Take It from One Group Practice Owner: Things You Should Do!

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I wrote a blog last month titled Take It from One Group Practice Owner: Things You Shouldn’t Do!, which made me think I should also include a more positive blog and write about things that I think you definitely should do as a group counseling practice owner. And I know everyone has their own journey, but here are some bigger-picture things that you can do to help grow any type of group counseling practice. 

DO Invest in Your Business

As a counseling group practice owner, you’re almost always on a tight budget. The margin for profit is slim – especially as you’re starting out. But it almost always makes sense to invest in your group practice to move forward quicker, grow faster, and accomplish things easier. 

Investing in your business can look different for everyone. I’m referencing both a financial investment and an investment in you, the group practice owner. It’s impossible for someone to have all the skills to build a group practice if you’ve never done it before. Investing in your own learning, in business consultation, or getting mentoring from someone who’s been there, done that, is irreplaceable. 

Financially investing money can look like investing in SEO, in paid advertising, or other paid marketing strategies that will yield a good ROI (return on investment) so that the investment is worth it. You will want to make an informed decision about what to invest in, of course, and that also means doing your own research so that you can understand the best path for you and your practice to follow.

DO Plan for Expansion and Growth

Always keep in mind how to expand and grow your practice because the need for therapists sure isn’t going to decrease anytime soon. People will only continue to demand quality and accessible counseling services, and you can be ready to meet this demand. Identify a solid 1-to-3 year growth and expansion plan for your business, and review it regularly. 

DO Create Consistent Systems and Processes

As you grow and expand, you’ll need to take yourself out of the equation more and more. Instead of doing all the billing yourself, you’ll hire a biller. Then you create a system between the therapists who write their notes and collect payment, and the biller who bills insurances. It’s ideal if the system doesn’t depend on you, because you’ll be busy, yep, you guessed it, growing and expanding more.

In time you’ll end up developing a policies and procedures manual, or, at the least, written policies and procedures, instead of verbally just saying “this is how we do things” to your team. The more formal you get, the more complicated it seems, but again if you take yourself out of the processes, you’ll end up with more time to focus on your business.

I hope these tips are helpful as you’re planning your group practice owner strategy and even empire. Growing a group practice can be so exciting and fun, but at the same time, daunting and anxiety-provoking. I know you can do it, so keep these tips in mind, and on you go!

Previous Articles By Shannon You May Find Useful As a Counseling Group Practice Owner

How to Get Through the Holidays as a New Group Practice Owner

Setting Up Your Group Practice Website

How to Find Good Therapists to Hire for Your Group Practice

How to Hire Your First Therapist When You’ve Never Hired Before

Don’t Settle When Hiring Clinicians

Hiring Your First Clinician, Part 1

Hiring Your First Clinician Part 2

Hiring Your First Clinician Part 3

Shannon Heers

Shannon Heers is a licensed professional counselor in Colorado. She owns the private-pay group practice Catalyss Counseling in the Denver metro area, focusing on helping adults manage their anxiety, grief, and trauma. Shannon is also an experienced clinical supervisor and manager who offers business consultation services to other therapists. She balances working with raising her two young children.

Group practice ownership is daunting but can be done easily if you do your homework, prepare, and learn all you can about the process!