June 4, 2025 • 16 mins
The summer slump in therapy practices creates financial stress as client sessions and revenue decrease during the warmer months. Smart planning and specific strategies can transform this challenging time into an opportunity for growth while ensuring financial stability.
• Summer brings disrupted routines for clients and therapists alike
• Clients view summer as a natural time to pause therapy, similar to school breaks
• Proactively communicate with clients about the importance of maintaining therapy consistency
• Compare therapy breaks to the "summer slide" in education where progress is lost
• Get clients' travel schedules in advance to minimize surprise cancellations
• Open your calendar further in advance to secure client commitments
• Consistently enforce cancellation policies during summer months
• Discuss summer plans with clinicians to forecast revenue accurately
• Use extra time during slower months to improve marketing and create content
• Create a "Summer Slump Fund" by saving 5-10% during profitable months
• Analyze your revenue patterns to determine exactly how much to save
Schedule a free call with our team at therapybusinesspod.com to create a money system that eliminates summer financial stress and provides consistent income year-round.
Meet with one of our coaches
*Intro/outro song credit:
King Around Here by Alex Grohl
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
My name is Craig and I'm the owner of Daisy Financial
Coaching.
Our team is on a mission tomake your therapy practice
permanently profitable.
If you own a solo or grouppractice, we're here to help you
build a business that createsmore time, makes more money and
serves more people.
This is the Therapy BusinessPodcast.
Summer is here.
(00:26):
It's a time for rest andrelaxation and if you own a
therapy practice, it's time forfinancial stress.
We all know that the summerslump is real.
This is a time of year wherebusiness can go down, where our
monthly incoming revenue, whereour client sessions drops, and
it's a part of the year wheremost practice owners are
(00:48):
stressing they're dreading thistime.
And yet here it is every yearand we just kind of go into a
hole.
We feel overwhelmed, we feelstressed out and we just cannot
wait for fall to kick in and forbusiness to kick back in.
Well, the summer slump.
There's nothing we can do aboutit, in the sense of it's just a
reality that there is going tobe a downturn in business this
(01:10):
time of year.
There are things that we can doto mitigate it, that we can do
to get in front of it, that I'mgoing to walk you through today
and some things we can do toprep for the future so that,
even if the incoming revenuedrops, even if the client
sessions drop, you're notstressed about the money, you
can take some peace of mind andyou can use this time to focus
your energy elsewhere to furtheryour business.
(01:31):
Now let's just address why thesummer slump happens.
This is just a time of yearwhere clients are busy.
People have a change in routine.
You probably feel that too.
I know I do.
With my kids out of school, mydays look drastically different.
Where I can typically recordpodcasts on any day of the week,
I have to find days where theyare out of the house so that I
can get just an hour of quietmoments to jump on here and
(01:55):
record.
My days don't get kick-startedas early, so during school we're
waking up at 6 am to get themout the door to school, so I'm
starting my day at seven toseven 30.
Well, in the summer, you know,I'm not a natural morning person
, so I'm not really getting outof bed till seven and so my day
is starting later.
It's funny I was talking to mytherapist about this that summer
routines.
I'm going, man, it's justsummer stuff, cause my routine
(02:17):
goes out the window.
And he's like, well, how muchof the routine do you
intentionally keep?
And I was like that's true, Iguess I could wake up earlier
and keep that part of theroutine.
But it's just the fact of lifethat I'm not following my
routines the way I normallywould.
And your clients are doing thesame thing.
Your clinicians, your teammembers are probably doing the
same thing.
In fact, you might be findingyourself doing the same thing.
(02:38):
We tend to let our foot off thegas with our routine and what we
do is we find a lot of thingsfalling to the wayside.
Now a lot of your clients feellike summer is a natural pause.
You might hear people tell youhey, summer's chaotic, let's
look ahead, maybe I'll kick backin in September.
I plan on coming back inSeptember.
They look at it as a time topause.
This is as kids our whole liveswere ingrained.
(03:00):
In September to May is thecycle right?
And then, if you're a parent,you know that cycle still
continues when school starts towhen school ends.
