Therapy business plans

A successful business of any kind needs a business plan. A counseling or any type of therapy kind of private practice is no different. To build a strong and successful private practice, you need a therapy business plan.

What is a therapy business plan?

A therapy business plan is like a treatment plan for your practice. It outlines your business goals and how you plan to reach these goals. A therapy business plan typically looks at your goals for your practice and your game plan to reach them over a three to five-year period of time.

The therapy business plan will help direct your steps, actions, and progress through the various stages of your business. It will serve as a guide, accountability partner, and checklist through the various stages of developing, launching, and running your practice. The time you spend writing your plan also serves as a mindful opportunity to focus on your map of what you want to achieve with your practice and how you plan to get there.

Why do I need a business plan for a therapy or counseling practice?

Graduate school most likely did not teach you about running a business. Taking the time to create a well-thought-out therapy business plan can help to ensure that you have a profitable practice and will address the many components of your practice. The therapy business plan will outline for others how you plan to grow and serve as a benchmark for you.

Creating a therapy business plan will help create focus, actionable steps, and organization to reach your goals. It will help plan out the growth of the practice which makes it more likely that you will achieve financial goals and business success.

Your therapy business plan should serve as a guide that continues to live. You should review it annually and make any necessary changes or revisions. Then, as your practice changes, your life changes, or your plans change, the therapy business plan can serve as the foundation for guiding you through whatever happens in the future.

A therapy business plan will also help you to qualify for any funding you may seek to run your practice. Most banks, investors, and the Small Business Administration (SBA) will require a business plan to prove that you have financial worthiness and a plan to return your funding.

What to include in a therapy business plan

Business plans are unique and individualized to each business. You will uniquely tailor your business plan for your practice to the goals, visions, and steps applicable to your practice and growth. Most therapy business plans include some specific components.

Mission statements

Your practice mission statement defines your purpose for the practice.

Some areas to address or consider when writing your mission statement include:

• Why do you want to do counseling?
• How can your practice help other people?
• Who do you want to help?
• How do you want to help?

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Description of your business

This section should include information regarding the structure of your business as well as information about your practice:

• Type of business entity/structure
• List of owners, partners, etc.
• Specific niche of the practice
• Specialized treatment approaches
• Potential caseload
• Individual or group practice
• Number of therapists
• Any staff members
• Any information related to the history of the business
• Your background
• Background of other relevant owners, partners, etc.

Services offered

What services do you plan to offer in your practice? The information should include how much you plan to charge and how these services relate to your business growth and development. Do these services present you as an expert? Do they set you apart from your competition? How do they best help your clients in your niche?

Market research

Research and describe what you learned to demonstrate the need for your services. Research should demonstrate a need for your practice services in the geographic area you would like to have your practice.

Information to research, consider and describe in the plan includes:

• Statistical information regarding the target population in your geographic area
• Are there other practices that target your niche?
• Are there other practices that offer similar services or specialty treatment modes?
• Can you demonstrate a need for your practice in your geographic area?

Marketing plan

What marketing strategies do you plan to employ? How will you market your practice? How much money will you spend on marketing?

You can incorporate various strategies for marketing in your business plan such as:

• Networking memberships and events
• Social media marketing
• Website development and maintenance
• Branding
• Therapist’s directories

Plan of operations

The business plan should describe how you plan to run the business. It should include all the procedures and systems you have in place to keep the practice operating smoothly.

Some information to describe here includes:

• Hours of operation
• Location of the practice
• Face-to-face sessions, telehealth, or a hybrid model
• Important roles of team members within the office (administrative, receptionist, etc.)
• Important roles of team members outside of the office (accountant, attorney, website developer, etc.)
• Electronic health record
• Safety information