How to make money in private practice | December 2014 Monthly Income Report

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Before I tell you how to make money in private practice, I want to tell you

THANK YOU!

This year, has been an amazing year. I’m going to do a year in review post, to tell you all the ways that I built income, involvement, and influence. This month, I have been calling people that email me more often. It’s been so fun to reach out to readers and listeners. The reason that I do this private practice website and counseling podcast is because I felt so underprepared for the business side of private practice.

I’ve found it frustrating to know that within the traditional model of an insurance-based private practice that:

  • You can’t raise your rates, even if your skills improve.
  • You spend a significant amount of time doing billing and getting approval or paying someone else to do that.
  • It’s hard to add people to the practice, because they often have to be individually paneled on insurance.
  • I had less freedom than I thought I would have.

This website has been so refreshing for me, because it forces me to keep pushing myself to in turn push you!

What happened in December

December is one of my favorite months of the year. Within it is so much celebration: my birthday, our Polish dinner (vigilia), Christmas morning with my three-year-old, and New Year’s Eve! This month, my siblings came into town immediately after Christmas, so from the 22nd on I saw very few clients and spent a ton of time with family!

family
Christmas Eve with my girls

 

On Cyber Monday I was launched a deal exclusively for readers of my free newsletter. They received my Member’s Newsletter that is usually $195 and they got some free consulting all for $99. You’ll see that bunch of people signed up on that day.

Here are some big steps forward in December:

  • Mental Wellness Counseling Launched an Intensive Recover Program, to better serve people in recovery in Traverse City, and also to be a Destination Private Practice, where people will fly in for treatment for a one or two week period.
  • As a result of launching this, we’ve begun partnering with a local law firm to build business for one another and serve one another’s clients better!
  • I’ve interviewed a ton of consultants for the new How to Become a Consultant podcast, check out the full list on www.BecomeaConsultToday.com
  • I started writing for PsychCenteral in the Pro section all about How to Become a Consultant: How to Grow a Consulting Specialty and How to Become a Consultant
  • Ending my evenings early on my late nights so I can tuck my girls into bed
  • Planning my move to full time private practice
  • On CyberMonday I emailed my list and gave $100 off the newsletter and offered free consulting.

Most importantly, I launched the first ever Practice of the Practice Awards!

These awards are to spotlight three amazing categories that matter to all of us private practice folks:

  1. Top Private Practice
  2. Top Private Practice Consultant
  3. Top Private Practice Resource

Joe Sanok, Mental Wellness Counseling, and Practice of the Practice are not eligible! Read more here about the Practice of the Practice Awards.

Great counseling and marketing articles and podcasts from December

private practice quote
Podcast interview with The Couples Expert, Stuart Fensterheim. His new podcast and website are a great new resource!

 

Pat Flynn
An interview with self-made millionaire, Pat Flynn. He talks passive income, online business, and how to get more done.

 

how to run a massage therapy clinic
You could learn a lot from a massage therapy clinic, like how to improve customer service.

Past Monthly Income Reports

People often ask me why I disclose all this information? To me, I am inspired when other people are open and honest. Then I can learn from how they succeed or fail. My hope is that this helps others to grow in their businesses!

November Monthly Income Report $11,695.30

October Monthly Income Report $13,784.57

September 2014 Monthly Income Report $7,084.45 (but took 2 weeks off for baby)

August 2014 Monthly Income Report $11,541.71

July 2014 Monthly Income Report $8,477.47 (Accompanying podcast)

June 2014 Monthly Income Report $8,486.38

May 2014 Monthly Income Report $8,113.28

April 2014 Monthly Income Report $7,834.16

March 2014 Monthly Income Report $10,645.70

February 2014 Monthly Income Report $6,483.14

January 2014 Monthly Income Report $4,834.57

2013 Annual Counseling Income: $54,513.97 (January-December 2013)

December 2013 Monthly Income Report $4,774.58

November 2013 Monthly Income Report total: $5,148.16

October 2013 Monthly Income Report total: $4,689.99

September 2013 Monthly Income Report total: $3,137.30

August 2013 Monthly Income Report total: $3835.74

July 2013 Monthly Income Report total: $5691.65

June 2013 Monthly Income Report total: $4,471.29

May 2013 Monthly Income Report total: $6,022.91

April 2013 Monthly Income Report total: $2,116.96

March 2013 Monthly Income Report total: $2,476.92

February 2013 Monthly Income Report total: $2,685.12

January 2013 Monthly Income Report total: $2,707.09

December 2012 Monthly Income Report total: $2,287.97

November 2012 Monthly Income Report total: $1,219.18

October 2012 Monthly Income Report total: $3,213.87

September 2012 Monthly Income Report total: $1,361.60

December 2014 Earning Report

What I’m going to be reporting about how to make extra money and what I’m not going to be reporting

Full-time Job

Since some of you are new and some of you have been around Practice of the Practice for a while, I’m going to give a quick summary of where I make income. My full-time job is at a community college as a counselor, however I am currently on unpaid FMLA. I love the job and it gives me great opportunities. So I am there getting insurance and working 2 days a week to help pay for that. I’m not going to disclose my full-time wages there, since it is not something that is part of my private practice.

