Yet, that’s the traditional private practice model that most Coaches and Holistic Practitioners are taught to create.

The Traditional Private Practice Model is broken

The biggest problem with the Traditional Private Practice Model is that you’re counting on your clients/patients to recommit to their healing and transformation every single time they have a session with you. It’s exhausting for everyone to have to reconsider their commitment over and over again each week.

It is a huge disservice to your clients to ask them to recommit each week (making a big life change isn’t easy — and just when they’re about to have that breakthrough to get what they said they wanted, it can suddenly become inconvenient for them to keep saying Yes).

Offering one session at a time is also a huge disservice to you. If the idea of filling enough client/patient slots each week seems daunting and unsustainable to you, you’re right.

When we do the math, you can see why it’s so overwhelming.

How many sessions do you need to do each month in order to cover your business expenses, living expenses and taxes? Make sure to add a little more to make sure you’re more than just barely getting by and you have enough to invest in growing your business.

When you realize how many sessions you must give each month in order to earn a sustainable living, it’s often a big wake up call.

Let’s take this a step further, consider what it takes to get a new client.

Does it seem overwhelming and even impossible to attract enough clients to make this model work? For most Coaches and Holistic Practitioners, the answer is Yes.

So why do so many Coaches and Holistic Practitioners take on this broken business model?

It’s because they see their mentors using this model and think that’s the only way.

While the traditional private practice model can work for someone who has been in business for many years and has a large community of people where they are known as the expert in their field, it can take several years to get to this point. Many Coaches and Holistic Practitioners struggle for years and never get even close to this utopian model of business success.

But this does not mean that you can’t have a sustainable, thriving business where you are doing the work you love, serving clients you love and living a fulfilling life.

You are not the problem. The broken model is the problem.

The good news is that you can adjust your business model so you can serve your clients more deeply and earn a sustainable living.

There are three strategic changes you can make if you want to grow your business fast:

1. Your Business Model
2. How You Get a Yes from Potential Clients
3. The 3 Big Game-Changers

In Part 1 of this 3-part series, we’ll look at your Business Model. We’ll cover the other two strategic changes in parts 2 and 3 of this series.

Three Sustainable Business Models for Coaches and Holistic Practitioners

1. The Profitable Package Model
2. The Profitable Program Model
3. The Live Event Model

The Profitable Package Model

Imagine that instead of selling one session at a time, you offered a package of 10 sessions, for example.

If we go back to our previous exercise, where you calculated how many sessions you would have to give each month in order to earn a sustainable living, you’ll see that now you only need 10% of the new clients than you needed with the traditional model. And as you fill your available slots, you need fewer and fewer new clients.

Your business and life become much easier because you can more easily earn a great living doing work you love.

It helps to know that when your clients invest in a package, it helps them get better results. You will have more committed clients you get to work more deeply with, so the work is more fulfilling.

If you don’t know what a package is, we define it as a commitment to 4 or more private sessions with you. During our upcoming “Profitable Packages and Programs” Video Summit (happening March 21st-March 29th), you’ll discover how to create your package.

The bottom line is that when you offer a package, you get to work more deeply with more committed clients. You don’t have to enroll as many new clients and your clients will get better results. It’s essential to offer at least a package of your services if you want a sustainable business model.

The Profitable Program Model

If you are looking to have a bigger impact than working with one client at a time, you might consider creating a Profitable Program.

What is a Profitable Program?

A Profitable Program is where you work with people in groups, rather than just one client at a time.

You can actually offer your clients more value than they can get if they were working with you privately because they can absorb information in a group setting, such as a workshop, live zoom call or even pre-recorded videos.

They also get added value by being in community with other people who are also going through the same challenges and want to make a big change. Including a Facebook Group, for example, is a great way for your clients to stay connected.

You can also include some private work, if you choose, so they get the benefit of customizing what they’re learning for their personal circumstances.

There are MANY variations in the ways group programs are put together.

When creating your first group program, you want to make it fun for yourself. You get to design it so it works for you and also provides the most value for your ideal clients. We recommend you don’t overwhelm yourself by creating too many features. Sometimes less is more. At the same time, the more features you include, the more support your people will have and the more you can charge.

The Live Event Model

If you enjoy leading groups of people, then leading live events as part of your business model might be the best choice. A live event is a workshop, conference, seminar, meetup, destination retreats or any other gathering where you are in-person.

While live video calls are great, there is nothing like being able to connect live and in-person with your clients. The deeper we go into having technology be such a big part of our everyday lives, the more people crave being together live and in-person. There is something about being able to be in each other’s energy fields that makes a really big difference.

We’ve led over 225+ live events in the past 16+ years. Our favorite thing about leading live events is the impact and inspiration that happens on a deeper level when people are gathered together. We’ve found that clients are most likely to get the results they came for when they are connected in community. And community happens most easily when gathered together.

What’s your Vision?

When it comes to creating your own Profitable Package or Program, you get to decide how you want it to look.

These three models can give you a place to start, but the reality is there are as many different ways to create a sustainable business model as there are Coaches and Holistic Practitioners out there. Many of our clients even use a combination of these different models so they’re able to best serve their clients and also earn a great living, doing the work they love.