Working from home

Working from home is often the first option for many therapists, and it has many advantages:

• you won’t incur any travel costs
• you won’t waste any time travelling
• you won’t have any extra rent to pay
• you may be able to use some of your home equipment eg telephone and computer
• if clients cancel or don’t turn up, you’ll be able to get on with other things
• you are in complete control of the practice environment.

While this all sounds rather good there are a number of issues you should consider first. Do you have the appropriate space to spare? And is this space which you can have full access to whenever you want, or will the room will be used for other purposes? If you don’t have the space to dedicate a room to being your practice room, you may need to consider purchasing some portable equipment, for example, folding chairs and a lightweight folding couch, in order to save space and easily store your equipment away when the room is used for other purposes.

What about your family’s needs? Unless you are the sole occupant of your home, have you considered your family’s needs or those of your flatmates or sharers? If you have a young family you may need to work around their needs and bedtimes, and this will impose certain limits on your working day. Can you afford to lose the flexibility of being able to offer evening or weekend slots, especially during those first crucial months when you are ‘growing’ the practice?

Will you feel comfortable having strangers enter your home, and know where you live? And will you be able to ensure that there will be no interruptions while you are working, and that your therapy room will always appear clean, uncluttered and welcoming?

If the answer to these questions is a resounding yes, and you’ve considered the other general environmental and access factors – then go ahead, start organising your room and be sure to get your marketing underway as soon as possible.

Occupying a slot at a local practice, clinic or health club

Working as part of a local practice, clinic, or health and fitness club is the way many therapists start out. Working this way requires minimal outlay – just the costs of your business stationery plus any supplies which are particular to your therapy practice, for example essential oils, herbal remedies etc. The big ongoing costs such as rent, heat and light and the telephone bills will all be paid by the practice. You will also be able to take advantage of any equipment which is provided with the rooms, such as reclining chairs and massage couches. You may also benefit from a central reception area for your clients to wait in, and a receptionist to book in your clients.

All this allows you to commit to working at your new therapy in a clearly structured and well-defined way, which can be very helpful when you are first setting out and may be juggling the demands of other ongoing work with that of your therapy work. Working alongside other therapists will also provide you with some useful support, and this fact alone may be a very important determinant in where you locate. Therapy work can be a very isolated existence, which can be a bit of a shock to anyone who was previously used to working in a large open plan office. Having other therapists at the practice will allow you some personal interaction and may help to smooth the transition.

There are, however, some drawbacks to this way of working. Many practices charge therapists an hourly rate for the rooms whether or not any clients have booked in. Other practices demand a percentage of your takings, and this can be as much as 50%. Some practices operate collectively, and may request that you take a turn on various rotas such as staffing the reception desk and taking client bookings for all the therapists at the centre. There can also be problems regarding the facilities on offer and the standard working practices, for example:

• the equipment
• standard length sessions
• practice politics.

You will need to check whether the equipment supplied with the practice suits your needs. If the couches aren’t the right height for you, can they be adjusted? Also, does the practice provide any supplies or do you need to bring your own? If you don’t already work to standard session times, will the practice allow you to work in a different way? How will you feel if, in order to maximise your time, you need to work with four clients, each one straight after the other without a break? Do your sessions ever over-run?

Finally, be aware that there may be conflicts with other therapists at the centre engaged in the same work – at worst, involving client ‘poaching’ and at best, involving the kind of office politics we’ve all been subjected to at some point (and which for some of us represented one of the reasons why we left our previous occupations in the first place).

If you’re interested in working this way, then you will need to ‘cold’ sell yourself to the various practices, health and fitness centres and beauty salons in your chosen area. You may decide to approach some local to your home, or local to where you currently work, especially if this is in a city or town centre. Personal visits often succeed where a phone call doesn’t. Be prepared to give a demonstration of your work; offer a free session; drop off copies of your leaflets, brochures and business cards, and take along copies of your professional certificates, confirmation of your membership of any related organisations and your insurance certificates. It is unlikely that you will be able to negotiate much, if any, of the terms on which you are taken on, so it is essential that you get a chance to assess the feel of the place and decide on what it will be like to work there.

Working as a complementary therapy practitioner in the corporate sector

This has similar benefits to working within an existing practice as your costs can be kept to a minimum. However the working arrangements, including the variety and quality of the equipment which is provided, can vary quite a lot from one company to the next. So you will need to check this out before you commit to working any sessions at the company. The equipment and the standard of your working environment are likely to be of better quality and more carefully thought out if the company you are going to work in already has a long-term commitment to providing this additional ‘perk’ for staff.

It is potentially easier to get work within such companies if you are offering a therapy which is particularly geared to dealing with work-related problems, such as stress relief, public speaking, confidence boosting and any technique or process which helps with relaxation and performance enhancement. Make sure any leaflets you produce focus on these key areas and the benefits your therapy can bring to the workforce.

You may need to increase your insurance cover depending on the level of cover requested by the company. Currently the most I’ve been asked to provide cover for is £5 million, and this has only been requested when I’ve been doing group work or workshops. It is generally an easy matter to increase your cover with your insurance company and the premiums are not high – so don’t let this be a deterrent.

Some problems can arise with these working arrangements, for example:

• some clients may not want to be seen having a session in the workplace
• there could be worries about confidentiality
• problems over who pays
• the company may set the rate for your work
• the working hours are likely to be inflexible
• sessions may get interrupted
• clients may find it harder to relax during a session in their workplace.

