Stepping Out Of The Treatment Room For Growth

There’s seasons for building your complementary healthcare practice, and the decision to invest in growth also depends on the career phase you’re in combined with the scale you want to operate on. If you’re looking to grow your clinic, staying inside your treatment room isn’t likely to bring you sustainable growth. Instead go out of your way to find existing places that you can rely on, and work together with others so you grow alongside each other, in partnership.

In the past years of building Circe’s platform I’ve spoken to many different complementary healthcare practitioners who all have found their own unique ways to grow their client numbers and build sustainable careers. It definitely takes some out of the box thinking, and it’s been inspiring to see the many creative ideas that practitioners have come up with!

It’s easy to stay comfortably inside, while also letting the social media PR machine tell you that online is the place to be to find new clients. I agree that there’s a time and place for promoting your offering online, or perhaps even more so a specific type of practitioner who is a really good fit for this type of promotion. But the good news is that there’s more opportunities out there, once you start looking and thinking in new ways. So in this article I will share with you six examples of ways that practitioners have successfully expanded their practices with offline approaches.

Build an active peer network.

I shared about this before about a system’s based approach in a previous post on building a nature-inspired business, because your professional network is so valuable as a practitioner. So go out to find and connect with peers who you can refer to and they to you. Nurture these relationships so you both benefit in the long-term and can grow alongside each other.

Be part of your local community.

Have you reached out to local yoga studio or shop next door yet, to let them know about your practice? I’ve seen many practitioners take part in wellbeing events at local businesses (clothing shops and co-working spaces included) to spread the word about their treatments. Taking it a step further you can swap treatments with your neighbours to introduce the treatments you offer. It’s all about getting in front of your local community to let them know what you do, and they can spread to word to other future clients in your area.

You never know who you’ll meet.

People around you are looking for your services without you knowing. Always be prepared to present yourself and your business, you never know who might be your next client. Make sure to have a soft pitch ready at social events. But a pro tip is to refer them straight to your website so you don’t get stuck in hour long conversations on the benefits of aromatherapy while you’re trying to enjoy your best friend’s birthday party..! Another example I’ve seen work very effectively is showcasing your business branding on your clothing while at the gym, or as a sticker on your laptop while working at the local coffee shop to spark people’s curiosity.

Online booking platforms.

An easy win is joining an online platform that has a wide reach to do the heavy lifting of promoting your services to new clients for you. From the regulatory body in your field to a more generic wellbeing brand like ClassPass, many practitioners gain clients from exposure on these platforms. Circe is a booking platform tailored specifically to holistic healthcare, so if you’re interested in joining our practitioner membership you can find out out more here.

Partner events.

This can take more effort to organise, but I’ve seen plenty of practitioners use this tactic to get exposure to a wider audience. You can easily gain a whole new audience by partnering up with brands or other practitioners who work in different fields than you to organise (offline or online) events. Just do make sure their audience is relevant to yours, so your offerings should be different but complementary.

Health clinics for client referrals.

Often there’s some, or a lot of, educating to do with this tactic but it’s worth it in the long run! Building relationships with health clinics is absolutely worth investing in. I spoke to a reflexologist who got herself a slot at the local health clinic, who now promote her services and they refer clients internally, but not before she had prepared a strong pitch to explain her treatments and the benefits in order to convince the team who weren’t familiar with reflexology at all. You can also think about approaching your local health clinic without needing a treatment room but to introduce yourself and your treatments to their staff, and then schedule a time for free intro sessions that can introduce their staff and clients more in-depth to your work. Another example is an acupuncturist who built a long-term relationship with a psychologist to collaborate with and complement each others treatments. So this tactic can be adapted depending on your needs for a room to treat in, or not!

Whether you work offline or online - there’s plenty options to choose from and experiment with!

For more on Circe’s support services for complementary healthcare practitioners, have a look here. And subscribe for free to our practitioner newsletter The Well on Substack.