And so we all still look atsummer intrinsic like just deep
down.
We feel like it is a pause fromlife.
It's a pause, it's a break.
So a lot of your clients aregoing to probably be taking a
little pause or not coming in asfrequently or again pulling
(03:22):
their foot off the gas on theirmental health progress, and you
might feel that or see that,whether they outwardly say it or
not.
And then also during this time,it's just summer, it's warmer
weather, longer days, peoplemight be just feeling better and
so they're not as urgentlytrying to get in to see you, and
so when they look down on thecalendar and they say, oh, I
have a therapy appointmenttomorrow, things are going on.
(03:45):
I feel pretty good.
I'm going to go ahead andcancel and reschedule that.
So there's a lot of reasonsthat this can happen and what we
want to do is try and get infront of it as much as possible.
So, as you step into this summer, I'm going to start with the
short term.
What can we do about thissummer slump as we are facing it
now here?
This recording is releasing atthe first week of June, so we
are stepping into it, and June,july, august are typically the
(04:07):
hardest months for therapypractices.
The first thing I wouldrecommend doing is communicating
with your clients.
Talk to your clients about thesummer slump.
You can call it out if you wantto Call out the elephant in the
room that during the summerit's really important that we
stay on a therapy schedule, thatI know life is going to get
busy, that your routine, yourschedule is going to get off.
(04:28):
Let's make a commitment to keepour therapy schedule on track.
When I was in education, wewould have at the end of the
year obviously we'd end in Mayand then, when we would come
back in August, september, wewould have what we would call
the summer slide.
The summer slide is where astudent maybe is at a certain
reading level They've made allthis progress in their reading
(04:50):
and then they go home for threemonths and they're not
practicing their reading anymore, they're not studying, they're
not doing those things, and sowhen they come back in in August
they have regressed, theirprogress has gone back a little
bit and we spend a couple monthsjust trying to get them back up
to speed to where they were atthe end of last school year.
This and you know your clientswell is likely a reality for
(05:14):
them too.
If they were to take a month ortwo off, if they were to miss
enough sessions, you might beusing sessions in the fall to
catch back up.
They might regress in some ofthe work they've been doing.
You might be rehashing spendinghours and sessions, going over
things that maybe you've alreadydone some progress on because
time has slipped by.
(05:34):
We see that with our clients allthe time.
If we ever have a client whofeels like summer's a natural
pause, maybe they choose topause their coaching with us.
We end up spending a lot oftime undoing things that
happened over the summer and welose a lot of progress.
I'm always really glad theycome back, because it's better
to come back and have theopportunity to push things
forward, but there's a lot ofground lost simply because they
(05:58):
stopped working on it over thesummer, and so we do exactly
what I'm talking to you about.
We talk to our clients about.
Summer is a stressful time.
It's going to be busy, I knowit's gonna be chaotic in your
personal life and in yourbusiness.
It's really, really importantthat you don't let this coaching
and the work you're doing onyour finances and in your
business fall to the wayside.
So we encourage them to againwe call it out and to lean into
(06:21):
their coaching during thissummer months and, in fact, if
they have extra time, if they'renot seeing as many clients,
this is a really good time toengage more in coaching because
you have the bandwidth to do so.
So talk to your clients aboutit, discuss that regression,
discuss the importance ofstaying on a rhythm.
Now, of course they might betraveling and so get to know
their travel schedules inadvance, if possible.
(06:42):
Just say, looking ahead, I knowwe meet every Thursday morning
at 9 am.
Are there any Thursdays lookinginto the summer that you know
you're going to be out?
So the further out you can lookand you can go ahead and
accommodate that, the better.
This is opportunity for you tomaybe reschedule another client.
If they're going to be out thatThursday, say, is there a
different day that week thatmaybe we could meet?
If they're going to be onvacation that week, then
(07:04):
obviously you're probably notgoing to be able to reschedule
them and you're just going tomiss those sessions.
But the further out we can look,the more you can, almost say,
get them into a commitment, intoa rhythm of meeting with you on
their the current pace they'vebeen seeing you.
