10 Mistakes that Keep Your Nature-Based Business from Making Meaningful Income
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Laura Park Figueroa: Welcome to Therapy in the Great Outdoors, the podcast where we explore the business and practice of nature based pediatric therapy of all kinds. If you're an outdoor loving pediatric practitioner in the fields of occupational, physical, or speech therapy, social work, or mental health, this podcast will help you start and grow a successful nature based practice or program.
I am the ever honest, always 100 percent real, you'll hear it all on this podcast, Dr. Laura Park Figueroa. I'm a pediatric OT with over 20 years of experience and I run a thriving nature based practice with profitable locations in two different states and multi six figures in revenue.
I also host the free online community at therapyinthegreatoutdoors. com to help you pursue your nature based therapy dreams too. Are you ready to take action on those dreams? Let's jump in.
Hello, everyone. Welcome back to therapy in the great outdoors I'm Laura Park Figueroa. And today we have an episode that is right up my alley, because if you've listened before, I'm a truth teller. I tell it like it is. And in this episode, we are going to talk about. 10 mistakes that keep you as a nature based business owner from making meaningful income in your business. I got the idea for this episode from a. Podcast about podcasting that I listened to.
He had an episode called the seven mistakes podcasters, make blah, blah, blah. And I kept thinking, oh my gosh, I have so many ideas for this, from my experience business coaching for people who are running nature-based practices, I see the same mistakes over and over again. And this episode is going to save you hundreds, if not thousands of dollars or maybe also help you just. Get to meaningful income more quickly in your nature-based practice.
But before we get started on looking at those mistakes, I want to share with you that I'm doing a series of free events inside of the therapy in the great outdoors community this week. You do not need to be a paid member to access these. These are free for anybody in the community. The first one is going to be on Tuesday, January 23rd.
So tomorrow, if you are listening to this podcast, the day it comes out, all of these will be from 12 to 1:00 PM central. And the first one is first steps to start your nature based business. The second one on Wednesday is going to be kickstart your nature based business growth. So I'm going to be talking about the mistakes again, mistakes. I've made a lot of mistakes so I can share them with you all. But the mistakes that a lot of nature-based business owners make early in their business and then three keys to having a steady flow of customers for your nature based business and Q and a with me to answer any of your business questions that you may have. And then finally on Thursday. At noon central, I'm going to be offering a training called becoming boss of your nature based business.
So this is for people who are running a nature based business and in the early stages of hiring or getting ready to hire. So I'm going to talk about growing a team systems you need in place when leading your team as well as key metrics to have your team members track in your business. So holding them accountable. And of course, Q and a.
I'm always available to you. When I do these trainings to do Q and a to offer you some free business coaching in your practice. So. Those are available to you. You can register for them by going to the therapy in the great outdoors community. You can just go to therapy in the great outdoors.com and join the free community there.
If you're not already there, if you are, you know how to get there. So, okay. So those three free trainings are happening this week. If you are interested in these trainings and you can't attend at that time, don't worry. The replays will be posted inside of the free community under free events, and you can always access them there and watch them afterwards. You also can ask questions if you can't attend the event, go ahead and RSVP and ask questions in the comments of the event.
And I'll try to cover those on. The training. So you can get your questions answered, even if you can't be at the training live.
Next week on January 29th. We will open enrollment for the business hive, which is my year long group coaching program for nature-based business owners. This is where I provide the most intensive attention to members in this community to help you with your business.
It is a year long because it takes a year to establish foundational systems in your business. And it is the way that we get really good outcomes for the people who have been in the hive. So. We have a business discussion forum where you can always ask questions of me. We have forms and templates for you to help run your nature based business.
There are. Gosh, probably 30 or 40 in here as I'm looking at it. We also have weekly coaching calls where you get to be in community with other nature-based business owners and get coaching from me and learn from the experiences of other people as well. And we have my widely regarded and highly acclaimed. I'm saying that a little bit jokingly, but also a little bit serious because the people that have taken this course say it's really great. My business bedrocks course.
So this course is set up to help you establish foundational systems in your business in order to grow your business and help it be sustainable and profitable over the long haul. So, if you take a year inside of the hive, your business is set up to be successful for many, many years to come. It is worth 10 times the price.
I promise you. So all of that is inside the business hive. You can get info on that by going to therapy in the great outdoors.com/hive, you can join the wait list there, and I will be sharing with my email list when the enrollment is open for the hive as well. So you will get notified if you are on my email list. . That is all the announcements for now. And let's dive in to these 10 mistakes. That holds you back from making meaningful income in your nature based business.
