Do you ask yourself this question too?

Practice reflections

How can it be February already?

I haven’t done half of what I intended to do last month. I hope I am not the only one.

If you are a new reader, welcome!

I’m Tracy Karkut-Law, a homeopath based in east London. I’ve been in practice for 14 years and I’ve been writing and sharing my journey for the last seven of them.

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New! Spring Practice Retreat 🌷

A new type of short and sweet quarterly workshop – offering you a calm space to step back, reflect on your practice and renew your intentions for the new season.

As my group of readers from the US and Canada is growing, I’m offering this at two times on the same day.

Friday 18th March
9.30pm - 11am or 1.30pm - 3pm
£20

An online workshop with guided reflections and a workbook.

Save the date, and look out for the details in the next newsletter, or on Instagram.

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The question I’m always asking myself❓

One question I’m always asking myself is this:

How do I see enough clients so I can pay my bills and earn a decent amount of money without getting unnecessarily stressed in the process?

I’m not yet at a stage where the my schedule is fully booked with long-standing clients.

Maybe I’ll get to that point in the future, but I’m certainly not there yet.

I do my best to keep my schedule busy by always booking people in at the end of the session, and not having appointments too close together.

I find 5-6 weeks is a good spacing for most people, and it gives their budget a bit of a break too.

But, people get better, or maybe want to take a break for a while, so that means I need a steady flow of new clients.

Not too many, but some.

Offering a free 30 minute Discovery Call brings regular new enquiries.

That is just the start of the process though, as before I even speak to them I want to know:

1. Have they tried homeopathy before?

2. If not, why are they trying it now?

3. What are they looking for help with?

4. Are they reliable and will they commit to regular treatment in order to get the results they are hoping for?

Question 4 is probably the most important.

A recent experience

Last August, I had a free Discovery Call booked by a young woman looking for treatment for recurring UTI.

I use Discovery Calls to find out more about the person and their issue they want help with. I try to ‘join the dots’ for them in the call, and to give them an idea of what to expect.

I do my best to avoid being ‘persuasive’ or to see it as a ‘sales call’.

It is a no-obligation call where we can both assess whether working together feels like a good fit.

Anyway, in this call we had a good rapport, and I was able to explain my approach which seemed to resonate with her.

She was keen to book, so we scheduled a first appointment for September.

My process at that time was to set up the booking and send the invoice the week before. I normally ask for payment 2 working days before the call.

However, a few days before the appointment, I noticed she rescheduled it for October.

I realised that she had likely had some respite from her symptoms and so she’d decided to ‘wait and see’.

I was a little frustrated, but someone else booked into the slot that freed up, so I didn’t worry about it.

The week before the October appointment, I sent a message with the invoice, saying I was looking forward to seeing her.

Why didn’t I see the signals?

On the day of the appointment, I called her as planned - 9am Monday morning.

She didn’t join the call, and when I called her on the phone, it was declined.

I sent an SMS via my booking system and waited for a reply, but didn’t receive one.

I remembered that I’d messaged her the previous week but not received a response, and that the invoice had not been paid.

I was slightly annoyed with myself for not seeing the signals, and simply cancelling the appointment, but I had plenty of things to get on with that morning so I shrugged it off.

I didn’t send an invoice for the missed appointment as I thought that would be a waste of time.

A chance to reflect

A couple of weeks ago, the same person emailed asking for an appointment for recurring UTI.

My assistant Eloise replied, saying that we would need to have a Discovery Call first.

She replied saying that she’d already had a Discovery Call and would like to book an appointment.

Eloise checked with me and I realised straight away who it was.

I checked back in my booking system to make sure, and found the full record of all her appointments and messages that had been sent.

At this point I felt quite surprised that she thought she could just pop back and book in to see me after not turning up for her last appointment and not replying to any of my messages.

I decided on my course of action.

I took a screen grab of her records and attached it to an email recounting the sequence of events that happened last August/September/October from my point of view.

I explained I would be happy to work with her, but if she wanted to book in with me, I would need to receive payment in full before the booking would be confirmed.

I read back through the email several times to make sure that the tone was not negative or resentful. I even included a smiley. 😊

She was quite young, in her early twenties, and I realised that she probably hadn’t really thought about the impact of her decisions at the time.

But, I wanted to send a very clear message to the universe that I am not willing to work with people who waste my time.

I didn’t hear back.

That was totally ok.

I’d already thought about what I should learn from the experience.

Asking for a deposit

In the last few months I’ve refined my client in-take process so that I no longer get caught out like this.

My booking system has a new feature which lets me take deposits by card over the phone.

If someone is booking more than a week ahead, I always ask for a deposit now.

I can also refund the deposit easily from the system if and when needed.

Do you have any thoughts or experiences you would like to share?

I promise to reply to each of them.

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Money Wisdom for Homeopaths ✨

Money Wisdom for Homeopaths

£40 early bird
Wednesday 4th March, 10.30 am - 2.30 pm

As homeopaths, we offer and give a valuable service.

Why then, is it so hard to align ourselves with financial success?

There are many ways to sabotage ourselves when it comes to money. 

Conscious blocks, total avoidance or simply being vague. I have ticked all of these boxes myself, so there's no judgment here. 🤷🏼‍♀️

When I started training as a homeopath I didn't give any thought to how I was going to earn a living from it.

I was so absorbed in learning about my passion, that I allowed myself to be blinkered to the business and money side of things.

To begin with, I was only concerned with investing in my learning.

I not only paid for my training but also extra clinics, multiple seminars, books, remedies, and all the other things I felt I needed along the way.

For a long time, homeopathy was something I spent money on, not earned money from.

After nearly 15 years in practice, I have learned many lessons about the reality of earning a living as a self-employed homeopath.

This webinar will cover many topics, including: pricing, when and how to increase fees, selling products, evaluating overheads, concessions, packages, swaps, banking, financial record-keeping, and more.

There’s a workbook to use during the webinar and a clear set of notes.

Money Wisdom for Homeopaths

NOTE: To take part, you need to attend the webinar on the day. If you don’t join live, there isn’t a ‘watch later’ option. There is a recording for anyone attending live to watch again.

If you are looking for some insight and wisdom on how to increase your earnings from homeopathy, I hope you can join me.

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Brain food

1. One of my favourite teachers Hilery Dorian is teaching on the Matridonial Remedies on Monday - contact Clare and Margaret at Slough Homeopaths for information on how to join. sloughhomeopathscpd@hotmail.com

2. Opportunity Mapping
   It’s important to figure out who is your audience or ideal customer. Read the first half of this article to understand why and how.

3. Introduction to NAP: the road to local SEO success
   SEO = Search Engine Optimisation. Sounds hard but isn’t really. Great tips for how to show up in local web searches.

4. What you don’t know about family estrangement
   14 stories of mourning, beauty, and power. If you haven’t experienced family estrangement personally, you should definitely read this. If you have, you might want to have a tissue handy.

5. 9 things to stop doing

   This was written in 2007 so some of it feels slightly dated, but there’s a lot of truth. Guess which one I’m working on?

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As always, thanks for reading.

I’ll be back in your in-box in March. 👩🏼‍💻

If you found something of value here, I would be grateful if you could forward it to a friend.

Have a great month ahead, and remember to save the date for the Spring Practice Retreat, Friday March 18th. 🌷

Tracy

P.S. If you are a paid subscriber, look out for another email from me next week, including your discount code for Money Wisdom.