6 Changes I'm Making to My Practice in the New Year
Ways to streamline things, protect your practice financially, and more
You don’t have to wait until January 1 to make changes to your practice. But for many, it makes the most sense and is easiest to enforce/remember. If you’ve been thinking about changing things up in the new year, you’re not alone. Maybe you know what you’d like to change, or maybe you aren’t sure, or are apprehensive about taking the leap. To offer some inspiration, here are a few changes I’m making to my practice in 2024:
Increasing my session fees
After my first year being (almost) totally self-pay, I’m raising my out of pocket session rates. I had to do this to keep up with rising business costs, inflation, and having to start repaying my student loans. I was admittedly nervous about this, but so far everyone has been very understanding (someone even said I should’ve raised them more, lol).
Increasing my late cancel/no-show fees
I’m also raising the amounts I charge for late cancellations and no-shows. I’ve been charging a typical fee for the past year, and have been much more consistent about it, but at the end of the day I was still losing money on these. At this time, I cannot afford for my income to fluctuate that much. I’m not yet charging my full rate for these scenarios - I know some folks do, but I’m just not there yet. But I am charging an amount closer to my rate that I feel better about.
Condensing my intake paperwork
I decided to make my paperwork a bit shorter by combining a few PDFs. That way people aren’t intimidated when they see several separate documents to fill out - my paperwork is not long or complex by any means, but I want to make sure people know that.
Letting folks know that my paperwork is quick to fill out
In my email regrading initial paperwork, I’m starting to include that it should take about 15 mins to complete. It’s probably less than that, but that is my rough estimate. I’d hate for folks to put off completing paperwork because they assume it’s going to be a huge long process - when I made sure to make my paperwork the opposite! This way people don’t think they have to set aside an entire afternoon for filling out forms - it can totally be done on a lunch break, between tasks, etc.
Switching my LLC to an S-Corp
There’s a whole long story behind this, but essentially I’m doing this to save money on taxes. Self-employment taxes were destroying me the past couple years, but thankfully a tax professional suggested this to me. Some other clinicians recommended an accountant (my fourth, which is also another story), who I really like so far. It does require some extra costs (payroll, tax filing), but the benefits will likely outweigh these. I’m hoping this will allow me more breathing room throughout the year, rather than stashing away thousands for my estimated taxes.
Making my cancellation policies EVEN more clear
If you’re in practice, by now you may have noticed that people don’t always read paperwork. Or if they do, they may still forget, and be surprised when they get charged a late cancel fee. To avoid this, I made some alterations to my intake paperwork. I’ve highlighted my policy/fees, and put it in multiple places for clients to initial and sign consent for. I also plan to start bringing it up at the end of intakes when I schedule the next session. This is especially important since my policy is a little different than others (48 hours). It also helps to define what a ‘no show’ is, as well as what exceptions may be permitted. That already feels like more than plenty, so beyond that point, the accountability is placed back on clients.
There may be more changes to come, but for now this seems like enough, haha. As always, I will share what I learn with you all as things unfold. Hope you’re all able to have a restful holiday, and a positive start to the year. :)