Building a thriving and financially successful practice takes what every small business needs: patience, persistence, and – above all – focus.
In my experience coaching and consulting holistic practitioners, a lack of focus is the single biggest obstacle to building a thriving and successful practice. Many jump from client group to client group, never really defining their target market . Others put time and energy into building a website only to let it languish soon after. I’ve also worked with a few who wanted to do very complex, specialized programs but then felt pressured to offer more compact “general interest” programs (weight loss, stress reduction, etc.) to generate short-term revenues.
In other words, these practitioners are bouncing all over the place!
And continue to bounce they will until they focus on a few key areas of their businesses, especially when they are building (or rebuilding) their holistic practices.
In this article, I want to help you focus on the framework of your business, the strategic pillars that create the foundation of a thriving, financially successful practice. I will provide reflection questions to help you get started seeing the “big picture” of your business. I also have a free template on my site (see below) to help organize your thinking, and most important, to turn your insights into action.
Your business framework consists of three foundational strategic pillars. To make it easy to remember, I call these the Three R’s of Growing a Thriving and Financially Successful Holistic Practice:
The First R: Results
You have to deliver results for your clients. When clients get results, they build confidence in you and your process, but more important, in themselves. They will see first-hand how strong and resourceful they really are. And, self-confident clients are much more likely to develop the kind of self-awareness that leads to self-care.
So I encourage all my clients to focus on the 2-3 results they KNOW they can deliver to 90% of their clients. These results must be specific, measurable, time bound and realistic. Too many times, holistic practitioners promise nice-sounding but all-too vague results.
Reflection Questions:
What results are you promising your clients? Take a look at the results you are promising your clients. Are they specific, measurable, time bound and realistic?
The Second R: Reputation
Your reputation is built on how you deliver results to your clients. Some practitioners are known as being “all business” – they know how to get their clients into action and inspire them to keep going no matter what ; others are memorable because of the care and empathy they demonstrate; still others are great “health detectives” able to ferret out all kinds of information using their reason and intuition.
It’s tempting to want to be all of these things! But your reputation is built on your most memorable quality, that “thing you do” and the “style you have” that makes you stand out in a crowded marketplace.
Reflection Questions:
So, what do you want your clients saying about you? What’s the reputation you most like to build in the minds of your target market? What are you doing today and tomorrow to create that buzz, that reputation, that personal brand? If you put the first two R’s together, you get the third:
The Third R: Referrals
When you deliver results for your clients, you build a reputation. Consistent results and a strong reputation brings you referrals. And let’s face it, the easiest, most satisfying, and most profitable way to build a holistic practice is through referrals. You want your clients to be your own personal sales force. Studies have shown that up to 80% of revenues are generated by active promoters of your business, those clients-turned-sales-people who recommend you to family and friends.
You can also get referrals from additional sources: colleagues and peers in related specializations, allied medical professionals, supplement manufacturers and distributors, coaches and consultants in other industries, teachers and administrators from holistic training programs.
Reflection Questions:
What are you doing right now to make sure your clients are actively promoting your business after they conclude their engagement with you? Are you referring business to other health professionals? How are you managing your professional network? How are you talking about your business – the results you are getting and the reputation you are building?
To summarize:
You will build a thriving, abundant holistic practice when you follow this simple formula:
Results + Reputation = Referrals
It’s about that simple! Of course executing on this “simple” equation takes a lot of focus, which is what I’m encouraging you to do over the next six months. In my experience it takes about six months of consistent focus on a goal to make it a lifetime habit. I hope that after that six months, this simple equation becomes a mantra, or the background music to your practice.
To help you put your insights into action, I have a free downloadable template you can use to organize your thinking. If you need help filling it out, or planning your strategy to take your practice to the next level in 2010, please contact me!
