large amount of money to pay someone for this knowledge.

My private practice journey is like this picture. Many areas were unknown like the darker spots of this path but there was always a light to lead me if I stayed focused, calm, and persistent.

See how we are coming along at this point check out our new website www.healingpsychotherapyga.com

(It was a bear for me to put together. Whoever said WordPress was easy did not have me in mind lol)

First I must say that the key to starting a private practice is to have a business plan or just a plan period. Having a passion for counseling is very important but not enough when going into business for yourself.

Some questions to ask yourself before you start:

1. How much can I afford to spend on rent, office supplies, business cards, brochures, web presence?

2. Do I have savings or another job? It may take 2-3 years to start seeing the kind of profit I've always dreamed of. (This is based entirely on your ability to network and market)

3. Am I a fighter or do I start having self defeating thoughts the minute things don't go according to plan? Starting your own private practice takes perseverance and a calling on your life to be an entrepreneur!

4. Where do I want to be located? Is this area "saturated" with other therapists?

5. How much do I know about this location and the needs of the community?

6. Do I want to rent from someone already in practice, get an already furnished office or get an office I have to furnish?

7. Which populations fit my area of expertise? Which people might be able to refer clients to me based on who I see? (Ex. Divorce Attorneys may refer couples to you for marriage counseling. School counselors and social workers may refer children and adolescents.)

8. Do I want to accept insurance or not? **It could be very beneficial to take insurance to get clients in initially. There are many people paying into their insurance and cannot afford to not use it when needed. However, there might be times that a person doesn't have insurance or doesn't want to have a diagnosis recorded on their medical record and will choose to pay out of pocket.

Well congratulations if you are ready to work for yourself. Now think about these questions and develop a plan of action before taking another step...

Resources I have found helpful:

Small Business Administration- http://www.sba.gov/category/navigation-structure/starting-managing-business/starting-business/thinking-about-starting

Professional Organizations- MATN (Metro Atlanta Therapist Network) is available to any clinician not just Georgians! http://www.matn.info/home/matn_listserv_faq

Well it looks like I don't have time for this blog venture yet. I will come back and try to do this again should it be apparent that I have sufficient time.

This was a great experience as I have never tried to blog before and I have underestimated the time and care that goes into making a GREAT blog, not just any random blog.

Hope to see you soon on the Counseling Couch

I'm writing this blog wondering if I have the time to make the commitment to yet another activity but I forge ahead to see how this will turn out. The worst that could happen? Well maybe nobody reads this and maybe it's just not that thought provoking but maybe....

Maybe it speaks to a few people and helps them in some way. That's what I want to do that is what I'm hear to do.

Lesson #1 Never attempt to save the world, just make small differences where you can.

So maybe you have heard something like this before but attempted it any way LOL. The first problem comes with the mindset that you are the only one, in the whole wide world, that can do the job. Thus, you take on everyone person you feel needs "fixing". (ummm nice thought but there's some faulty thinking in there somewhere and we will take a look at this in future posts). Helping people grow and change is a TEAM effort because it is a BIG job that cannot be done by just 1 person. I mean really there are not nearly enough of you to go around! So stop! Take a Breath! and let's get a Grip before Burnout starts to set in!

I hope to share lessons and learn lessons through this blog. This blog will be a compilations of the many lessons I have taught others and had the opportunity to learn along the way. Some lessons are very basic and others more in depth. However, I am a person who appreciates the opportunity to learn from others and possibly avoid pitfalls when possible so I welcome lessons that I don't always have to experience to learn (although there are many benefits to learning through experience too)

If you were on "The Counseling Couch" what lessons would you hope to learn?