It has been just about a month since I decided to leave my full-time job and grow my private practice. This week has been a bit weird for me since it is the first without my intern (aka it is just me...and my cat...all day long). I forgot how much random chit-chat filled the days! Even just driving with someone else and reviewing the morning's class was something I really missed.
Since we are almost to the New Year, I didn't have a lot of appointments scheduled for the week and I was being to feel a business slump. I started thinking, "Why are you doing this" and "What were you thinking leaving your full-time job" I mean no business means no paycheck! Once I stopped letting my emotions get the best of me, I realized that it is completely normal to have a slow down during this time (it happened at my previous job). I also realized that I will be "making up" for this in January and February when I had more appointments.
I have been reading "Tools of Titans" by Tim Ferriss this week and one of the biggest things that struck me was actually in the first couple of pages when Ferriss had been asking someone what they thought of when they heard the word "successful." Success. That was the key that I had been missing and what I needed to think about to change my thoughts into more positive ones. The goal I always wanted was to be in full-time private practice and I had accomplished that 4-weeks ago. Now, I wasn't sure what my new "success" looked like. Sure, I wanted to build partnerships and gain clientele; however, I wasn't envisioning my practice in the next month, year, or decade. While I haven't quite figured out what my vision is for my practice, I know once I determine that that my efforts will feel like they have more purpose and I am not just spinning my wheels so I don't fail.
What Else I Have Learned
Get ahead when you have downtime - What did I do the past few weeks with limited number of appointments? I followed up on headaches (like insurance calls), planned out my Facebook posts for my page, and set a schedule for myself. I already know that January/February is going to be a lot busier for me than December was, so I planned some of the menial tasks now to get them out of the way.
Track your expenses - I also took some time this month to review my yearly finances. It really helped me to set practical goals once I determined what I needed to make to break even and then what I actually wanted to make. From that, I figured out how many clients I needed to see per month to reach my financial goals.
Google Docs/Drive is awesome - I have been using this for minutes for committees I am in and it is great! I also started tracking my mileage on a Google Drive spreadsheet instead of writing it on paper. I feel like this helps to streamline a lot for me since I can access it on the go.
Nothing is really a disaster - Last week in my cooking class, the building's power shut off due to a Septa issue and Peco needing to do an emergency shut off to fix something. So, to paint you a picture of this, I am making a soup for class and I have most of the ingredients prepped so I can just dump everything in the pot to cook in time. I also planned on making veggie chips with my mandoline. Oh, and this is 20 minutes before class is supposed to start. I was told to try and talk through the recipe so people felt like they got something out of the class when they arrived. I am pretty good on my feet; however, I was thinking to myself how am I going to take up 1-hour of time talking and not making anything (with no back-up food). What did I do? I made it fun, because what else is there? I told the class to pretend the onions were sizzling and I had them "smell" the lovely blends. You learn a lot about yourself while doing a "cooking" class in partial darkness (only emergency lights). Fast-foward a bit and the power returns mid-way through the class, I speed up the recipe, and everyone got to eat and enjoy the soup/chips. I got so many compliments on how I handled the class in the dark and I felt awesome. So, that was one for the books.
What I am Still Working On
-Not letting work consume me or stress over thinking that I am not doing "enough."
-Not over planning so much that I don't actually do anything but plan.
-Figuring out "office hours" (aka what is my cut-off time for answering calls and emails?)
-Spending some time de-stressing with meditation, playing the piano, or exercising.
Hope everyone has a great New Year! I am excited to see what 2017 has in store :)
Check out my previous blogs to see why I made the jump to private practice + Weeks 1 and 3 :)
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