Taking The First Step

A career as an alternative therapist is a dream job. You are your own boss, have the freedom to manage your own time, generally earn a better hourly salary than you do in employment and can do work you genuinely love.
Despite all the benefits of this type of career, many people hold back from taking that first step. For a lot of people it is a career they would like to do "one day."
There are many reasons why people hold back, for instance:

• I am worried about giving up a regular salary
• I don't know where to start
• My friends and family will think it is a stupid idea
• What if I'm no good at it?
• I don't know anything about taxes and marketing
• It all seems too daunting. 

The best advice we can give is to just start. Begin researching how to qualify in your chosen field. Or, if you are already qualified and are delaying setting up the business, just start marketing it. None of us have all the answers at the beginning. You learn as you go along.

You can easily work out aspects, such as keeping accounts and running Facebook adverts, as you progress. Everything does not have to be perfect on day one. There are a huge number of resources to teach you the skills you will need. Many people hold back from their ideal lifestyle because they are waiting for all the stars to be aligned. Well, that perfect time never happens to start now and adapt as your business develops.

Starting your own business feels like a big risk. However, as a therapist your risks are relatively low. You could continue to be employed part time while you build you client base. The overheads for a therapy business are low compared to other businesses such as shops, restaurants or manufacturing. Explore the risks and develop a contingency plan to deal with the, Don't let them hold you back unnecessarily.

As for the opinions of other people, the important thing is that it is your life. Whenever you make a big change in life, some people will be resistant to it. This resistance usually comes from a kind place, they are worried about the risks. There is a saying that it is easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. Take the first steps and then tell friends and family. Once you have started on the path you will usually find that people are more supportive. Explain to friends and family your reasons for wanting a lifestyle change. Accept that not everyone will understand, but that is OK.

Taking the first step is the most difficult. After that each obstacle you will encounter feels smaller.

You deserve to do work you are passionate about. Make that change in your life today.

Unlocking Your Superpowers

As a therapist, you wear lots of hats. You have the role your clients see, as a therapist. However, you also have to wear your book-keeping hat, your social media marketing hat, your networking hat, your organization hat and so on. With only 24 hours in the day it can be very difficult to know where to place your focus.

Place your focus where your superpowers lie. Yes, for a moment we are putting hats aside and donning a superhero costume, complete with underwear worn on top of clothes! You have superpowers, lots of them, and by focussing your attention on those superpowers, you can build a thriving and fulfilling business.

So, how do you find your superpowers? A good place to start is to identify what you enjoy the most. What lights you up? What do you enjoy doing?  Take some time to write a list of all the things you enjoy in your business and all of the things you enjoy in your day to day life. This will be different for everyone. For example, many people would find coding very dull, but Derek Sivers, the founder of CD Baby, enjoyed coding so much that he kept doing the coding, even when he was running a multi-million dollar business.

As well as writing these lists of what you enjoy, take some time to write down what you are good at. Ask your friends what you are good at. There will be things that you find easy, which you assumed everyone else found easy too. Your friends will identify these superpowers.

For example.
Things I enjoy in business
Meeting clients for the first time
Business networking


Things I enjoy in life
Going out with friends
Going to new places
Travel

Things my friends say I am good at
Confident with new people
Organised with dates
Great at planning events
Make people feel at ease.

Once you have identified your superpowers, you can apply them to your business. If you are someone who has great tech skills and attention to detail, then you can focus your time on studying Google Analytics and tweaking your sales funnels. If your superpower is public speaking and networking, then great, get out there and market your business that way.

One of the wonderful things about taking that leap and starting your own business, is that you discover new superpowers. Often, in the world of employment, only a limited number of tasks are required of us. However, when you start your own business you can suddenly discover that you are good with numbers, a great public speaker or fantastic event organiser. Enjoy the process of your new superpowers shining through.

As well as discovering superpowers, you didn't know you had, your own business is also a great opportunity for growth. It is one of the steepest learning curves you will ever go through. Most skills can be learned and, if you have an interest in them, you will learn them easily. You can add to your superpowers by learning business strategy, online marketing or how to use social media platforms. Here at The Therapists' Business School, we have a range of online and classroom courses to allow you add to your superpower repertoire.

As well as running your business day to day, you also have to think about how to grow your business. There are so many directions you can take your business. Do you want to do group therapy? Do you want to hire another therapist? Do you want to create online products? Or sell a book? With so many options and with everyone giving you a different opinion, it can be hard to know which direction to take. Use the same strategy of identifying your superpowers and apply them to business strategy decisions. For example, if you hate working on your own but love mixing with people, then don't write a blog or book. Instead, you could organise wellness events. Sometimes, it can be hard to know what we want. This is very common. A good way to get into the flow state of mind is to do something you enjoy. You will tend to find that when you are in a good state of mind, new business ideas will flow to you. A common distorted belief, which can hold business owners back, is that if something is easy for us we can't charge for it. Remember, just because it is easy for you, doesn't mean it's easy for someone else. Someone else will happily pay you to alleviate whatever problem they are facing.

So, now that you've identified your superpowers and how you can use them in your business, it's time to talk about the rest. All the things you don't like, the tasks in your business which feel like chores. This is where outsourcing comes in. These days you can outsource almost every business task. Outsourcing doesn't mean you have to employ someone. You can outsource as much or as little as you like for a fraction of the cost it would be to employ someone. You can hire someone to do your SEO, write your blogs, do your accounts, even book your travel or do your laundry. A great website for outsourcing is  Upwork (www.upwork.com).

Discovering and then utilising your superpowers is one of the best things you can do for your business. So, take the time to do this today.

Find out the 7 Steps To Creating A Successful Therapy Business

The Business Books Every Therapist Needs To Read

As a therapist you're constantly learning and developing. However, one of the areas commonly neglected is business and marketing. However, this is one of the most important areas to develop. Here at The Therapists' Business School we hear too many stories of great therapists, who had to stop practising simply because their business doesn't generate enough money to support them. Becoming knowledgeable in business doesn't have to be expensive. The following books are a wonderful way to rapidly improve your business knowledge.

'The Four Hour Work Week' by Tim Ferriss Essentially a book about time management, which should be such a dull, dry subject. However, the author manages to keep you highly entertained through this book, whilst providing practical ways to improve your focus, manage your time and increase your productivity by 1000%. Some of the tips include how to outsource mundane tasks for a fraction of the cost, software to dramatically save time and how to create an automated passive income. Highly recommended.

'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' by Robert Kiyosaki Do you find that you continually work harder and harder and yet still do not reach the level of wealth you desire? It's possible that you have negative beliefs about money, for example, that you must specialize more to achieve wealth, or perhaps deep down you believe that rich people are greedy. Negative beliefs about money can cause us to self-sabotage our business. Robert Kiyosaki explains how to spot and change negative thought patterns. He also explains how economics works in very user friendly terms.  For the rest of the article sign up to our informative newsletter here.