Transform your practice into a profitable one.

With the new year just around the corner and many of us with high hopes for a better 2010, I'm inspired to share with you the important steps every practitioner needs to take to shift from being a student or volunteer into a professional, profitable practitioner.
As I've mentioned before, there's a transformation process that needs to happen after you finish your training and begin to step into the role of professional practitioner. You need to become someone who not only feels assured of your therapeutic skills but also has confidence that your practice can be filled with clients who pay what your time and expertise is worth.

Some schools are getting better at incorporating business concepts into their curriculums, but it's not enough. Any practitioner who steps out on his or her own into private practice has to learn the ropes of being an entrepreneur as well as a healer. I've seen too many practitioners struggle to start a practice, only to give up in frustration with a belief that it's not possible to earn a living doing this heart-centered, important work.

It is possible though, and over the next six weeks we'll take a look in depth at the key steps every emerging practitioner needs to take to avoid the frustrating pitfalls and roadblocks that keep them from success!

Transform your Practice - Step 1
Make a Decision

I reached a crossroads in 2007 where I had to make a choice - there simply was not enough time in the day to balance marriage & family, full-time volunteering and full-time work. The balance between how much I was giving and how much I was receiving was just not working out. Something had to give. I had been dabbling at having a private practice, for free, for a very long time, and it was time for me to take the leap to really become a profitable, professional practitioner. I had to make a serious Decision to stop dabbling and start doing this for real.

Making a Decision meant that I was making a commitment to doing what it takes to make it happen. A Decision like this is so important because hanging out a shingle as a practitioner opens you up to face all of your fears, limiting beliefs, doubts, and self-worth issues you didn't know you have. The only thing that's going to get you through the yucky and scary stuff is a commitment to see it through to the other side.

Making a Decision also meant that I had faith in myself and that things could and would work out. The Decision meant adopting an optimistic frame of mind that allowed me to perceive the inevitable roadblocks as temporary challenges and opportunities for growth instead of feeling frustrated and helpless about the things I didn't know yet.

Making a Decision motivated me to learn as much as possible about how the business aspect of my practice needed to work in order to be profitable. It gave me the drive to seek out experts and mentors who could show me the ropes and guide me through the things I didn't know.

Making a Decision helped me create momentum around my practice because I had come out of the closet about it. What I mean is that since I wanted to find clients to work with, I had to start talking about it! Nobody's going to know you're available and willing to help unless you tell them. It can be really scary at first to own what you're doing and proudly say to friends, family and the general public: "I'm a Practitioner".

Making a Decision also forced me to work out my issues around asking for payment for my services. If I was going to have a profitable practice, I had to learn how to get comfortable asking for and receiving payment. Hiding behind volunteer work doesn't truly serve anyone, least not you and your bank account!

Making a Decision to be a profitable practitioner is the most important step you need to take. It's essential to make this commitment to do what it takes, face your fears, come out of the closet (or wear the T-shirt ,as one of my Clearing your Path for Success clients joked about this week), adopt a positive, optimistic attitude and be open to learning new things about yourself and how to manage your practice.

Your Transformational Homework this week:

Write in your journal 100 times "I am a profitable practitioner" or some other affirmation that speaks to you. Well, ok you don't have to write it 100 times, but spend some time writing in your journal about how important it is to you to be a practitioner and make a living at it.

Say your affirmation out loud. Invite a friend who doesn't know yet about your intention out for coffee and tell her all about it.

Talk about it as if it were already happening. There's nothing wrong with "faking it till you make it", which really means pretending you have confidence until you do have confidence.

Cultivate an optimistic attitude that sees roadblocks as opportunities and be open to learning new things. Pick one thing you know you need to learn more about and take a step towards learning it like signing up for a free class at the Enterprise Center or checking a book out of the library.

Decide that your dreams are important enough to do what it takes to make it happen. Write your decision in your journal or keep it in your wallet as a reminder.

Do you know an emerging practitioner who needs to know these steps? Invite her to register here so she won't miss any of the articles: http://tinyurl.com/joinjoannaslist