Is your therapy practice ready to tackle the summer slump head-on?
In this episode we uncover five vital strategies that will help your practice not only survive but thrive during the challenging summer months.
We'll dive into methods to keep clients committed to their sessions despite the temptations of summer distractions, emphasizing the critical importance of maintaining routine for mental health. Additionally, hear how enforcing clear cancellation policies can safeguard your financial health and ensure business stability even when the sun is out and vacations are calling.
Moreover, this episode isn't just about enduring the summer; it's about coming out stronger. Discover how to create a financial game plan tailored to navigate seasonal revenue fluctuations, and learn the benefits of leveraging support systems like coaches and mentors.
Is your therapy practice ready to tackle the summer slump head-on?
In this episode we uncover five vital strategies that will help your practice not only survive but thrive during the challenging summer months.
We'll dive into methods to keep clients committed to their sessions despite the temptations of summer distractions, emphasizing the critical importance of maintaining routine for mental health. Additionally, hear how enforcing clear cancellation policies can safeguard your financial health and ensure business stability even when the sun is out and vacations are calling.
Moreover, this episode isn't just about enduring the summer; it's about coming out stronger. Discover how to create a financial game plan tailored to navigate seasonal revenue fluctuations, and learn the benefits of leveraging support systems like coaches and mentors.
Ah, summertime. This is the time of year where we should be relaxing, kicking back, taking it a little bit easy in business, right? Well, owning a therapy practice, you know that the summer slump is real. This is your clients canceling, they're busy, they're going on vacations, your clinicians might be out, and so you are just chaotically trying to figure out what is happening with the money and how are we gonna get through these few months before things hopefully pick up again in the fall. Well, today I'm going to give you five ways that you can combat the summer slump and make sure that your business not only survives it, but thrives. My name is Craig and I'm the CEO of Desi Financial Coaching. Our goal is simple to help you run a therapy practice that is permanently profitable. If you own a solo or group practice, we're here to help you build a business that creates more time, makes more money and serves more people.
Speaker 1:
This is the Therapy Business Podcast. If you have felt the effects of the summer slump, you are definitely not alone. Most, if not every, practice owner has in some capacity felt this. Now, over the past few years, we've noticed that, you know, with COVID, post COVID, really there wasn't as much of a summer slump, as there was pre 2020. 2020, it was a very predictable. Usually July, june through August was going to be just a drop in revenue Because, again, clients are busy, lives are chaotic, people are just gone, and so we just see a drop in sessions. Cancellations are happening more often, all of the above. But after 2020, we went through these few years where mental health was so top of mind it was something people were starting to prioritize that, even though maybe current clients were dropping in in showing up in attendance and canceling more often, most practices were still onboarding new clients. They're still getting leads throughout the summer that offset any cancellations they may have, so they were able to fill those spots Well. Last year, I noticed, was the first year in a long time that that wasn't the case. Many therapists felt that summer slump and here we are now back into that rotation of annually during the summer, having to deal with this Once again.
Speaker 1:
You're not alone in this If you're feeling the stress of the summer slump. It is a real thing, it's a thing, and so we just want to do the best we can to proactively prep and plan for it, and so I've come up with five ways that you can hopefully address it head on and financially just be in a better spot so that at the end of the summer, you are ready to go, you're still in a fantastic place, if not better place than you were to start, and you can push forward through the fall and with as much success as possible. So the first thing we want to do is call out the elephant in the room, and what I mean by this is have your therapists talk to their clients. Talk to them about the tendency of chaos in the summer, about how it's easy for our routines to get thrown off with kids being home, for our routines to get thrown off with kids being home, for all of these things to be happening and for us to feel like we need to reschedule or cancel something, cancel an appointment with their therapist. We want to talk to them about this and the importance of continuing on with regular therapy as much as possible, in fact, if not more importantly, during this time they should be going to therapy because their routine is thrown, which means a lot of times they're just out of their norm, as you know, and so that probably means even more, so we need to be seeing each other on a regular basis. Now, of course, vacations. We're not saying don't go on vacation because of therapy, or go inside for an hour and leave your family at the beach so you can do a therapy session, but what we are saying is, while you are home, doing your best to continue on with regular therapy, so making sure that you are attending, that you're prioritizing these sessions and prioritizing yourself.
Speaker 1:
A lot of times, too many missing, too many sessions can mean we're playing catch up. So if you miss two or three sessions in a row, that might mean the next session or two is going to be catching back up and re-stepping through some of the work that you've already been doing together. So all of these things are great to highlight and a lot of times, as therapists, we avoid these conversations. We don't. It's almost like we're afraid of bringing it up because then that means people will cancel. Right, it's the hey. It's common for people to cancel sessions might plant this idea in their head that they need to cancel with you. But truthfully, being open and honest and telling them how important it is to continue on is something that most therapists aren't doing, and this will give you a leg up.
