The Therapy Business Podcast
We know how challenging growing a therapy practice can be, and don’t think it should require an accounting degree just to run your business. If you own a solo or a group practice, we’re here to help you build a business that creates more time, makes more money and serves more people.
The Therapy Business Podcast
Thriving During the Winter Slowdown
Imagine sailing smoothly through the holiday season without the burden of financial stress weighing you down. Learn how to build a financial cushion to protect your practice during the winter slump, and discover the art of planning for these predictable slow periods so you can savor the festivities with peace of mind.
But that's not all—this episode is also about maximizing your potential during the quiet times. I'll guide you on how to leverage the downtime for rejuvenation and productivity. Don't miss out on this opportunity to transform your practice and approach the holiday season with newfound confidence!
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*Intro/outro song credit:
King Around Here by Alex Grohl
The holidays are one of my favorite times of year, but as a practice owner, I know it can be really, really stressful. Well, today we're gonna talk about how to financially survive the holidays as a business owner some things you can be doing during this time, while maybe things are a little bit slower than normal. 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. This is the Therapy Business Podcast.
Speaker 1:There are a lot of amazing things about the holidays, but sometimes the stress of running a practice during this time can leak into our personal lives and really hinder our ability to enjoy this time with our family, enjoy some relaxation and enjoy the season itself. Well, we've seen many, many times with practice owners that business leads even current clients tend to fall to the wayside and we'll see a drop in revenue. We'll see a drop in sessions and the anxiousness that can start to arise from Thanksgiving till the new year, as we see our calendars get less full, as we get some no-shows, as we get last minute cancellations, the dollars just aren't there, and the anxiety of will we have enough money, are we going to make it, will the leads come back? Starts to sink into our brains and again it can really affect our personal lives and our ability to just unwind and let go and enjoy this time. Well, today I'm going to walk you through some strategies, some things you can be doing during this time as well as prepping for next year.
Speaker 1:Now, first of all, before I jump into those, I do want to say, if you have been enjoying this podcast, we have absolutely loved being a part of your business this year, serving you in the best way we know how. If you have enjoyed the content we've been putting out, we want to ask you a huge, huge favor. If you are watching this on YouTube, would you please like and subscribe this video? Subscribe to our channel. If you are listening on Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever you listen, could you please leave us a review, a five-star review, and some comments of what you like about the show. That would help us greatly and it would help get our podcast in front of other practices, just like you, so that in the new year, we can serve more and more people.
Speaker 1:All right, let's look ahead to the next year or in this season, this holiday season, how can we survive it? And when I say look ahead to next year, I mean let's prep for next year. That's the first piece of advice I can give you. Now I'm going to go ahead and preface that. I know it's a little too late for this year, so we can't really use this tip in this holiday season if you're listening to this upon release, but know that in the future years this is going to save you a lot of headache, and that is to open an account for that winter slump. We know as practice owners that typically two times a year there's going to be a dip that's in the summer and that's going to be in the winter, that end of November through December time. So let's create an account and we start allocating just a small percentage of income toward that account so we can build a little cash cushion to help you survive when business does turn down, when the leads do drop and when people are canceling on you constantly. So prepping in advance. We know this is going to happen. We know, we know this is a crazy time, not only for your clients, but for you. And if you have a team of clinicians, it's a crazy time for them as well, as they're taking time off. And if you have a team of clinicians, it's crazy time for them as well, as they're taking time off. So, prepping in advance some funds to help you get through this time without that stress and anxiety, now I want you to be able to take time off. That, to me, is the best thing you can do during this month is take some time off. If you're not taking already scheduling that in, go ahead and block some time.
Speaker 1:Me personally, I know well in advance that I'm going to take the whole week of Christmas off so I can be with my family. I take a lot of time off during these last two weeks. Now that doesn't mean there's a lot of preparation involved and that means you know I'm wrapping up with clients the first couple of weeks of the month or I am prepping with my team to take over some things if they're working. So I am prepping with my team to take over some things if they're working. So there's a lot of things to prep for. But then I can completely unplug and I know that when I take off for that last day. I'm off for a week and a half or a whole week. Okay, I can unplug and I can disconnect because I have set the groundwork. So I highly highly recommend taking some time off for yourself Now. There are going to be days. You're working.
Speaker 1:You know that maybe you're still not seeing clients or you're getting a lot of cancellations, so let's use that time productively. I'm going to kind of go through a list of different things you can utilize this time for to help progress your business, because most likely, if you're like me or many other business owners, there's a long list of things that you have been wanting to do or needing to do that has just gotten pushed to the bottom of the to-do list because you've been busy. You've been busy seeing clients, you've been busy managing your team, busy doing a million other things. So maybe this time where things are a little bit slower is your opportunity to jump into those things. So maybe that's honing in on your marketing, coming up with a game plan for next year. What is your marketing game plan going to be? Are we changing our messaging? Are we changing our niche? Are we wanting to try different things? Are we wanting to be more proactive in social media or in creating content. That's a great time to come up with your game plan.
