This is the first of a 3 part series.
A Holistic Approach to Growing your Business
As an Holistic Practitioner, you have a powerful role in the future of healing for humanity. You have a huge heart, a deep commitment to serve others, integrity, empathic sensitivity, intuitive gifts perfectly suited to their purpose, a strong spiritual connection and so much more.
Yet so many of our amazing practitioners face many challenges in building a sustainable business around their wonderful gifts.
Now, this issue has many levels – as does healing. To grow your business, you need to consider the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual dimensions of your business to have a totally holistic approach.
The Physical Dimension of Your Business
The physical dimension of your business has to do with the flow of money in and out of your bank account. Included here are also aspects of the physical space where you conduct your business.
Here are a couple of recommendations to assist you with increasing your cash flow.
1. Take a really good look at your fees.
Compare your fees to those who are offering similar services in your community. We are a value driven society. People will pay more when they receive greater value. Adding a complementary modality to your service brings more value to your clients.
For example, a friend of mine, a massage therapist, uses singing bowls in her practice when a block or an area isn’t responding to the bodywork. She has different fee schedules for just a massage or for massage with singing bowls or energy work. The fees where she combines modalities represent the value that her clients receive, and are much more than for just a massage. Her schedule is very full because her clients value the additional service she provides.
Most of her clients choose the combined treatments. The healing from her treatments lasts longer. They leave her clients feeling wonderful, looking forward to their next appointment. And her clients refer her services to their friends and family.
2. Consider adding a complementary modality to your service.
This is a serious consideration because training costs money and there is often travel and accommodation involved. Consider though, that the right training can be your best investment!
The way to determine the effectiveness of any investment, including training, is to measure the pay back. In other words, how long will it take you to earn the money it took to pay for the training?
Suppose you make a small investment of $1000 – about the cost of becoming a Sound Wellness Practitioner – Level 1.
Assuming that you are currently working with 19 clients per week (the average stated by the Registered Massage Therapist’s Association – Ontario),
your number of clients does not increase (it will),
you charge the average amount for a practitioner, with a modest increase of fees of $25 per client,
and if only10% your clients opt for the increased care,
then your payback to cover training costs is well under 6 months.
Most practitioners see an increase in the number of clients – many of them from referrals, an increase in return visits, and with additional training, are also able to increase their fees by much more than $25 reducing the period of their payback for the training. All because the training that you invested in supports your gifts enabling you to deliver superior value – value that is recognized by your clients. By comparison, industry considers any payback of less than two YEARS to be a solid investment.
3. Collaborate with a Colleague
A wonderful way to grow your clientele is to collaborate on special events for clients or the general public with a colleague. Your colleague’s clients get to experience what you do and your clients get to experience what your colleague does. It’s a win – win for everyone.
Next week, I’ll look at the Mental and Emotional Dimensions of growing your Holistic Practice.