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If starting and running a speech therapy private practice were easy, everybody would be doing it. Winston Churchill was a British statesman who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. He acknowledges six important principals that are important for success, and I relate these principals to speech therapy private practice.

In this episode:
01:20 – Value is what you get in the absence of money
03:06 – Feedback helps everyone
03:21 – Approved for the Google platform
03:46 – Recent comment and question answered on the podcast
05:33 – Freedom with your speech therapy private practice
06:30 – Drive and enthusiasm is what it takes to succeed
06:50 – Membership site for speech therapy private practice
07:45 – Analysis paralysis – Do the opposite —> Take Action
10:06 – Crack heads and rocks through windows
11:01 – Failures lead to success
12:18 – Honesty and hard work
12:46 – When your green, you grow; When you’re ripe, you rot
13:30 – Focus on what’s in front of you
14:50 – Be concerned about action; Take small steps
14:36 – Keep it real and lighten up
14:40 – Stay optimistic
14:50 – Be positive
15:15 – Persistence
14:56 – Don’t lose your enthusiasm
15:50 – Most things that we worry about never happen

Download PDF Transcription

Transcription of Episode Six:

If this were very easy everybody and their mom would be doing it.

Well hello everyone! You’re listening to the Speech Therapy private practice Startup podcast this is episode number 6. My name is Kyle Meades and I’m a speech and language pathologist since 1993 and this podcast – The Speech Therapy private practice Startup podcast is designed for all you speech pathologist out there who want to start your very own speech therapy private practice.

Now, I remember starting my own business a few years back and I looked online and all I could find was a PDF download here or a little web page here and some general information. But I want this to be valuable for you all. And number one I want to say thank you for allowing me to talk to you today. I appreciate your time and because of that I want to give you valuable information.

Valuable information in the absence of money is where you get your value, and this podcast is absolutely free for you and I’m going to share with you all these things that go on in the day to day workings of a speech therapy clinic.

Now we have an outpatient clinic here in Tucson Arizona. We also have a home health company in Tucson. And, between those two businesses we have approximately 1200 patients per month and 23 to 24 full and part time employees who help out. So between all of those people and all those patients we’re getting good at what we do and I want to give you valuable information, so that’s what I’m doing with this podcast today.

I want you to hear a comment I received on privateslp.com that’s the website where you can reach me, it’s kind of my portal. You can go there to the Contact Me section and you can go to the very bottom of that privateslp.com website. You can use speak type application. It’s at the bottom you can click it and record from your own laptop or computer there and I’ll get the message instantly to my email address and I will read your question online here on the podcast so other listeners out there can gain more insightful information too.

So if you want to contact me that way you can just again go to the contact section of privateslp.com, at the very bottom there’s a speak type application. You can also email me directly kyle@privateslp.com, I’ll get your email that way or you can leave a comment on privateslp or simply give me some feedback on iTunes. I really would appreciate a five star rating from you, because when you give me good ratings on iTunes that’s going to allow other people like yourself realized that these podcasts are valuable.

And it really means a lot to me and it’s going to mean a lot to other people. Also want to tell you guys that we are now approved through the Google platform for their podcasting service that hasn’t come out yet but it actually set to release very soon. I don’t know the actual date on that, if you guys know when that’s going to happen please put that in the comment section below. But you are more than welcome to listen to us on iTunes, google platform or you can just simply go to privateslp.com, all my episodes are uploaded there where you can leave your comments.

But I wanted to read a recent comment that I received earlier in the month, her name is Camille and it says…”Hi Kyle, I’ve been thinking about private practice for a while. I’ve been a therapist for 7 years in a variety of settings for children, children Hospital, schools, agencies…” and she says…

“I am currently in the school since I have young children of my own. I would like more freedom in the decision making and possibly make more money than working for someone else. Your podcast is so inspiring for me. I’ve been doing a lot of research and I have so many questions for you. One of my big questions is hippa… How do you develop your privacy policy? Did you get a lawyer right away? I don’t have a lot of money so startup would have to be very small in addition to liability insurance and business registration. I would love your advice. Thanks!!”

