Private Practice Success Newsletter

July 2007, by Lynn Grodzki, LCSW, MCC (Master Certified Coach)
www.privatepracticesuccess.com

The Retail Clinic

For the past several months in this newsletter, I have been trying to heighten your awareness about the need to take leadership of your practice, to stay ahead of the market downturn.

You need to find ways to change course and direction with a small business, to respond to a changing market. Adopting a different business model can create renewal for your business by taking steps towards a major change in the way you position your services and operate your practice, versus a band-aid fix.

Last month we examined the Boutique Practice, a business model based on a high income clientele and your very specialized, unique, customized services that can command the highest prices.

This month, we explore a business model that goes in the opposite direction: The Retail Clinic.

“The essence of a successful business is really quite simple. It is your ability to offer a product or service that people will pay for at a price sufficiently above your costs.” (Brian Tracy)

A retail clinic is a bare-bones operation, set up to cast a wider net than a boutique practice and serve less-affluent clients.

We can see this model already in operation in the medical field. QuickHealth has opened retail medical clinics in Northern California, offering primary care, pay-as-you-go clinics for working families. Drugstore giant QVC has followed suit.

A retail clinic focuses on the affordability of sessions (no insurance involved) and ease of access.

This model requires professionals to be generalists: for example, a retail therapy clinic needs therapists who can counsel families and individuals for a range of generic mental health care issues: in a single day, a therapist may treat depression, anxiety, couples problems, parenting issues, and addiction concerns.

A retail law clinic would need attorneys who can do a generalized practice of family and civil law. A retail consulting clinic needs management consultants who can handle diversity training, conflict resolution, and strategic planning, all in a weeks work.

Case example: One psychotherapist outside of Chicago finds clients primarily through a large ad in the yellow pages that costs her $10,000 each year, but effectively promotes her reasonable, flat fee of $49.95 (cash only, no insurance accepted) for a 35-minute counseling session. Her office is in a retail strip mall. It isn’t fancy.

She returns calls within 24 hours by using a low-cost answering service that also schedules her sessions. She has a waiting list and employs two associates. She can accommodate 40 or more clients each day at the clinic, because shorter session times allows for increased volume.

She asks each client to fill out a pre- and post-therapy survey, loaded on a computer in the waiting room, to track client satisfaction session by session. So far, the clients resoundingly approve of this easy, consumer-based, affordable approach. She grossed upwards of $300,000 last year. Not bad for bare bones!

“Business is not financial science, it's about trading.. buying and selling. It's about creating a product or service so good that people will pay for it.” (Anita Roddick)

To build a retail clinic, market share is critical. In a retail clinic, a constant flow means the difference between feast or famine.

"Segmenting" is a critical step in building market share: Segmenting means analyzing your market. Take what you know about your market based on your past marketing attempts (what worked, what didn’t and why), or conducting interviews with potential clients, or talking to intermediaries, or any and all other data that you may have purchased, collected, or developed. Analyze this information to get a clearer understanding of who your coaching clients are and where to find them.

You may already use segmenting in your business marketing. If you bought a mailing list to send out a brochure or a flyer for direct mail, and if that list was based on a particular customer profile—gender, location, net worth, or profession—you used segmenting.

If you joined the Chamber of Commerce and made choices about which committee to join, based on who was already represented (type of business, age, nearness to your office), you used segmenting.

You have probably been on the receiving end of segmenting many times. If you ever visited an online buying site, such as Amazon.com to browse books, you might notice a section on the screen that states: “Customers who bought this book also bought” and then lists books that the data suggests you might want to buy. This is segmenting, trying to match your buying history against that of other like-minded customers, to try to interest you in more purchases.

“If you are not moving closer to what you want in sales (or in life), you probably aren't doing enough asking.” (Jack Canfield)

Here are some segmenting categories (with examples):

• Type of client (example: professional, entrepreneur, creative, careerist, executive, CEO)

• Size of company or organization (example: small with 1-10 employees, midsize with 10-40, large with 40 or above)

• Financial information about earnings or net worth of individual or company (example: company earning revenue of $5 million or more, individual earning income of $100,000 or less)

• Needs or challenges of an organization (example: business in phase of start-up, turn-around, decline, culture change) or individual (example: person in career transition, post-divorce, retirement, new parent)

• Buying habits or history (example: single women who spend on average $5000 annually on personal growth services, or mid-size company who budgets $40,000 per year per executive for coaching).

• Personal profile including gender, age, ethnicity (example: single women over 60 who want to stay in good health)

• Location (example: freelance attorneys with billings of $1 million or more within ten miles of your office)

OK, for those of you who want to pursue a retail clinic, here is your field work:

1. Define your target market in one sentence:
2. Qualify or segment your target market by the following factors: type, size, buying habits, and any other information you may have.
3. Further analyze your target market based on their needs, buying habits, or location.
4. Does this target market purchase similar services already? Are my services in line with what they normally pay?
5. Does this market have a lasting need for the services I offer, or will it be a one-time purchase?
6. What are the best ways for me to reach this market?

Next time, a completely different business model: The Micro-Practice!

Upcoming Presentations

I am in the presenting mood! Please come and join me as I set out for Summer and early Fall to meet with therapists, healing professionals, coaches, and consultants. The presentations are motivating, fun, and will take you to the next level of your business success and entrepreneurial mindset!

July 18, 2007: Ann Arbor, MI
"BUILD YOUR IDEAL PRACTICE: Proven Strategies for Clinicians & Helping Professionals to Thrive in Competitive Markets"
Ann Arbor Consultation Services
Contact: www.clinicaltrainingceus.com

July 19, 2007: Ann Arbor, MI
"MASTERFUL COACHING: How to Integrate Coaching into your Clinical Practice & Diversify to Serve Niche Markets"
Ann Arbor Consultation Services
Contact: www.clinicaltrainingceus.com

September 2007: Australia!
Sydney, Melbourne, & Brisbane
"SUCCESS IN PRIVATE PRACTICE: How to Love What You Do and Be Highly Profitable Too!"
For information and dates, go to:
http://kassanevents.com.au

October 12, 2007: Toronto, ON
"ATTRACTING IDEAL CLIENTS: Marketing with Integrity"
Leading Edge Seminars
Contact: http://www.leadingedgeseminars.org

October 13, 2007: Toronto, ON
"BECOMING A COACH:How to Diversify or Integrate Coaching into Your Ongoing Practice"
Leading Edge Seminars
Contact: http://www.leadingedgeseminars.org

Fall Teleclasses

To see upcoming teleclasses, go to: strongstartclasses.com

Enter Article Title

Replace this text with an article. Type your second article using plain text, either directly into the web form, or preferably into a word processing program.

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) Reviewed by author Richard Leider as "Nothing less than a radical rethinking of the essentials of building a coaching practice. A must read for all coaches, master and novice alike."
	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.