One of the biggest problems we face as therapists, is that we often work in isolation, we get little or no training in business or marketing and we only earn money when we treat clients. But running a business, as you’ve probably discovered by now, is not for the faint-hearted. This article explores how you can use mentoring to help you avoid costly mistakes, save you time, save you money, ensure you’re focusing on what’s important and outsourcing the things you don’t enjoy or don’t do well. Equally importantly it can significantly reduce your sense of professional isolation and offer a supportive and nurturing network that will help you to thrive and dramatically increase your chance of achieving your professional (and possibly also personal) goals.
Some of the biggest problems we face as therapists, is that we often work in isolation, we have to build our businesses from scratch, we get little or no training in business or marketing and we only earn money when we treat clients.
But there’s so much to do to run the business, and find a regular supply of clients, that more often than not, we end up spending much more time than we want to on the “business of business”, instead of on our passion for helping people.
Often we have an idea that we think will work, so we spend time (and sometimes also money) trying to implement that idea, only to find that it doesn’t give us the results we wanted. We have all the day-to-day worries about taking payments, keeping our accounts up to date, ordering equipment and supplies, paying rent and bills, getting our branding designed, and website built, not to mention marketing and promoting ourselves, locally and on social media. Oh yes, and then we need to treat our clients and actually earn some money!
By the time you’ve done all these tasks, and paid all your bills, it frequently seems like there’s very little left in the bank account for us, in return for all those efforts.
So what’s the solution? Well, one very simple one is mentoring.
Here’s a list of just some of the benefits of mentoring:
Despite the overwhelming list of benefits, sadly most people often don’t consider mentoring because they think it’s too expensive, or that they don’t have enough time. Some are even nervous about being held accountable and kept on track and if that’s how you feel, read no further because the chances are you have too many mental barriers in the way to benefit from mentoring, or to justify the effort or time commitment a mentor would need to invest, to see a result.
It requires energy and passion to mentor. A good and effective mentor, in addition to having the appropriate business skills and experience, also needs to understand you, your business, and in the case of healthcare, also your industry.
Healthcare professionals have a bias towards certain drivers and motivations, and to further complicate the situation, usually a new client or patient needs to reach a ‘clinical tipping point’, before they are willing to take action and book an appointment, and this is different to many other sectors of business. It’s important for the mentor to understand this, and ensure that their advice is congruent with these motivations and industry ‘quirks’. Without it, the mentor, and mentee (individual being mentored) may find it hard to gel and progress won’t be as effective as it could be.
Regarding the argument about mentoring costing too much money, or taking up too much time, well consider the following:
"Mentoring is most often defined as a professional relationship in which an experienced person (the mentor) supports and encourages people to develop specific skills and knowledge that will maximise their business potential and improve their performance. In short, it is the transfer of knowledge, skills and experience."
Mentoring can sometimes be pricey. The Rockstar Group, which is a well-known UK mentoring organisation, charges £95 an hour for 1-to-1 mentoring and this is good value. But, I have teamed up with Clare Carrick who established the Back in Motion franchise model, to make a unique offer to just 12 people.
Clare has supported therapists since 2009, in building businesses that are scalable, replicable and sustainable in an ever-changing healthcare marketplace. She currently runs 4 of her own clinics and supports another 4 under her franchise model. She brings both her clinical experience as a physiotherapist, as well as her business experience in running clinics and establishing market-leading business processes to ensure the clinics run both efficiently and profitably.
I bring marketing experience from helping more than 100 clinics and individual physical and manual therapists in marketing their own businesses both utilising the Co-Kinetic marketing platform, as well as the more hands-on approach I take through my marketing company, Done For You Marketing Ltd. As many of you know, I also frequently give presentations and seminars, and write articles, on a range of digital marketing topics from setting up websites, ensuring all the right marketing foundations for growth are in place, how to get a return on investment from your social media activities, and on specific marketing strategies that are working most effectively for therapists in the current digital environment.
We’re offering this first programme on a cost-covering basis only, and we have just 12 spots available. The programme is a year-long programme, and costs just £85 a month (£1020 over the year) with a £170 deposit required at the time of booking (followed by a further 10 monthly payments of £85 starting on the day of the first mastermind event).
What does this price include:
Each applicant will need to complete an application survey and those shortlisted to join the programme will be asked for a telephone interview by either myself or Clare. It is important for this group to be the most effective it can be, for everyone involved. So we are looking for applicants who are motivated, open-minded, and have a strong desire to learn and to become a better person, both professionally and personally.
Common to all candidates must be the desire to grow your business and take on other staff to support your work and build a professional commercial outfit to provide therapy services from. We want you to build a business and not just a job. If you have a more established business, under 250K turnover and want help to continue to grow but iron out existing glitches or stresses and strains you experience on daily basis, this course is for you.
The first step is to fill out the Survey at this link. Applications for this programme end on the 30th January 2018. We’re unable to accept applications completed after this date. We will then review the applications and contact you to either to offer you a place, or give feedback on other options if your application is not accepted on this occasion.
We will take an initial upfront deposit of £170, if you decide you would like to accept your invitation to join the programme. This will be deducted from the annual payment of £1020. The remaining 10 payments of £85 will start the week the first mastermind event takes place. If you are unable to complete the 12 month programme, the £170 will not be refundable, as you will have taken a space that could have been given to someone else. However, you won’t be charged for any of the additional monthly fees once you’ve cancelled.
At this point we’re open to being flexible about this until we have confirmed the 12 successful applicants. Then based on your combined locations, we will try and find a good central point that’s as convenient as possible to everyone. If there is no obvious central point, we are most likely to opt for London as our main Mastermind destination.
Once we have confirmed our 12 successful applicants we will offer you a selection of 2-3 dates for each Mastermind event and we will select the one that most people can attend.
We look forward to working with you to grow your business in 2018 and if you have any other questions please don’t hesitate to contact us at [email protected] or start a chat using the chat icon on the Co-Kinetic website.
"My mentor said, ‘Let’s go do it,’ not ‘You go do it.’ How powerful when someone says, ‘Let’s!’" — Jim Rohn "Mentoring is a brain to pick, an ear to listen, and a push in the right direction." — John Crosby
"My mentor said, ‘Let’s go do it,’ not ‘You go do it.’ How powerful when someone says, ‘Let’s!’" — Jim Rohn
"Mentoring is a brain to pick, an ear to listen, and a push in the right direction." — John Crosby
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Tor began her professional life training as a physiotherapist at Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge, UK. She went on to complete a BSc in Sport & Exercise Science at the University of Birmingham whilst also achieving a WTA international tennis ranking.
After graduation she worked for a London marketing agency and then moved into medical journalism where her passion for publishing was born.
At 27 she established sportEX medicine, a quarterly journal for general practitioners focusing on sport and exercise medicine.
sportEX grew into an internationally known journal for all sports medicine practitioners, including physical and manual therapists; articles covered the practical application of evidenced-based research alongside professional development with expert contributors drawn from across the world of medicine and rehabilitation.
With a passion for technology as well as publishing and sport, Tor's leadership grew sportEX into the Co-Kinetic journal and website which included a more collaborative, royalty-based form of publishing as well as a wider content remit. As well as the quarterly magazine Co-Kinetic, offerings now include e-learning opportunities, breaking clinical research infographics, marketing kits for therapists, business growth tools, and a business discount club.
Tor's focus is providing resources to help practitioners and therapists develop their businesses and to work more efficiently and effectively, a topic that she speaks regularly on at global conferences.
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