If you’re a therapist and you’re looking to set up in practice in 2018, here are a few ideas for you to make sure that you start your therapy business off well.
Write A Business Plan
Your business plan will help you to define the services you will offer, your target clients and how much you will charge for your services. It will help you decide the location of your business and whether it will be online or at a specific location.
You’ll set financial goals and the aims and objectives of your business, with targets in place so you can measure your success.
Finally, as part of your business plan, you’ll need to develop a simple marketing plan to decide how you will target and attract your clients.
Having a business plan in place will help you review your successes but also identify and amend the less successful parts of your business.
Business Structure
Knowing what your business structure will look like is one of the most important parts of setting up a business and ties in heavily with your business plan. There are several options available, depending on your financial situation, your earnings potential and liability for your business expenses.
Research the different options such as self-employment, also known as being a sole trader, limited companies, and partnerships as each one will have positives and negatives for you.
Remember that you can also change your business structure further down the line so don’t feel that any choices you make now are permanent.
Get Some Business Accounting Basics
You’ll need to be paid by your clients and you’ll also have business expenses that you’ll need to pay so it’s important to get the basics set up.
You’ll need a bank account to pay into and withdraw from and you may want to get an accounting package such as Quickbooks which will help you with your profit and loss accounts.
You’ll need to complete tax returns and having an accounting software package can help you to complete your tax return quickly and easily.   If you find this daunting, don’t panic, Michael B Bennett Ltd is an accountancy firm that specialises in looking after therapists and practitioners and can offer strategic business advice, accountancy matters and all aspects of taxation and is there to support you just when you need it.
Employment Law Awareness
If you’re going to employ staff, you’ll need to have a basic awareness of employment law, such as contracts, holiday pay and employee rights.
The basics are available online, but you should get advice from a specialist solicitor if you are facing a difficult situation with an employee.
Find A Mentor
Having someone to talk through your options and who will hold you accountable is really important when you start your own business.
Find someone who also runs their own business and set a meeting over coffee once a month to discuss your plans. They can make sure that you do what you say you’re going to, and you can support them too.
Professional Issues
Data protection issues are a hot topic at the moment with the GDPR coming into play in May this year, so make sure you know what this means for you and your business.
Review lone working practices if you are working solo and think about how you will ask for feedback on your services from your clients.
Set your terms and conditions of treatment out early. Think about what you will do about late payments or non-payments and how you will address these. These will need to include your cancellation policies and include a therapy contract, if this is something you want to add in.
Remember that you need to keep up with your CPD and accreditations – keep these logged and make sure you have the right number of hours.
Make you have the right level of insurance cover – Balens offer discounted professional liability insurance specifically for health and well-being professionals.
Failing to Prepare is Preparing to Fail
Whilst this all may seem daunting, considering all of these things before you start will help you to be successful in 2018.
Remember, Private Practice Hub is here to support you and your therapy business, so access all the valuable information we have about running a therapy business on the website or ask us a question today.