There’s a saying that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Taking that first step, and each of the steps that comes after it asks our willingness to move.

Willingness is an essential attribute of being a small therapy practice owner. Not just willingness to do the client work, but also willingness to act in the interests of the business; to learn, to take responsibility, to keep trying when it doesn’t work first time, or second time and so on.

I think of willingness as an action, a state of mind or an attitude, where I know I am in this place, but I’m not so firmly rooted that I couldn’t move myself or allow myself to be moved to another place. In that sense it is unlike stubbornness which evokes a sense of being rooted to a position and an unwillingness to move. In willingness we can allow the possibility of change, the possibility of there being more than what we currently know or see. We may not know how, but we can accept that there may be a how. Willingness holds hope.

Take marketing a therapy practice for example. In my willingness to market my practice I am willing to allow my skills as a therapist to be seen and valued by others. I hold the possibility of clients being willing to work with me, and the possibility of referrers being willing to give my name to potential clients. My willingness to market my practice means I’m willing to learn what that entails, to allow that marketing might be worthwhile, not just for commercial enterprises, but for a private therapy practice too, and an openness to allowing that the expertise of other professionals might have something to offer my profession. It also means I’m willing to try out ways of marketing and keep trying until I find one that suits me and works for me. I don’t know where clients are going to come from. I might like them to come through a certain channel, but I don’t and can’t know. But in my willingness to be in that uncertainty, that unknowing, I leave the door open.

I never cease to be amazed at the way in which life can provide solutions to the problems which our clients bring to the therapy room. I particularly enjoy those solutions that spontaneously appear and which we could never have foreseen. It almost restores my faith in the Magic of my childhood. Creating and running a therapy practice is a participation sport. We can’t sit on the side-line and hope that magic will do it for us. It’s a paradox that when we become willing to do our part that these impossible solutions have permission to turn up.

Willingness turns up in many ways:

Willingness to be seen:

Marketing involves making ourselves visible. If we want to be found by potential clients, or we want to be remembered by another professional who’s looking for someone to refer a client to, we must be willing to be both visible and memorable.

Willingness to make decisions:

All aspects of running a small business require a willingness to make decisions. We have decisions about where to practice, what to call our practice, who we like to work with, how we market ourselves, how we manage our appointments, and how we keep our records, to name just a few. Not making decisions is a very effective way of staying safe. However, it is not always in our best interests.

Willingness to take action:

Having a business means we must be willing to do, rather than just think or reflect. We must be willing to put our thinking and reflecting into action. This action is necessary throughout our professional lives. A commitment to starting a practice is a commitment to continuing to act in the interests of the practice, as well as the interests of the clients.

Willingness to make mistakes:

Unless we are willing to fail, we are not willing to succeed. Risk taking is essential to any small business. It is in falling that we learn the subtleties of standing and walking. We must also be willing to experience the feelings that go along with mistakes, the shame or embarrassment of getting it wrong, the disappointment of things not turning out as we expected or hoped.

Willingness to learn:

A practice is so called because it is an ongoing thing, not a destination. We continue to practice, because there is no place where we achieve perfection. It is a process of continual learning. This means that we are never finished. We never actually know something for sure, it is only the best information we have at that time. In learning there is the willingness of an open mind, a willingness to be wrong in what we think we know, because without that openness we cannot learn more. This willingness to learn applies just as much to the business side of our practice as it does to the client work.

Willingness to ask:

A practice cannot be generated in isolation from other people. A willingness to ask for help of various kinds from others is needed. That help might be their expertise or their trust or their money. We cannot have a practice without clients, so we must be willing to ask a client for their trust in us, and to cooperate in attending, in sharing their experiences with us, and in paying us for our services. We may like to have referrals from other health professionals, such as GPs, so again, we must be willing to ask them for their attention while we explain what we do and how that might be of help, or to ask for their respect for our expertise, even though it may be different from theirs. We may have to ask for referrals, asking them to trust us enough to refer a client. We may have to ask for what we want in negotiating with premises owners or suppliers of goods or services we may use in our practices. We may also have to ask of ourselves that we be willing to enter some uncomfortable and unknown places to grow.

Willingness to receive:

And following from the last point, we may be willing to ask, but are we willing to receive? That might seem like an odd question, and you may be thinking, of course I’m willing to receive. But think again. How might you defend against receiving? Do you find it hard to take support from others? Do you say no to offers of help? Do you guard your independence?

In what way might you be unwilling and blocking your practice from growing? Maybe it’s about managing the money aspects or finding it hard to charge a fair fee for service you provide? Maybe it’s about becoming more definite about the work you like to do and communicating that? Or maybe it’s around what you might have to do to get clients to come to you?

How would you know if you were unwilling? Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between waiting for the right time, place or opportunity, and avoiding. I find it helpful to ask myself about the energy of where I am. Do I feel open, expectant and ready? Or is there a holding back, a holding in, a shrinking away? Am I focusing on “why I can’t” move on or do what needs to be done? Am I looking at the obstacles in my way? Or am I looking for the options I have, the “how I can”? And how could I support myself to take the next step?

If you would like some support in creating your practice, maybe I can help? Contact me here for an appointment or  for your free 20 minute consultation.