Blog

December 5, 2018 By Jennifer McGurk Team

Your “Must Do” for a Successful 2019 with your Private Practice

Happy Holidays!! I hope your holiday season is off to a great start with more celebrating to come for your business success.

I love this season personally but also love this time of year in my business! I love to wind down at the end of the year and wrap up big projects to have a relaxing holiday season. I also love to take some time to get creative and brainstorm for the next year by thinking about new ideas and writing goals for my business. This is a time where I give myself permission to dream and think up ideas for the next year. From there I determine what’s realistic and that becomes my main list (and also let the rest go!).

This process if fun, but real-life goal setting is HARD. Let’s face it– LIFE gets in the way a lot of the time. That’s why I always think about my upcoming year with my #1 tip in mind:

Create an annual planning calendar for work AND life.

I learned about this idea in a business group specifically for my online business, the Pursuing Private Practice program. BUT the more I thought about it, the more it also made sense to do the same thing for my own private practice, Eat With Knowledge. I loved the concept of looking at my “year” and writing down big goals for my practice, as well as some ideas for content creation for social media, blog posts, etc. I also liked the idea of scheduling networking events, conferences, and outreach projects well in advance.

I also made sure to add in financial goals for each month, knowing that in private practice the “time of year” can greatly impact how many clients you see and how much money you bring in. All of these things were set with my “life” on that calendar too – I wanted to work around my kids’ schedules, upcoming wedding weekends, traveling, and my husband’s new work schedule. After all, I have to make work fit around my life. It’s not always easy but that’s the only way I am going to be successful.

Once I started working with my annual planner, I found that my results changed. It helped me stay focused on the ideas and goals in the calendar and not stray from the plan too much. If you lose sight of your goals, you can find yourself spinning and not only wasting time, but working less efficiently and living with more stress.

That’s why I am hosting an online workshop for the Pursuing Private Practice program students all about using an Annual Planning Calendar!

The workshop is on Wednesday December 12th at 12:00 pm eastern time. I am so excited to show my students exactly how to create an annual calendar and how to set your private practice up for major success in 2019. This workshop will cover the following:

What is an annual calendar and why do you need to create one
How to break up your year to set mini goals and projects to help your business move forward
How to plan for networking events, conferences, and how to put yourself out there (also how much you should do!)
Ways to include newsletters, blog posts, and social media in a schedule that works for you
How you are going to accomplish your goals for your private practice and make sure you don’t miss out on your life.

Are you interested in joining me and the other students?? I hope you say yes!!!

Register now for the Pursuing Private Practice program, and you will have access to this call PLUS this is a great time to get in for some “end of the year” discussions planning for 2019 happening in our private Facebook group. We’re starting our official group discussions about the modules in January of 2019.

You can use the coupon code 2018VIP20 to take 20% off the program fee. That brings the price of the course down to $558. The amount of money you will make BACK to your business is so worth this investment!! (And if you can’t make the annual calendar workshop live, don’t worry. This workshop and all monthly group coaching calls are always recorded and saved in the course).

You can always schedule a 20 minute call with me if you have any questions about the Pursuing Private Practice program. I’m so happy to see these inquiry calls on my calendar because I love connecting with you!

P.S. Happy Holidays!! Give yourself the gift of investing in your business this year (with the Pursuing Private Practice program OR something else! If you schedule a call with me, I may have a recommendation if it’s not my course!) My gift to you for being in this email community is a 20% off coupon code: 2018VIP20.

November 22, 2018 By Jennifer McGurk

5 lessons I’ve learned from my business

This time of year is a perfect time to be thankful for all the good things in our lives and to reflect on lessons learned.

I always talk about the “journey” clients go on with you as a clinician in private practice. Clients come to healthcare professionals like us with problems and through counseling, they go through the ups and downs of improving their lives.

As counselors, WE also go on a “journey” with entrepreneurship in a similar way with plenty of ups and downs. I was recently having a session with a dietitian that I supervise about the idea of “growing as a person” because of her business. This idea felt so perfect for Thanksgiving!

This year I am especially thankful for the opportunity to grow both of my businesses, Eat With Knowledge and Pursuing Private Practice.

I continue to help so many clients recover from eating disorders AND also support dietitians with their professional goals, like starting and growing a business and improving their nutrition counseling skills.

This year was super exciting because I released the Feel Fabulous About Food course and also grew the Pursuing Private Practice program. I have learned so many lessons from this, both personal AND professional.

I’m feeling extra thankful for these 5 lessons and want to highlight them in honor of Thanksgiving!