Overcoming concerns about confidentiality

Because you are working as a therapist within a company, some clients may not trust that any issues or problems that they discuss with you will be treated confidentially. This can be a particular problem for those people who most require your services, the workers who are under pressure from management and/or those who have constant tight deadlines to meet. Such workers will often worry that having a session with you will be admitting to the fact that they can’t cope with their jobs and need help. To get around this problem try addressing the issue direct by mentioning this particular problem in your leaflets or brochures. If the workforce realise you are aware this could be a potential issue, then they are much more likely to accept that you will treat their issues in a confidential and supportive way. You may also want to make provision for working with some clients in a practice area removed from the workplace, as this may be a better arrangement for them.

If the company sets the rate for your work make sure that you are getting adequate recompense for the time you spend both working at, and travelling to, the site. Even if you are not earning as much as you would like from this arrangement, you may decide that any shortfall is offset by the marketing potential of being located in a large company. However, it is unlikely that you will be able to offer any discounts to certain employees. In some companies, the company may pay a percentage of the session charge, with your client paying the rest. Whilst taken at face value this seems a very generous gesture, it can be counterproductive, as it can bring into question the confidential nature of your work and whether the company will allow you to work on issues other than work related issues if they are paying part of the costs. If there are other therapists working in the company you might want to check with them whether such a policy has affected their work in any way.

Some clients may find it very hard to relax whilst having a session at work, as work issues may be uppermost in their minds. Also it has not been unheard of for employees to be called out of sessions on urgent business. This, plus the likely inflexibility of the hours you may be allowed to work may cause you to consider having another practice area that you can work from, whether this is your own home or whether you choose to investigate working with your clients in their own homes to keep the costs down. In fact, most therapists working within companies have another practice elsewhere.

Renting rooms

This is a good option for the therapist who has decided to go it alone or in partnership with another therapist. Offices to let are now a common feature, and many are located in central shopping areas served by good public transport links. Most modern day small office lets are by licence, which is a cheap way of settling the contract issues as it rarely involves legal costs of much more than £100; the licences are generally short (one year) and easily renewable, and often you need give just one month’s notice in order to quit, thereby minimising your financial commitment. When you occupy by licence, the business rates are often included in the rent, so the only other cost to you is that of heating and lighting your rooms.

Shared offices to let will also have shared facilities such as kitchens and toilets. The cleaning and servicing of the common parts, such as entrance areas and corridors, will generally be included in the rent, again reducing your costs. Shared offices can also provide you with a ready pool of people wanting your particular services.

Check that you will have 24-hour, seven-day a week access, so that you can run your practice as flexibly as possible. Also, check that your particular therapy will be allowed, for example, your landlord may have a personal dislike of hypnotherapy. You will need to take on full responsibility for the offices, so expect to be held responsible for locking up and setting burglar alarms as necessary.

Buying a practice

Buying a practice is the most expensive approach for someone who is just setting out, as it demands a huge financial outlay. Unless you are taking over an existing practice with a good reputation and are planning to run it along similar lines, be careful. You will need to be very sure of your own skills and abilities. This can be a very risky financial venture even if you’ve had previous experience of running an office. If there are a number of you joining together to set up the practice, do a ‘trial run’ of your working arrangements first to see how realistic your venture is. Whichever lender you approach for a loan is going to want to examine your business plan in detail, so you need to be sure that you can carry this off.

If you want to invest your money in your business, it might be a better option to do so by moving house to something bigger and better located, and which you can work from.

How to find your practice rooms

Unless you’ve decided to work from home, or have some good contacts who can set you up in practice, you will need to search for those premises best suited to your needs. If you’ve decided to rent or buy, there are a number of ways in which you can further your search in the location you’ve decided upon:

• scan the ads in the local newspapers and local ‘free’ newspapers
• contact local estate agents who deal with both residential and commercial sales/lets
• walk around the area, taking a note of shops or offices for sale or to let
• put out a request for premises, or information, to any therapy egroups you belong to
• check complementary therapy websites for any offers
• scan the ads in therapy journals.

If you’ve decided to try for a slot in an existing practice, or to hire rooms for a set time slot, the process is similar, however the more personal your approach the more chance of success you will have. Try the following:

• ring round the practices in your area
• contact beauty salons, hairdressers and fitness centres
• put your request to any therapy egroups you belong to
• contact complementary therapy websites and place an ad
• scan the ads in therapy journals.

Some beauty salons and fitness centres may already have therapists on-site. Enquire whether all the available slots have been taken. Also, check to see whether there is anyone offering your particular therapy – if not, use this fact to help you in your negotiations for space.

This is one of those occasions when your personal network may well deliver the goods for you – so flex those interpersonal muscles. Talk to as many people as you can, and let them know that you are searching for premises. You may be surprised where some of the leads take you, but keep an open mind and check out all the possibilities. Make sure you keep a record of the contacts you have made in order to avoid ringing the same person twice. Sometimes the contacts will tell you that a room or space will be available at a later date – make sure you take details of this and make a note in your diary to ring back nearer the time.

Working with people in their own homes

Rather than choosing to work from a specific area or location, you may choose instead to offer your services to people in their own homes – a truly mobile service. A number of therapists offer their services in this way, which of course cuts out completely any premises costs. However, it is generally only successful if you own a car and you ensure your equipment can be easily transported – no one is happy to keep carrying massage couches up to flats on the second or third floor or above.

The following is a breakdown of both the advantages and disadvantages of this way of working.

The advantages

• no premises costs
• no utility bills
• the working arrangements can be completely flexible
• start-up costs can be kept to a minimum
• your clients might be more relaxed in their own home
• most clients would regard this as an ‘added value’ service.

The disadvantages

• you may spend a lot of time travelling, setting up and dismantling equipment
• all your equipment will need to be portable
• personal wear and tear
• other people, children and pets could prove to be a distraction for yourself or client
• you will need to give more thought to your own personal safety
• you may find the setting to be unsuitable for your purposes or therapy
• you will need to be very flexible about your working hours
• your client may not be in when you arrive for the session.