Starting a New Small Business Any Tips?
- Thread starter Tim86
- Start date
Glad I found this thread. I'm a registered psychologist and thinking about making the transition to private practice. I'm currently working FT in a NGO, current plan is to work for someone with a private practice, learn the ins and outs and then start my own in about a year's time.
How's your practice going Tim? For referral base have you considered ATAPS? Apparently they provide ample amounts of referrals.
How's your practice going Tim? For referral base have you considered ATAPS? Apparently they provide ample amounts of referrals.
I've got my own exercise physiology business and what I do is go out to medical centres, gyms and nursing homes to provide services for clients. I have made links with hospitals, community nurses, doctors and government agencies like Medicare local.. I would suggest throwing your line out to everything you can and see who bites and gives you your most referrals. Re-assess the situation every few months to see if some things are even worth doing.. It's a bit different as I get paid by Medicare and I don't think you do but seriously get your face out there to medical centres.. I've felt intimidated many times with some doctors and they've been jerks but if you hold your own you'll be right.. The ones who referred to me most were the ones who asked a few questions.. Sell yourself to be the best at what you do...keep sending stuff out to doctors. Keep writing good reports. Get yourself in multiple locations and give people a percentage of what you make for referral etc..
Word of mouth and referral is the no.1 way of getting health clients..get your name on the counselling organisation websites around too...
You can do it mate. I'm 25 and went straight into the deep end with it after Uni so you can imagine how clueless I may have looked haha
good luck. If you need anything let me know..
And remember, you have a degree. Worse comes to worse you get a salary like most people in the health industry..
Word of mouth and referral is the no.1 way of getting health clients..get your name on the counselling organisation websites around too...
You can do it mate. I'm 25 and went straight into the deep end with it after Uni so you can imagine how clueless I may have looked haha
good luck. If you need anything let me know..
And remember, you have a degree. Worse comes to worse you get a salary like most people in the health industry..
Ataps will only refer to registered psychologists who have a Medicare provider number.. If you want referrals through this I would suggest talking to your Medicare local and establish a relationship before they become primary health networks... They're outsourcing many services.. Be active and ask them for their patients.. I just did that for my business.. Worked great so far
I Must have missed this thread. My advice in the 1st instance is to get a public service job and build a negative gearing empire in property or shares on your employer's time. This GFC is murder and it won't be easy. I started my law practice from zip so here's a few ideas:
1. Cashflow, of which you will have minimal in the first few years is vital. Refinance your house so you have a cash buffer so that you can maintain current (hopefully modest) living standards for an extended period. I could have kept the business going if no customers walked through the door in the 1st 2 years.
2. Keep overheads low.
3. Short term lease but make sure you get a few options. 1 year plus 2 or 3 options each of 1 year.
4. Keep overheads low.
5. I did locum work for the first couple of years: paid the bills so that in my leftover time I could do some half decent paying work. Soon the latter will require more of your time allowing you to ditch the locum work.
6. Keep overheads low.
7. I also did a bit of legal aid work- crap pay but welcome when received. More cashflow.
8. I never formally advertised and was all word of mouth- but in retrospect I would consider building an internet presence. I've had a webpage for a few years which was put in place to preserve the domain name. Once my secretary linked a facebook account to it I jumped in the google search thingy to a top 3 listing without paying for optimization when people looked at my suburb.
9. I may not have mentioned this before but keep your overheads down.
Above all- do it the way you want to. You will either fail or succeed , but if you do what others tell you that doesn't sit right with your heart and you fail you will resent yourself for listening.
Footnote: Once you run a business you will be gobsmacked at the number of people who want part of your perceived wealth- from the checkout chick at Woolies wanting to come on board as your secretary to the old mate wanting work back in Brisbane so can you put him on full time @77k/year !
1. Cashflow, of which you will have minimal in the first few years is vital. Refinance your house so you have a cash buffer so that you can maintain current (hopefully modest) living standards for an extended period. I could have kept the business going if no customers walked through the door in the 1st 2 years.
2. Keep overheads low.
3. Short term lease but make sure you get a few options. 1 year plus 2 or 3 options each of 1 year.
4. Keep overheads low.
5. I did locum work for the first couple of years: paid the bills so that in my leftover time I could do some half decent paying work. Soon the latter will require more of your time allowing you to ditch the locum work.
6. Keep overheads low.
7. I also did a bit of legal aid work- crap pay but welcome when received. More cashflow.
8. I never formally advertised and was all word of mouth- but in retrospect I would consider building an internet presence. I've had a webpage for a few years which was put in place to preserve the domain name. Once my secretary linked a facebook account to it I jumped in the google search thingy to a top 3 listing without paying for optimization when people looked at my suburb.
9. I may not have mentioned this before but keep your overheads down.
Above all- do it the way you want to. You will either fail or succeed , but if you do what others tell you that doesn't sit right with your heart and you fail you will resent yourself for listening.
Footnote: Once you run a business you will be gobsmacked at the number of people who want part of your perceived wealth- from the checkout chick at Woolies wanting to come on board as your secretary to the old mate wanting work back in Brisbane so can you put him on full time @77k/year !
I have started 2 very successful businesses from scratch.Be prepared to make a decent profit from year 4
Years 1,2,& 3 are the testers.