I am grateful for the opportunity to learn and grow, and to keep learning new things all the time. Whether it’s a new concept for clients, updated research, OR a new technology tool, I love to challenge myself to keep improving my nutrition knowledge, counseling skills, and productivity at work. This helps me grow as a person and evolve into the type of professional I want to be.
I am thankful for skills in flexibility. Running a business NEVER goes as expected!! The ability to change plans when needed is key when you’re an entrepreneur. This lesson has definitely carried over into my personal life as a parent- another area where things never go as expected and flexibility is needed!
I handle disappointments with grace. This one SUCKS doesn’t it? We all have things we are disappointed with and as a business owner, you could have a critical eye on yourself at all times.
But with disappointment comes learning and the opportunity to say you might not have done something right the first time. It’s also important to learn that not everything will go your way (just like in life!). Life and business aren’t always “fair” but you keep going anyway.
I look at the big picture. This one may be a personal preference but by having a business in my life I am able to see the “big ticket items” and not sweat the small details that can drive someone crazy.
It’s so easy to get caught up in the fear of doing everything “perfect” and that’s just not possible when you have to look at the big picture. I love how this one carries over into my personal life as well. So what if my house is a mess? That’s a little detail compared to taking care of my family.
I have a vision of where I want my business to go. This idea also allows me to reflect on my life and what I want to do in this lifetime. Just like I have “bucket list” items for my private practice and online business, I have “bucket list” items in my life as well.

Do any of these resonate with you? Share below if you agree, I’d love to hear your comments!

August 22, 2018 By Jennifer McGurk Team

Warning! If you do not do this – you may burn yourself right out of business!

One common “problem” as a business owner is that you have the potential to be “on” at all times.

Since you are obviously in charge of many to-do’s and tasks for your business, YOU are the one that needs to get the stuff done. The world around you doesn’t stop so you might feel like you can’t stop either. I have supervised so many private practice professionals who have told me they can’t take time off. Whether their clients need them for appointments, or projects have deadlines that can’t be pushed back, many felt they could not take time away from their business.

The problem with not taking a break is that you and your business will slowly get burnt out. It won’t happen overnight, but a slow and steady resentment toward work will start to build. You may not feel as excited about work, or maybe you begin to feel overwhelmed. You might find yourself avoiding tasks and to-dos and procrastinating projects. YES this happens to everyone, including me! I know myself and my business well enough now, that I know I need to step back when I get this feeling.

However, what can start to happen is you might feel like “stepping back” makes your life even harder in the long-run. If you skip two weeks of work now, you will work until 10:00pm every single night when you get back. Or maybe you will check your email a few days into vacation and then feel too overwhelmed and annoyed with all the work “back home” to actually have fun. I have been there and have learned (the hard way) how important boundaries are when you are officially “taking time off”.

It seems like a lose-lose situation when it should be a win-win, but here is how you can make taking time off possible.

Every year I give myself a few weeks of “time off”. This is usually planned around a vacation or family time and is something I now look forward to! So, I’m refreshing my own memory with my favorite tips for taking time off:

Schedule your time a few months in advance. Do not plan projects deadlines, launches, or anything(!) around this time or for two weeks after your vacation.
Let your clients know a month in advance you will be “off” during this time and give them one last reminder the week before you leave.
Setup an “out of the office” auto message on your email, stating you will respond to messages when you return and a reminder of that return date.
Change your voicemail to reflect that you are out of the office and will return calls the day you return.
Give yourself a “grace day” the first day you return to work. I like to schedule a few hours on my calendar and call it “catch up” the day before I am officially “back to work” from a vacation. That way I can start again refreshed and ready to go.

I promise you, taking time off works. Some of my best ideas have come to me after a vacation or a trip. It’s so good for your mental health to get away from your business, take a break and make time to think outside the box.

We are sharing what we are doing on vacation on my Facebook Page, so if you want a little inspiration from others, click here and check them out and share what you do for vacation time in your business!

July 20, 2018 By Jennifer McGurk Team

Get at Least One New Client for Next Week!

I just got off of my Pursuing Private Practice Masterclass group coaching call and felt so excited to write this!

These group calls inspire ME just as much as I hope they inspire all of my students. We talked about so many exciting topics but one particular topic was my favorite–> how to get new clients.

I have been in private practice for 7 years (!!) and throughout the years I have had a wide range of active clients in my practice. Sometimes I am “slower” with less active clients and other times I am overwhelmed!! I find it depends on the “season” of business, the economic attitude of my area, as well as my own networking efforts. I’ve learned there are a few things I can do as a business owner to increase my referrals.

Hopefully these tips will help YOU get a new client for next week.

