Business Guide for Health Therapists: How to Find What You Need to Know

ABOUT THIS BOOK

This book is about the business aspects of starting and managing a complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) or health therapy practice.

As business owners, Practitioners need to know about the business processes that will define and sustain the success of their practice. So the aim of this book is not to focus on the delivery of treatments and therapies but rather to introduce the Practitioner to the business and management facilities, opportunities and support which can assist them to start, develop and expand their practice.

In addition to treating their clients, many Practitioners engage in the manufacture and retail sale of CAM and therapy products. Accordingly, the scope of this book also includes business suggestions for the promotion and sale of these products.

Although it is primarily aimed at Practitioners practising within the United Kingdom and using UK institutions and websites, many sections of this book should also be relevant to any CAM or therapy practice where ever it is based.

My aim is to present you with a general, brief, simple, easily accessible and straightforward overview of the business processes that could benefit your practice and, should you desire, to enable you to access more detailed information by linking to selected websites.

Throughout, I have, for ease of reference, referred to ‘clients’ rather than ‘patients’. Where you are selling products, you should assume that this also means ‘customers’. Where I refer to ‘Practitioners’ this means Practitioners of a CAM or of a health therapy business, although I appreciate that many Practitioners will consider themselves to be practising within both of these sectors. In the event that any information contained or referred to in this book conflicts with the guidance you receive from your membership organisation or regulator, then such guidance should take precedence and be a matter for your professional judgement

This book does not provide information about the management of finance or the preparation of business accounts but it does contain a section exploring Sources of Finance together with web links that will help you to find professional help, including in relation to legal matters, and to access guidance issued by H M Revenue & Customs.

The Appendix to this book contains many links to websites operating from the UK, the United States of America and Europe. By way of example, I have included some website links relating to a selected treatment (homeopathy) and a health condition (cancer). Searching this online information will assist you to research and to compare membership organisations, marketing and pricing strategies, the design of advertising and promotional material and the evidence-base for your practice specialisms.

It is important to adopt the right approach to reading this book. Start by reading it without linking to the websites. Then return to the beginning and read it again, this time linking to the detailed (website) business information that is relevant to your practice. Read it on a ‘step by step’ basis, reviewing each section in turn. You do not have to remember it all.

If you are proposing to start a practice, it is likely that once you have become self-employed you will never want to be an employee again. Instead, you will appreciate the independence, freedom and flexibility that enables you to control your own business and to avoid the internal politics and rigid bureaucracy that can exist in some employer organisations. The availability of affordable, innovative technology means that it is now easier and cheaper than ever to start and to manage a practice. Owning a business is a challenge that more and more people aspire to. For instance, according to surveys by Enterprise Nation (https://www.enterprisenation.com/), 65% of young people would like to have their own business at some time during their careers.

Purely from a business perspective, your practice is about finding clients and selling your professional services and products to them. I hope that by reading this book you will find this easier to achieve. Even as the owner of an established practice, you may well find yourself returning to it again and again.

Note: While the website links are regularly updated, if a link should fail please google the appropriate