Financial Security For Therapists
By Carl Munson
It's the best job in the world isn't it? Being a therapist or healer, helping people to be well, AND earning a living for your efforts. That said, it's a fine balancing act that brings many challenges! For many, the old problem of mixing the purity and goodness of healing with the low-down dirtiness of money, brings irreconcilable challenges that lead to a practice that never really gets off the ground.
For those who do manage to get a practice with a constant stream of new clients and a full database of regulars another challenge lurks. It's a potential problem that any decent life-coach or financial consultant would want to bring to your attention, and I'd like to say something about it here.
Anyone who sells their hours for a living faces two major limitations:
1. The number of hours they can work
2. The going rate for the service they provide
To avoid burnout, any sensible therapist will limit the amount of contact hours they deliver. Let's say that a generous weekly average would be 28 hours: four seven hour days for example. This would leave some time for promotion, paperwork and housekeeping - the backstage activities of any successful practice.
As for going rates, let's be generous and give ourselves £50 an hour (a UK average perhaps? I know some who earn more, but many who earn a lot less!). Take away your consumables and overheads, and you might end up with an income of £1400 a week!
That would be a good income, and as a health professional you deserve every penny. But what happens if you get ill? Your body is your tool, and illness or injury could end your earning capacity in one cruel stroke - £1400 a week to find. Frightening, isn't it? So what's the solution? In my view, you need more than one iron in the fire. It's time to consider passive income.
You see, as a hands-on, one-to-one professional, you've got to be there, in the room with the client, to make your money day after day, year after year. If you stop, the income stops. Let's face it: very few people become secure and wealthy by selling their hours - it's just too risky.
Passive income is income that gets earned whether you turn up or not. Paul McCartney may or may not have worked hard to write 'Love Me Do', but he still gets paid every time it gets played on the radio or made into a CD - he could be asleep at the time.
I'm not suggesting you give up your therapy to write a hit song, but I am suggesting you take a look at the sort of passive income therapists can earn. You could, for example, write a book on your special skill or angle in the well-being industry. Australian massage therapist Amy Roberts wrote the brilliant e-book 'Ignite Your Massage Therapy Business' - in my view a masterpiece in passive income production as well as a brilliant guide to developing any therapy business. While Amy works with her clients, others boost her income with book sales.
Take a look for yourself at: http://hop.clickbank.net/?ivcati/innerbliss
and if you want the follow-up see: http://hop.clickbank.net/?ivcati/successmkt
For my money though, some of the best passive income comes courtesy of something called network marketing. This is how it works: as an adjunct to my therapy business, I recommend products to clients and colleagues upon which I am paid a commission. Note that I still have to be there. However, while I massage clients, go on holiday, sleep or do anything I like, my team of colleagues are recommending products to clients upon which I am also paid a commission. They get paid, and our network marketing company pay me for introducing colleagues.
If you discover groundbreaking products that you feel are highly beneficial for health and well- being as I have (see: http://www.hsintenaust.com.au/opportunity_page.htm), then network marketing will allow you to reach more people. In exactly this way, I have earned thousands of additional pounds and been treated to exotic holidays, as a network marketer - I love it!
We must have the best job in the world: being paid to help people be well. With network marketing, you can multiply your efforts exponentially, both in terms of people reached AND income earned. If I can reach 10 people a day, my team of 60 can reach 600!
You don't need to join my network, but if you want long-term security then you do need to look into passive income. Your body is a miraculous, but fragile tool, and it won't last forever. A good network can offer a passive income stream long into your retirement.
Do yourself a favour and take a look at passive income and network marketing.
Carl Munson, massage therapist, holistic therapy centre owner and founder of www.extraincomefortherapists.com and AKA 'The Therapists' Secret Weapon'!
"What Every Therapist Should Know" - 97 income-boosting secrets that complementary therapists, practitioners and healers should have been told when they were training - but have probably never heard!
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