If it's every week, is everyother week, whatever it is that
you stick with that as best asyou possibly can.
And again there may be a weekthat they have to miss because
(07:25):
they're gone on vacation, butthat's okay, it's trying our
best to forecast that.
And then you have the foresightto see it.
You know exactly when that'shappening and again you can prep
for it, or you might be able toslide another client into their
place to really make thingswork and give, make the most of
your time so that you're notjust waiting around or you're
not getting those last minutecancellations.
(07:46):
You can also give them yourschedule far in advance.
So if you're somebody who triesnot to book too far out, you
can give your clients almostlike priority access to your
calendar all the way throughSeptember if you wanted to.
So you could say I'm opening upmy calendar for clients in the
summer, let's go ahead and getyou locked in from now through
August so that way they havespots in your calendar.
(08:09):
If they're scheduled, they'reless likely to cancel and
reschedule.
So, honing in on, let's makethis a priority Now.
If they are canceling on you, ifyou have a cancellation policy,
I would enforce it this summer.
It's really, I would say, mostpractice owners that I talked to
are not enforcing yourcancellation policy.
We have compassion.
(08:30):
As a therapist, I think that'stypically one of your strong
points is you have empathy andcompassion for your clients, and
so if something comes up forthem, we feel almost guilty
charging them a cancellation fee, but I think it's important
that we do that.
If somebody's canceling on youwithin the window that you've
outlined is going to be, they'regoing to owe a fee or they have
to pay for their session.
Follow through with that.
(08:51):
That's going to help with yourcash flow stress.
At least collecting some fundson those last minute
cancellations, all right.
The next thing you can do iscommunicate with your staff.
So if you have a team ofclinicians working for you,
let's get to know their travelschedule, cause this is the
other piece.
Not only are clients busy andrescheduling your team, your
clinicians.
They're probably travelingduring the summer.
(09:12):
They're probably taking somedays off, which means they're
not seeing their clients, whichmeans that you're not getting
the revenue from that.
So have conversations with them, get that in the calendar,
forecast it.
When are they going to be out?
What is the plan while they'reout, if they can possibly
reschedule their clients theweek before, the week after.
So if they have, maybe, clientson a bi-weekly rhythm, see if
(09:32):
they can reschedule them for theweeks before and after get them
in there.
But if nothing else, it givesyou the ability once again to
forecast that.
You know the second week ofJuly is going to be a tough week
because we got this clinicianout so they're not going to be
seeing clients.
It gives you an opportunity toget ahead of it, forecast it.
If you don't offer PTO, thenyou're going to notice that the
(09:52):
cashflow is going to balance outa little bit because they're
not seeing their clients, soyou're not paying them.
If you do offer PTO and they'reutilizing that, then you're
going to notice a cashflowstrain and we want to get ahead
of that, all right.
So the other piece is with yourclient.
As you're talking to yourclinicians is have them
communicate with their clients.
So the same thing we justtalked about have them discuss
the summer slump, the summerslide, and how it's important
(10:18):
for their clients to try andstay on a rhythm, to stay
engaged, that the work they'redoing is still just as important
during the summer months as itis during the fall, winter and
spring months.
That we don't want to losesight of that simply because
life is busy and chaotic.
So really over-communicate, Ithink, is the theme on this one
is communicate with your staffand communicate with your
clients.
Now you might find that youhave a lot of extra free time
(10:42):
during this.
These months your client loadis down, maybe the lead flow is
down, so you're doing lessconsultations.
This is a huge opportunity tofocus on the business side so
you can review your website,review the copy that's written
on it, review the flow.
If you haven't looked at it ina while, go on there like you're
a client and engage in it.
Fill out the form, see what theclient experience is like and
(11:02):
see if there's ways to improveit.
If you're creating marketingcontent, summer is a great time
to batch it because you're gonnaget busy in the fall.
Use this time to sit down.
Spend maybe a full day once aweek over the summer recording
videos, writing blogs, writingnewsletters, so that you have
those batched and ready to gofor the entire fall months,
(11:23):
maybe even through the spring,depending on how much you want
to get ahead.
