Cut Down Sliding Fee Clients and Secure Your Financial Future
You’ve been working hard to keep your business alive, or to build your caseload as a therapist associate! But you’re barely making enough money to keep things running. You let things slide and you’re getting taken advantage of. You’re feeling resentful, but you don’t know how to stop this cycle. Do you give your clients way too many chances? Do you allow multiple appointment reschedules in a week, or not charge for late cancelations, or even no-shows?….What keeps you from reinforcing your business polices with your clients?
I know that we went into this field to help people and it wasn’t about making money. After all, Clinicians are the LOWEST PAID professionals in the healthcare field?! Most of us didn’t come with a business degree. And in grad school, these issues were not talked about. Little did we know, that we’d be faced with flaky clients with many excuses for their no shows! With our compassion and understanding of the traumas/crisis that our clients have endured, it makes it hard to “put our foot down” and follow our business policies.
I used to feel so guilty, when I did charge clients a no-show $fee! Especially when I knew they were struggling financially. I felt like the “bad guy,” who was taking my client’s hard earned money. I was spiraling into a codependent dynamic with my clients. The more I let them get “get away with,” I could see how they didn’t respect me and most of all, I was not respecting myself! This needed to change! We deserve to make a healthy living, just like anyone else! We are running a business and we have bills to pay! But we won’t survive if we continue this unhealthy cycle! This is why I support Clinicians like you, with this process!
Here’s 3 tips on boundaries with clients, to support your business policies:
Go over your business policies verbally with every client, at the beginning of services. Use clear and simple language and be open to answer their questions. Your goal is to make sure that they understand your policies, and have them sign this agreement, prior to starting therapy.
Remind clients of their options, when they late cancel. Such as they can keep their appointment, or they can pay the late cancelation fee. For no-shows, make sure to charge them right away. Always have their credit card on file.
If your client is refusing to accept consequences stated in your business policies, you’ll need to quickly decide if you should start the referral out process. You have the right to protect our business financially!
Let’s stop this unhealthy cycle of enabling poor behaviors with our clients! Setting clear boundaries is essential for maintaining the financial stability and sustainability of our private practices.