The first one that I see very consistently. Is that nature-based therapists and professionals. Let imposter syndrome. And perfectionism, keep them from launching and actually diving into doing the work of nature-based practice with children. I got news for you. You're never going to feel ready.
You're never going to feel ready the first time you try to do nature based work or try to take your work with children outdoors, you are not going to feel ready to do it. And I see it a lot where people think that everything has to be perfect now. I will say there is something to doing some of the things I'm going to talk about before you actually launch your services, because you don't want families or parents to think that you don't have your stuff together and that you're not a professional.
I'm not saying to not do planning and to not get input and to not have people helping you and to do the work beforehand before you actually are offering these services to your community. But my gosh, just get started. Stop letting perfectionism stop letting imposter syndrome feeling like you.
You're not sure if you know enough or you're not sure if you're really an expert. Stop letting that stuff hold you back from just getting started. Okay. That is number one. Number two is not focusing on a specific niche or a target client. So a lot of times I think as nature-based therapy or as pediatric therapist in general, I should say. We think that we need to serve everyone in order to be helpful or in order to be kind or loving or inclusive.
Like we, these are values that all pediatric professionals have or should have, and. And we want to serve everyone and you cannot do that in a business. If you are getting started, or if you are running a business right now, I want you to think about the clients that you enjoy working with the most. Who are the families who are the kids that you see. That you just feel in your element, you really know what to do, and you really feel excited about working with them. That is who you should direct your nature-based therapy offer towards.
You should create a nature-based therapy program for those specific people. Get started there and then expand your services when you are ready only when you're ready. Only when you have proven that your first program can be successful or. That your first program is not successful. And then you have to think about how to pivot and change and serve a different market because the essentials of businesses that you are serving. A specific niche, a specific client. Who has a problem and you are solving that problem for them.
That is the basic of any business, is that it has to solve a problem in order to be successful and profitable and make money and serve people well, just think about what the problem is that your target market may have and create your nature based program around that. But don't be afraid. To focus in on that one customer.
A lot of times I go to websites and this is not just for nature-based therapy, but for some nature-based practices as well. You go to the website and there's 20 different services they offer and it gets, it's really confusing. And in something as specific and as different as nature-based practice. You already have your niche of doing work out doors, but you need to be very clear about who exactly you are serving with your services in your nature-based practice.
Number three. Having a negative mindset around money. This is something that is going to hold you back from actually making profit and actually making money in your business. If you don't feel comfortable with people giving you money for your very valuable service that you are providing. Then you're not going to attract money to your business.
And I know this sounds a little bit woo and weird, but. Really our money mindset issues, impact how we communicate about our business. They impact how we talk to other people about our business. They impact how we market, tHey impact how we write things on our website. And so I want you to. Get comfortable with the idea of money coming to you of money being given to you for a valuable service that you are providing for a client. If you want to read some books about money mindset, some that have helped me. R don't laugh.
This is a weird title. It's called. Get rich, lucky bitch. And it's by Denise, somebody. I can't remember her name off the top of my head. But that book was a really interesting book about women in particular and money mindset. And the other book that I would recommend is, think, and grow rich by Napoleon hill.
That is an old school book, like from the thirties. I think the 1930s. And it is another book about money mindset and thinking about your own thoughts around money. That's one to own and circle back to there's. There's just a lot of rich. Ideas in that book. So those are two. If I think of others, I will add them into the show notes.
But right now those are the two that, that come to mind about money mindset and getting comfortable with the idea of selling something that is of worth in the marketplace as a business.
All right. Number four. Along the lines of money y'all are not charging enough. Okay. For your services. I want you, I say this with love, but I really want you to do the research before you start your practice and do your nature-based work. Whether you're offering, I often say this and I forget to say it at the beginning of the podcast, this advice goes for, if you're offering, if you're starting a private practice doing nature-based work, or if you're just starting a nature based program and an existing business, you still have to market it.
You still have to. I know about these things in order to make the nature-based program successful, even if it's part of a bigger business, but.
mOst of you are not charging enough. And some of this may go back to being uncomfortable with money or having money mindset issues that need to be dealt with.
But.
Really, you need to make the effort to actually know what other people in your community. Are charging for their services. And then I want you to charge. At least the same or a little bit more, you are adding value to the service by taking it outdoors. And there are a lot of things in outdoor work that are very different. But you may need that little bit of extra money in order to make up the time that you are spending. Cleaning supplies or prepping or doing all that work.
