If you’re like me, you’ve been trying to cram as many clients into your practice as you can this past year just to meet the demand. If you’re also like me, you haven’t been paying attention to how much money has been coming in. All I know is that enough money is coming in and I’m fine with that. But that’s no way to run a business. We all need to do better.
So let me help you help yourself when it comes to financial goal setting in your private practice. TherapyDen has created a couple nifty little therapy practice calculators that will help you set realistic goals for your yearly salary. If you’re not setting financial goals, then you’re most likely not paying attention to how many clients you should see in a week and how much you should charge them. You’re also probably not aware of how many sliding scale spots you can open based on how much your standard fee is. Let’s fix that.
Having financial goals will boost your motivation
When you set a clear goal for how much you want your yearly salary to be, it will light a fire under your butt. When you know exactly how much you need to charge on average per session, you’ll feel a lot more motivated to keep an eye on that average and charge clients as much as you deserve.
Whether your motivation is to make $200k next year or to be able to offer more sliding scale appointments, you’ll need to keep a sharper eye on private practice finances. While office costs have dramatically shrunk for some of us, our online subscription costs have doubled or tripled. Since business expenses have gone up and down lately, it’s important to keep better track of them. Should you let go of your office or find a new one next year? Should you pay someone to manage your billing or use an EHR? Should you increase your marketing budget or focus on free social media posts? And should you schedule some vacation time next year? (If you don’t, then you’ll be burnt out in no time.) It all starts by doing the calculations.
How do the therapy practice salary calculators work?
It could not be more simple (and fun!) to enter your info and get a projected yearly salary. You’ve got two calculator options: the simple calculator and the advanced calculator.
If you want to get a quick estimate of your annual practice income, then the simple calculator is the way to go. All you need to know is the number of clients per week, your average session fee, how much vacation time you’re planning for and what your yearly salary goal is. Enter that data and we’ll let you know if you’ll reach your goal or if you need to add more weekly clients.
If you want to dig into the weeds a bit more, give the advanced therapy practice salary calculator a spin. You’ll be able to enter all the above info, plus you can enter in your business expenses to get a more accurate salary projection. Additionally, you can list each client you have in your practice and how much money you collect from them. This is handy since we often collect different amounts from each client. And, of course, no information you provide in the calculator will be saved by us. We promise.
So what are you waiting for? Figure out how much you want to make next year and get organized! Share the calculator tools with your colleagues so we can all get on track for next year.
Jeff Guenther, LPC, is a therapist in Portland, OR. He has been in private practice since 2005. Jeff is the creator and owner of Portland Therapy Center, a highly ranked therapist directory. Jeff, and his team, have launched a new progressive therapist directory, TherapyDen.