Speaker 1:
So I recommend having a team meeting with your clinicians, telling them to have these conversations in their next session. Have them make phone calls to their clients with encouragement or send a text of encouragement to say, hey, I know summer's crazy. I'm thinking about you and just reminding them of the importance of this. Find that balance. You know your practice well. You know your clients well. What is the best way to get in touch with them? But if nothing else, next session, have your clinicians have that conversation. Now I will say only say what you believe to be true, and I hope that's obvious but we're not going to plant seeds of fear or doubt or say things that aren't true, like if you don't show up every time, then you're going to regress and all the way back to the beginning. You know whatever it is. You know your niche really well. So just stick to truth, because it is very true that it's important to stay on a regular rhythm. I would imagine that you believe that to be true. That's all we're saying to them is let's try and maintain our rhythm.
Speaker 1:
The second thing is piggybacking on that, and that is to charge cancellation fees and then prioritize rescheduling as much as possible. So, yes, things are going to happen in the summer and so there's going to be vacations and so we want to make sure that we are doing everything in our power to reschedule those sessions as much as you can so that you are plugging them in in an open slot somewhere else so that they're not missing those sessions. Now, it's not always possible, but what we want to do is prioritize that. A lot of times we take the cancellation as a cancellation. We don't even make an effort to plug them into a different day or a different time. And so really making that a priority again among your team talk to your team, talk to your admins about that being a priority. Our goal is to get people rescheduled so that we are not losing that revenue, so that we're not losing that income from that client.
Speaker 1:
Now, cancellations is, as therapists can be, an uncomfortable topic. Guilt sets in. We feel like we're greedy, we feel like we are not empathetic to other people's situations when we charge a cancellation fee. So hopefully in your practice, you have a cancellation policy. If you don't, you need to put one in place, something that just states that if they cancel within 24 hours, they're charged half their session fee or even their full session fee, whatever you feel most comfortable charging, but having something to prevent no-shows, to prevent last-minute cancellations. What this does is it gives you the opportunity to charge it if you want to or not, so you can choose case by case. Okay, you know they had a family member get in a car accident this morning and they're not going to make it to their session. We understand we're not going to charge you, but you have it in place to catch the majority of people who are just last minute stressed out and decide they need to call and cancel or worse, just don't show up. We want to actually charge them. Again. If you have a cancellation policy, follow through with it. That's so huge is following through with a cancellation policy? Follow through with it. That's so huge is following through with your cancellation policy.
Speaker 1:
If you want to give a one-time grace, that's okay. So maybe, if they're not repeat offenders, if you're going to give them the grace, I would make it known to them and that typically looks like hey, so-and-so. We typically charge X dollars for a cancellation within X amount of time. This time, since this is your first time, we're going to waive that for you, because we understand sometimes things happen. But just a heads up next time you will be charged this much. So just kindly letting them know this is twofold. I mean, they're going to be grateful that you're doing them a favor by waiving that cost. And two, it's letting them know that, hey, next time it's going you're going to be charged and then it's going to be easier to do it the next time for you. Now I just want you to know you're not doing anything wrong.
Speaker 1:
It's not greedy to charge cancellation fees, because if we take a step back and look at this as a business because I know we're thinking of the people involved, but as a business, your clinician who they canceled on is hanging in the lurch. They're not seeing that person. So they now had an hour of their day that they were going to be making money that now they're not. Or if you're paying them for that time anyway, now your business is taking a financial hit because you're paying them for something that you never collected on. So there's so many aspects as a business where last-minute cancellations hurt you and if we open that door to let people cancel without penalty or no show without penalty, it's going to happen again and again. So we want to make sure we put our foot down and stop that and that's also going to mitigate some of this revenue loss that we might see in the summertime. So stick to charging your cancellation fees and prioritize rescheduling. The third thing we want to do financially is just have a financial game plan to get through the summer slump.
Speaker 1:
Looking ahead, you know this is coming every year. So in May, sitting down and looking at your numbers, how are we looking? Moving forward? What is our profit margin across the board? What is our expense percentage compared to what we're bringing in? Thinking in advance of there's going to be a lot of expenses, especially if you pay your clinicians based on hourly or a commission split or even just a session fee, they're dropping. So if they're salaried, your expenses are not going to drop, even though sessions might drop. But the ones who are paid on a per session basis of some kind, your expenses are gonna drop in relation to the revenue. So just because income is down doesn't mean your business is in dire straits. A lot of your expenses are gonna drop down. Now, of course, there's gonna be some that don't change office space, online software, simple practice, whatever those programs or those expenses are that are finite, that are set in stone, are going to be there. But your biggest expense is payroll. If you own a group practice, your largest expense is payroll, and so not seeing people is going to bring that down.
Speaker 1:
We want to look at that and say how much expense is going to go down relationally. And then we want to look at how much excess cash do we have on hand to help us get through this season. How much cash do we have in store, whether it's in an emergency fund, whether it's just excess cash that's built up in our checking accounts? How much do we believe is extra money that can help us get through these next few months? Knowing where you stand financially is so important. This is what we do as coaches with our clients is we help them create these financial game plans. We know the therapy industry incredibly well and we know how to help guide you through this. So if you don't have a game plan and you need one in the show notes is always a link to connect with one of our coaches We'd be happy to help you get set up with a game plan to not only survive the summer slump, thrive it, but also year-round navigate the ever-changing field of therapy and the ups and downs of just being a business owner.