Private Practice

I do 9-10 sessions a week in my private practice. I don’t take insurance, so it is private-pay. As a result, I don’t have many expenses in time or actual money. I also do consulting with private practice clinicians and supervision for LLPCs in Michigan (Limited Licensed Professional Counselors), a 100 hour requirement in Michigan.

Passive Income

The term “passive” makes it sound like I don’t have to do work. What I mean is money that I make that is not in direct exchange for my time. I will outline what these are under each item.

How I increased revenue in December 2014

Disclosure: many of the links below are affiliate links that will earn me a commission if you purchase through them, it’s one way that I help support the work I put into the website. Please click on them to help support Practice of the Practice.

Private Practice: $6,216.90

Other counselors: We just launched the Addictions Treatment: Intensive Recovery Program, which has started to bring in more clients that need additions help. I have four counselors that work for my Traverse City counseling private  practice as 1099 contractors and I get a portion of what is brought in: $2,121,21

Paperwork Packet: $192.56

Consulting: (this sometimes includes building a website as part of the private practice coach session) I do private practice coaching.

Usually there are three parts to private practice consulting:

  1. A SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) Analysis
  2. Website redesign or re-optimization
  3. Coaching: developing a niche within the private practice, building stronger referrals, increasing rates, and launching products to grow income

In my August Monthly Income Report I had a number of new private practice consulting clients start with me. Because of having the baby I wanted to make sure I provided excellent service to those I’m consulting with, so this number is way lower than normal.

$1,447.40

LLPC Supervision: $760

The Motherload: $0

E-books: You may have noticed that the Practice of the Practice book has been showing up in the 3-D fashion on the website, this has really helped drive traffic, but isn’t in your face selling. $74.56

Paperback Copy of my book Mental Wellness Parenting: A remarkably simple approach to making parenting easier. Most people would see this as a really bad thing, however, when I wrote the book, I really wanted to focus on it being something to hand out to clients or potential referrals. It’s sort of an over-sized business card. It’s great when people buy it, but I’m not disappointed when they don’t, since I see it more as a marketing tool: $0

Member’s Newsletter to Launch/Grow a Practice

Member’s Newsletter: This is the weekly newsletter that walks people through exactly what they need to do when starting a private practice. $723.35

Affiliate Marketing to Increase Revenue

Aweber: This is the service I use to create emails, manage lists, and create follow-up emails where they can be in order for the person. It’s super cool! $14.40

BlueHost Referrals: If you are setting up a website, this is the best hosting because of their customer service and the ability to have unlimited websites hosted! $0

Amazon Affiliate Referrals: If you are buying something on Amazon, it’d be great if you clicked the link. I get a small commission without you having to pay anything more: $36.64

NameCheap is who I use to purchase my URLs, they are so easy to work with when you’re setting up a website!: $3.06

Google Ads: I have a few ads through the website and these bring in a bit of passive income. Since my podcast interview about How to Rank Higher in Google with Sarah Barnes I’ve been doing a lot less of this: $10.63

LegalZoom: This is the second month that someone has clicked and bought something through this link! It’s so exciting, also my wife bought her PLLC so I got to really see it firsthand. It is amazing and super easy to use. $0

Grasshopper: This is the amazing virtual phone system I use, rather than an expensive land line system. I have the $12/month one and it is awesome. At least check them out and watch some videos. $0

SpeakPipe: This is what i use for people to leave me a message for my podcast. Click here to ask me a question for the podcast, tell me what you like, or vent about what you hate. $0

ZynnyMe: I recently connected with Miranda and Kelly to become an affiliate. They have a Business School Bootcamp that is what I wish I could build. Maybe sometime in the future, but for now I’m just going to refer folks to them! $0

Podcast Sponsorship: I have been selectively adding sponsors to the podcast. $145.35

 

December 2014 Total: $11,746.06

Not a new record, but it is another 5 figure month! Thank you so much for all your support!

If you want to go after your own AMBITIOUS RESULTS, let’s talk and do some consulting.

Some of the numbers from Google Ads, Amazon, NameCheap, and my e-books will not be paid until they reach a certain amount or 60-90 days after the sale. I report what has been sold in the month it was sold. Also, I do not take expenses off of this report.

 

private practice consultant headshot

Joseph R. Sanok, MA, LLP, LPC, NCC

Joe Sanok is an ambitious results expert. He is a private practice business consultant and counselor that helps small businesses and counselors in private practice to increase revenue and have more fun! He helps owners with website design, vision, growth, and using their time to create income through being a private practice consultant.

Joe was frustrated with his lack of business and marketing skills when he left graduate school. He loved helping people through counseling, but felt that often people couldn’t find him. Over the past few years he has grown his skills, income, and ability to lead others, while still maintaining an active private practice in Traverse City, MI.

To link to Joe’s Google+ .

Photo by Emilio Labrador