Private Practice Success Newsletter

March 2006, by Lynn Grodzki, LCSW, MCC (Master Certified Coach)
www.privatepracticesuccess.com

Creative Collaboration

Do you feel under pressure from competition? If you are a therapist, does it seem as though your practice is under attack from newer, younger, and hungrier therapists? If you are a coach, are you daunted by the number of executive or life coaches whose websites blanket the internet? As a healer, are you worried about standing out from among dozens of other massage therapists and healers in your community who offer similar services?

If so, you are not alone. The threat of competition is common in a crowded marketplace. How do you tend to respond to competition? Do you lower your fees? Over-promise results? Do anything in order to try and hold onto a potential client?

The CEO of a major automobile company says that all his competitors are his enemies and he faces war every day. But what if you don’t want to conduct business in a war zone? Can you respond to competition in a gentler way, with integrity, and still succeed in your private practice?

There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.— Edith Wharton

One strategy to consider is creative collaboration. Creative collaboration means that you approach an over-saturated market from a framework of addition and expanding resources, not subtraction or eliminating enemies. Instead of trying to kill off your competitors, you devise creative ways of enlarging the market and including your colleagues in your efforts.

First, become an educator and work to broaden the market. Devote a percentage of your overall marketing time to enlightening people about not just your particular services, but the value of your profession in general. (Imagine if every therapist, coach, consultant, or healer saw this as his or her duty, to spend two hours each month to proselytize, write, teach, advertise, or heighten awareness about the value of their profession.)

Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than the one where they sprang up. — Oliver Wendell Holmes

Second, extend this marketing to others. It’s a lot less lonely, and more fun, to share the effort of finding clients and projects with select colleagues, rather than going solo. If you are facing competition and feeling jealous and wary of colleagues, ask a few colleagues to join you in an educational effort to create a larger market for all. Set a goal for the next six months. How many people would you like to reach and enlighten? Decide on a plan, and build in some pleasure points.

Maybe you will jointly write a series of articles. How could you make the writing more fun and pleasurable together? Maybe you will give a series of talks, for the public at large to build the broader market. How could you work together to make those talks a hoot to prepare and give? Maybe you will both approach a new corporate client, with the added power of your joint experience and credentials. Other ideas will occur as you brainstorm ways to work together. Suspend self-interest, and creatively collaborate.

Collaboration often results in raising everyone’s level of energy and sense of abundance and can turn competitors into friends. Take it up a notch and collaborate with those colleagues you most envy, to shift in your evolution as both a person and a business owner.

It takes two to speak the truth – one to speak, and another to hear. — Henry David Thoreau

The third level of collaboration is between you and your business, possible when you consider your business as a separate entity. Assess your business and let it teach you what you need to learn. Here is a 3-part inventory that can help you do this kind of assessment:

1. Feelings Inventory:
How do you feel about your work and your private practice this year?
What did you learn that is important to you? What skills did your acquire?
How else did your practice change from last year? How did you change in response?

2. Financial Inventory:
What did you gross and what did you spend last year?
What trends, events, or patterns do you think caused your best and worst months?
If you wanted to increase your profit by 15% for the next year, what could you do?

3. Foresight Iventory:
What meaning can you make out of any missteps, mistakes, successes or challenges that you faced last year?
How can your practice make a difference in the lives of your clients, and the world this year?
What is the most loving vision you can hold for your business?

Lynn's Upcoming Presentations

Friday, March 18, 2006: Washington DC
“Expanding the Possibilities: What Therapiosts Can Learn from Coaches
28th Annual Networker Symposium
Contact to register: www.psychotherapynetworker.org

Sunday, March 20: Washington DC
“Evolving your Practice”
28th Annual Networker Symposium
Contact to register: www.psychotherapynetworker.org

Sunday, April 23, 2006: Malvern, Pa
“Building Your Ideal Private Practice”
Rubenfeld Synergy Conference
Contact to register: PSMSynergist@aol.com

Friday, April 28, 2006: Columbia, MD
“Developing a Successful Private Practice”
LCPCM Spring Conference
Contact to register: Cejculp@aol.com

Friday, June 2, 2006: Toronto, CA
“Attracting Ideal Clients: Marketing with Integrity”
Leading Edge Seminars
Contact to register: www.leadingedgeseminars.org

Saturday, June 3, 2006: Toronto, CA
“Becoming a Coach: How to Diversify or Integrate Coaching into Your Ongoing Practice”
Leading Edge Seminars
Contact to register: www.leadingedgeseminars.org

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Books by Lynn Grodzki, published by WW Norton. To order, click on each book.

	The Business and Practice of Coaching By Lynn Grodzki and Wendy Allen (2005) An estimated 30,000 coaches have entered the coaching profession in the past five years, but unfortunately, the majority report they are unable to earn a living wage from their coaching services. This book shows you how, using a coaching approach to the business of coaching.
	Building Your Ideal Private Practice By Lynn Grodzki (2000) The best-selling guide to what you need to do and who you need to be in order to have a highly profitable, personally satisfying private practice. Often called the "private practice bible" this book has become a resource for tens of thousands of your colleagues.
	The New Private Practice:Therapist-Coaches Share Stories, Strategies and Advice Edited by Lynn Grodzki (2002) A groundbreaking look at the profession of coaching through the eyes of 16 successful therapist-coaches who tell you how to become a coach, what to charge, and show you how they coach their clients.
	12 Months to Your Ideal Private Practice: A Workbook By Lynn Grodzki (2003) This planned, motivational workbook will help you build the practice you desire. The workbook incorporates fresh ideas, new exercises, further skill sets and much more to give you a direct experience of being carefully coached by Lynn, month-by-month, for a full year.

More next time,

lynn@privatepracticesuccess.com
See the website for additional articles, information about individual coaching, and upcoming classes.