Adding Income Streams in Private Practice

Looking to Boost Your Income Streams in Private Practice?

Want to learn to do this without adding more 1:1 clients or hiring and becoming a group practice?  If you said YES, than this post is for you!

Let’s explore what adding new income streams to your private practice can do for your bottom line.

Growing your private practice shouldn’t mean maxing out on 1:1 client sessions and struggling to keep up on documentation and administrative tasks in your practice.  Adding income streams that don’t rely on 1:1 clients can help you save time and significantly increase revenue in your private practice.

Lately, many of my coaching clients are asking…“How can I make more money without adding hours and more clients to my workday?”

I love this question, and I can’t wait to share some of my favorite ways to increase your practice revenue by leveraging your clinical skills in different ways.  You can use multiple income streams to grow your practice without taking on more clinical hours.

Don’t forget that income diversity in your private practice also helps insulate you from the ups/downs of the economy and provides some variety in your day to day practice.  It can also be a cushion when you need to cut back on 1:1 client sessions or make up for unplanned time away from the office.  Trust me, you can’t afford to miss these tips boost your bottom line.

Without further hesitation, let’s dive into some of the options for increasing your private practice revenue by adding income streams without that don’t involve adding more 1:1 client sessions to your schedule…

Therapy Groups

On the positive side, most of us are familiar with the group model of therapy.  It is a great way to reach more clients and an easier income stream to incorporate into your private practice.  Even though it’s still client facing work, you increase revenue because of the higher compensation per hour when you serve multiple clients all at once.

For a brief moment, think about your local community.  Is there a need for a therapy group you can provide? Group offerings can be endless!  You can design groups to be therapeutic, support based, or psychoeducational depending on your model and whether or not you accept insurance.

The group model is an easy choice for a clinician that wants to repackage skills they already know. The best part about this opportunity is it can be an ongoing income stream at a higher rate than 1:1 client sessions.  You can also use therapy groups for seasonal revenue boosts if you prefer!

How to Get Started with Therapy Groups

1. Choose a niche for your therapy group
2. Create an outline of topics/lessons based on the group subject
3. Create a flyer to promote the group and start a waitlist
4. Once you have the desired number of interested members, you can set dates and register clients

To give you an idea of the earning potential, let’s discuss an example where a group offering increased practice revenue.

Example Opportunity

Jenny charges $150 for a 1:1 client session lasting 50 minutes. Jenny’s specialty is grief/loss. She could easily add a therapy group and increase her revenue in the same amount of time. Jenny decides to charge $45/per person for a group session lasting 1 hour and caps it at 10 members.

$45/client x 10 members= $450 per group session

This is a $300 increase over her private pay rate for a 1:1 client session!

Retreats and Summits

Are you someone who enjoy leading and presenting?  If so, adding a retreat to boost your bottom line.  Retreats or summits are income streams that can be created around topics you specialize in and are typically psychoeducation and enrichment focused.

Retreats or summits are a great model for the clinician that wants to add some extra income streams with one-time events at reasonable intervals. You can plan them based on how much time you have to invest and the extra boost in revenue you are looking to achieve.

It’s possible to build some amazing offers that are affordable for your community, but lucrative for you as the presenter/host!

Many clients I’ve coached settle on a quarterly schedule for retreats or summits for regular cash injections to their private practice throughout the year.  As you grow, you can also grow your offerings.  Maybe someday you’d love to host a summit abroad?  Don’t count that dream out just yet, I am here to tell you it’s possible!

How to Get Started with Retreats and Summits

1. Choose a topic and target audience
2. Define the content for your retreat based on chosen topic
3. Secure a venue or mode of delivery (ex. virtual)
4. Create marketing material to spread the word
5. Collect registrations/payments
6. Deliver your retreat/summit

Let’s take a look an how a retreat or summit can help you reach income goals for your private practice.

Example Opportunity

Jill specializes in women’s issues. Jill decides to host a retreat at the local community center serving women who are feeling stressed and overwhelmed.  Jill is charging $97 a ticket for an 6 hour experience and she is renting space for $200/day that can accommodate 50 attendees.  She spent $50 on some refreshments for attendees. Jill markets her retreat throughout her community and it sells out!

