How do you…pay taxes? Do market research? Brand yourself? Stay on top of bookkeeping?
Megan: Our next topic of conversation — when we were meeting beforehand, we were trying to decide what questions were most important to answer. We decided that basically what we needed to do was a mini MBA, because that’s not something that’s provided in our graduate courses. We split up some of these topics that we thought were the most important if you’re considering going private practice. We’re going to have everyone pitch in what they’ve learned and what resources that they might have found along the way. The first one we’re going to talk about is paying taxes and finances.
Sarah: In the most basic sense, it’s important to track money in and money out of your business. Sales and expenses. There’s so many different tools now, actually, that are really useful to help with that. When I started, it was an Excel spreadsheet. Every month, through Ivy or however you’re tracking your sales, you just document how much you made or you can pull a report. Then, your statements and keeping receipts and things like that is always a good idea.
I have since moved to H&R Block online, which syncs with your bank accounts and makes everything really easy to know the money that’s coming and going. Heard, is another similar software that’s specific for therapists. I, again, I use Owl Practice, but I know all EHRs have reports that are easy to pull. You can, again, track sales and how many sessions you’re doing and all that.
In terms of taxes, the general rule of thumb that I started with before I had an accountant was setting aside 20% to 30% of your net revenue. Then paying quarterly taxes is a bit daunting at first, I know. Actually, you might log into the IRS website, set up an account, and it’s actually quite easy to just make an online payment every quarter. You can estimate, again, based on 20% to 30% or so. I do have an accountant at this point that does help me determine how much I should be setting aside and paying each quarter. We’ll start there.
Megan: Beautiful. All right. Next, let’s talk about marketing, market research, including fee setting, which I noticed we have a question about that already. Denise, would you talk a little bit about that?
Denise: Yes, this is such a great question. I currently reside in New Jersey, but my grad school program was in New York. All my training experiences were in New York, which is just five miles away. When I moved over across the Hudson River over to the Jersey side, I had to be mindful of that. I would say the most helpful thing is just knowing your market, right? Look up your zip code, look up what other therapists are charging, because in New York City, which, like I said, is only five miles away, I would be charging a lot more than I am currently charging on the New Jersey side. I think that’s important. Just do some market research so you get a sense you can be competitive.
Like Sarah said, also know what your own sliding scale is going to be for yourself and for your clients. As far as marketing goes, I’m part of two online referral websites, Psychology Today and Zencare. I also created a little sort of peer-to-peer referral network once I came over to the New Jersey side, and that’s helpful to get referrals from peers.
Finally, there’s still offline marketing to be had, like Candice was talking about, knowing your target and then connecting with different—she mentioned the Christian Counseling Group. Know where your offline audience is going to be, and there’s nothing wrong with then walking in and saying, “May I leave business cards on your front desk?” I’ve gotten referrals that way as well.
I hope that’s helpful. Oh, and I’ll add one more thing. If I were full-time and I wasn’t trying to maintain this little sweet spot of five to seven patients per week, I know others will invest in search engine optimization marketing as well. That’s just so you can boost yourself up to the top of the Google search service, Hoboken, New Jersey, and then you can try to get closer to the top of that search result. That’s always an option for marketing as well.
Megan: Beautiful.Thank you so much. Okay, so branding, which it seems like all you had to do 10 years ago was hang up a shingle or put up a Psychology Today profile and you would get clients, and now it’s all about social media and branding and all that stuff. Candice, could you talk about that a little bit?
Candice: Yes, so that is certainly like a newer aspect. Going back to something that I said earlier, every business has a stage of development. One branding thing to think about is like, what am I already doing? Who is already looking for me? What connections do I already have? Building out a brand from there and knowing that your brand might change a little bit and clarify over time, and those branding materials are going to match the stage you’re in and the money that you have.
One example, I say photo shoots are such an important thing. Your picture is going to be the first thing, typically, unless someone knows you or refers to you from a previous client or someone in your community, it’s going to be that photo. When I started off, the first photos that I ever did were taken by a friend’s husband who was a photography hobbyist, and that was free, and I gave him a gift card to thank him. Then the next photo shoot I did with someone who was also a hobbyist, but charged a lower rate. More recently, I just did my first actual branding photo shoot with a branding photographer, and that’s wonderful to be able to do at this stage.
I don’t think that was necessary at previous stages, and so knowing where you’re at, what money should you invest in based on where you’re at and what you’re trying to get. If you’re part-time and you’re only trying to get a few clients, I wouldn’t invest in some marketing materials that cost too much. Allow yourself to have an overhead that matches where you’re at and what you’re looking for.