Write a really good blog post or newsletter and blast it out on social media. Any popular or controversial topic has potential to get a lot of likes/views/links to your website and chances are someone may think “I need to see him or her”. Don’t forget to include at least a line about how you are taking new clients!
Look at your existing clients and follow-up with their team. Do they have a doctor? Dietitian? Therapist? Psychiatrist? Can you update these other healthcare professionals about your present client so they know that you are doing a great job as a treatment provider? (And “doing a great job” doesn’t meant the client has to be doing well. Honesty is always best no matter what.)
While in conversation…. ASK for more referrals!! I have openly said to many other healthcare professionals “I want some more clients” at certain times and have also told these people I have “popular” time slots open as well.
Send business cards to at least 5 people. We are all obsessed with email in today’s world that I find it is so nice to get regular mail!! Anytime I get other providers business cards they go in the front of my business card holder and I’m thinking about that professional.
Pick a NEW referral source and schedule a lunch date to really get to know them. Getting to know other healthcare professionals on a personal level is so much better networking than just introducing yourself and saying hi.

Taking my own advice… I am now taking on a few Registered Dietitian Nutritionists for supervision/business coaching sessions! (I do both because I find it impossible to only focus on either one. In my opinion they go together!). You can learn more about my Supervison programs here.

If you are interested in learning more about what supervision/business coaching does for your business, email me and we can schedule an inquiry session 🙂

May 26, 2018 By Jennifer McGurk Team

A 5 minute read to save you years of stalled growth in your practice

It is possible that your desire to grow your business means spending a lot of time trying to make all the pieces work, trying to figure out the next best step that will actually help you move forward instead of taking two steps backward.

I get it, I truly get it. Being an entrepreneur is not easy. I built my business from absolutely nothing when I started and I wasted so much time “trying to figure it out” when I began my journey in 2008. I wanted to “get everything perfect” before I officially opened. I finally opened my doors in 2011. THREE YEARS after I knew deep down inside that I wanted to go into private practice. 3 YEARS of wasted time and energy! I figured things out along the way but made many mistakes. My #1 regret was waiting so long to start!

This is why I created the Pursuing Private Practice Masterclass program – to offer people like you something I wish I had back when I started. A road map of what to do and what not to do, in order to get your practice opened easier, faster, and without the struggles I went through.

This program offers you the confidence and solutions needed for success in business and today is the last call for you to join the Pursuing Private Practice Masterclass E-course and save on the new fee but still get the new pieces of the program!!

Going into business for yourself is a risk – but those of us who want it and want it bad… you will do what it takes so that you can become your own BOSS and be in charge of how you work, who you work with, and even when you work.

It is HARD WORK but it is so worth it. I have two small children, a thriving eating disorders nutrition counseling practice, and get to offer supervision and training to other business owners and help them create what I have created in my own life. Sure, we can all struggle and try to make it work, but it can be a lot easier when you have a road map like the Pursuing Private Practice Masterclass Ecourse program.

I only WISH I had this course back then because it would have given me the confidence and solutions needed for success in business.

They say you have to spend money to make money – and this is true, but here is your chance to spend less money, take advantage of it. Seize the opportunity to take your practice to the next level, whether you are brand new or have been in business a while… we all want to grow and the Pursuing Private Practice Masterclass Ecourse program is here for you – to help you get to that next level. This course will help you run your business more efficiently and teach you tips and tricks for success. And “success” can mean whatever you want it to mean, including working part-time!

It’s BONUS TIME!

As a bonus for purchasing the course, you will receive my 2 books on private practice, Pursuing Private Practice: 10 Steps to Start Your Own Business and Pursuing Private Practice: 10 Steps to Grow Your Own Business. These pdf copies of the books will be emailed to you.

Oh yes… another BONUS! When you join the course, you will have access to the Pursuing Private Practice private Facebook group. This is a place to get support and receive direction and ONLY for participants. We have planned discussions on the module topics a few times each year as more professionals join.

And maybe the best bonus of all!… “Ask me anything” group calls!! These new group coaching calls will start in June. The calls will be for 60 minutes, 10 times a year. The group coaching calls are meant to give you even more access to me to get your questions answered and for you to receive support that you need in private practice.

As I said earlier, reading this info for the past 5 minutes could save you years of time trying to build your practice. Get the time saving templates, lessons, guidance and support needed to make it work… NOW, and not take 3 years like it took me.

I hope you join us in this program. The monthly calls and group support alone will help you get through this building phase with the support of peers who all are pushing for you to succeed and the confidence needed to make it all work!! You can do it!