Dear Coaches,
My business (as a psychotherapist working for many years in a particular niche) is doing well. In the last 2 years – since Sept 2020 – it has grown quite a lot. In Sept 2021 I joined Scholars and have really been helped and took even more steps, e.g. built a website, created an online offer, started a blog, rented my own consulting room (after sub-renting from others by the hour) etc. My business has continued to grow.
At this point though I feel I’m at a ‘fork’ on the road if that makes sense. My income (salaried work plus self-employed) in the last years has increased. E.g., to give you numbers:
In the 2020-2021 tax year total income was 45,000£ (British pounds) approximately. In the year 2021-2022 it went up to 62,000£.
The important number is that my business / self-employed income went up within a year from 1,500£ (profit) in 2020-2021, to 23,000£ (profit) in 2021-2022.
I have thus been able to cut down my hours in my salaried (clinic) work, rent my own consulting room, expand my online offers etc.
My wish is to take this to the next level, go up ideally to 200,000£ a year by first focusing on 100,000£ a year. I have been working through the ‘How to Be An Entrepreneur’ course which I find very useful. I now want to create a business plan to get me there. So, I need advice on that.
But first, here is my model which shows you the self-doubt that gets in the way. I know what I need to do, but in order to plan it solidly & execute on it, the self-doubt needs to be explored!
Unintentional Model which lists all possible thoughts that I’m coming against:
C: Ideas for my business: 1) 6 session offer online (market it) 2) a workshop for parents done with a colleague 3) an online course on my area of expertise
T: [various thoughts]: I’m not as good at the short term 6 session work as I am in other things, need to build my skills
how can I build a course or workshop online? will web designer’s help be good enough? I have loved how he designed my website so that should be good, but all these doubts come to my mind.
Idea: no one I know has done something like this, this kind of offer. It’s something new in the field – but maybe it’s not
Does that make me a bad psychotherapist?
not true to my profession and my teachers?
Too business minded?
Too American inspired?
Does it make me omnipotent?
Am I over-reaching?
F: [various feelings] main feelings that come up – shame, doubt
A: May be various things but one important one is that I limit the steps I take, do them slowly / tentatively, check too much, perfectionist behaviours etc
R: My business does grow but tentatively, in tiny steps, I limit myself, I do things very slowly & carefully or don’t do them at all
