Feeling a little bogged down with work?
Running a private practice is no small feat. On top of working with clients, holding sessions and working on case notes, you also have to actually run the business. From maintaining your office space, attending networking events, marketing efforts, bookkeeping, administration, appointment management, web development and everything else that it takes to run a business – things add up quickly.
Even though you’ve ventured out on your own, that doesn’t mean you have to do everything yourself. Doing everything on your own isn’t sustainable in the long-term, eventually somethings got to give.
That’s where outsourcing can help.
Many therapists start a private practice so they can have more flexibility, autonomy and better work-life balance, but with chaotic tasks flying around with only you to attend to them is anything but balanced!
So, let’s take a look at 5 things you can outsource right now to make life and work just a little more manageable.
5 Tasks to Outsource in your Private Practice:
(1) Social Media Marketing
If you’re social media business pages have been collecting virtual dust, it might be time to enlist some help. Just starting on Facebook alone can grow your audience massively with potential to bring in organic leads without having to spend a cent – but it does take a little nurturing. The problem is that it takes a lot of time to consistently create engaging posts and content for social media platforms, and then also upload them on a consistent basis.
This is where outsourcing is a godsend! Hiring a social marketing specialist or virtual assistant can completely take this task off your hands and start running your social pages on auto pilot. They can offer a huge range of services including setting up your pages, provide a social strategy, design and write the content and engage with your audience.
And if you’re already using social media as a marketing tool, that’s great, but let’s be honest with ourselves maybe, for most of us social media marketing isn’t our strength – so let’s leave the marketing to the pros!
(2) Pay-Per-Click Advertising Campaigns
Pay-per-click, or PPC, is a form of advertising where you only pay if someone clicks on your ad. This is most common with search campaigns such as Google Search Ads. Simply put, when someone types in “Therapist near me” into Google’s search bar, you can create an ad that pops up as the top position linking directly to your practice’s website, only paying if that user clicks on the ad.
This is a pretty complex beast to tackle and requires a lot of marketing and keyword knowledge with a solid strategy in place. However, PPC is a fantastic way to grow your client caseload quickly. In fact, 85% of consumers use the internet to search for local businesses, and PPC has an average return of $2 for every $1 spent – a 200% ROI rate![1]
So, you can see why so many practitioners love PPC, but it’s a lot of work to set up. This makes it another perfect task to outsource to a marketing professional who knows exactly what to do.
(3) Website Development
Websites have now become the virtual offices of the world. They present your private practice to a new prospective clients, showing off its professionalism and reliability, enticing them to contact you.
However, it’s not just about making a neat looking website, although this is important. 57% of internet users say they won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed website on mobile.[2]It’s also about usability, function and security – all elements that may need to be entrusted with a web specialist, especially if you’re not techy.
Outsourcing a skilled web designer is a great way to level up your website where you can see a huge return on investment. In fact, 47% of Users expect a maximum of 2 seconds loading time for an average website[3] but how do you even go about reducing your loading time?
Also keep in mind, 88% of online consumers are less likely to return to a site after a bad experience[4] – that’s a huge risk for your private practice, especially if you funnel your PPC, social media, or therapist directory profiles to it. This is where a professional designer can help!
(4) Bookkeeping and Accounting
If you’re anything like me, math just isn’t your strong suit. Managing your private practice finances can become a huge headache!
This is why outsourcing your bookkeeping and accounting is one of the best investments you can make in your business. Every small business owner I’ve ever met has told me that this was the first thing they outsourced, and it makes sense because tax season can be taxing (pun-intended).
So, leave the numbers to the professionals so you can focus on the things you love to do in your practice, working with clients.
(5) Client Appointment Booking
Phone calls, emails, calendar invites, reminder texts, follow up calls – it never ends! This is probably the single most time-consuming administrative task in private practices.
You can look into hiring a receptionist to tackle this but if you’re still small and just starting out, you might not have extra income to pay someone yet. That’s where private practice management software comes in handy. In my private practice I use Jane App.
Jane App has so many features to make the administrative stuff feel less daunting. One of Jane’s handy tools is the online booking feature where your clients book appointments into your calendar directly from your website, removing you from the booking equation.
It’s a lifesaver! If you’re interested in checking out if Jane App is for you, sign up for a free demo on their website. If you decide to sign up, you can receive your first month free when you use coupon code EVASPARE1MO
Easy & Cost-Effective Way to Outsource
Now you might be wondering where to even begin when finding the right person in order to outsource. And if you’re just starting out, you might not even have a budget to hire someone regularly.
I use Fiverr for small tasks. Fiverr’s a great platform with thousands of freelancers who specialize in various skill sets such as web design, graphic design, copywriting, social media management, virtual assisting, and so much more! Sometimes it takes a little research to find the right person, but once you find the right fit you can go back to the same freelancer over and over – that’s what I do! *Shout out to Imogen*
When it’s something a little more complex or a bigger job, I like to reach out to some of my fellow colleagues, or other small business owners I’ve met along the way, for their recommendations.
Finally, before you start outsourcing, it’s important to set a budget and expectation for these projects.
(1) How much money can you afford a month towards outsourcing?
(2) What tasks in your business do you need the most help with?
(3) Where will you find the help you want to enlist?
(4) What’s your onboarding process for contractors, freelancers or employees?
Like with everything you’ve managed in your private practice up to this point, it will need some planning and consideration to make it work – especially, to ensure that you get the right person for the right job!
Disclaimer
Any links, referrals or promotional codes listed may be affiliate links where Evaspare Inc. may receive a small monetary compensation, at no extra cost you, when you click or use links or promotional codes.
References
[1] Jugovic Spajic, D. (2022, March 17). 24 profitable PPC stats to keep your eye on in 2022. Retrieved from https://www.smallbizgenius.net/by-the-numbers/ppc-stats/#gref
[2] [3] [4] SWEOR. (2022, August 9). 27 eye-opening website statistics: Is your website costing you clients? Retrieved from https://www.sweor.com/firstimpressions