That you can create videos topost once a week or once a month
, however frequently, andthey're recorded and ready.
You have this time to do it.
So this is gonna help you setup the marketing for the months
ahead.
When you're busy and you don'thave time for the marketing,
you're gonna have these thingsgoing and the beauty of content
(11:44):
marketing is it's evergreen.
So years from now, this,hopefully, is gonna plant seeds
that are gonna generate leadsover the summer.
That might help offset somefuture summer slumps if you're
constantly and consistentlycreating marketing opportunities
.
Now those are some things andways to take advantage of this
year's summer slump.
Let's look to next year,because here's the deal we know
(12:07):
summer slumps are real.
We know they happen.
Almost every therapist we talkto feels it and stresses about
it, which means next summeryou're gonna be facing the exact
same thing.
What we don't want is, everysummer, to go into it with
anxiety, stress, financial fear.
So we need to set up a plan.
So what we want to do is createa fund.
(12:28):
I would open up a bank account.
Nickname it summer slumpaccount, the summer slump.
So you are financiallypreparing yourself.
Now what we can do is we can goback, and I'm going to guide you
through some of the numbers andthe mindset here.
Let's say you go back and let'slook at your best months.
So let's look at Septemberthrough May.
Right, I know January, decembermight or November and December
(12:50):
a lot of times are a littlewonky with the holidays, but
let's look at your averagemonthly income.
Let's say, on average you do$10,000 per month in revenue, a
nice, even round, number.
Now let's look at June, onaverage, historically.
What do you do in the summerJune, july and August?
What is the average summerrevenue that you're bringing in?
Maybe it's $7,000.
(13:12):
Let's just say that.
So maybe the difference is a$3,000 a month income dip.
You're usually making 10,.
You drop down to seven over thesummer every month.
So over three months June, july, august that's a $9,000
difference.
Three months 3,000 drop in June, july and August.
That's $9,000 total.
So what can we do during thosemonths where you're making
(13:32):
10,000?
We can start setting asidemoney.
Our goal really is, in thosenine months that we have that
are good months, that we'regoing to be saving up nine grand
in order to prepare for thesummer months.
So what I would do is I'd besetting aside maybe five to 10%
of your income into an accountcalled Summer Slump.
(13:53):
Now, I know it sounds like wehave to have nine grand set
aside there.
However, as you know, again,when income is down, when client
sessions are down, typicallyexpenses are going to drop
because what you're paying yourclinicians is going to go down.
So it's not an apples to apples.
You don't necessarily need theexact same amount as you needed
(14:13):
before, because you're outgoing,your obligations are going to
be down for what you have to besending out, what you have to be
paying people.
So your overhead expenses andyour payroll will drop as well.
But I like to aim for that$9,000 mark.
So there, whatever it is thatyour, your difference is.
That's what we're aiming for.
Even if you get halfway there,it's still going to give you a
ton of financial relief thistime next year.
(14:35):
So let's just say, 5% Over thegood months.
We're going to save 5% of ourincome into that summer slump
account and now you have a cashnest egg that during June, july
and August you could take someof that money.
You can pull it out.
You can use it to help coveryour paycheck, use it to help
cover overhead expenses, use itto help cover your payroll.
It's going to make things feelmore level.
(15:03):
It's going to make those summer$7,000 months feel more like
the spring $10,000 months andyou're going to have the extra
time because you're not seeingas many clients.
So it's a really a win-winFinancially, cashflow is healthy
, while also you have thebandwidth to focus on your
marketing, to engage in otherthings.
This is also a prime time if youare loving what I'm talking
about with prepping.
But it's overwhelming.
You're not sure how to even goabout finding those numbers, how
(15:25):
to set up a system that's goingto do that.
That's what we do.
That's what my team does.
We eat this stuff for breakfast.
So in the description below is alink to schedule a free call
with one of our team members.
This summer would be an amazingopportunity, with that extra
bandwidth, to start this system,to get a money system in your
(15:45):
business.
It's going to make sure you'repaid consistently, it's going to
give you quarterly profitbonuses and it's going to set
you up in a way that next summeryou're not stressing about the
summer slump.
