We hear it time and time again. ‘In all of the years I studied to be a therapist, why did no one ever mention basic business skills?’  

If you peruse the offerings at any masters level therapy program you will see countless mentions of trauma-informed, CBT, DBT, solution-focused, etc. but you will never hear the words budget, payroll or marketing. So, why is that?

Small Business 101

It seems that therapist training continues the way it always has been, because that’s how it has always been. There is no rhyme or reason why basic business skills are not taught to masters level clinicians, but here we are. By the time you graduate you are likely able to help people sort through their problems, can identify maladaptive coping skills and can assess which clients will benefit from what treatment. But filing your first year of taxes after opening your small business? Good luck with that!

We can hope that therapy schools of the future will start to take this into account but unfortunately we don’t live in the future. Therefore, we must make due with what we have.

As clinicians, we are usually not shy to drop $500 on a new training offering or even on books and lectures by our favourite clinicians. But maybe some of that money would be better served investing in a basic business education. 

Do I Need to Go to Business School?

You don’t need to take a years-long program to figure out the basics either. With a bit of dedication and a few extra dollars, you can find everything you need to know online. There are countless small business management courses you can sign up for and every new therapist should be doing this as soon as possible. The reason being that business is not logical; business does not follow conventional rules; what worked one day won’t work the next, and so on. Business isn’t just something you can ‘wing.’ You need a foundation. You need to understand the basics. And most of all, you need to talk to other small business owners.

When you break it down, a therapist is no different than a plumber or an electrician. They both have a skill that is in demand, but without proper marketing and business acumen, contracts are unlikely to come knocking on your door.

The Importance of Marketing

If you are overwhelmed by the amount of business knowledge that exists, do what you would tell a client. Break it down into small, manageable bits. You aren’t going to become a business guru overnight just as you didn’t become a great therapist overnight. Most things that are worth doing are going to require some work. To make it a little easier, start with marketing. Marketing is the one business skill that trumps all others. If you don’t know how to market, well, then you don’t have a business. 

The next focus should be on accounting. There are countless tax laws that are written in order to help small businesses succeed. But if you don’t know about them, you cannot benefit from them. By simply doing some online research you can learn quite a bit about what you can and cannot deduct from your taxes. (Fun fact: you can deduct clinical supervision costs from your taxes each year). Keeping track of your daily transactions is absolutely crucial so at least a superficial understanding of Excel is required for any private practice clinician.

Your next step should be to start talking to other small business owners. Let go of the thought that ‘therapy is different. It’s not the same as being a plumber’ because truly, it’s not different. The plumber needs to stand out from the crowd and differentiate themselves from other plumbers and you must do the same to differentiate yourself from other therapists. The best way to learn something is to immerse yourself in it. Follow a small business page on Reddit, check out your local Chamber of Commerce, search for small business owners Facebook groups. A few days spent in these forums will quickly demonstrate that therapy is a business like any other and must be treated as such.

Private Practice: The Mirage in the Desert

The goal of a lot of aspiring therapists is to get into private practice. That all sounds well and good but it is far from a guaranteed option, just because you have your degree.. There are a lot of people offering therapy; there are a lot of amazing therapists in every city; therapy now doesn’t even need to depend on the city due to virtual options. Starting a private practice is possible, people do it every day, but it isn’t as easy as you might think.

Remember, when you are reading online about a therapist who has a successful private practice and will tell you all you need to know for $19.99, be very wary. People who have a successful private practice are generally quite busy with the day to day running of that practice. If they are truly successful, they are unlikely to be peddling e-books and virtual workshops to make a buck.

The answer is, there is no answer. Starting a therapy business is just as hard as starting any other kind of business and anyone who tells you otherwise probably has ulterior motives. 

So don’t skimp on the hard work. We know, you don’t want to go to any more school, we get it. But you need to have at least a basic business education if you want to succeed in private practice.

Your business education will never be in vain. Business skills can help in all aspects of life, from personal to professional. We all should know how to budget properly; we all should know how to read financial statements and we definitely all should know what is tax deductible and what is not.

Talking About Business in Clinical Supervision

If you sign up for clinical supervision with OntarioSupervision.ca, the business end of your therapy enterprise is always up for discussion. Your supervisor is ultimately there to help you succeed so if spending a few minutes each session purely discussing businesse is something you could benefit from, we will be glad to help.