Well that is a great question I do have an answer and it’s going to be kind of long so let me kind of go back. If you go back to my episode, number one and number two you will realize that the first time I started my own speech therapy private practice I did that with a lawyer. He was a high dollar attorney here in town, really good by the way. She answered all my questions, she gave me a lot of advice and she gave me a really big bill at the end. And I took that bill and I paid it and I was happy to have that information. The second business I started a few years later, the home health agency that we now have I use the services of a paralegal because all I needed to do was to get that name file with the state, the incorporation etc.

So the first part of the question Camille sitting here she says she wants more freedom with private practice, yes. Private practice will give you more freedom because you’re going to get to pick and choose when you want to see patients and when you don’t want to see patients.

But let me tell you this, when you start that private practice it’s a lot of work. Nothing comes easily and I need to stress that. This is not for everybody because I’m going to be seriously honest when I say this. If this was very easy everybody and their mom would be doing it. This is a tough business and it’s not for everybody. I’m just going to say it again. This is not for everybody because you’re going to be doing all the referrals, you’re going to be doing all the billing, you’re going to be doing all the scheduling, you’re going to answer the phone. Go back and listen to podcast 1 and 2 of mine you’ll see all these little intricate parts that come with private practice. So just remember that when I say it’s not easy.

Now it’s something that is very doable if you have the drive and motivation to succeed. Now talking about lawyers and hippa. Yes hippa is real, we have privacy laws that we must follow. I am right now developing a membership website for you guys. It’s probably not going to be ready to go until the end of January 2016. I’m recording this on December 1st 2015 so it’s going to take me about another 60 days, the programmers just finishing up on the site but I’m going to have it loaded with all these privacy policies, all of the paperwork, all of the forms, all of the referral forms, everything you need to start your own private practice it’s going to be on there. And not to mention I will be on there answering your question anytime you want to reach out to me. Anytime you can shoot a message to me through that membership site and I will personally answer your email and get to you that day with an answer. So this is really exciting because I just keep getting more and more questions like this.

Let me also say that when I first started my own private practice I got into what’s called Analysis Paralysis. Now we are all smart right, you know speech pathologist we have our Masters degree here in the States. I know in New Zealand and Australia it’s a bachelors degree but still we are all very educated, very smart people. You know it’s just what we do it’s how we roll.
Professional Liability is cheaper than you think (this is for 24 employees)

Now sometimes we tend to overthink things. Don’t let a policy in procedure stop you from starting your own private practice. I mean it! Go ahead and get into action. Call a paralegal, get an appointment with the paralegal, get some name that you want to call your business, go get a checking account at the local bank and get your articles of incorporation. It’s that simple when you want to start working at your office or your home office what you can do is simply go to American Speech and Hearing Association you see links to purchase, professional liability it’s not that expensive. Honestly the policies are very, very affordable and we have many employees in our business. I think it’s about $750 a year for 24 people. Now you break that down and it’s really cheap and its a lot cheaper than you think.

So don’t get into analysis paralysis, get into action, get that name register with the state. Get into action, get that business going and for you who want more information and want to work with me directly go to privateslp.com. And you’ll see very soon there is going to be a membership area you can simply subscribe to the membership and you can have direct access to me right there.

Ok moving on I also want to let you guys know that we’re getting a lot of listeners around the United States and the world. It’s kind of cool because we have many listeners out of the US. We also have listeners in Australia, and Canada, South Africa, the Philippines, United Kingdom, Japan, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and India. And I want to personally say thank you guys for listening to the podcast and again if you want to get in touch with me go to privateslp.com and you can reach me there.

I also wanted to say it’s very important to remember that I do have a podcast, I have two very successful businesses, I have some wonderful people that work with me, but look I’m not perfect. I have my stuff that happens to me every single day. Just for instance we’re about to leave and go off for Thanksgiving and the apartment that I used to live in. I only use apartment. I have six apartment here in Midtown, two sons in Arizona and I raise my son in one of these apartment well I was starting this business. I have a tenant in there right now and someone threw a rock all right in front of her window and broke into our apartment and it really burned me out to see that people would do something like that.

But, you know we learn from our mistakes, we learn from our past experiences so what I did was I immediately went over there had a brand new window installed for one of my tenants there and I said look do you feel comfortable staying here tonight, if not we have an extra bedroom you can sleep in our house. You know she was fine she used to be in law enforcement she’s a tough lady. But you no – compassion. We have to have compassion for others and you know my life is not perfect. I got drama just like everybody else. I’ve got headaches, we all have bills. You know money sometimes is great, money sometimes is tight but don’t think of me as some kind of great big Guru out there who has his big radio show, no I’m Kyle. I got a little podcast, I got a great little clinic, I got wonderful people who work with me and if you need help please reach out to me.

