Hi, this is Dave Kats with Therapist Consultants and I have a tip for you.

One of the things you can do to get new patients to show up after they make the appointment is to ask them to put 50% down to hold the appointment. That may sound strange if you've never done it before, but lots of therapists are doing it. When a patient calls in, they ask for an appointment you say, "Okay. I have a time available today because I've had a cancellation this afternoon, or I have an appointment on Friday. Which do you prefer?" They say, "I'll take today." You say, "Okay. I'll put you down for four 'o clock today then, however in order to hold that appointment I ask that you put 50% down so you'll need to put $75 down. Which credit card would you like to put that on?" They give you the credit card. Now I don't care if you run their credit card or not, actually we suggest that you hold that credit card and not run it unless they don't show up and then, run the whole amount when they do show up...

Hi, this is Dave Kats with Therapist Consultants and I have a tip for you.

One of the things you can do to keep from looking like a deer in headlights on April 15 is to lay money aside for your taxes. So many times comes about April 15, and all of a sudden we realize we owe some money. To avoid that, you have to put money away ahead of time, and this is how I suggest you do it. Go to your bank and tell them, "Every deposit I make, I want you to take 10% out and put it in a separate account." That account will be called your tax account.
By the way, I wouldn't even put that tax account in my portfolio. When I look from my banking online, I'd see all my banking accounts, my checking accounts, savings accounts. I wouldn't even put that tax account on your portfolio, that way you never have a tendency to want to spend it. Comes April 15, you simply pull out the money you need, and go merrily on your way. Why don't you think about starting right now to start saving 10% out of everything...

This is Dave Kats with Therapist Consultants and I have a tip for you, and I have a question for you.

Are you practicing in the old style, or are you practicing in a new style? See, the old style was this. You have one patient. You see them for one hour, one time a week, but the new sessions go like this. You have a patient. You may see them two hours during the day and you see them once a week. You see them for twice as long. You charge twice as much, and they get twice as much as care as they would have gotten originally.
I think dual sessions are a great way to improve your practice and to give the patients a lot better care. When I think about it, some of the marriages that are under stress, they need more than 45 or 55 minutes a week. They need a couple hours to really get into the depth of things that they need. I know lots of therapists that don't accept marriage counseling patients unless they're going to do dual sessions.
It doesn't just have to be with marriage therapy. It...

Hi, this is David Kats for Therapist Consultants, and I have a tip for you.

Everybody has to be HIPAA compliant. When I give seminars, sometimes I'm amazed and sometimes terrified at how many therapists don't have good HIPAA compliance. I want to talk to you about four forms that are very basic that'll help you gain HIPAA compliance. Now they won't assure HIPAA compliance, but they'll help you gain HIPAA compliance.
The first one is the use of a single-page form, and that is the acknowledgement of receipt of privacy practices. That's the first form you hand them when they walk in the door, they fill out that HIPAA form, and I'm sure that most all of you are doing that, but if there's somebody listening to this is not having them fill out a HIPAA form on the first day, you are absolutely not HIPAA compliant so you've got to do it immediately.
Now when they filled out that first form, the acknowledgement of receipt of privacy practices, it says that they acknowledge that you gave them...

Hi, this is David Kats for Therapist Consultants and I have a tip for you.

You know what's hot on the Internet right now? Well, it's probably not what was hot on the Internet a year ago and it's probably not what's going to be hot on the Internet in a year, but right now what's hot on the Internet is this, advertising on Google is very important.
If you want to build your practice, you probably want to spend between $100 and $300 advertising on Google. It's extremely easy to do. You can get about anybody to help you if you don't know how. The second thing that's real hot right now is Facebook.
Facebook is hot because you can do posts and you can boost those posts, which means you pay Facebook to show it to more people and you can do actual ads on Facebook, where you'd use your ads manager's program. Then the hot one that's new on the scene, there's a couple of new ones on the scene. One is Instagram. Instagram is a hot new area to advertise and to be seen on.
Facebook owns Instagram....

Hi, this is Dave Kats with Therapist Consultants and I have a tip for you.

I noticed that many therapists go through a certain progression. When they first get into practice, they're not on any insurance panels, so they start as a cash practitioner. Sometimes they start at a lower price. After a while, they say, "I'm missing a lot of new patients because I'm not on the insurance panels." They get on some or all of the insurance panels that they can get on and they take insurance for a period of time.
After that, they say, "I'm not getting paid very much by the insurance. I think I should go back to cash." They go back to a cash practice. Sometimes slowly over a period of time and sometimes all at once, but that's the cycle. Cash, insurance, cash. Now, you can get fixated in any area. For instance, you can stay cash and low cost or you can stay insurance through the rest of your life, but most people would like to be on a cash practice where they have plenty of new patients and...

 Hi, I'm Dave Kats with Therapist Consultants and I have a tip for you.

I will never forget when I was a young man learning about the internet, I did all the things my coach told me to have a good internet presence and yet I wasn't number one in our area. I said to him, "Why am I not number one? I've done everything that you told me to do." He said, "Well, Dave, it's very hard to get to the top unless you have enough reviews." That message stayed with me forever.
If you find that you're not at the top of your internet game and you need to have more new patients so you need a better internet presence, one of the best things you can do for yourself is simply get reviews. Now, you have to get reviews on different places. You can get reviews on Google, of course, and then Bing and Yahoo. You can get them on yp.com, even on Angie's List and Healthgrades so you can have reviews in a lot of different places.
They say that the sweet spot for Google is between 12 and 15 reviews. If you...

Hi, this is David Kats with Therapist Consultants, and I have a tip for you.

As we go into year 2020, it's important that we go in with a clear vision and here's why. You will never grow bigger than your biggest vision. If your vision right now is to do the same thing as you did last year, that's probably what you'll do. If you can create a bigger vision and say, "I want to be 50% bigger than I was last year," chances are you'll grow 50% during the year because your vision dictates your goals, your goals dictate your action plans, and your action plans dictate your results.
Before we go into 2020, I suggest you sit down and try to expand your vision because a mind stretched by a new idea will never return to its original size. Sit down tonight while you have an opportunity, and have a big vision. Get a big vision. Say, "What can I do in my biggest vision for year 2020?" I think if you expand your vision, you'll naturally expand your practice.

This is David Kats. Thanks for...

They say having a clear vision will help you plan good goals. In the year 2020, that's your clear vision right there; 2020 vision. I want you to have very clear goals of what you're going to do next year. Before we get into the year 2020, you should write down all the things you want to have, do and become.
Think about them in your spiritual life, in your physical life, in your business life, in your financial life, in your social life, in your educational life, in your family life, and in your leisure life. If you take those eight areas, and decide everything you want to have, do and become; the list may be 15 or 20 things, but if you write them down and set a date beside them when you think it's possible, and then look at them every day and work the plan, and I have a feeling 2020 will be your best year ever.

Hi, this is Dave Kats with Therapist Consultants and I have a tip for you.

One of the things you could do to improve your income, and also to help patients, is to hire an associate. Now there's a myriad of ways to hire an associate. The easiest way is just to let somebody use your office and charge them so much per visit. If they reserve a space, you charge them $15 or $20 and they use your room, and that's done. That's the only thing you do to hire an associate. Another way to do it is to hire an associate and charge them a percentage of what they bring in. They can use your space and if they collect $6,000, you may get 30% of that as your income for letting them use your space. A third way that you can work with an associate is let them rent your room on a percentage-basis full time. A fourth way is to let them rent your room at a flat rate, maybe at $300 a month. I have one therapist that has just a single-room office. She works Monday through Thursday days. She rents out her...