41 | What to Do When Things Slow Down: Five Audits for Therapy Practice Owners

Today I really want to talk about what do we do when things slow down.

Now you only have to spend about five seconds in any Facebook group to hear the regular narrative that's happening right now around summer months being slow or not having enough clients or group practice owners really concerned about kind of the ebb and flow that the summer brings or lots of cancellations or no-shows and That seems to really happen this time of year.

And I'm going to challenge you to reframe it and think about it differently because I'm going to share with you the five things that I have been doing for years around what to do when things slow down.

And the answer isn't about hustling to get more clients or all the things that we think that we should be marketing more or doing those things because the answer is actually none of those things.

And I want you to think about using this slow down time or this, you know, ebb and the ebb and flow of things as an opportunity.

If you could think about summer as an opportunity instead of something to be concerned about or worried about, what would that make possible for you? So summer comes every year.

And I know that's stating the very, very obvious, but it is really obvious.

And if you've been in this business for, let's say, at least four to five years, there's definitely a pattern that happens in this 12-month cycle.

And certain seasons bring different challenges to your business and to client flow and client acquisition and attendance rates and retention rates and everything that we look at.

And at some point, we got to just accept the fact that seasons bring different ebbs and flows, especially in the world of therapy, and that if we predict them and prepare for them, we can actually use these slower times to make other things possible.

Because when you're inundated with clients and you have a full schedule and everything is booked and you are waiting for a no-show or a cancellation and you're crossing your fingers hoping that one of your clients today is going to just cancel so you can have some breathing room to either finish your notes or have that conversation or just simply close the door to breathe, you realize that these slow months are actually an opportunity.

And I realized this many years ago.

So after 18 years of group practice and scaling a group practice and managing a team and an ever ebb and flow that comes with it, I really relish the moments of slowness.

And that has come from really rethinking and restoring what is made possible by having moments of slowness, whether that's a month or two months or sometimes three months.

Because I think that there are the opportunity to actually create different structures in your business to be able to handle the next growth phase, the next scaling phase.

And in doing so, I have been able to hire faster employees.

scale a bit quicker, put systems into place.

So I'm going to share with you the five things that I really focus on when we come into summer months or into moments of slowness or seasons of slowness, instead of feeling a little bit of a panic or uncertainty or feeling like it's a bit unstable.