Let's be totally honest here.

Yes, you absolutely love helping other people feel better, but the truth is that your own well-being and the freedom and flexibility of your time is an underlying factor in becoming a holistic health or wellness practitioner.

We all have our own journey or story about how we got here, and it's usually based on a personal struggle with health or the struggle of a loved one.

You completely understand the importance of a healthy lifestyle that includes the activities, relaxation, supplements, food choices, exercise, meditation, time with loved ones etc... that you teach your clients. And the truth is that you choose the difficult and scary path of being or becoming a self-employed holistic health or wellness practitioner because having a healthy lifestyle is non-negotiable for you. (Oh sure, some of us also prefer to be the boss, but for most of us- if a reliable job doing what we love to do that allows us to maintain our healthy lifestyles fell into our laps, we'd take it.)

So, you may be wondering, where is she going with this?

In order for your practice to be successful and profitable, it needs to be sustainable. What I mean is that it needs to be at a pace that works for you, and it needs to bring in the income you need to live comfortably.

I bring this up because of my personal experience with having an unsustainable practice. When I launched my Reiki practice full-time, it grew quickly. Within a matter of months, my three days a week at the acupuncture office were packed full of clients. One after the other, all day long. I didn't take breaks or even pause to eat, and I certainly didn't have time to stretch, meditate or even check in with myself in between clients.

This wasn't working for me, but I was too busy to see it at the time. The compounded result of a structural imbalance in my pelvis and those long days of giving one bodywork session after another without breaks and ignoring the pain signals from my body resulted in an excruciatingly painful condition. A condition that left me unable to give Reiki sessions regularly for over 12 months. It was definitely a lesson learned the hard way, and I'd like to spare you the agony if I can.

So it's incredibly important, even non-negotiable, for you to build your practice around what you need to be healthy and happy. This means scheduling your clients around your priorities - whether that means you have time to stretch and ice your back between sessions or leave the office early enough to care for a loved one or whatever it is that you need to be healthy, happy, doing your best work and a being cheerful role model for your clients.
In fact, clients love that. Clients love when you are happy, well and embody all the healthy qualities that they wish they had in their lives. It's attractive, and it will motivate them to come back.

There is one last thing I want to mention about sustainability, and this has to do with knowing the value of your time and setting your rates accordingly. While it's tempting to look at what other practitioners are charging for their sessions or to try to figure out what the "market" will bear, it's more important to base your rates on what is going to be sustainable for you.
If you know that your ideal schedule for a happy, healthy you is 6 sessions per week, then your rates need to reflect how much income you need from those 6 sessions. (And perhaps some creative thinking about all the little extras that add value to a session with you that keeps clients coming back even though your rates are a little bit higher is in order.) Or perhaps affordable treatments are incredibly important to you, and you have the capability to give 20 sessions a week, so you can set your rates a bit lower and your extras more streamlined.
It's up to you, but it's worth putting thought into what's going to be sustainable for you and building your practice around it.

Your Transformational Homework this week:
For one week, keep track of how much self-care you're doing each day, how much you're working, and how you feel at the end of the day. If you're not feeling your best, figure out what needs to change.Open up a spreadsheet on your computer or pull out a notebook and make a chart. Across the top is each day of the week and down the side list all the hours in the day from when you wake up until when you go to sleep. Put all your self-care and family commitments into the schedule first. Then build your weekly client schedule around what you need to be healthy and happy. Review your schedule quarterly to see if it's working for you or to adjust for changes in your life or lifestyle. Do a little math exercise. Once you have an idea of how many clients you want to work with each week, multiply that by your rates and see if it adds up. Can you sustain your business and your life on these rates? If not, do some soul searching about how much you value your time and what's going to be sustainable for you.

Brainstorm about little extra touches that you can include with your client sessions that make sessions with you more valuable and enjoyable. Remember - you're the boss, and it's ok to tell clients when you're available and when you're not. It can be scary to say "No" or "It'll have to be next week" (or next month) to a client because you don't have any openings, but it's actually quite attractive for a client to hear that you're busy and desirable. This week enforce your new schedule by asking clients to come at the times you've designated.

PS. If you find these steps valuable, and you're an emerging practitioner who needs so support in working through the steps so that you can transform your practice into an authentic, heart-centered, profitable practice, there's a workshop for you on January 10th. If you'd like to know more about how to apply these steps to transform your own emerging practice, join me at Learn the Ropes: Transforming your practice so it's profitable! here in Beverly, MA. Start off 2010 with all the keys you need for your practice to thrive!