Private Practice Success Newsletter

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

Taking Leadership of your Practice, Part 4

Are your ready for another business model?

For the past 6 months in this newsletter I have been evaluating business models that can help insure your viability for the future of your practice. Adopting a better business model can create renewal for your practice as you position your services in a way that helps you not only survive, but ultimately thrive. This month, we look at the Component Model, a way of operating your practice to help you optimize new markets and new services.

Also, please see presentatations in Australia and Toronto for Sept & Oct and the new Basic and Advanced teleclass offerings.

The Component Model

The Component Model is a combination of market development and diversification. Similar to the concept of cross training when developing athletic ability, adding new components to your practice within a small business helps you stay fit by working different muscles.

Market development and diversification are 2 of the 4 strategies developed by Igor Ansoff, a business theoretician, to explain business marketing strategies:

1.Market penetration (existing markets, existing products): Market penetration is the least risky way for a company to grow. You focus on gaining new customers by taking them away from competitors, attracting non-users of your services, or convincing current clients to use more of your services.

2.Product development (existing markets, new products): Product development develops different products or services for the same market. In the process of adding to your existing services, you may be able to gain new customers.

3.Market development (new markets, existing products): Market development takes an existing service but tries to find a new user. For example, you may have developed a counseling method to help calm those with obsessive compulsive disorder, and then find it works well with those who have ADD too.

4.Diversification (new markets, new products): This is the boldest or riskiest of strategies, as you develop both a new service and target a new market. For example, you take your ADD methods (from above example) and redesign them, creating a coaching program specifically targeting entrepreneurs (who are known to be distracted and unfocused) to help them develop business discipline. Or on a corporate level, the Virgin brand expands and diversifies from record stores to airlines to telecommunications and enters new markets where it had no presence before.

As you see, the Component Model either uses a new service or an existing one for a new market (different kind of client.) You may need a larger budget to develop this business model since you will be tweaking or creating new product and also marketing for new types of clients.

Security is mostly a superstition. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. (Helen Keller)

For those in private practice, one way to accomplish this is to add not only a new service, but an additional role to your existing practice. For example, you decide to be a psychotherapist plus a teacher, trainer, coach, healer, consultant, nurse, midwife, or personal trainer (and I know therapists who have added these and other roles.) Imagine each role or service as a separate train running on its own track. For example, clinical services are on one track, with their own budget, marketing plan, and client base; consulting services are on another, with a separate website, network, and budget.

The services that you offer may be one way to expand or integrate your varied experience. Healers who move into a new market often move into a new setting, such as a corporate setting to offer executive coaching, management consulting, team building or other business training.

Finding new markets means having a business plan to guide you in the steps you need to take: networking with advisers who make referrals, establishing a reputation within a different clientele, learning to bill and sell services in a new way as expert witnesses, mediators, or coaches. As you adapt content and process for other settings you may need to change your image and enhance self presentation, refining your language, materials, or methods.

Anything's possible if you've got enough nerve. (J. K. Rowling)

One therapist diversified this way: For years, she taught systems family therapy at a local community college in addition to seeing families in her private practice. When a member of her class asked her about the in-fighting within the family business she made suggestions based on her Bowenian training and soon found herself hired to help sort out the dynamics interfering with the founder and his family. Now she specializes in family business consulting. Her services include structuring family governance, developing succession plans, and one-on-one shadow coaching, during which she spends a day in the life of a founder of a family business, to get a better sense of what is happening on the ground. She charges $2,500 per day, a standard management-consulting fee, and says one-third of her practice time is now spent with these clients.

Want to create your own Component model? Develop new services for new markets by answering these questions:

What skills, talents, or experience do I NOT currently utilize?
Where would these skills be valued?
What would be my first steps in implementation? What help or resources do I need to make this happen?
What will I charge? (Do some market research to find out what others are charging offering similar services)
What contacts do I need to develop to find new markets?
What is my timeline for this endeavor?

Next time, another business model: Product-driven Practices

Upcoming Presentations

September 2007: Australia!

Please join me for my signature workshop, designed to help you take the steps and make the changes that result in your ideal practice. I haven’t presented in Australia since 2002, so this is a rare opportunity for us to work together.

“Success in Private Practice”: A 2-Day Workshop, in:

Melbourne
Royce Hotel
379 St Kilda Road
3-4 September, 2007

Brisbane
Bardon Conference Centre
390 Simpsons Road Bardon
6 -7 September, 2007

Sydney
MGSM CBD Campus
Level 6
51 - 57 Pitt Street
10 -11 September, 2007

For information and dates, go to: http://kassanevents.com.au and ask about their special price for readers of this newsletter. Register soon and take action this year!

October 12, 2007: Toronto, ON
"Private Practice Success"
Leading Edge Seminars
Contact: info@leadingedgeseminars.org

October 13, 2007: Toronto, ON
"Integrating Coaching Into Your Practice"
Leading Edge Seminars
Contact: info@leadingedgeseminars.org

New Teleclasses Start in October

Basic Strong Start

This 4-month teleclass is both motivational and informational. We cover the first 6 chapters of Lynn’s workbook. Using the support of the group, you will define your practice-building goals, move forward with them, and use the coaching support of each call for learning the skills you need to develop and become a truly savvy entrepreneur. A bargain at only $45 a call.

A) Mondays at 2:00 PM EST or
B) Wednesdays at 3:00 PM EST

Advanced Strong Start

Pre-requisite: Basic Strong Start or permission of the class leader. This 4-month advanced teleclass gives you the skills and support to take you to the next level. We cover the final 6 chapters of Lynn’s workbook. Using the support of the group, you will define your practice-building goals, move forward with them, and use the coaching support of each call for learning the skills you need to develop to achieve practice success over time. A bargain at only $45 a call.

C) Tuesdays at 12:00 PM EST or
D) Thursdays at 1:00 PM EST

For information, dates & times, policies, or to register go to:

www.strongstartclasses.com

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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) 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. One more tip: Feeling isolated? Visit: theamericantherapist.org -- a non-profit, virtual community for mental health professionals in the USA. One more way to feel connected to professional support.

More next time,

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