So I want you to really remember to charge. The going rate for your services or maybe a little bit above the going rate.
Now, I know some of you are going to struggle with that because again, we're inclusive. We want to serve everyone, right? You can always offer scholarships. You can always figure out ways to fund children, attending therapy, whose parents can't afford it. If you're doing a cash based practice. But I do want you to think about actually making your rates. What the going rate is for your area. Do not under charge.
All right. Number five.
Spending too much time on social media, just scrolling and looking at what everyone else is doing. This will stop you from making meaningful income in your business.
I would really encourage you to. Look at the behaviors that you have as a business owner that actually contribute to the bottom line of the business. So for example, I have decided in my practice that right now, social media is not really a high priority. Like we don't even have someone managing it. We barely ever posts, but also I have eight years of posts there and 5,000 people following and like a bunch of old posts we can pull from things like that. So I did the work right beforehand.
I did the work when I was first getting started. But right now, I don't need to be focusing on that in my business. And if I, as the business owner was sitting around scrolling and looking at other nature-based practices, I would start to feel really bad about myself pretty quick. And think that maybe I need to be posting on social media more. When the reality is what my job is right now is to try to hire, I need to hire.
And that is my job as the CEO to find a new therapist and interview them and hire them before. We have the next need for someone to work in the business. That is an example of a money making task that I need to do as the business owner. And social media pulls you away from that. Unless you are intentionally posting helpful information for your clients on social media.
You need to get off of social media because honestly, What there is not actually the real picture of someone's business. I say this all the time to y'all. What on social media is not the real picture of someone's business. You are seeing a sliver of the highlights and you're not seeing the behind the scenes of their business.
Take it use ideas. That's fine, but don't waste a bunch of time scrolling on social media and going down the spiral of negativity, of feeling jealous of everyone. I know. Cause I do this too y'all.
So I think just making sure that you're not spending time on social media scrolling, when you are on social media, you should be there to serve people and to help solve their problem, to serve your ideal client and to help solve their problem.
You should be posting on social media. If that is something you're focusing on in your business right now. But not scrolling. Meaninglessly. All right. That was number five, number six. We're going to get into website a little bit. Many of you are not prioritizing. SEO search engine optimization on your website. This is something that you need to research.
It's outside the scope of this podcast. Maybe I will bring someone on to talk about this in the future, but. You need to have key words on your website that describe the location, who you serve, the diagnoses you serve, the ages you serve, what your services are. Those words all need to be on your website, and you need to have those in the titles, on your website, in order for Google to be putting you on that first page of Google.
Like we all aim for, with our businesses when someone types in occupational therapy, in whatever location you're in into that Google search bar. So do some research, make sure to prioritize search engine optimization, SEO on your website. Because it can really make a difference if you even get discovered by people in your community, when they're searching for your services.
Number seven. Nah, this is y'all. If you don't hear anything else I say in this episode, listen to this, please. Okay.
The seventh mistake that I see most nature-based therapists making is that they are not set up with a lead magnet on their website. To have a real email list. I am not talking about a list of emails in Excel or Google sheets that you keep and manually enter. I am talking about using Flodesk or some other email service provider.
I have an affiliate code for flow desk. You can get 50% off for. It used to be for life, maybe it's for six months or a year now. I can't remember, but it's a pretty good discount. So if you want that affiliate link, I will drop that in the show notes as well. And you can also DM me on Instagram if you want it. I love flow desk.
It is the easiest email service provider to use, but some that other people use our constant contact convert kit. I do not recommend active campaign or MailChimp. I have used both. I hated them both. They are so confusing and hard to use. MailChimp is free, but I'm telling you spend the 20 bucks a month or whatever it is for Flodesk and just get Flodesk.
It is a hundred times easier to use and transferring. All of the emails you've collected to a new email platform is very challenging. I have done this multiple times in both of my businesses. And I'm super happy with flow desk. So I am. Not paid by them to say this. I just really love them. And I do have that affiliate code if you want it. But what a lead magnet is something that you are giving away on your practice website for free. To potential customers that are landing on your website. So that you get their email list and then you can provide them with helpful information to build that know and trust.
And I always add expertise to that so that people get to know you as a business and like you, and then trust you enough to do business with you because they know you're an expert in your service.
You can see mine on my websites, outdoor kids, ot.com. This is something. If you set it up, you never have to touch it again.
Mine is the same one I've been using for eight years. Y'all I've been using it a very long time. It's five ways to utilize nature, to help your child pay attention or something like that, to help your child's attention boost your child's attention. I don't even remember the title of it. I wrote it so long ago.
