How to Start Your Own Private Practice

Beginning your own private practice is a dream of many licensed therapy practitioners around the world. Understandably so—being your own boss and helping others are desirable feats. However, knowing where to start can be incredibly daunting. In this step-by-step article, we’re going to take you through not only starting a therapy practice, but also how you can create a successful business!

Getting Started: Build Your Blueprint

Much like anything in life that you’re aiming to achieve, it’s best to have a plan detailing how you’re going to do whatever it is you’re setting out to do. Even though things might not always go to said plan at times, having a blueprint to always fall back on will prove to be instrumental to your success. This blueprint is what is known as your Business Plan. While you may not have every detail ironed out just yet, it's often advised that the more in-depth & detail-oriented your plan is, the more likely you are to follow and achieve it. While there are many minute things that will contribute to your overall plan, there are three things that should absolutely be outlined. These include:

Goals for the practice
Steps for attaining said goals
Timeframe outlining achievement timing

Outside of these three topics, it’s also encouraged to include things like projected costs, internal guides for employees, marketing strategies, etc. In this article, however, we’ll be focusing on the three items highlighted above.

Your goals for the practice should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound; otherwise known as SMART goals. Again, the more detailed your goals are, the more likely you are to reach them. If your goal is to open your own private practice, create a plan with these attributes in mind:

S: Specific. It’s hard to measure a vague goal. By adding specificity into the language used to write this goal, it becomes concrete and achievable. Specific goals answer who, what, where, when, which and why in detail.

Who is involved in this goal?
What are you trying to accomplish?
Where will you need to be for this goal to become a reality?
When do you need to complete this task?
Which obstacles might get in my way?
Why am I trying to achieve this goal?

M: Measurable. Consider how to measure the success of your goal. Feel free to use both quantitative and qualitative data to inform this answer. You may decide to measure success by the number of appointment bookings you get, or by how much revenue you generate.

A: Attainable. Is your goal realistic? If you’re just starting with your marketing efforts, chances are that, “Get 100k followers on my business’s Instagram” is not an attainable goal quite yet. Instead, set goals that are more within reach for where you are with your business.

R: Relevant. All goals set should be in line with growing your practice. A goal like, “Make more money” is not relevant. While marketing is intended to generate revenue and leads, this goal is irrelevant because it lacks specificity and doesn't directly address a marketing goal. A more relevant goal for your marketing strategy might be “Acquire 3 new clients a month and increase ROI by 5% by next summer.”

T: Timely. If your goal doesn’t have a realistic deadline or doesn’t have one at all, chances are it will be hard for you to achieve. Be honest with yourself and set deadlines that give you ample time to complete the work needed to meet your goals. On the flipside, don’t give yourself so much time that it’s hard to stay focused.

Thus, a good example of a SMART goal statement is:

“My goal is to open my own private practice and have a book of at least 10 clients by next January. I will accomplish this by creating and following a detailed business plan outlining how I would like to create my practice and following it every day. I will then use a business management software like Vagaro to gather and maintain potential clients. Accomplishing this goal will fulfill a lifelong dream of mine, provide for me financially, and help me give back to my community.”

The example above is, specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time bound. Once you’ve written (recommended) or mentally noted your SMART goal, you’re ready to begin acting on it! More specifically, you’re ready to register your private practice.

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What’s Next: Becoming a Legitimate Business Entity

You’ve got your SMART goal written down and are eager to get the ball rolling. Excellent! There are a few things that must be done beforehand to ensure that you can legally offer the services that you’re wanting to provide in the state/county that you reside in. First, you’ll need to register your business. To do this, you have to choose a specific business structure: LLC, sole proprietorship, corporation, etc. Depending on which structure you choose, you may also need to request an Employee Identification Number (EIN) from the IRS. Once you’ve decided on a business structure and acquired an EIN, if applicable, then your next step will be to file your tax and EIN information with the state. To register your business, you will also need a DBA (Doing Business As) name as well as a license for the services you’re wanting to provide. This could look like your LMFT license, for example, should you want to begin offering marriage or family therapy/counseling services. Since the process for registering your business is different per state, sometimes even county, we advise conducting a quick web search to identify the exact steps needed for where you’re located. Once you’ve registered your private practice, you’re ready for the fun part. Opening your business! And this will be entirely easier if you have the right tools to help you along the way.

