Member Contributor — Lynne Azpeitia, LMFT, AAMFT Approved Supervisor

Getting Paid:
Are You Spending Enough Time Doing Things To Build Your Practice & Add To Your Income?

When was the last time you measured the total number of hours you spent on practice building—income, referral source, client generation, and income generating projects?

Are you spending enough time each week doing things that build your practice, add to your income, and ensure that your practice is sustainable?

I’m sure it won’t surprise you to find out that when the majority of clinicians start their private practice at first they spend A LOT of time, energy, and attention on client, income, and referral source generation.

However, once things are in place, these very same counselors seem to end up spending the bulk of their time doing all those things that keep the practice running—seeing clients, making intake calls, answering the phone, responding to emails and texts, making appointments, writing client notes, doing the books, filing taxes, etc.—and then find that they are only spending a small amount of time on practice building and new income generation—networking, marketing, speaking, being active in their professional association, and more.

While doing these everyday things does keep the practice going, those are hours spent on practice functions not on business and practice building activities. Practice and business building activities and hours are those spent gaining more business opportunities, clients, referral sources, and income.

To be profitable and sustainable, a successful private practice needs both business and practice building hours as well as hours that function to keep the practice going.

As you can see, you’ll won’t ever have the practice you desire if you don’t spend enough time building the next iteration of it.

Think it might be a good time for you to look at your schedule and adjust it in relation to your practice needs and goals?

To do that, ask yourself these two questions:

1. Am I stuck spending too much of my time in the day-to-day functions of my practice?

2. Am I spending enough time each week in building and working towards the new things needed for my practice to thrive and sustain itself? Things like better marketing, branding, networking, writing a blog or newsletter, social media posting, a new money-making project, or more?

I encourage you to look at your practice and business building hours and compare them to the hours you spend running and maintaining your practice—the practice function hours–and see if it makes sense to you to make an adjustment.

Then do it and see what happens.

Lynne Azpeitia, LMFTis in private practice in Santa Monica where she works with Couples and Gifted, Talented, and Creative Adults across the lifespan. Lynne’s been doing business and clinical coaching with mental health professionals for more than 15 years, helping them develop even more successful careers and practices. To learn more about her in-person and online services, workshops or monthly no-cost Online Networking & Practice Development Lunch visit www.Gifted-Adults.com or www.LAPracticeDevelopment.com.