Also we need to keep things real because you know things do happen and I need to say it so that I can hear it myself. I have so many failures under my belt. My whole life even with Hurricane Katrina going through all that craziness and move into Tucson you know it’s a long story. But life really worked me over one point in my life, I didn’t have much left. I remember driving the Volvo and the transmission just went out on Broadway in Campbell and here I am I don’t have enough money to go and buy a new car, I don’t even have enough money to put down for a new car. I’m like what am I going to do now but it’s failures and problems that happened to me that made me who I am today that makes me work harder than anybody I know and makes me more grateful than a lot of people I come across. And that is what I try to project when I get around the patients and their families and the employees who work with me. People who know me know that I’m really honest hard working guy and that’s what I want to share with you guys today too. Keep it real and remember that our failures are what’s going to keep us successful in the long run.

And you know when you get too comfortable that’s when the problems occur. You know when you’re green you grow, when you’re ripe you rot. And I have to make sure that I stay green, that I read books, and I exercise, I take care of myself because that’s where the learning experiences. When I’m out of my comfort zone it’s when I do my best work. So I just wanted to throw that out there.

Now I want to go through 6 principles and if you go online I want you to look at Winston Churchill. Winston Churchill was one of Britain’s biggest leaders. He was a compassionate, kind person who really understood people and he went through six principles and I wanted to share those six principles with you because they are very important to be successful in speech therapy and really successful in life.

First thing I wanted to talk about was focusing on what’s in front of you. Now I need to remember that too because it’s important to stay focused because you know if we get to buckle down in the past or we get just worried about what’s going to happen in the future we don’t really get to appreciate the now. And right now is where some of life best moment can occur. You know because again you need now to grow in the future.

The second thing I wanted to share is be concerned about action. You want to stay present, you want to lighten up and take small steps. Now when you start that private practice you don’t just want to go to the paralegal or go to your lawyer and next thing you know I’m going to see 50 patients. It doesn’t work that way and if it did everybody would be doing it. You want to take small steps, get out a piece of paper and a pen and make a checklist. Go to a lawyer or paralegal get your name incorporated, go open up your business checking account. All those things that I talk about in the first 1 and 2 podcasts you want to do those things. You also want to keep it real lighten up a little bit. You know this is life this is supposed to be exciting and you’re going to have ups and you’re going to have downs but keep it real and stay present.

The third thing is you have to stay optimistic. How many times do we get around these god awful people you are just pessimistic complaining, moaning, groaning just gripe. Who wants to be around somebody like that? Stay optimistic. You want to set examples for families and patients and people who work with you be positive. Hey buy people lunch, buy somebody a cup of coffee be optimistic.

Also number 4 you want to be persistent, don’t give up. Again when things happen they happen for a reason. It’s you’re higher power way of just saying hey look at this in a different way. I mean people always say look at Hurricane Katrina, you know Carl, I know you’re from New Orleans. It was the best thing that ever happened to me because if it weren’t for Hurricane Katrina I wouldn’t be talking to you right now, I’d be still working in New Orleans doing the day to day grind working for the man and be miserable and being bored. I guarantee it.

Number 5 don’t lose your enthusiasm stay enthusiastic keep it real have fun. And number 6 Most negative things never ever happened. Now I love to worry, worry is fun sometimes for me it keeps me busy and occupied when I don’t have enough to do. Hey let’s worry, let’s turn that worry switch on that will keep me busy right? Wrong! Most negative things ever happen they never come to fruition so please don’t forget the six principles. Winston Churchill look him up awesome leader. And look if you guys need anything for Speech therapy private practice please hit me up at privateslp.com and you can send me a tweet. Go to twitter and my handle is privateslp. And if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me I really appreciate you guys listening I would appreciate some 5 star ratings on Google and 5 star ratings on iTunes and thank you for listening.

People come and people go. Business is up and business is down. One thing that needs to remain consistent is you. You are the only constant in your business. Financial, emotional and physical health are keys to starting and maintaining a successful speech therapy practice. If you ever need help with your speech therapy private practice, contact me . I am here to help you.