So schedule a time with one ofour coaches.
I promise you it's going to beone of the best calls you can
schedule this year.
We're going to revolutionizeyour business and your money
management and we're going tomake sure that financial stress
(16:07):
is not a part of your summeranymore.
Thanks for joining us on theTherapy Business Podcast.
Be sure to subscribe, leave areview and share it with a
practice owner that you may know.
If your practice needs helpgetting organized with its
finances or just growing yourpractice, head to
(16:27):
therapybusinesspodcom to learnhow we can help.
My name is Craig and I'm the owner of Daisy Financial
Coaching.
Our team is on a mission tomake your therapy practice
permanently profitable.
If you own a solo or grouppractice, we're here to help you
build a business that createsmore time, makes more money and
serves more people.
This is the Therapy BusinessPodcast.
Summer is here.
(00:26):
It's a time for rest andrelaxation and if you own a
therapy practice, it's time forfinancial stress.
We all know that the summerslump is real.
This is a time of year wherebusiness can go down, where our
monthly incoming revenue, whereour client sessions drops, and
it's a part of the year wheremost practice owners are
(00:48):
stressing they're dreading thistime.
And yet here it is every yearand we just kind of go into a
hole.
We feel overwhelmed, we feelstressed out and we just cannot
wait for fall to kick in and forbusiness to kick back in.
Well, the summer slump.
There's nothing we can do aboutit, in the sense of it's just a
reality that there is going tobe a downturn in business this
(01:10):
time of year.
There are things that we can doto mitigate it, that we can do
to get in front of it, that I'mgoing to walk you through today
and some things we can do toprep for the future so that,
even if the incoming revenuedrops, even if the client
sessions drop, you're notstressed about the money, you
can take some peace of mind andyou can use this time to focus
your energy elsewhere to furtheryour business.
(01:31):
Now let's just address why thesummer slump happens.
This is just a time of yearwhere clients are busy.
People have a change in routine.
You probably feel that too.
I know I do.
With my kids out of school, mydays look drastically different.
Where I can typically recordpodcasts on any day of the week,
I have to find days where theyare out of the house so that I
can get just an hour of quietmoments to jump on here and
(01:55):
record.
My days don't get kick-startedas early, so during school we're
waking up at 6 am to get themout the door to school, so I'm
starting my day at seven toseven 30.
Well, in the summer, you know,I'm not a natural morning person
, so I'm not really getting outof bed till seven and so my day
is starting later.
It's funny I was talking to mytherapist about this that summer
routines.
I'm going, man, it's justsummer stuff, cause my routine
(02:17):
goes out the window.
And he's like, well, how muchof the routine do you
intentionally keep?
And I was like that's true, Iguess I could wake up earlier
and keep that part of theroutine.
But it's just the fact of lifethat I'm not following my
routines the way I normallywould.
And your clients are doing thesame thing.
Your clinicians, your teammembers are probably doing the
same thing.
In fact, you might be findingyourself doing the same thing.
(02:38):
We tend to let our foot off thegas with our routine and what we
do is we find a lot of thingsfalling to the wayside.
Now a lot of your clients feellike summer is a natural pause.
You might hear people tell youhey, summer's chaotic, let's
look ahead, maybe I'll kick backin in September.
I plan on coming back inSeptember.
They look at it as a time topause.
This is as kids our whole liveswere ingrained.
(03:00):
In September to May is thecycle right?
And then, if you're a parent,you know that cycle still
continues when school starts towhen school ends.
And so we all still look atsummer intrinsic like just deep
down.
We feel like it is a pause fromlife.
It's a pause, it's a break.
So a lot of your clients aregoing to probably be taking a
little pause or not coming in asfrequently or again pulling
(03:22):
their foot off the gas on theirmental health progress, and you
might feel that or see that,whether they outwardly say it or
not.
And then also during this time,it's just summer, it's warmer
weather, longer days, peoplemight be just feeling better and
so they're not as urgentlytrying to get in to see you, and
so when they look down on thecalendar and they say, oh, I
have a therapy appointmenttomorrow, things are going on.