Speaker 1:Maybe analyze your current marketing efforts. If you have email sales funnels going out, go and look and see how are those performing. Do we need to make any tweaks? Do we make adjustments? Do we want to? If we're offering a lead magnet or freebie on our website, do we want to try something different, create something new or analyze what we're doing now working? This is a huge, huge opportunity, as you step into the new year, to revamp your marketing if needed, or to analyze and say you know what what we're doing is working and maybe picking an area that you're going to lean more into. If you're like, hey, our YouTube channel has been just thriving, it's growing like crazy, we're getting leads from there, maybe that's what we lean more into next year. So by taking a step back, looking at marketing, it can have huge, huge dividends on this time Now.
Speaker 1:The other thing you can be doing during this time in relation to your marketing is to do an SEO review on your website. Go through your pages, go through your keywords, look up on Google Search Console. If you don't have an account on Google Search Console, it's completely free. You can go, create an account that's going to track keywords how are people finding you when they're searching you? Where are you landing on those pages when they do that search? And then you can find those keywords that where people are finding you and use those. Leverage them in your SEO meaning. Go through your website and add some of those phrases into different pages so that maybe you are showing up a little bit higher on that list on that first page when somebody does a Google search looking for therapy in their area. Do an SEO review. Take some time to look over this. I highly recommend working with a professional as well. We've had people on the show before talking about SEO. I'll link some of those down in the show notes below where you can go, listen to those and hear from those experts and then also get their contact information if you're wanting to get somebody to guide you through this process and get you some help there.
Speaker 1:Now, on your own side, we were talking about the content. This could be a time to get caught up on content. I personally like to batch my content, so I like to schedule a day where I'm going to record multiple podcasts. I'm going to record multiple YouTube videos. I might sit down and write multiple blog posts or emails or whatever we're doing in our newsletter. Batching content can be great. So if you find that you're always chasing your tail when it comes to releasing content or creating content, block some days here and just pump out as many podcast episodes or YouTube videos or blog posts as you can and get scheduled way far in advance so that when you do get busy in January and February that you have content already created, ready to go, ready to release. All right, that is on the marketing side, and actually one more thing that's on your own marketing side. Now, one thing I do want to talk about here, too, is getting on other people's marketing efforts. So exposing yourself to other people's audiences and networks. So finding out other podcasts that you can be a part of, ones that you can join as a guest and speak as an expert in that area, Maybe being a guest blogger for other websites, finding out how can I step into their audience and serve them in a way, but also expose myself to new people.
Speaker 1:Podcasts are a couple of really great websites that can help match you with shows looking for guests. One of them is called pod match. I'll link both of these in the show notes below, when it's called pod match. I don't think it's a free service, but it's pretty affordable and you can find shows looking for guests, get connected with them, get booked on their show, and it's super, super easy. Matchmakerfm is another one that I have utilized in the past, which I've had great experience with as well, and they do have a free version where you can search and find different shows that, again, you can be a guest on and come in with a topic you want to teach their audience about, establish your value, establish your expertise and hopefully bring in some leads and other things. So I'll link both of those below.
Speaker 1:Being a guest on podcasts is huge. Being a guest on somebody's YouTube show, or even a guest blogger, if you don't like being on camera or on audio but you love to write, look for websites, maybe looking for guest posts. The best way to approach this is to come up with a list of topics that you can write on and reach out to them and say here's some things that I think would be really helpful to your audience and give them the topics right there and then, so that way they can say you know what I would love to hear more about X, y and Z whatever topics you're putting down. I think that would be super helpful. As a podcast host, those are the people that jump out to me. That makes my life easier is when I get pitched a lot from people wanting to be a guest on the show and honestly, it's really easy, especially when I'm busy. It's easy to just go ahead and just delete those and move on. But the ones that jump out at me are the ones where people are saying here's exactly what I teach and how I think it can help your audience. And so those it's going great, that's easy, I can just book them. I think it can help your audience, and so those it's going great, that's easy, I can just book them. That's a topic that maybe I don't have an area of expertise in, that bringing them in is going to be super helpful to you and my listeners and that's a win-win because then they get exposed to new people who might be looking for their services. So marketing is a huge opportunity here to get ahead, get on other people's things.
