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3 Reasons Why Therapists and Coaches Fail

By 21 June 2010Articles

And 3 things You Must do if you want to  succeed!

Luca SenatoreIf you are a practitioner or a coach, you will certainly know that over 90% of people starting out will fail within the first 12-18 months. Our estimate is that 3 of the remaining 5% will be forced to shut down within the first 24 months and 1 within 36 meaning that only 1 out of 100 new professionals will succeed.

So what are the reasons behind this and, most importantly, how can you  change today and become one of the successful ones?

Here below you will learn the 3 most important steps to take in order to succeed and escape the “Closed” sign on your door and you will be surprised to find that it really is simple and easy. There is however one condition; one factor which will determine whether you succeed or not even with these new notions; that is Action. You must act on what you learn right away, not next week, not tomorrow and not in one hour but right away; you must take at least one action (the biggest you can given the circumstances) as soon as you have finished this article.

Never leave the scene on a decision without taking action!

Okay here we go… what makes people in your business fail?

1. Lack of business sense
That’s right, you might be a great therapist with skills, passion and love for helping people BUT (and this is a really big BUT), unless you learn to understand that you are in business and behave accordingly, you will not make it; there is no exception!

2. Marketing is not Market Inn
Many of you mistake Marketing with Market Inn, an imaginary hotel chain where people meet and do all sorts of wrong promotional activities.

Marketing is a science, marketing needs to be studied (and I don’t mean at school), understood, tested and, most importantly used.

Most of you do not do any marketing at all, waiting on the dream of referrals. Well, it is now time to wake up before the dream becomes your scariest nightmare. Referrals will come but (and again a big one), with time and even then you will need new clients. New clients are your future and here is why:

  • Referrals will not be passed by all your clients as some of them will forget about you. After all you also would want to forget about a problem you had and with it you will also forget the person who helped you overcome it
  • Your old clients may move town
  • Your clients may not want to share their old issues
  • After you have successfully worked with them, they took no action and regressed back to the old issue and of course, blame you!
  • They cannot find your details anymore

Marketing must be done intelligently and continuously.

3. Professionalism
And please remember that I do not mean anything personal with this but (… a big one again), you must be professional not only in what you do and the results that you achieve but also in the way you do it, the way you look and the fees that you charge.

See below for more details and solutions.

So, these are the main three issues which keep many from succeeding in this business, now lets look at what you must do in order to save yourself from being part of that 99% who will never make it; but remember, you must start now!

1. Your therapy work might be your love, your passion but remember that you are in a relationship with your clients and your suppliers (whether that’ s your landlord or other). Whether you like it or not, you are carrying out a business transaction, your passion is also a business and thus you must treat it as such.  This point number 1 is all about teaching you to create and maintain a business attitude when you work. It is up to you to draft the policies as long as you have some.

2. Marketing is not a hotel chain but it is a chain that can either pull you up to success or drag you down to failure. Here is what you can do:

  • Join a clinic which offers you serious marketing support. By this I mean a good Google ranking, good general advertising of the clinic, good presence on their web site and a good Google AdWords campaign management
  • Hire a Marketing Expert
  • Learn Marketing
  • Reframe your expectations (not recommended)

3. Professionalism
You might think that dressing casual puts your clients at ease, you might think that “that’s what you are and either they like it or not, it’s their problem” or you might even not think about your dress code. Well all of the above is wrong.

With this I am not suggesting that you should change who you are or dress with suits or white gowns. All I am saying is that you need to look professional, clean  and tidy. Remember that people are putting their problems in your hands and to be frank, if you cannot keep yourself clean, tidy and presentable you are not going to even hear about my issues!

The above goes for your clinic too.

Your fees reflect  how good you think you are. If you want to give discounts that’s fine but always send your invoice with your usual fees and then apply the discount so that they know what your fees are.

So what do you need to do now?

Take Action Now!

Good luck.

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