$97/ticket x 50 attendees= $4,650

Jill made $4,650 in revenue and only had $250 in overhead expenses! The event went exactly as planned, and she gathered a lot of positive feedback. Jill decides to repeat the process in a bigger space that can seat 75 attendees and increase ticket price to $150 for her next retreat.  Jill currently plans to do one retreat each calendar quarter. If Jill sells out her next retreat, she has the opportunity to bring in $11,250 in revenue.

Jill started small and built on her success. You can too!

Digital Products

Do you have a topic of expertise you can make into a digital resource?  If so, consider repackaging it into another income stream for your private practice!  If you have created digital tools, resources, or worksheets for client use why not sell them as psychoeducational resources?

Maybe you created a system to solve a particular problem and could repackage that into a course or digital workshop that runs on auto-pilot?

For the veracious writer, authoring an e-book on a topic of expertise you can list/sell might be a viable option for you.

The bottom line is that the world of digital products is vast.  Some forms of digital products require more time and effort than others to create, market, sell, and maintain.  However, digital products are often great income streams to introduce if you need low maintenance revenue that requires little or no upfront investment.

A word of caution…digital products do rely on having a platform/following on social media or an email list, so you can share your offerings and make sales. This might require learning some new skills.

However, with the right strategy, a digital product can become a good source of passive income in the future.  It is definitely not a “get rich quick” strategy and is usually a slow burn that grows over time.

There are many ways to structure and sell a digital product in your private practice. If this sounds overwhelming don’t fret!  You can always engage with a business coach who has been in your shoes before and can help you formulate an action plan to achieve your goals.

Getting Started with Digital Products

1. Determine the right digital product for your business
2. Learn from a mentor or business coach (digital products are confusing and there are many options)
3. Choose a platform for your product to be hosted for sold (your website, Etsy shop, Stan Store etc.)
4. Focus on audience building because most digital products rely on having an audience outside your therapy clients
5. Have a few people try your product and give feedback or a testimonial (be mindful not to cross lines with therapy clients here!)
6. Launch your product and promote it to make some sales and generate revenue

There are many types of digital products to explore, but let’s zero in on some examples of how to make this work in your practice.

Example Opportunity

Paul has created many CBT worksheets and exercises for his clients over his time in private practice.  He decides to package these worksheets into a digital resource he can sell on his website and on other listing platforms selling digital resources.  Paul decides to sell his digital workbook for $15.  He has worked hard to build an email list by sending helpful content to people who opted in on his website and now has 5K subscribers (a modest number as far as email lists go).  After informing his email list of the new digital product, he noticed 5% of them bought it!

250 sales (5% of his audience) x $15 workbook= $3,750 in additional income that month!

Now imagine Paul has several of these workbooks or resources for sale!  The bigger Paul’s audience becomes, the more money he makes when he launches a new digital resource for purchase on his website.  He can continue adding to this income stream indefinitely.

Another Example Opportunity

Kendall has created a self-guided online course on the topic of Anxiety Management for Career Professionals.  She works often with executives, business owners, and c-suite employees.

This self-guided course can be purchased by individuals or by companies looking to offer resources and training to employees.  Kendall prices the program at $149 per individual sale.  She also sells a license to companies for training purposes and charges $1,200 per employer.  She uses a course platform that handles purchases and course access for $50/month.

Let’s look at a breakdown of Kendall’s earnings…First off, Kendall sells the program to 5 employers her first month!  Then she sells 10 units individually by sending out an email to her small list of 500 email subscribers.  Doable numbers to start off with right?!

$1,490 individual sales + $6,000 company sales – $50 expenses= $7,440 what?!!

Take this and compound it by multiple offerings or a larger audience size.  The earning opportunity is huge in this space.  Not only that, but once a self-guided resource is created, it requires minimal maintenance and only periodic updates to stay relevant and making money for your private practice.

Promote Products/Services for Affiliate Income

Many therapists either cringe when they hear affiliate marketing or they have no idea what it is.  Let’s start with the definition…

Being an affiliate means you are promoting a product or service that belongs to another company.  If you are credited for a sale (usually tracked with weblinks/clicks), you are compensated per the terms of the company’s affiliate program. It is also required that you disclose your affiliate relationship while promoting the product.

Definitely follow ethical guidelines when determining which affiliate programs to promote.  This includes being mindful of all the additional regulations and laws that you must follow with this income stream. As a business coach, I recommend therapists don’t promote affiliate offers directly to their therapy client base, but instead build a public platform or market to a group outside your immediate ideal therapy client.

