Mistakes I Made in My Cash Practice

I was pretty naive when I started my cash practice…1 year out of PT school, business minor under my belt, but I had SO much to learn….

On the surface, it seemed pretty simple to “win” in my business. I remember telling myself, “Just charge more than you’re getting paid hourly, and you’ll be good,” - but that mindset was a mistake. It was built from a perception of what I understood, meaning I really only understood how to think like an employee.

I share this lesson because I think a lot of coaches and rehab professionals think the same way I used to. So today, I am going to share with you my mistakes and the lessons I learned from them so you don’t have to repeat them. 

Mistake #1 - Too low of prices 

Full transparency, my first prices were $60/hour (because I was making $50/hour at the Skilled Nursing Facility) - luckily, I took a leap and bumped them up to $90/hour before acquiring my first client.

Let’s break down WHY this happens. First, there's a knowledge gap between pricing a commodity and pricing a solution. I really had no clue what I was doing at this point, but I knew the clinic I was working at charged $90 for a cash visit. That’s also because the experience was that of an insurance clinic…. There was no real differentiation. 

This leads us to price based on what we know, which often leaves out the understanding and confidence to truly convey our VALUE to the end consumer. 

This problem, unfortunately, left me chasing volume and never really being able to leave my full-time job.

Mistake #2 - Not selling packages

I’ll get straight to the point here… I didn’t know how to sell… and because of that, saying what felt like such a large sum of money for packages intimidated me… “would I pay that?” I often thought…

Ultimately, this cost me not only money in the business but also predictability and peace of mind.

When it came to predictability, I didn't know how much each person would be worth to my business (this is an important business health metric called lifetime value, and if you don’t want to keep chasing your tail and guessing, you need to know it). Since I didn’t know what each client was worth, I didn’t know HOW MANY new clients I needed… I just knew I needed MORE. Well, that’s kind of a problem….

When it came to peace of mind… going from session to session was STRESSFUL! That meant I truly lived and died (financially) by my schedule and by my show rate…. Client cancels, there goes $$$.... Snowstorm, there goes $$$.... It was TOUGH. 

Not to mention I was actually starting each day/week/month at $0… that’s just a rough blow mentally. 

Not having this process in my business kept me stuck… and honestly, feeling a little hopeless at times, thinking I would never be able to accumulate enough visits to make meaningful revenue. Once I made the shift to packages AND added recurring revenue with my virtual offer (Prescriptive Exercise Program), it was a game changer. 

Mistake #3 - Selling 30 minute sessions

Honestly, this made a lot of sense to me at the time. Lower the barrier to the consumer, less resistance to working with me, BUT… in just this one decision, I halved my revenue. Now luckily for me, by the time I did this, I had my Prescriptive Exercise Program up and running, or I might’ve quit altogether. 

Now here’s the catch… want to guess the top 3 issues I see holding aspiring businesses back?

You just read about them. YEARS later, the problems stay the same. How come?

We are trained as coaches and rehab professionals… not business owners. We operate in the safety of what we know… how we currently consume/buy… and the reality is that’s holding the business back, just like it held me back 9 years ago. 

The sooner you realize this, the faster you can course correct. So if you’re sitting there stuck still working a part-time job that you feel like you can’t break free from, maybe it’s time to try something different. It can be the difference between making it, or going back to the traditional insurance grind.