(03:45):
I feel pretty good.
I'm going to go ahead andcancel and reschedule that.
So there's a lot of reasonsthat this can happen and what we
want to do is try and get infront of it as much as possible.
So, as you step into this summer, I'm going to start with the
short term.
What can we do about thissummer slump as we are facing it
now here?
This recording is releasing atthe first week of June, so we
are stepping into it, and June,july, august are typically the
(04:07):
hardest months for therapypractices.
The first thing I wouldrecommend doing is communicating
with your clients.
Talk to your clients about thesummer slump.
You can call it out if you wantto Call out the elephant in the
room that during the summerit's really important that we
stay on a therapy schedule, thatI know life is going to get
busy, that your routine, yourschedule is going to get off.
(04:28):
Let's make a commitment to keepour therapy schedule on track.
When I was in education, wewould have at the end of the
year obviously we'd end in Mayand then, when we would come
back in August, september, wewould have what we would call
the summer slide.
The summer slide is where astudent maybe is at a certain
reading level They've made allthis progress in their reading
(04:50):
and then they go home for threemonths and they're not
practicing their reading anymore, they're not studying, they're
not doing those things, and sowhen they come back in in August
they have regressed, theirprogress has gone back a little
bit and we spend a couple monthsjust trying to get them back up
to speed to where they were atthe end of last school year.
This and you know your clientswell is likely a reality for
(05:14):
them too.
If they were to take a month ortwo off, if they were to miss
enough sessions, you might beusing sessions in the fall to
catch back up.
They might regress in some ofthe work they've been doing.
You might be rehashing spendinghours and sessions, going over
things that maybe you've alreadydone some progress on because
time has slipped by.
(05:34):
We see that with our clients allthe time.
If we ever have a client whofeels like summer's a natural
pause, maybe they choose topause their coaching with us.
We end up spending a lot oftime undoing things that
happened over the summer and welose a lot of progress.
I'm always really glad theycome back, because it's better
to come back and have theopportunity to push things
forward, but there's a lot ofground lost simply because they
(05:58):
stopped working on it over thesummer, and so we do exactly
what I'm talking to you about.
We talk to our clients about.
Summer is a stressful time.
It's going to be busy, I knowit's gonna be chaotic in your
personal life and in yourbusiness.
It's really, really importantthat you don't let this coaching
and the work you're doing onyour finances and in your
business fall to the wayside.
So we encourage them to againwe call it out and to lean into
(06:21):
their coaching during thissummer months and, in fact, if
they have extra time, if they'renot seeing as many clients,
this is a really good time toengage more in coaching because
you have the bandwidth to do so.
So talk to your clients aboutit, discuss that regression,
discuss the importance ofstaying on a rhythm.
Now, of course they might betraveling and so get to know
their travel schedules inadvance, if possible.
(06:42):
Just say, looking ahead, I knowwe meet every Thursday morning
at 9 am.
Are there any Thursdays lookinginto the summer that you know
you're going to be out?
So the further out you can lookand you can go ahead and
accommodate that, the better.
This is opportunity for you tomaybe reschedule another client.
If they're going to be out thatThursday, say, is there a
different day that week thatmaybe we could meet?
If they're going to be onvacation that week, then
(07:04):
obviously you're probably notgoing to be able to reschedule
them and you're just going tomiss those sessions.
But the further out we can look,the more you can, almost say,
get them into a commitment, intoa rhythm of meeting with you on
their the current pace they'vebeen seeing you.
If it's every week, is everyother week, whatever it is that
you stick with that as best asyou possibly can.
And again there may be a weekthat they have to miss because
(07:25):
they're gone on vacation, butthat's okay, it's trying our
best to forecast that.
And then you have the foresightto see it.
You know exactly when that'shappening and again you can prep
for it, or you might be able toslide another client into their
place to really make thingswork and give, make the most of
your time so that you're notjust waiting around or you're
not getting those last minutecancellations.
(07:46):
You can also give them yourschedule far in advance.