That’s another great way, as Sarah was saying, like money in, money out, thinking just really practically, how much do I have? Should I be putting out for my returns of investments?
Another branding thing also is, over time, thinking about what you want to do outside of just therapy. Is therapy what you want to do? If you are focused on working with teens, marketing to schools, and after-school programs. If you want to work with postpartum, then going to maternity centers and hospitals, prenatal yoga centers. Some things that I have done over time have been like, I have a dating podcast, so that’s one funnel, then I get some young adults and dating individuals and do a lot of speaking engagements.
One thing I’ll say, because speaking engagements that are fun to do, but only do it if you love it, because I will say you only get about one referral, at least for me, and I’ve been doing this for 10 years, the speaking aspect, I get about one referral per speaking engagement. That could be 300 people in a room or 10 people in a room. It’s a lot of time in and not a ton of referrals in exchange.
If you like to do that, that’s another great place to brand yourself and to market. At this point, I’m also doing adjunct work at a local college. There’s a lot of areas once you’re established to play around with, what do you like, if you try something and speaking’s not your gig, or you don’t really want to record another podcast. I think being intuitive, honoring yourself, what feels good and matches your level of interest, and going from there.
I have a lot to say on this topic. If you want to follow me on LinkedIn, it’s something that I post on quite a bit because I do want this to be sustainable and I feel like I have a lot of knowledge from all of my DIY and trial and error.
Megan: Yes, definitely follow Candice on LinkedIn. She offers a lot of interesting and helpful tidbits. Hey Candice, you’re talking about branding photo shoots and even a year or two ago, I wouldn’t have even known what that was. Do you have any resources for people who are like, “Okay, how would I even start thinking about my business in terms of branding,” or any podcast or anything that you’ve listened to that you found helpful?
Candice: Honestly, for me, it has been, I started LinkedIn only a year ago. What I love about LinkedIn is that I could see what other professionals are doing, and it’s not typically other therapists that I get that inspiration from, it’s actually the coaching industry, which I’m not a proponent of coaching because I feel like they’re unregulated and all sorts of things. However, they are a field that feels like, “I could charge a thousand dollars an hour. I can speak here. I’m going to go to Apple and speak.”
Especially when I’m in the Silicon Valley, a lot of the coaches are the ones that go to companies and give lunch and trainings. I see what they’re doing. Then I say, “Oh, I can do that and I can do that better.”
The branding photo shoots is actually something — I was a guest on someone’s podcast, and they had featured, and she was a coach, and she had featured this branding photographer who’s a part of a company called ComePlum in the San Francisco Bay area. I connected with her and she did my photo shoot and yes, she’s fantastic. If you’re at that stage in development, go for it. It was really expensive. If you’re not at that stage of development, I don’t think that it’s as important, iPhones are great these days or have a friend with a nice camera to take some shots of you in a backyard.
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Megan: Absolutely. Yes. Some of those coaches, their branding is, if we could get some of that, some of those vibes over in therapy, I think it would be a game changer. I’m all about it. All right. Also staying on top of bookkeeping, Sarah,I know I already made you talk about money, but could you talk a little bit about just the nitty gritty of bookkeeping?
Sarah: Yes. Again, I think I mentioned some software, some applications that might help with bookkeeping. Again, it’s really simple. Especially if you’re just starting out, tracking money in and money out. When I started, I didn’t have a business bank account. I think if I were to go back, maybe I would, just as a little bit cleaner and it’s a little bit easier to track when you have that separated out.
Also, if you’re considering using a software to track your finances and your bookkeeping, then it is easier to have a business bank account associated. It’s just a little bit cleaner, because if you have it mixed, then you just have to really be careful about not missing any money in or out that’s specific to your business. I would recommend that. I wish I had done that from the beginning.
There’s tools, again, everything from Excel spreadsheet that you’re tracking everything on, to hiring an accountant, and then using some of the software available to you in between that I mentioned earlier. Lots of different ways. Just want to make sure you’re staying on top of everything coming in and going out, and receipts are a good thing to keep. I try my best to do that, too.
Read more about the panelists and where to follow them here: Power to the Private Practice: Finding Your Best Path to Private Practice.
Read Part 5 and more below:
- Part 1: What are three things you wish you could tell yourself in the year before you started your private practice?
- Part 2: Let’s talk about insurance vs. private pay — how did you decide, and what tools or information helped you make that decision?
- Part 3: How did you decide between using platforms like Alma and Headway vs. going completely independent? What are the trade-offs?
- Part 5: How do you continue to stay informed and have a support network to help answer questions and navigate private practice after you are up and running?
- Part 6: Webinar Attendee Submitted Questions, and General Q&A
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