Many counselors and therapists make New Years’ resolutions to put more energy into marketing their practice. The problem is that they are usually already putting so much energy into their practice that they are tired and frustrated.

With careful consideration and planning there are ways practitioners can increase client flow and capital income without becoming exhausted.

Here are some proven successful practice-building techniques.

Having a percentage of mandated clients as part of your practice will help you to maintain a stable income by developing a captive audience. Many clients are mandated to attend treatment by courts, probation, parole, social-service agencies and other organizations.

If you are interested in serving this clientele, it is important that you get to know the essential players at the various agencies that refer them to counseling. Contact those agencies and ask how to obtain referrals and which credentials you will need to do so. When you have obtained the necessary information, and you have determined that you are a qualified provider under their guidelines, don’t be shy. Find out the name of the director of the agency and write a letter of introduction to him or her, include your resume or biography and information about the services that you offer. In this letter, inform the individual that you will be contacting them in the next 10 business days to set an appointment to meet with them.

Call the individual and set the appointment. When you go to the meeting, try to keep it short. Have all information required to be placed on their referral list organized and prepared to be submitted to the director. Remember, in the counseling field we are selling our services but we are also selling ourselves. The way you dress and act will be a reflection of the quality of your services.

Do your homework! Gather information about the agency before your appointment and include that information in your discussion. This tends to leave a lasting positive impression on the director. In addition, offer some free services to the agency, such as conducting in-services on addiction topics to the employees of the agency during one of their meetings. This will give the staff the opportunity to become familiar with you and your specialties. Following your meeting with the director, send a letter of appreciation and try to keep in touch, without becoming a nuisance. Perseverance will pay off!

Other excellent sources of referrals are attorneys and judges. First, you must determine what category of lawyers would best benefit from your services and which would benefit you. Usually these are criminal lawyers.

As in the case of meeting with directors of agencies, send an introductory letter to each attorney. Follow up with a telephone call to schedule an appointment, or arrange a luncheon for their staff — your treat. This will give you an opportunity to discuss the services you can offer the firm. Don’t forget to send a thank you note following your meeting and try to keep in touch.

After you have met with each firm, arrange an attorneys’ breakfast. Send out invitations to each lawyer you’ve met with and invite him or her to a breakfast to network with other lawyers in their professional community. This breakfast will be sponsored by your practice.

Be sure to mingle and hand out your business cards and brochures. Judges are sometimes difficult to meet with, but determine which judges would benefit by knowing about your services and give them a call.

An efficient way to advertise is through newsletters. Newsletters can be purchased preprinted. The company from which you purchase them will print your name and picture on the newsletter. Newsletters can be used with your clients, as a networking tool with news media, lawyers, doctors, judges, probation departments, hospitals and other local professionals. The newsletter can sit in your waiting room for old and new clients to read.

Mailing newsletters to clients is another great marketing strategy, especially with ex-clients. The newsletter may hit their hands at a time when they are contemplating returning to counseling.

Send your newsletter to the local news stations. Who knows, the topic may be a story of interest to them and they will contact you as an expert professional spokesperson. Maintain consistency when mailing newsletters. They should be distributed either monthly or bimonthly. By being consistent with your newsletters, you will keep your name fresh and circulating throughout the community.

Seminars are an effective way to get your name into the community and increase your client flow. Many places (such as schools, hospitals, nonprofit organizations, libraries, etc.) feature speakers. These organizations are usually on a set budget and conduct all of the advertising for the seminar. Clinicians should gauge their payment on the budget used by the sponsoring organization.

You may be asked to do the seminar pro-bono. Even though you would not be remunerated for the seminar, it is worth money in advertising to you and your practice. Keep your presentations to subjects you specialize in. As your office telephone lines start to ring for more and more seminars, you may set an hourly rate, which is usually negotiable depending on the organization.

