I’m connected to a lot of owners of health and wellness businesses and I often see them struggling with many of the same issues that are preventing them from experiencing more growth and financial freedom. As a result they are constantly under stress and they are unable to serve the clients the way they would like. They end up spending a LOT of time worrying about when their next client will show up!

Just a few short years ago I started my own health and wellness business — it was a local counseling practice and I was so excited to be able to make money on my own and no longer be reliant on an employer!

I felt so much freedom but I quickly realized I was a bit out of my element as I didn’t know much about running a business.

I had a basic idea of what I was supposed to do to make money. I knew that I needed about 20 1:1 clients per week consistently in order to reach my income goals and I knew I needed an office to see them in.

Getting the office was the easy part!  Getting the clients — not so much. Luckily I started taking some business courses and I hired someone who had experience starting private practices before to guide me. I’m so grateful for that because otherwise I still might be sitting on my couching googling “how to start a private practice.”

Since then I’ve had many other health + wellness business owners approach me for support and strategy because their business is struggling to grow (and even survive!!) sometimes.

They’re frustrated because they never learned the business skills they need to have a thriving business so that they can help more people. Often we’re able to implement some simple strategies that allow them to get more clients and increase their profits without increasing their workloads longterm.

Here’s the 3 biggest reasons I’ve seen health + wellness business fail:

1. They are not focused on long-term profitability for their business + the idea of charging for their services makes them uncomfortable.
   So here’s the thing — so many health + wellness businesses focus on getting “just the next client” — but just 1 more client is not a long-term income plan.  One more client may ease your stress for awhile but you need to be able to have a long term plan that will allow you to bring in clients again and again and again, in addition to OTHER passive income streams that will allow you to bring in income EVEN when you’re on vacation or when you have a lighter client caseload. Many health + wellness business owners are uncomfortable thinking about charging their clients as well. They don’t know how to price their services and struggle when they feel like they are overcharging. While I do understand their desire to treat the person and not have to worry about the financial piece, the reality is that if you don’t have a financially stable business it makes it hard to help anyone. It is 100% okay for you to charge and not feel like you have to give away your services. 
2. You don’t understand the what numbers you should be tracking in your business.
   Tracking numbers in your business helps you figure out EXACTLY what you need to do to grow your business more (if you wish!) or just keep it stable. Some of the numbers that you need to be tracking include the income you make each month, the number of referrals you get from your top referral sources, the number of clients you need to reach your income goals, and your income from other sources. Some health and wellness business owners are not even sure how many clients they need to see each week in order to reach their income goals! Now that will make it very hard to do the work that you need to in order to reach your client goals. If you know exactly how many clients you need to have in your caseload and where the highest number of referrals come from then you can focus your time + energy on that area and you will get bigger results more quickly.
3. You don’t have the right support system.
   It’s unfortunate but many health + wellness business owners do not have the right support system for business growth. They turn to their family and friends for help and guidance, but the truth is that those people often don’t know how to grow a business either. They don’t know how to support you and they often can end up stressing you out more as you talk about what you might need to do to increase your business success. Other times we look to other health and wellness business owners who are also struggling for support but then no one is able to help each other out in the areas that you need more support.  The best thing to do to get the support you need is to get a business mentor or coach — they are usually people who have been where you are in the past and will have an understanding about the steps that you can take to grow your business more quickly. This is the first step I took when I got struck growing my health and wellness business and even though the investment was scary, I believed in my ability to grow a successful business and wanted to make it happen ASAP.  The other option is a mastermind (and you can even participate in a mastermind that has coaching support as well) and this is a group of business owners that is working towards their business goals together. They are super motivated and help each other problem solve in order to have new business growth!

If you’re struggling with any of these issues then you’re going to want to take steps immediately to change it so that you can stop worrying about the day to day struggles of your business and enjoy faster growth and increased profits.

Let me know in the comments below what your current business struggles are!

P.S. If you need personalized support and strategy to move forward with your health + wellness business this year, CLICK HERE to apply for a 1:1 strategy session so we can talk about how to get your business more income.