January 11, 2010 - Monday 8:30 am - 11:00 am -Santa Barbara presenting Building A Successful Private Practice - Hosted by AAMFT Santa Barbara Chapter, great opportunity to hear me speak if you are in the Santa Barbara area. Here is a link to their announcement. Chapter & Event Information

February 13, 2010 - Building a Successful Practice Workshop - Santa Monica, go to my web site for more information. Limited to 10 people. Workshop Event Information

March 5, 2010 -Friday 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm- Practice Development & Marketing -Hosted by the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis. A great opportunity to hear me speak and learn about the Institute's candidate training program, year long psychoanalytic psychotherapy and Extension programs. $30.00 CEU's Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis

April 22, 2010 - CAMFT Annual Conference - Los Angeles
Lenore Caffey, Ph.D, Laurie Burns, MFT and I will be presenting on What is Contemporary Psychoanalysis.

April 24, 2010 - CAMFT Annual Conference - Los Angeles
I will be presenting my Building A Successful Private Practice through Practice Development and Marketing.

CAMFT Annual Conference Information

Starting the New Year with a Marketing Plan

How many client hours do you need to make the money that would help you reach your goals. When an accountant presented this to me it opened up a new way of thinking. It never dawned on me what I needed, all I knew up to that point was I needed to work and fill hourly slots. But was that realistic? How many hours can I really work? When I listen to people talk about 30 client hour schedules I shudder. I certainly can't work those kinds of hours, our work is hard and may not seem exhausting but takes a toll physically and emotionally. I teach my clients to find balance in their lives but what about mine. I am still struggling with this concept of balance but I am evaluating my goals from a different perspective. I can increase the number of clients I see or I can learn to work a leaner but stronger practice.

First I had to really figure out what kind of income do I want. How much am I making from client hours and consulting and the other things I do. Then I had to look at how to make those hours count, where was my time best spent, what gave me the most financial and emotional reward. For me it is investing time in my consulting business, completing my workbook and developing my internet work. I have to include the therapy world, I love doing groups and have a couple of ideas for groups I have yet to launch and individual and couples work is fabulous. I want all these components to be in my work but now I make a conscious effort to measure how I spend my time and how I charge for my time.

All of these thoughts leads me to my marketing plan. A plan that has been in place for many years but each year is tweaked some. I set my goals; how much money, how many hours and what do I want to be doing. Then I set out the marketing tools I will be using and where I want to spend my energy and my marketing budget. My friend Kathy Memel, Ph.D. has put some of her marketing plan towards working on the LA CAMFT Board, in the beginning she was not sure how much time it would require but now with many months under her belt she can factor in the amount of time needed. This isn't the only marketing tool she uses but it became one of her priorities. What's important is that you use as many tools as possible and you focus on a couple of commitments at a time. You would be surprised at how many marketing tools you already use that you didn't think were tools. Variety is how to attract attention but also keeps your interest in maintaining your marketing and business plan. The plan keeps you organized with short term and long term goals. Ways of keeping track of what works and what doesn't. A marketing plan is a way of tracking your progress and planning the future.

Organization, Planning and a Budget will help you set your Marketing and Business Plan. It could be a great way to start off the New Year with short and long term goals that lead to achieving your vision for your ideal practice. Let me know if I can be of any help. As usual I love to hear back from you, any comments, suggestions, questions and feedback. Have a Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Sincerely,
Licia Ginne, MFT, Therapy Marketing Coach
Licia Ginne, Marriage & Family Therapist, Inc.