3 ways to build private practice financial health

There’s only one question bigger than how to start a therapy private practice—how to sustainably grow and build your business’ financial health.

It can be daunting to set up a growth plan that you’re actually able to enact without drastic measures, like working all the time or charging more than your clients can afford. 

Luckily, there are several ways to make sure that you get paid what you deserve while still offering necessary services to people who need them.

Some might just require exploring creative options. 

Expand your caseload 

One option you have is to reevaluate your schedule to determine whether you have time to schedule more clients.

Some days are full no matter how you look at them, but a holistic review can help you see where they may be gaps in your schedule or areas where you can increase your availability.

The extended working hours might help you grow your client list, as you might be available to take on more new clients. 

If you schedule more appointments in your day, your existing clients won’t be impacted much, if at all. However, your own working hours will likely increase.

Even if you love your work and are eager to help more people, a bigger caseload could increase your chances of burnout.

That doesn’t mean growing your practice and seeing more people is a bad idea.

However, it’s essential that you determine your boundaries and work to maintain work-life balance as you grow your business. 

If you do decide to scale up your workload, there are ways to streamline your schedule and maximize your working hours, like implementing online appointment requests and a late cancellation policy.

A no-show and late cancellation fee can incentivize clients to keep to their appointments, and consequently improve your efficiency by reducing the number of holes in your schedule.

Raise your hourly rate

Increasing your hourly session rate is perhaps the easiest way to grow your revenue.

If you accept insurance, you can request and negotiate a reimbursement rate increase from the insurance company.

While this process is not always successful, it’s worth exploring what your options are.

If you don’t ask, you might be leaving money on the table.

You may also consider raising your hourly session rates for clients who pay out of pocket.

Such a change can run the risk of alienating long-standing clients who may not be able to afford the increase, or turning away potential clients who can find a cheaper option elsewhere.

Reevaluate your hourly rate in comparison to the current cost of therapy in your state or city.

If you do decide to raise your rates, make sure you communicate it clearly to your clients—in person first, if you can. Make it clear to them that you’re ready and available to discuss any concerns they might have. 

Create products that scale and passive income streams

Although raising your rates and expanding your schedule are two straightforward ways to increase the financial health of your business, however, there are some other options.

You can also develop books, ebooks, online courses, and other products and training materials that only need to be created once, and then can be used over and over again to create passive income streams for your business.

This makes it easier to provide more people with the benefit of your expertise without spending hours on end repeating the same work. 

There are a lot of benefits to incorporating these kinds of products and services into your practice.

You can keep all your long-standing clients and acquire new ones—without permanently extending your working hours.

Your efficiency can improve, as you won’t need to spend as much of your time on the same concerns and treatment plans that you consistently encounter with clients.

Instead, you can focus clinical time on the unique needs of individual cases.

And, as your efficiency increases, so does your income. 

Of course, these benefits will not materialize without any effort.

You’ll need to spend time outside of your scheduled sessions developing your products and making sure they’re really as useful and engaging as you want them to be.

At the end of the day, how you choose to scale up your practice should depend on your specific, individual needs as a clinician.

Explore and settle on the strategy—or strategies—that make the most sense for you and the goals you’ve set for your business.

How SimplePractice streamlines running your practice 

SimplePractice is HIPAA-compliant practice management software with booking, billing, and everything you need built into the platform.

If you’ve been considering switching to an EHR system, SimplePractice empowers you to run a fully paperless practice—so you get more time for the things that matter most to you.

Try SimplePractice free for 30 days. No credit card required.

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