So if you're somebody who triesnot to book too far out, you
can give your clients almostlike priority access to your
calendar all the way throughSeptember if you wanted to.
So you could say I'm opening upmy calendar for clients in the
summer, let's go ahead and getyou locked in from now through
August so that way they havespots in your calendar.
(08:09):
If they're scheduled, they'reless likely to cancel and
reschedule.
So, honing in on, let's makethis a priority Now.
If they are canceling on you, ifyou have a cancellation policy,
I would enforce it this summer.
It's really, I would say, mostpractice owners that I talked to
are not enforcing yourcancellation policy.
We have compassion.
(08:30):
As a therapist, I think that'stypically one of your strong
points is you have empathy andcompassion for your clients, and
so if something comes up forthem, we feel almost guilty
charging them a cancellation fee, but I think it's important
that we do that.
If somebody's canceling on youwithin the window that you've
outlined is going to be, they'regoing to owe a fee or they have
to pay for their session.
Follow through with that.
(08:51):
That's going to help with yourcash flow stress.
At least collecting some fundson those last minute
cancellations, all right.
The next thing you can do iscommunicate with your staff.
So if you have a team ofclinicians working for you,
let's get to know their travelschedule, cause this is the
other piece.
Not only are clients busy andrescheduling your team, your
clinicians.
They're probably travelingduring the summer.
(09:12):
They're probably taking somedays off, which means they're
not seeing their clients, whichmeans that you're not getting
the revenue from that.
So have conversations with them, get that in the calendar,
forecast it.
When are they going to be out?
What is the plan while they'reout, if they can possibly
reschedule their clients theweek before, the week after.
So if they have, maybe, clientson a bi-weekly rhythm, see if
(09:32):
they can reschedule them for theweeks before and after get them
in there.
But if nothing else, it givesyou the ability once again to
forecast that.
You know the second week ofJuly is going to be a tough week
because we got this clinicianout so they're not going to be
seeing clients.
It gives you an opportunity toget ahead of it, forecast it.
If you don't offer PTO, thenyou're going to notice that the
(09:52):
cashflow is going to balance outa little bit because they're
not seeing their clients, soyou're not paying them.
If you do offer PTO and they'reutilizing that, then you're
going to notice a cashflowstrain and we want to get ahead
of that, all right.
So the other piece is with yourclient.
As you're talking to yourclinicians is have them
communicate with their clients.
So the same thing we justtalked about have them discuss
the summer slump, the summerslide, and how it's important
(10:18):
for their clients to try andstay on a rhythm, to stay
engaged, that the work they'redoing is still just as important
during the summer months as itis during the fall, winter and
spring months.
That we don't want to losesight of that simply because
life is busy and chaotic.
So really over-communicate, Ithink, is the theme on this one
is communicate with your staffand communicate with your
clients.
Now you might find that youhave a lot of extra free time
(10:42):
during this.
These months your client loadis down, maybe the lead flow is
down, so you're doing lessconsultations.
This is a huge opportunity tofocus on the business side so
you can review your website,review the copy that's written
on it, review the flow.
If you haven't looked at it ina while, go on there like you're
a client and engage in it.
Fill out the form, see what theclient experience is like and
(11:02):
see if there's ways to improveit.
If you're creating marketingcontent, summer is a great time
to batch it because you're gonnaget busy in the fall.
Use this time to sit down.
Spend maybe a full day once aweek over the summer recording
videos, writing blogs, writingnewsletters, so that you have
those batched and ready to gofor the entire fall months,
(11:23):
maybe even through the spring,depending on how much you want
to get ahead.
That you can create videos topost once a week or once a month
, however frequently, andthey're recorded and ready.
You have this time to do it.
So this is gonna help you setup the marketing for the months
ahead.
When you're busy and you don'thave time for the marketing,
you're gonna have these thingsgoing and the beauty of content
(11:44):
marketing is it's evergreen.
So years from now, this,hopefully, is gonna plant seeds
that are gonna generate leadsover the summer.
That might help offset somefuture summer slumps if you're
constantly and consistentlycreating marketing opportunities
.
Now those are some things andways to take advantage of this
year's summer slump.