Speaker 1:The next thing I would say you can do during this time is to focus on the financial health of your business, of course, as a profit coaching business. We recommend spending time to do this. I know a lot of people. If you don't have a money system in place, maybe you need to use this time to get prepped for your taxes, get organized, get your books together and cleaned up so that you can get ready for tax season. Maybe get your books together and cleaned up so that you can get ready for tax season. Maybe you've been listening to our show and you've been hearing us talk about this money system, profit First, and you're going I kind of like the idea of it, but maybe you haven't kicked it off or you haven't launched or you haven't tried it yet. Well, this is one of the best times to do that. This is a great way to start the new year as your best financial year ever, and the way to do that is to have a money system in your business.
Speaker 1:Now, profit First, which is what we teach our clients, is a system that utilizes bank accounts, so it's leveraging your behavior. We know, as business owners, we're not usually looking at those spreadsheets to make day to day money decisions. We're looking at our bank accounts right here on our smartphone, and so what we teach our clients to do and what we guide them through is opening multiple accounts. Having an account just for income that's where you deposit money. So simple practice. Or however you're collecting cash Stripe, all gets deposited into this account and it just kind of sits there as a little holding cell for you to accumulate some money. We think of it almost like a serving tray.
Speaker 1:Then you have other accounts for each core area of your business. You have one for profit, so every time money comes in you could put a little bit toward profit. You have one for owner's pay that's your salary. You have one for taxes, one for operating expenses, and then you could also have one for payroll. If you have a team, you can have a lot of different accounts. But you can have a lot of different accounts, but those are the core ones that we recommend.
Speaker 1:Then you have percentages that you just put. Every time a dollar comes in, you put a percentage into profit, some into owner's pay, et cetera all the way through. So you always have a pulse. Anytime you look at your bank account, you can look at operating expenses. You know exactly where you stand financially in that world. You know exactly where you stand in your owner's pay. How can you utilize that?
Speaker 1:This is a game changer for businesses. If you are not doing this system, I highly recommend you do. We have a full episode that breaks down this process, this system, for you, and then, of course, we have a team of coaches who are experts in helping unroll this in your business. I think that's the best way to get a kickstart in 2025 or into the next year whenever you're listening to this is to have a financial system in place. All right, so that is a huge, huge piece. Is the money side getting organized, getting clear, getting that system set up?
Speaker 1:One last thing I want you to consider during this time is yes, this is a time where clients are dealing with a lot. Maybe they're dealing with a lot of financial strain and so, if they're not insurance paid, maybe they're paying out of pocket to you. This might be a time where they're feeling financially stressed out and so they're going to cancel. Maybe they reschedule their appointments. Maybe they decide here's how we can maybe squeeze out a little bit more funds for gifts if I don't go to therapy over the next couple of weeks. So, bearing that in mind that they're probably going through some financial strain or they're dealing with a wacky calendar. Just their calendar is crazy. They're traveling, their kids are out of school. There's a lot of different things that can hinder why cancellations are happening.
Speaker 1:It's super important that during this time that we reinforce that no-show, cancellation policy. If you have a no-show policy or a cancellation policy, it's easy to want to empathize during this time and to just want to give people a free pass because it is the holidays. But I highly recommend being open and honest with them, reminding them right now, before we get too deep into the holidays, that, hey, just a heads up, we have this cancellation policy, no-show policy, so please just let us know X hours, x days in advance if you need to reschedule your appointment, so that we can let our team know, so that we can know and we can take time as well for our families and letting them know what the consequence of last minute cancellations or no-shows are going to be. You're going to have those, so the more we can. One, try and stop them by communicating, over-communicating. We can one try and stop them by communicating over-communicating. But number two, following through on those cancellation fees, following through on what our policy is during this time. That's going to help a lot with the cash flow and then going lean on expenses during this time, because I know this is stressful. Now, if you have a team of clinicians who are paid a flat rate or commission based on the number of sessions they're doing, the good news is that payroll is going to go down. So I know it's not good news for your clinicians, but it's good news.
Speaker 1:On the cash crunch, the cash flow side is, yes, revenue is down, but so are your expenses. If you can go lean on other areas of expenses, this is a great time to do it. If there's a subscription, that maybe you could pause for the next 30 days until the new year starts, go ahead and do that. Look at some areas. Maybe you could trim back on your spend, on your cash spending, just to get you through this next month or so, and then, like I said, next year, prepare, put some cash away during those busy, busy seasons to help you during the summer and this winter slump.
Speaker 1:We are rooting for you. As always. We hope that you have just an amazing holiday where you're financially stable enough to fully enjoy it and fully be present. And if that's not a reality for you this season, that's okay. That is okay, but I want you to have hope and know that next year and the year following, that can be the case. Just utilize this time to get yourself organized, get a money system in place in your business, and I know that this time next year you'll be so, so thankful that you did All right.
Speaker 1:Happy holidays from all of us here with the Day C Financial team. We are so, so pumped to be working alongside you in the 2025, the new year as we guide your business in just this little way. It's just such an honor to be a small part of your business and your journey. So thank you for taking us along. 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.
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