Personally, I am careful to only promote products and services I use and believe in.  Being genuine and honest is important to me, and I hope it is to other therapists too!  I also avoid promoting any affiliate products to my therapy clients (for ethical reasons).  Instead, I choose to market services and products that other mental health professionals might be seeking in private practice.

Remember, that although affiliate opportunities might not be a huge money maker, it can definitely help offset some costs/overhead in your private practice and bring in a bit of additional income each month.  This income stream can be a slow burn, but worthwhile with consistency.

How to Get Started with Affiliate Marketing

1. Choose services or products to promote
2. Sign up for an affiliate account once you choose a product/service to promote
3. Build an audience or a platform on social media or via an email list (it helps if you start this early!)
4. Offer valuable content to your audience outside your affiliate promotions (ex. mental health tips)
5. Sprinkle in affiliate offers and make sure you use your affiliate link
6. Always disclose that you are an affiliate and use honest marketing practices
7. Promote your affiliate offers where practical
8. Collect your earnings

Example Opportunity

Jay loves to share helpful tips and resources with the mental health community via social media.  Jay’s following has grown substantially so they choose to sign up as an affiliate for books/resources they commonly recommends on Amazon.  Jay creates a webpage of affiliate links they can share and post to socials.  Jay collects a small percentage of sales when a visitor makes a purchase using their link.

Every affiliate program varies in reimbursement and how they compensate for referrals/sales.  Thus it is hard to estimate an exact amount earned through affiliate income.  Unless you choose a program with a pretty high reimbursement (ex. $100/referral) you will be making smaller amounts.  However, this can add up over time if you have a large audience or a lot traffic to your website.

Let’s assume Jay chose a high payout affiliate that compensates $25/sale and in one month, Jay refers 15 sales.

$25/referral x 15 referrals= $350 in extra practice revenue

That is still an amount that can replace at least two 1:1 client sessions per month at Jay’s private pay rate.  If Jay expands on the offers promoted and continues growing/nurturing an audience this amount can exponentially grow in a short time.

Providing Clinical Supervision Services

In the event you are a seasoned therapist and have board approval to supervise other trainees, you might consider offering private clinical supervision as an income stream.

Before you count it out, let me explain that even though the 1:1 model of clinical supervision isn’t that lucrative on its own, supervision groups or consultation groups can be! But keep in mind you must be able to provide the services you promise and clinical supervision does involve an inherent amount of risk and a fair amount of responsibility.

Clinical supervision means supporting and supervising pre-license trainees while they get on-the-job experience. Often supervision provided at agencies is less than stellar due to staffing shortages and overwork and demand for mental healthcare.

There are also many pre-licensed therapists who don’t have supervision available at their place of employment and need to obtain a supervisor to continue moving towards the goal of full licensure.

Individual clinical supervision or group clinical supervision can be provided at market rates.  I’ve always favored group supervision because you can serve several persons at a time and you are compensated at a higher for your time and involvement.  Using this model has been very lucrative for my private practice in the past!  Before launching your supervision group, make sure you are in full compliance with any state regulations as it pertains to clinical supervision.

How to Get Started with Clinical Supervision

1. First make sure you are board approved or within guidelines for your state/license
2. Develop a supervision contract (if you don’t already have one)
3. Make sure the structure of your supervision services meet licensing requirements in your state
4. Market your supervision services (there are online platforms or you can do so independently)
5. Deliver services to supervisees

Example Opportunity

Jenna offers a group clinical supervision retreat once per month.  The group is closed and is capped at 6 participants per group.  The group meets for four hours that day.  Each participant pays $200/day or $50/hour for the group supervision hours.  Jenna holds the group in the conference room of her office building at no extra charge and her group has been full for months!

6 participants x $200/each=$1,200 of extra revenue

This revenue allowed Jenna to make the same amount of revenue in 4 hours as she typically makes in 8 hours of 1:1 client sessions.

Wrapping Up

I hope you found one or many of these ideas for adding additional income streams to your private practice helpful.  You can mix and match these strategies or try out a few different options and see what best fits your lifestyle alignment and revenue needs for private practice.

If you feel stuck and need some help, you can always book at Business Strategy Session to get clarity and direction as you build out your new offers and income streams in private practice.  You can also check out more helpful therapist business tips HERE.