In addition to marketing to the captured audience, there remain other sources of referrals. Remember, when you are marketing your practice, it is important to have something to offer the people to whom you are soliciting. For example, if you have a specialization in women’s issues and you would like to start getting referrals from gynecologists’ offices, call gynecologists’ secretaries in your area. Volunteer to provide a lunch. Some doctors do not network on their breaks; so do not get offended if this is the case. In reality, most office staff or office managers do the referrals to clinicians for the doctor. Explain to the office manager that you want to take the doctor to lunch to offer a free half-day, 10- to 15-minute depression screening in his office for interested patients. You may also offer a short seminar on an area of specialty that you and the doctor have in common.

Hospitals and treatment centers are great contacts to help boost client flow. As a clinician in the community, you need to research how to obtain staff privileging. Many hospitals and treatment centers charge a fee and have certain qualifications for staff affiliation. You may not have the required credentials to obtain staff privileges, but that does not mean the organization will not refer to you.

Set up a meeting with the marketing personnel at the facility to inquire about what is needed to become on staff. Find out what services the facility and their clients are looking for. Many facilities have difficulty locating and identifying counselors that will work with individuals who do not have insurance. State and county facilities usually have long waiting lists.

A great way to get on a referral list is to offer a sliding-scale fee. To calculate how you will slide, add typical insurance rates that are paid in your demographic area and then divide that amount by the number of insurance companies you used. Use this total as the lowest dollar amount your practice will accept. Use state guidelines to figure the financial need of potential clients. Many counselors beginning in private practice use this method of sliding fee calculation. Once the practice begins to get busy, as evidenced by the need to establish a waiting list, it is time to increase your fees in $10 increments.

Insurance companies are not always the best payers, but they can keep your client flow high during slow periods. Always remember when using sliding fee scales and/or insurance companies that “a half a loaf of bread is better than none at all.” Most clinicians forget the effectiveness of this proverb. If you had to choose between having no clients or low-paying clients, what would you choose? Apply to every insurance company you can. Begin by sending a letter of intent, a copy of your biography, vita, certifications, state license and malpractice insurance.

In return, the insurance company may send you an application. You may be denied or accepted. If you are denied, do not give up. Keep trying every six months. When you become an in-network provider, insurance companies should start referring to you. If you are not getting referrals from the company, call the insurance company’s providers relations department. An example of your part of this conversation is:

“I am an in-network provider for your organization, but I do not seem to be getting referrals. Can you explain how your clients choose their therapist? If the insurance company informs you that clinicians at the provider company refer the clients, ask if you can send a bio or talk to the clinicians. Before ending your call ask, to ensure that your information is correct on their database.

Keep that individual’s name and contact information in the insurance file. Always try to speak with the same person to establish a relationship. These relationships can be instrumental in increasing your client flow.

Listing your practice in the telephone yellow pages can help or hinder your business. The phonebook is typically used to locate you by word-of-mouth or referral. Therefore, the phonebook can assist in locating your practice. Remember that larger sized phonebook listings can be costly. We suggest a small advertisement if you are new in practice. If you have been in practice for a couple of years, place your name in bold typeface with address and telephone number in regular print. In our experience, most individuals who attempt to find a counselor by phonebook as their main referral source tend to be in crisis at that moment. The crisis is usually over by the time of their appointment. The majority of these individuals never show for their first appointment. Those individuals who do appear at their initial appointment might return for one additional appointment. Therefore, do not overspend in advertising in the local yellow pages.

Scheduling is another important aspect of a successful private practice. Insurance companies tend to look at practices that can accommodate their customers quickly. There are times when another professional may need to place a client in counseling immediately. This is typical of a client in crisis being seen at a physician’s office. The client may not meet the guidelines of immediate hospitalization but need some assistance. It’s important to keep room in a busy schedule for emergencies. An efficient way to set a prosperous schedule is by seeing sliding-scale fee and emergency clients first thing in the morning. Mornings almost never fill as well as afternoons and evening.

Evening and Saturday hours are great for promoting business. Always include a two-hour lunch break in your schedule. One hour is used for lunch and the other is used for returning telephone calls, paperwork, or an afternoon emergency.