It doesn't need to be fancy. It can be a simple PDF, a simple thing with tips. The point of it is to help people. All right. Think about a problem I solve and give them a quick win and help them. So when you have that on your website, that's something that's going to pop up or there'll be a part of your website that says join our email list to get our top five. Nature-based activities to do with your kid in summer or whatever it is, whatever you're going to make up.
That was just off the top of my head. That's probably not a great one, but. So you're going to put this lead magnet on your website so that people give you their email. And then they're going to be stored in your email service provider platform and your database. And the reason I think it is so important for you to do this is because the eighth mistake that most nature-based practices have is that they do not hire soon enough. And this links in to getting that lead magnet on your website, because you need to have a way to get in touch with lots of potential interested customers when you are hiring.
. So mistake number eight of not hiring soon enough. A lot of times it's because the therapist that is running the business doesn't really know how many people are interested in their service. They don't really have a good way of knowing. Who might sign up. If they open new services, they just know that they're like super overwhelmed with how many kids they're seeing and they want to offload some, which is also very hard to do because families get attached to their therapist.
And it's hard for you as the business owner to say, I'm not going to see your kid anymore, but I have this great person I hired who will come to see them. You need this email list. So seven and eight are connected here. You need this email list set up. You need a lead magnet that helps people. With some helpful bit of information so that they'll give you their email so that then they are in your email service provider database so that you can send an email out to a large group of people.
When you open new services. And you never know, those people might have a kid right. At the age, they might've gotten emails from, that's something else I didn't talk about. I have a whole episode on email. Marketing that you should listen to if you're like, oh my gosh, I don't have a lead magnet.
How do I do that?
Episode number five of this podcast was actually email marketing for your nature-based practice. So if you have questions about this, how to set it up. Things like that. Go back and listen to that episode. Number five.
So you need that lead magnet on your website. You need to be communicating with your email list and talking to the people on your email list to show them that, your stuff. And then when you hire someone. Sooner rather than later. You are able to reach out to that email list and say, we have new services open.
We have new slots open for individual services, or we have new groups that we are offering. When you have that new employee. A little more on the hiring topic. Most people that I know wait way too long to hire another therapist.
So I know there's a lot of debate among therapists who run private practices about who to hire. First, you hire an admin assistant first to offload some of the admin that you gets really heavy when your business starts to grow, or should you hire a therapist.
And that is going to be a decision that is dependent upon. What you want in your business. So I think. I think I'm not going to get into that here. That might be a whole other episode that I could do in the future. I did talk a little bit about that on episode 41. It was a coaching call. I did with Kristen park.
She's the owner of magic speech bus, and her and I talked about hiring and that episode. So there's a little bit more detail about. Admin versus therapist hiring. In that episode, if you want to go back and listen to it. So my point is. You're probably waiting too long to hire. You should hire. It's like the number one mistake of letting imposter syndrome or perfectionism stop you from just getting started. This is the same.
A lot of times people let their perfectionism their need to hire the perfect person or have all their ducks in a row. First. , they let that stop them from hiring. And it's the same thing. You are never going to feel ready to hire. You just need to do it. You just need to hire and you figure it out as you go.
Very few mistakes in business are like life or death. I want you to be courageous and brave and just go for it. Remind yourself that the mistakes that you are probably going to make are not life or death mistakes. We are not brain surgeons here. We are running nature-based practices and we are running businesses and there's usually help. And people you can ask and local resources in order to find the answers.
You need it to any problem when you're running and growing your business.
. Number nine. Not having good financial systems or organization will absolutely stop you from making meaningful income in your nature-based practice. And by this, you need to have a system in place to know what's coming into your butt. To know what's coming into your business and to know what expenses you have in your business, you need to know how to read a profit loss statement.
You need to have an accountant who helps you when you have questions. And you need to have some system in place for budgeting the money in your business. So managing the money and a practice is not just a matter of looking at your bank account. There is a real, especially as the business grows this year, my finances have gotten very complex because my business has two locations and more employees, more kids we're serving. And this year it's been challenging for me.
I've had to learn a lot and I've done several meetings with my accountant to drill down into the numbers, to really try to understand them. And. When you don't have good financial systems and organization in place when you don't actually have a clue about the money in your business as a business owner. You end up having like overdue invoices that maybe don't even get paid or you're maybe spending too much on expenses in your business and you're not tracking how much you're spending.
