Adding Coaching or Consulting to Your Therapy Practice is a Perfect Choice….for some therapists.
Below I go into detail about three main considerations before launching your coaching/consulting/course business.
First, carefully consider WHY you want to do it…and there are no wrong answers for this one!
Next, evaluate whether you have the time and energy to devote to getting your new coaching or consulting business off the ground.
Finally, think about whether you’re willing to put yourself out there in the different ways that building online businesses and brands require!
Grab our free guides to learn more about ethically adding coaching to your therapy practice! Then read the transcript below for more info on things to consider.
What do you need to consider before you even think about adding coaching, consulting, or courses to your current therapy practice?
If you’re a clinician right now, you probably know that coaching, consulting, adding courses, it’s all the rage and there’s a reason why!
A lot of us are happy over here on the other side, having added coaching or consulting to our practices. We’re making more money. We have more freedom of time, we have the flexibility to work at home and be home more for our kids. There’s a lot of good stuff over here and so I know a lot of clinicians are kind of giving the eye like, “Hey, hey, what’s that over there? I’m curious. I want to find out more.”
I can tell you, as somebody who coaches people just like you, your skills will go miles in coaching, consulting and online course businesses, but there are some things you need to consider.
The first is to really look at your Why.
Why do you want to do it? What is it? And there are no wrong reasons here. Frankly, if you want to do it just for more money, more power to you, that’s great. Maybe you want to do it for more free time. Maybe you want to do it because you’re burned out or you’re bored, you want more impact. You know you have a message that you can spread beyond just your couple of clients in your office, in your home town.
There are a million great reasons to add these secondary businesses and there are no wrong reasons, but figure out your Whys and get them down on paper because honestly, it’s not always easy getting a new business up off the ground and you’re going to need something to come back to over and over. If you have a rough day, you’re going to need something to come back to that says, oh right, this is why I’m doing it.
I recommend making a list of 25 reasons why you want to add this business and expand your life in this way.
Then I want you to think about “do I have either a lot of extra time or some extra money right now that I can invest in truly launching this business?”.
Now you might be saying, well, it’s an online business. What do I really have to invest in? Maybe get a cheap website on Squarespace and what else is there?
True. Absolutely true. But there is a time piece. I want you to think about treating yourself and your business like you’re the real deal. So either that means investing time or money to get a really good website, not just something crappy that you threw up in on a Saturday afternoon and you’re like, eh, still kind of looks like a free template, but it’s good enough.
Get a really good website, spend a little time and money getting yourself set up with all the back-end business stuff you need: the LLC, calling your insurance, seeing if there’s any other ways that you need to cover yourself in your local area. Maybe talking to your Board about what you should and should not put on this new website you’re creating.
Thinking about the investment, a lot of people find that when they want to go into coaching or consulting, they really grow so much faster if they hire a coach to talk them through these initial steps in business. Like the Six-Figure Flagship® Program that takes you through step by step-by-step exactly how to add this business, protect your license and have a successful launch.
The third thing you need to think about, and this is a reality for a lot of people, you have to be comfortable or be willing to become comfortable putting yourself out there in a different way when you add coaching, consulting online courses.
Why? Because as a therapist, you might have gotten by in your local market, in your local town, just with word of mouth, just with your network in town with referrals that come in from those couple of doctors that you’re friends with or something easy like that. Maybe your PT profile is the most that you’ve really ever had to put yourself out there.
Well, now you’re launching a new business, especially an online business, the competition is insane. And being heard above the noise that bombards people all day, every day is hard to do. So you need to be willing to think about what separates you, what are you the best at and how can you apply those things so that you cut through the noise of everything else out there.
In some ways I feel like adding coaching and consulting is about becoming your authentic self and trusting that the people who resonate with you resonate with your vibe, your energy, and your skills.
But being able to step forward as ourselves, warts and all, it’s not that easy. So when you think about things like, could I do a video like this? Could I do some Facebook lives? Could I write blog posts that have a little bit of personality vulnerability to them? How am I going to use my skills and put myself out there? You know, put my personality out there.
Do you have a willingness either to do it because you’re like, oh yeah, I can do that. No big deal. Or do you have a willingness to practice until you get better? Even at the things that make you super nervous. When I first started doing video it was terrifying and now I can just take out my phone and be like, ok, let’s go!
So you will get better. So even the things that scare you now will not scare you forever, I promise. But are you willing to tackle those things? Are you willing to show up in a more public way?
So these are just the things I want you to think about.
I have tons of free guides that tell you everything you need to know about adding coaching or consulting.
Head here to grab the free guides. They will help you, I promise!