Better Care Starts Here

While you certainly could run your business purely on pen & paper, why would you? Today, the utilization of some form of smart technology is often relied on in our everyday lives. Whether it’s a smartphone, voice-controlled home device, or an activity/health tracker of sorts— depending on what you use it for, technology simply makes your life easier. In fact, it can often allow us to do things that we normally couldn’t on our own. The same applies for running a business. Since we’ve covered some of the first steps for opening your own private practice, we’ll now dive into the importance of using business management technology, like Vagaro. Between credit card processing, automated email & text marketing campaigns, intake & liability forms, SOAP notes, and even telehealth support, Vagaro is much more than booking software. It’s an all-encompassing management software for businesses of any kind. From getting your first client to opening a second location, Vagaro can assist you every step of the way. Vagaro uses an intuitive and incredibly user-friendly interface, as well as unique add-ons that allow for a fully custom experience for your practice & its unique needs. Right from the start, Vagaro will give you access to a calendar, online booking capabilities, plus appointment and booking notifications for clients. Keep in mind that this, as well as some add-ons like Forms and Yelp integration, are all included during your 30-day free trial with Vagaro.

Once you’ve got Vagaro, however, there are a few things we recommend doing first to help you get started. Prior to diving into the many other features that Vagaro has to offer, you will want to set up your own Employee Profile and Business Profile. Setting these two pieces up will, in turn, create your calendar and its online booking capabilities, as well as a majority of the nuanced things that go into running a business, like your hours, business description, contact information, and Google & Apple Maps integrations. For more information on creating and filling out your Employee and Business profiles, check out this article. Once you have laid your foundation, it’s then time to get working on the details!

Which Tools Are a Must for Therapy Practices?

Forms

The first feature that you’ll want, specifically when operating a therapy practice, is the Forms and SOAP Notes feature. Already added into the software for you to use are eight different preset form templates and four preset SOAP note templates. If you’re at all unsure of where to begin with creating your first client intake form, liability waiver, client survey, etc.— the templates are a great place to start. Even if you choose to use one of the built-in templates, you can still customize every bit of it. This allows you to put a personal touch on anything that you send out. Whether you’ve created your form from scratch or chosen a preset template, you can then schedule them to be sent out automatically upon booking. Forms can even be linked to specific services that you offer, meaning you get full control over whether a client should receive a form when they book with you.

Every client’s completed form is then recorded and saved to their client profile for easy access at any time. If you’d like to take it a step further, you can even add files or photos on your forms or notes, which are then saved within your Vagaro Drive.

Vagaro Drive

Much like the Vagaro Forms and SOAP Notes feature, the Vagaro Drive is also included within your free trial! The Vagaro Drive is often even used in conjunction with Forms and SOAP Notes. It provides you with a means of saving files or photos provided to you by clients or uploaded by yourself into your Vagaro account. The two main file types held within the Vagaro Drive are appointment and customer files. Appointment files are attached to an individual client appointment, like a doctor’s note, for example. Customer files on the other hand, might have more general content in them, like a photo of an insurance card. No matter the file type, all files submitted for and by clients are saved directly to their customer profile and can be accessed by you whenever you need. Ultimately, the Vagaro Drive allows you to take a personal, informed approach with your clients by providing you with an in-depth organizational system.

Vagaro Live Stream

Therapy or counseling isn’t something that can always be done face-to-face. According to SelectHub, as of 2022, 46% of consumers worldwide choose to use telehealth as their primary form of care. At Vagaro, we recognize the importance of accessibility among all who choose to use our interface, both businesses and end-users alike. Care should be accessible, that’s why the final, and arguably most important feature on today’s list, is Vagaro Live Stream. With Vagaro Live Stream, you can provide telehealth services and classes to any client at any time, even from opposite ends of the country.

As you may have guessed, this feature is also included in your Vagaro free trial! Vagaro Live Stream is fully automated, and the services that you choose to offer live online will still follow the booking requirements that you have set in place for your in-house services. Vagaro Live Stream is a two-way video conferencing feature, meaning you will be able to see your clients and they are able to see you, adding to your overall quality of care. Because of Vagaro Drive, you can also record sessions for later reference and note taking. This is all done from within your Vagaro calendar, meaning there’s no need for any third-party livestreaming services.

The Beginning of a New Chapter: Opening Your Own Private Practice

By reading this article, we hope that the idea of opening your own private therapy or counseling practice seems much less harrowing, and much more attainable. Within your first 30 free days using Vagaro, you’ll have access to practice essentials that will help you streamline business and focus on providing great care. By identifying a clear SMART goal and pairing it with the right practice management tools, you’ll be able to smoothly establish yourself amongst an otherwise crowded industry and offer a unique experience to each and every client who comes to see you. And really, we’ve only just scratched the surface of available features to help you on your journey. We invite you to explore our Mental Health page here to see all that Vagaro can do for your practice. To take the first step with a digital assistant that puts your success at the forefront, click here. We wish you the best of luck and hope to be working with you soon!