Making Best Use of Your Time (and Money) as a Therapist
Anne 
How do you make the most of your time? You only have a limited amount in which to develop and grow your therapy practice. Your time is valuable ....
DIY or Delegate
Are you making best use of your therapy skills or wasting them on activities that could be delegated? One of the challenges we have as therapists is to find enough time each day and enough days each week to work with our clients helping them change their lives and do the ‘business’ aspect of being self-employed or a solopreneur.
This quote from Jim Rohn is very true.
“Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time.”
One of the areas I cover in my Designing the Dream course and when working with 1:1 coaching clients is helping them look at their time versus the cost of carrying out different tasks related to their business.
There is only so much you can do as a therapist
We can only multiply our own activity by the power of one. Assuming we are working at our maximum capacity we can only increase our activity by cloning ourselves or discovering the power of time travel! I don’t know about you but that’s beyond my capabilities at the moment despite quantum theory and the possibility of parallel universes!
As none of these are practical options we need to look for possible alternatives.
What Are You Best At?
The one thing you can't do, unless you go down the route of creating a group practice employing several other therapists, is increase your therapeutic work.
The most valuable skill you have is your ability as a counsellor or therapist. You might be good at and enjoy making videos, writing blogs, being on facebook - but these aren't making best use of your purpose in life and all the training you have done to become a therapist and counsellor.
The starting point is to identify your area of expertise and those areas that you either don’t like doing or need help with? You need to assess the details of the non-therapy work that you do and who could help you. You can download my free Zone of Expertise Skills Assessment sheet to help you do this. Click on the button below.
What and Who can I delegate to?
Depending on your assessment, things you could delegate include:
Book-keeping and accounts
Website updating and management
Newsletters - copywriting and emailing out
Blog writing and management
Video editing and posting to social media
General social media management
Appointment scheduling
Who could help you?
A nice easy, low cost solution, could be to engage a volunteer! Possibly a spouse or partner who has the skills and knowledge to help reduce your workload. Unfortunately, this is probably an unlikely long-term solution.
You could take on an employee to help with admin work but being an employer also creates another level of both stress and administration.
A third option would be to engage someone, like a virtual assistant, who has the necessary skills you are looking for.
Who or What is a Virtual Assistant?
So what exactly is a virtual assistant or VA and what can they do? If you search on the term VA you need to be a little careful, as it can mean, “Veterans Affairs”; The state of Virginia in the USA; “Victoria and Albert”; A village in Sweden called Va and the “Vatican City”!
Wikipedia describes a Virtual Assistant as someone who is:
“... generally self-employed and provides professional administrative, technical, or creative (social) assistance to clients remotely from a home office.”
It goes on to say “Because virtual assistants are independent contractors rather than employees, clients are not responsible for any employee-related taxes, insurance or benefits, except in the context that those indirect expenses are included in the VA's fees.”
The number of people becoming Virtual Assistants is growing, as more people are recognising there is a need for this type of business support. Most will have had administrative roles prior to becoming self-employed as VA’s. Many will have undergone specific training to update their skills. As the numbers grow they are becoming more specialised. There are many who work primarily with therapists and counsellors and ‘wellness’ professionals. Some even combine VA’ing with being a therapist :)
What Can A VA Do For You?
Virtual Assistants have a wide range of specialisms. Below is a list of some of the activities that a VA could provide:
Social media - researching; creating and posting to your sites as a form of promotion and advertising.
Diary management - booking appointments; updating and managing
Email management - actioning and replying to emails
Admin - accounts; invoicing; website updates
Marketing - SEO; blog writing copy; proofreading; research; compiling and sending newsletters
Design work - graphic design; website creation
Event management - webinars, summits
What is the cost of using a Virtual Assistant?
The cost varies depending on what you want them to do. At the time of writing the hourly rate seems to be around £35 per hour, depending where they are based. Most will quote for specific tasks and projects.
Whilst their cost is an important consideration you also need to consider the time it takes you to do the work that could be done by a VA. If your fee for a therapy session is, say, £80 per session then you are wasting your time doing something that you might pay a VA £35 to do.
What do you think?
When you look at your assessment, think about how many more clients you could see if you weren’t doing admin, blogging, social media, etc. Or you might find you have more time for yourself and family. Know what your time is worth. Wouldn't your time be better spent doing what you do best?
What do you think? Do you outsource some of your work already? How is it working for you?
To your success!
There are more tips for building your therapy practice here
Categories: Marketing, Private Practice, self-employment