Aside from witnessing your business blossom in both the physical and digital worlds, nothing quite feels as good as watching your profits steadily grow. However, therapy practices know that their main source of income is tied directly to the number of clients they have, so maintaining consistent profits becomes somewhat tricky.
We understand that it can be challenging to attract new clients or retain your existing customers, particularly if you’ve only recently got the ball rolling. That’s why we’ve come together to provide you with this concise how-to guide that teaches the ways in which you can increase your private practice income.
How much do therapists make in private practice?
- Location – private practices located within proximity to their target demographic are more likely to generate larger profits than those located in more rural areas.
- Niche – therapy is a rather broad topic. Those who work around different or more specialist areas of expertise may charge higher for their services.
- Clientele – the primary driver for the continuity in profit generation for private practices is clients: having more clients and retaining clients for repeated services can increase your profits.
How can you increase your income?
1. Calculate Your Average Session Fee
Knowing how much you should charge on average per session is arguably the most important step in working your way towards increasing your total income. This way you can estimate what your annual turnover will be without having to rummage through your previous expenses.
2. Increase your rates
Once you’ve figured out your average session fee, you can start increasing your rates. Do your due diligence in finding out where the current industry average lies, and determine whether you have the capacity to increase your rates in such a way that keeps prices competitive whilst giving your wallet some extra padding.
There are many ways in which you can increase your rates inconspicuously, such as:
- Offering a discounted rate for those who book X sessions.
- Giving a special offer to existing clients who have successfully referred another client.
- Gradually increase your rates. For example, you can increase your rate by 8% each year to go in line with the annual cost of living price drive.
3. Market your clinic
Establishing your clinic’s online presence has become more of a necessity than a luxury in this day and age. With millions of people looking to various search engines and social media platforms for advice on which therapist to choose, you need to really think about how you want your clinic to be perceived online.
By working on your clinic’s marketing strategy, you can start attracting clients from further afar, and establish an online reputation as a trusted private therapy practice. Consequently, you’ll have more clients and be able to retain those already under your care, both of which will help boost your profits.
4. Expand your services
If you’ve tried all of the above and feel your progress has slowed down, you can try expanding your service offering to help provide your clinic with a new revenue stream. Therapists have the necessary qualifications to offer bespoke mental health services that go beyond traditional therapy, like:
- Group wellness sessions
- Coaching and workshops for aspiring therapists
- Teletherapy to offer your services to clients who don’t reside in your area
5. Partner up
What you deem to be “maximum capacity” may be different for another therapist. If you find yourself quickly filling up your client slots and have incurred some kind of a waiting list, you can consider hiring another therapist to work alongside you.
This way you can outsource clients who are still on the waiting list to your colleague, ensuring an even steadier and higher cash flow into the business. Though some of that cash flow will have to be paid to your colleague, you’ll still be earning consistently higher than you would have done had those clients remained on a waiting list or gone elsewhere for treatment.
Have you considered hiring an accountant?
At TL;DR, we understand the important work therapists do to help improve the lives of many. That’s why we’ve made it our job to help improve your lives. We have years of experience specialising in the private practice tax industry which lets us provide you with advice on how to manage the most intricate and frankly annoying administrative tax process so that you can spend more time helping those relying on your expertise.
We’re not promising that we make taxes fun (we try). But we do promise to make them a far more tolerable aspect of your business. Give us a call as soon as you please to see just how we can help streamline your finances and get you on track to increasing your profits.
