So recently I began a small relationship counselling business.
It's always been something in the back of my mind. I guess it was a version of the grass is always greener on the other side.
I am employed as a counsellor, but always had the idea of private practice.
The only problem is now that I've started doing the whole private practice thing... it kind of blows
Here's the CON list:
(1) Clients can be hopeless with coming to appointments, so there are many times when you get ready 30 mins prior to the appointment, and then wait around for 20 mins for a no show. (By the way if they do this twice I ban them from the practice).
(2) Insurance, accommodation, and advertising will lose me $200 per week. If I only get $80 per hour long appointment, and it takes me 30 mins in setting up the appointment and getting to the office etc... for each appointment, then I'm working 4 hours per week just to break even. Right now I only get 1 or 2 clients per week, so it's a loss.
(3) I thought the relationship counselling would give me something different to my normal counselling job, but it's really just much of a muchness. It doen't excite or interest me like I thought it would because it just feels like the job I'm already doing.
(4) With working for an employer compared to running the small business, I can no longer just leave my work at work. The small business shoves work into my down time as well. You never get totally free from work responsibilities.
(5) The energy I put into this business is energy I take away from my property investment projects...which make me more money for less work and create a passive income.
(6) Even if the business becomes a success, then I'll never get the chance to have a holiday because I'll always have clients booked in.
(7) Banks will be more likely to lend if I continue my day job getting approx $80K per year than trying to get income from a small business.
Pros
(1) Potential to grow the business to replace my day job. But this has the above associated cons.
(2) I haven't yet tried google optimisation, I know someone that could get me to the top of google for $100 per week, but haven't engaged their services yet. So I could potentially grow my business a heck of a lot with the right advertising.
(3) The business could potentially become passive income, if I grew it enough to then be able to employ other counsellors and take a cut of their earnings.
(4) I could potentially charge closer to double what I currently charge per session once the business is established.
(5) The price of doing business is only $200 pw so it's not overly high...
(6) With just 20 clients per week, at a full price session of $150 per hour, I could make $2800 pw profit. That's $145 600 per year. So it would be potentially a good income.
The alternative is that I keep doing what I have been doing, and what I already know works well. Each rental property I purchase and set up correctly makes me between $200-$400 per week profit. In another 2 years I will have about $1600 per week profit from rental income. Add captial growth of say 3% per year on my portfoio and you'd be looking at another $1153 per week. So that's already $2753 per week that property will be making me, and it will have taken 5 years of work to set that up, however it will be passive income after that.
So the $2800pw profit from the business sounds good, but it involves approx 30 hours of work per week. Compare that to putting my efforts into property for the next 5 years to again create that $2753 pw profit...which will be passive income requiring very little ongoing work.
So what to do?
Fold the business now and focus my energy on property investment as I know that works for me?
Or give the business a good solid crack and see how it goes?
It's always been something in the back of my mind. I guess it was a version of the grass is always greener on the other side.
I am employed as a counsellor, but always had the idea of private practice.
The only problem is now that I've started doing the whole private practice thing... it kind of blows
Here's the CON list:
(1) Clients can be hopeless with coming to appointments, so there are many times when you get ready 30 mins prior to the appointment, and then wait around for 20 mins for a no show. (By the way if they do this twice I ban them from the practice).
(2) Insurance, accommodation, and advertising will lose me $200 per week. If I only get $80 per hour long appointment, and it takes me 30 mins in setting up the appointment and getting to the office etc... for each appointment, then I'm working 4 hours per week just to break even. Right now I only get 1 or 2 clients per week, so it's a loss.
(3) I thought the relationship counselling would give me something different to my normal counselling job, but it's really just much of a muchness. It doen't excite or interest me like I thought it would because it just feels like the job I'm already doing.
(4) With working for an employer compared to running the small business, I can no longer just leave my work at work. The small business shoves work into my down time as well. You never get totally free from work responsibilities.
(5) The energy I put into this business is energy I take away from my property investment projects...which make me more money for less work and create a passive income.
(6) Even if the business becomes a success, then I'll never get the chance to have a holiday because I'll always have clients booked in.
(7) Banks will be more likely to lend if I continue my day job getting approx $80K per year than trying to get income from a small business.
Pros
(1) Potential to grow the business to replace my day job. But this has the above associated cons.
(2) I haven't yet tried google optimisation, I know someone that could get me to the top of google for $100 per week, but haven't engaged their services yet. So I could potentially grow my business a heck of a lot with the right advertising.
(3) The business could potentially become passive income, if I grew it enough to then be able to employ other counsellors and take a cut of their earnings.
(4) I could potentially charge closer to double what I currently charge per session once the business is established.
(5) The price of doing business is only $200 pw so it's not overly high...
(6) With just 20 clients per week, at a full price session of $150 per hour, I could make $2800 pw profit. That's $145 600 per year. So it would be potentially a good income.
The alternative is that I keep doing what I have been doing, and what I already know works well. Each rental property I purchase and set up correctly makes me between $200-$400 per week profit. In another 2 years I will have about $1600 per week profit from rental income. Add captial growth of say 3% per year on my portfoio and you'd be looking at another $1153 per week. So that's already $2753 per week that property will be making me, and it will have taken 5 years of work to set that up, however it will be passive income after that.
So the $2800pw profit from the business sounds good, but it involves approx 30 hours of work per week. Compare that to putting my efforts into property for the next 5 years to again create that $2753 pw profit...which will be passive income requiring very little ongoing work.
So what to do?
Fold the business now and focus my energy on property investment as I know that works for me?
Or give the business a good solid crack and see how it goes?