And so you just don't know. And you're not really understanding. The planning that you need to do in order to prepare for future months coming down the road in your business. This gets very important when you hire, because you have to be able to make payroll. You have to have money coming into the business at the same rate at a higher rate. Than what you are having to pay out to people for providing the services in your practice.
So I really recommend, I teach inside of the business hive, my business coaching program. I teach a system that is based loosely based on profit first, which is a book by Mike Micalowicz I highly recommend it is a book to own, not to rent from the library or borrow from the library. , he teaches in that book, a system for managing business finances.
I have modified it to make it much simpler. And I teach a twice a month budgeting system using Y NAB, which is you need a budget budgeting software. It is, it has saved my life so many times as a business owner to have this system in place. So I just want to encourage you that if you are starting. A nature-based practice or program, or if you are running one and you don't feel like you really understand the finances in your business, make that a goal for next year, make it a goal to learn.
It doesn't mean that you can't learn. It just means that not yet. You don't have it yet. We use this terminology a lot in the Contigo approach in my nature-based therapy approach, we. We talk about, it's not a, no, it's just a, not yet The child cannot do this yet. So think about that. Keep a growth mindset and be open to learning more about financial management and your business in the coming year. All right, the last one, I'm going to shoot it to you straight.
Y'all. , this is going to be a little bit of tough love for you. Too many of you do not invest money in your business until the business is making money. And that is going to keep you from making meaningful income in your nature-based practice. Good things take time and energy and resources. We have to invest in our businesses.
This is something that I have done all along the way in my businesses. From the very beginning, I have never shied away from investing in coaching or programs or things that I knew would help me in running my business. And I've invested a lot of money in programs to help me with different areas that I was needing to work on at the time in my practice.
And I want to encourage you that you need to spend money on your business from the very start. Even if you have not brought a dime to your business, yet it is wise to spend money on your business. Now, I don't want you to be stupid. I don't want you to like, take out a second mortgage or something to do some crazy mastermind program.
That's $30,000 with some expert or something like that. But I do think that investing several hundred dollars a month on a program is smart for you to do. If you are running a nature-based practice, within your means, right? You need to be able to afford it, but to put something like that on a credit card, in order to make back like three times, five times, 10 times in your business. What you would have made without it and to go. Three times five times, 10 times faster then you could have gone to get success in your business without the program. I just think it's a no brainer and too many people, it goes back to that money mindset we have as therapist, honestly, like too many people are afraid to invest money in their business because they think I'm not making money yet.
So I'm going to wait until I make money. And, oh my gosh. Y'all I can help you do this so much faster. I'm telling you. This is the straight talk. Okay. I know how to help you do this. I see people make these mistakes all the time. So if these are mistakes you're making. I want you to one resolve to do better and to think about how you can stop making these mistakes and get support and accountability and the right coaching so that you can then make progress much faster in your nature-based practice and have more meaningful income, much more quickly than you would have if you hadn't invested in a program.
I probably should have done that one first. Cause this sounds like a pitch. It is a pitch, honestly, because I know that the business hive, my year long group coaching program can help any of you that are listening to this running a nature-based practice. I can help you be more successful.
I am 110% confident in that. And I do think that this last mistake that people make is one that needs to be seriously considered by all y'all listening.
Okay. That's enough tough love for now. My point is invest in your business. Don't wait until you have income in order to invest in building your business acumen. That is it for this week? Y'all this episode got a little bit long, but I hope that you found some mistakes that you might be making because we've all made them.
And. That you can get some help going forward on how to fix those mistakes in your practice or program. So if you have questions about this, I am always here to help you. So I am inside of the TGO community, the therapy in the great outdoors community. You can put a post there. I read every post that is put in the community.
I don't answer all of them because it is a community. There are lots of people there that answer posts as well. But if you have a question about any of these mistakes that you might've made, or any of the topics that I brought up in this episode. Please post in the community and we will get back to you there and we can help one another in all of these mistakes that we've all made.
Here's to a great year in 2024, where you can avoid all of these mistakes. I'll talk to you next time. Bye.
Thanks for joining me today for therapy in the great outdoors. If you want valuable advice, as you start or grow your nature based pediatric practice, get my free ebook, the nature based practice roadmap. It is a guide to help you focus and avoid. as you start or grow your outdoor work with children. In it, I share the four stages of nature based practice, what you need to focus on and common mistakes to avoid in each stage, plus a checklist of specific action steps for you to take at each stage in the process.
Get it at therapyinthegreatoutdoors. com roadmap. So until next time, get outside, connect, reflect, and enjoy therapy in the great outdoors.
