I consult with practitioners, helping them grow their business. My work is similar to what consultants and coaches do to help entrepreneurs build their corporate offerings, except I work in the helping fields, the healing arts. As a result, I don’t charge the monthly retainers that corporate consultants do, that’s good news for practitioners!
I thrive on sharing my knowledge to a field that needs leveling up, and I’m passionate about helping practitioners enjoy 6-figure practices. We work hard, we foster healing and evolution. We should thrive and prosper!
The Helping Field
Practitioners tend to launch their practice and service their market by leading with their hearts. They’ve learned modalities that they respect and love and they are motivated to help others.
They may not be well versed in business basics or have financial acumen. They may have launched their practice on a ‘wing and a prayer’, with minimal savings to support their transition from their previous income generating role to self-employment.
Many of these earnest, dedicated people struggle financially. They’re bootstrapping their bootstraps! Frequently, they create their own websites, and are so busy hustling to serve their clients that they have little time (or interest) in business development activities.
As a result, their practices tend to grow slowly. Over time, as they get decent word of mouth, they begin to trust that their income is relatively solid.
They’re able to step back and develop a growth strategy. When we work together, we usually start with two essential growth elements:
- creating a website that attracts clients
- growing their email list
If I Build it, Will They Come?
Remember the movie, Field of Dreams? The premise of the movie was to build a baseball diamond to attract players from the past. ‘If you build it, they will come.’
That’s an amazing, fabulous, compelling line. And it’s a myth.
For most practitioners, their home grown website isn’t driving business. In fact, many practitioners who have paid a qualified web developer to build their website will say that it’s not driving business.
Websites can only drive business when they’re found. And finding a website without a strategic roadmap is like finding a needle in a haystack!
How do I Get ‘Them’ to Come?
A retail business, such as a dry cleaner or a gas station offer essential products and services, but may not inspire loyalty or invite customer connection.
Do you have a relationship with the closest gas station to your house or office? Probably not. You may have a relationship with your dry cleaner. Turnover is lower, they clean your clothes on a regular basis. But the relationship is cordial, limited, and if you found out that there was a highly rated, less expensive dry cleaner near your office, or in the next town, you might move your business there.
Loyalty and connection aren’t that important.
In the healing arts, it’s an entirely different scenario.
Potential clients:
- have to be led to a website through a strategy that makes that site (and you) visible
- need to have an effective and inviting experience when they land on your site
- require a clear path from ‘learning more’ to scheduling a session
- benefit from an opportunity to engage with you before they invest real money in your offering
You + Your Modality + Your Professionalism + Your Attraction Strategy = Thriving
Clients who are seeking healing and support — therapeutic, clinical or alternative — want a trusting, deep relationship with a practitioner who meets their needs, where they feel seen and understood, and held in their inner work.
As a result, it may take time before someone who has found your site and joined your mailing list books a session. They generally start out interested in you and your work, but not ready to commit.
It’s a Numbers Game
Don’t cringe. But truth be told, as practitioners, you’re actually working a numbers game.
If you want to deliver between 80 and 100 client sessions a month, you need way more than 20-25 clients. You probably need something closer to 300 clients! Not everyone will come weekly. Not everyone who joins your practice will stay.
Let’s say you have 150 clients now… congratulations! Where will the next 150 come from?
Your Email List is Your Field of Dreams
Growing your email list is an important business development activity, and it often ranks low in priority on a practitioner’s to-do list.
The problem is, building the site doesn’t grow the list. It invites people to join your list, but it doesn’t actually do much to substantially grow your list.
Unless you are taking active steps to grow your list, you’re at the mercy of waiting and hoping for those courageous enough to join your list, knowing next to nothing about you.
How do you grow your list of potential clients?
- Community events where you are visible, offering services, education and value
- Teaching workshops – 1- or 2-hour events, free or low cost, where you can showcase your skills
- Lead magnets – website ‘giveaways’ that capture potential clients emails in exchange for your high-value deliverable
- Strategic, ongoing communication to your list – providing value and inviting engagement
- Networking with other practitioners, and creating an effective, mutual client referral strategy
How to Build it, so They’ll Come
Practitioners who are ready to grow beyond striving to thriving need to invest in themselves and their business, grow their financial acumen, and create effective client acquisition and outreach strategies.
They need to:
- retire their homemade website and engage with a professional designer and content strategist who will help them create a site that elevates their offer and impact.
- develop outreach strategies that drive people to their site and onto their mailing list.
If you build an effective marketing engine that fuels your website, they will come.
If you communicate effectively, in a regular, appropriate cadence with those intrepid potential clients who have joined your list, some of them will at some point book sessions.
Getting Your Game On
A thriving practice requires playing the long game.
If you don’t know how to grow your practice and you’re ready to do so, hire a consultant or coach who has the knowledge and the chops to help you succeed.
Bottom line: there are plenty of clients out there, looking for what you offer.
You have to build your presence, grow and feed your list, so that you can leverage your offers and know they will come.