A creative marketing approach is to target the various holiday seasons. Holiday greeting cards and open houses are great networking tools. Send greeting cards to colleagues who have referred to you and to professionals with whom you would like to connect. In each card, write a personal greeting. Examples of such personal notes may include:

“Thank you for referring to my practice; I am looking forward to working closely with you; Dr. X has told me so much about you, I am looking forward to meeting with you and taking you to lunch.”

Plan a Holiday Open House. Make a list of individuals with whom you do business, and then add to the list professionals within five miles of your office that can help improve your client flow.

Don’t forget to invite insurance company representatives, attorneys, directors of agencies to whom you have been marketing.

By inviting insurance company representatives, you offer the provider the opportunity to see your practice and meet you face-to-face.

Never schedule an open house the week of a holiday. Send invitations four to eight weeks in advance. Have your staff greet the guests with beverages and hors d’oeuvres.

An important part of the practice that many clinicians take for granted is that client flow is dependent on the telephone. Most likely, when a client calls, he or she is looking for immediate attention.

If the client who calls feels an urgency to speak with a person, or is in crisis at the time of the call, they are less likely to leave a message on an answering machine. An answering service does supply the client with a live person, but all the answering service is able to do is take a message. Usually, the client is trying to relate an important message such as making an initial appointment or canceling and scheduling another appointment.

Often by the time the clinician returns the call, the individual has already reached another professional. To maintain confidentiality clients may not want to leave their telephone number and name on an answering machine or with an answering service. An answering machine or service is great for the times the office is closed for the day, holiday or when staff is at lunch. To increase client flow through your telephone lines use a receptionist. A receptionist should be able to answer your phones enthusiastically, give information regarding the counselor’s background, sell the clinician to the potential new client, schedule appointments and take messages accurately.

A receptionist will also be able to track where referrals are coming from and possibly understand why clients are seeking services elsewhere. Inappropriate telephone answering can ruin all your hard work. A successful clinician is one who offers quality services in addition to being a wise businessperson.

Many counselors are confused about selecting malpractice insurance. First, the clinician needs to understand that there are two different types of malpractice insurance available. There are occurrence policies and claims-made policies. Claims-made policies require the clinician to buy a “tail” for additional coverage in the event the clinician discontinues practicing or retires. Occurrence policies cover damage for each occurrence.

The best place to purchase your malpractice insurance is through a professional organization such as the National Association of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselors.

All managed-care companies and most other organizations you contract with will require you to be covered by malpractice insurance. Such organizations usually require a minimum of $1,000,000 per incident and $3,000,000 in total claims.

If you are in a private practice, be sure your policy covers injuries such as slips and falls in your office that may be incurred by a client. A cost-efficient way to cover such incidents is by negotiating this coverage with your landlord. If you are working for an association or treatment center, you need not worry about negotiating such a clause. In addition, remember that if you are supervising someone under your license or are in professional association with other individuals, be sure that these individuals or activities are covered under your malpractice insurance.

Many clinicians may want to open a private practice. Opening a practice takes a substantial amount of money, but there are some ways clinicians can realize their dream. The most common way is by renting space from an existing practice. Some offices will rent space at an hourly or a monthly rate or on a part-time basis. A clinician can negotiate for secretarial and telephone use in the agreement or maintain his or her own telephone lines and secretary.

When opening a private practice solely on your own, it is a good idea to open a business checking account at a small community bank, preferably one where you have an existing relationship. This may provide you the advantage of getting a line of credit usually offering an interest rate of prime plus a half, on a business account.

If your state has a small business organization, you may want to visit with a consultant at the organization. These individuals are there to assist you as a small business owner. Many times, they will know where you can apply for small business loans. The federal or state government usually funds these small business organizations. So take advantage of the services they have to offer such as funding opportunities that are not available at a bank.

As you can see, there are many creative and inexpensive ways that you can open and build a successful practice.

Remember that the most expensive marketing tools are not always the most effective. Sometimes keeping things simple is the way to go. Still, the most effective marketing is word of mouth and quality services.

An estimated 25 percent of your working schedule should be in marketing-related activities. Use that time wisely. Some marketing approaches, such as seminars, can eventually become a source of revenue and marketing at the same time. Try some of the suggestions we have offered and see what you reap.

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