What is keeping you from achieving your dreams… goals… success?
Recently, I was reminded of three things that have been like boat anchors around my neck at various times in MY career. Let me share them with you and see if any of these things might be holding you back right now!
#1 Failure to anticipate the road ahead
Although it is important to be engaged in the present, it is critical that you have direction and an eye for what may happen in the future. We are not standing still in a vacuum.
As a clinician who is on the fence about private practice — you need to anticipate things like: legal requirements; what it means to set up your practice with or without taking insurance; how much of your time will be spent developing and managing your business; the best ways to market your practice; and what perks and freedoms exist if you are willing to do the work
As a private practitioner — you need to anticipate things like: the trends in treatment of your target market; what your target market needs and wants desperately; what you will do to diversify your income when there is a lull in referrals; who are the new referral sources in town; and how can you provide value to all of your referral sources as time moves on
#2 Failure to follow through
As a “newbie” to private practice, you really need to have a plan of action and actually work it! Hold yourself to task. Instead of taking even 10 minutes to complain about not having enough referrals, take that 10 minutes to make a call, send an email, or do something helpful for one of your referral sources. If you don’t have any solid referral sources yet, take that 10 minute to do your homework and identify 2-5 potential resources and make a plan of how you will partner with them
If your practice is established yet “stuck”, it may be time to shake things up by either going back to basics (working on your business relationships and marketing plan), or doing something new. Your referral sources can get bored, just as you can get bored. Find fun and innovative ways to stay engaged to your market. Being in private practice gives you more control than ever about the “boredom factor” of your career — use that control to design the private practice of your dreams
#3 Your mindset
It is said that, “as a man thinketh, so shall he be”. If you spend too much time thinking about why you can’t make it in private practice, you won’t. Life will pay you whatever you ask of it. Set the bar low, and you’ll be comfortable. Set the bar high and you will rise to the challenge.