Let's look to next year,because here's the deal we know
(12:07):
summer slumps are real.
We know they happen.
Almost every therapist we talkto feels it and stresses about
it, which means next summeryou're gonna be facing the exact
same thing.
What we don't want is, everysummer, to go into it with
anxiety, stress, financial fear.
So we need to set up a plan.
So what we want to do is createa fund.
(12:28):
I would open up a bank account.
Nickname it summer slumpaccount, the summer slump.
So you are financiallypreparing yourself.
Now what we can do is we can goback, and I'm going to guide you
through some of the numbers andthe mindset here.
Let's say you go back and let'slook at your best months.
So let's look at Septemberthrough May.
Right, I know January, decembermight or November and December
(12:50):
a lot of times are a littlewonky with the holidays, but
let's look at your averagemonthly income.
Let's say, on average you do$10,000 per month in revenue, a
nice, even round, number.
Now let's look at June, onaverage, historically.
What do you do in the summerJune, july and August?
What is the average summerrevenue that you're bringing in?
Maybe it's $7,000.
(13:12):
Let's just say that.
So maybe the difference is a$3,000 a month income dip.
You're usually making 10,.
You drop down to seven over thesummer every month.
So over three months June, july, august that's a $9,000
difference.
Three months 3,000 drop in June, july and August.
That's $9,000 total.
So what can we do during thosemonths where you're making
(13:32):
10,000?
We can start setting asidemoney.
Our goal really is, in thosenine months that we have that
are good months, that we'regoing to be saving up nine grand
in order to prepare for thesummer months.
So what I would do is I'd besetting aside maybe five to 10%
of your income into an accountcalled Summer Slump.
(13:53):
Now, I know it sounds like wehave to have nine grand set
aside there.
However, as you know, again,when income is down, when client
sessions are down, typicallyexpenses are going to drop
because what you're paying yourclinicians is going to go down.
So it's not an apples to apples.
You don't necessarily need theexact same amount as you needed
(14:13):
before, because you're outgoing,your obligations are going to
be down for what you have to besending out, what you have to be
paying people.
So your overhead expenses andyour payroll will drop as well.
But I like to aim for that$9,000 mark.
So there, whatever it is thatyour, your difference is.
That's what we're aiming for.
Even if you get halfway there,it's still going to give you a
ton of financial relief thistime next year.
(14:35):
So let's just say, 5% Over thegood months.
We're going to save 5% of ourincome into that summer slump
account and now you have a cashnest egg that during June, july
and August you could take someof that money.
You can pull it out.
You can use it to help coveryour paycheck, use it to help
cover overhead expenses, use itto help cover your payroll.
It's going to make things feelmore level.
(15:03):
It's going to make those summer$7,000 months feel more like
the spring $10,000 months andyou're going to have the extra
time because you're not seeingas many clients.
So it's a really a win-winFinancially, cashflow is healthy
, while also you have thebandwidth to focus on your
marketing, to engage in otherthings.
This is also a prime time if youare loving what I'm talking
about with prepping.
But it's overwhelming.
You're not sure how to even goabout finding those numbers, how
(15:25):
to set up a system that's goingto do that.
That's what we do.
That's what my team does.
We eat this stuff for breakfast.
So in the description below is alink to schedule a free call
with one of our team members.
This summer would be an amazingopportunity, with that extra
bandwidth, to start this system,to get a money system in your
(15:45):
business.
It's going to make sure you'repaid consistently, it's going to
give you quarterly profitbonuses and it's going to set
you up in a way that next summeryou're not stressing about the
summer slump.
So schedule a time with one ofour coaches.
I promise you it's going to beone of the best calls you can
schedule this year.
We're going to revolutionizeyour business and your money
management and we're going tomake sure that financial stress
(16:07):
is not a part of your summeranymore.
Thanks for joining us on theTherapy Business Podcast.
Be sure to subscribe, leave areview and share it with a
practice owner that you may know.
If your practice needs helpgetting organized with its
finances or just growing yourpractice, head to
(16:27):
therapybusinesspodcom to learnhow we can help.
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