Speaker 1:
The fourth thing that you can do to combat the summer slump is make the most of your therapist's downtime. Make the most of their downtime. If they are in office and they have cancellations, even if it's with plenty of notice, they might have an hour or two in between sessions that they're just feeling like there's nothing to do. This might drop morale because they're not feeling like there's nothing to do. This might drop morale because they're not making money during that time, most likely. So they're probably stressing about their own finances on that side. They're bored. They're trying to figure out what they can do. So we want to help guide them. This is something I would have a team meeting with them At the start of summer. You might even have another one mid-summer just to remind them of ways they can utilize that downtime.
Speaker 1:
The first thing you could do is, if they are stressing about money as a business owner and again, having that financial game plan is important because you can decide. You know how can I help supplement some of their income and that might look like non-clinical hours. What kind of work could they be doing during the week to? So if they've got three or four hours during the week that normally would be clinical, they'd be working with a client and right now they're not. Could I pay them at a non-clinical hourly rate to do other work, whether it's admin work for you, whether it's content writing blogs for the website. Whether it's networking paying them to reach out and connect with other professionals in the area to try and build some referral partner basis. Whether it's prospecting just really hitting the pavement not literally necessarily, but getting out there and trying to find new clients in various ways content creation again, videos, blogs, anything they could be doing to further along your business and to build their client load. So come up with a plan. Figure out how much you can pay hourly if you don't already have a non-clinical hourly rate in place. Figure out what that is and talk to them. Give them maybe an allowance of hours that they can utilize. So during the week you can get up to five extra hours of non-clinical hours by doing X, y and Z. This is going to help supplement their income. It's going to help grow your business. It's a win-win, as long as you know that you can afford it, because once again, that's a non-revenue generating hour. So just being cautious of your expenses as you're adding that in Another thing that we could be doing during that downtime is maybe some development, some trainings.
Speaker 1:
If they're working on a new license in a certain area, maybe that's something they could be doing and that you're investing in with them on that. So, really looking into those areas, is there an upsell offer? Do they have an intensive that they could do that maybe they are calling their current clients to upsell them into? I say upsell, but just offer the opportunity to come in for an intensive or a workshop or something of that nature. So, once again, making the most of that therapist downtime is so vital.
Speaker 1:
Lastly, the fifth thing that you can do is prep for next summer, financially prepare for next summer. If you know the summer slump is a real thing for your practice, let's prepare for next year. The way we do this is we open up an account, another checking account or savings account, and we nickname it Summer Nest Egg, and then, moving forward from August or September on, you're going to start putting just a small percentage of revenue into that account and just leave it there, let it build up over the fall, over the winter, over the spring, so that when summer comes along you now have that cash savings to help propel you through those down months, really lean into prioritizing that. Figure out maybe what that number is that you would feel comfortable with how much do I need to cover my salary, how much do I need to cover some expenses? Kind of pinpoint that number and then work backward and say, okay, I'm going to put 2% of revenue into this account and by the end of the spring we should have enough money to help get through the summer without stress.
Speaker 1:
I just want to remind you that just because the summer slump is a thing doesn't mean that you're failing as a business owner, doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong, and I know on paper that makes sense, but sometimes it doesn't feel that way. There's the entrepreneurial roller coaster, is a real thing and that is the highs and lows, the times where revenue is incredibly high, you're, you're breaking records for yourself, you feel like the top of the world, the best there is, you're a thriving business owner. And then you hit those valleys where revenue is down, where leads are down, where people are canceling, and it can feel like what am I even doing here? Who do? I think I am that I can run this practice and I want to encourage you that you are doing incredibly well and the summer slump is not a reflection of you as a practice owner. Revenue is just one indicator of the success of a business.
Speaker 1:
What we really care about is your profitability. How profitable are you? And what we usually find is, if we look holistically at your finances in the summer, maybe you go down from $30,000 a month to $20,000 a month, but maybe your expenses drop the same. So maybe your profit went from 10% down to 7%. So you see, it didn't drop 10%, it didn't. It just dropped a little bit maybe, or maybe it's sustained. Maybe it's still at around nine or 10%. So just know that it's not as bad as it might feel. But too often we're just looking at that top line number. We're seeing that sales are down, revenue is down, so the business is down.
Speaker 1:
And yes, we want to go in cautiously, but don't go burning everything down, don't go canceling things. Lean into your support systems, lean into your coaches, lean into your mentors, your groups, um, to make sure that you are going in with eyes open and not reacting out of fear or anxiety, but actually thinking through and proactively saying okay, stepping back holistically, how are we really doing? And I have a feeling you're probably doing a lot better than you think. All right, summer slump, we're going to get through it. Try some of these things and hopefully you'll feel a lot better about these months and you'll be ready to tackle the fall with just a new sense of motivation and drive. Thanks for joining us on the Therapy Business Podcast. Be sure to subscribe, leave a review and share it with a practice owner that you may know If your practice needs help getting organized with its finances or just growing your practice. Head to therapybusinesspodcom to learn how we can help.