When you grow a business 2-3% a year, business people tell you that is a “good year”, that you are successful. When I started my private practice that was my average growth for first 5 years. Over the past 5 years the average growth of my business was 4.8%. So, what happened to get that growth? My name is Sherry Shockey-Pope, LMFT and I co-own a group psychotherapy practice in Southern California, called Central Counseling Services (CCS).
To create a successful business, you need an intentional plan and you must start forecasting income projections. Both of these activities are critical to lay the groundwork for business growth. But what if you have no idea where or how to start? This is where having a mentor or someone that has done what you are trying to do is helpful. This person can help find the holes in your business plan and help you fix them.
In 2009 when laying the foundation for CCS we were in a recession. That didn’t matter to me or my business partners as we knew we had a passion for the work we just didn’t know how to begin. We were novices and we didn’t know what we didn’t know. The first couple of years we had decent growth talked about dumb luck, when we combined the business plan with a business coach, we saw higher returns, much higher.
Our business grew in the number of staff, the number of clients, income and expenses. When we obtained services from a business coach, we looked at the processes of our business as a whole and then decided to dedicate time, resources and attention to a few specific systems. Today CCS supports over 700 clients, employees 26 therapists and administrative staff and made over $1.7 million in gross revenues
So Many Taxes
When starting a business there are many tasks and there are things you didn’t even know you needed to do. One of the biggest responsibilities I didn’t expect were taxes. I thought we pay our State and Federal taxes and yes, you do, but there are other government agencies that get to take a bite out of our revenues. Our private practice pays the State money to set up the business and keep it running yearly. We also pay the local County for products and equipment, an “unsecured tax” and that is after we paid the State’s sale tax at point of purchase. We continue yearly with a business license fees dependent on the number people working. As you can see, taxes add up quickly and there are many of them, who knew? Therefore, it is imperative that you set up a saving account to be prepared to cover these expenses.
I started my business when there wasn’t a great deal of information out there on building my type of business. I found a business coach who helped set-up systems that worked for my business. As the business grew, I needed different set of experts to help me take my company to a new level. I have used 4 coaches over the life of my business two for developing business growth, another for SEO and still another for scaling the practice. Just like we all have different personalities business mentors do too and their skill sets are different. Do not just hire a business coach and keep them around because you like them; make sure they are doing something positive for your business.
Do What You’re Good At?
Ever hear that saying, “do what you’re good at?” This is true for our companies too. When you first start out you must be all things to your company, but if you want your company to grow and scale you must invite in people that are subject matter experts. Not doing this has costs me time, money and energy.
For my first website I build it myself, trying to save what little capital I had. However, when we up graded the website, I hired an expert to do the job. It took me close to 50 hours to make that website, a job that took a web designer only 18 hours to complete. If you figure in my pay for that time, I actually lost money on creating the website myself. A good way to look at this is taking your hourly rate of pay that you would earn seeing clients compare what you are paying the expert for the job. In the above example my clients pay me $100.00/hr., creating that website cost me $5,000 and I paid my web designer $3500 for the upgrade. As you can see, I lost money. My daughter is fond a saying “stay in your lane” when someone tries to tell her something that is not in their knowledge base. I usually heard this when I tried to help her with her math homework as a teen. It maybe a bit rude but the concept is the same, as entrepreneurs we must stay in our lane and do the work, we are good at.
Mentoring Helps
This is another benefit to having a business coach because they are outside looking into your business, they can help you stay in your lane and do the work that we excel in. They help clear the clutter and help you pick the 3 to 4 items that you must work on for your business. Look around and ask people in your industry if they have a business coach and what has that coach done to help their business. If they can’t articulate the benefits move on to someone else. If you are starting from scratch ask the mentor if they do a discovery or consultation call. This is the coach’s time to get a little information about your company but also your time to see how they work and what they know about your particular business and to see what skills they can provide for your business.
Who Is Sherry Shockey Pope?
Sheralyn (Sherry) Shockey-Pope, LMFT #37209 is the creator and author of Therapist Practice in a Box (therapistbox.com) the graduate school program on business building you never had. This program is designed to help graduate students, associates and newly licensed therapists build a solid foundation for private practice. She breaks down all the information clutter and provides direct actionable steps to build the practice of your dreams. She also coaches therapists that are ready to start their practice but do not know where to start.
When Sherry is not helping business grow, she is Chief Operation Officer and Co-Owner of Central Counseling Services, a successful and vibrant group practice in Riverside, CA. Her group practice serves over 650 clients, and they provide over 1250 client sessions monthly. Sherry oversees the day to day operation of the practice’s two locations. The practice consists of 23 clinicians and four support staff. Sherry has a strong passion for training, and she provides training in Self Care for Therapists, Intimate Partner Violence, and Mental Health for County Social Workers.
