Scaling a Group Practice (Part 1)
Cat Moon is the founder of East Atlanta Counseling here in Decatur, GA, a group practice with 15 therapists on their team.
(She shared so many great nuggets of advice that I decided to break her feature into two parts to make sure you didn’t miss anything!)
At the beginning of our convo, Cat had two primary pieces of advice to share with any clinician looking to scale:
Have an administrative assistant or office manager who you can trust to handle the logistics, and
Have a firm vision for the culture of your practice.
As she put it: “Ten years into practicing, I feel less imposter syndrome as a clinician, but as a business owner, on the other hand... I have learned a lot the hard way!
“I have had to do a significant amount of personal work on "money mindset" in order to recognize that it is, in fact, ethical and necessary to make a profit as a clinical social worker and practice owner. It sounds silly, but I believe it’s important to fully know the value of your work.”
At the end of the day, having an assistant or office manager costs money, but they are specifically crucial because “it's easy for the practice itself to overtake your caseload [as a group practice manager and clinician] when your practice grows past 3-4 clinicians,” making outsourcing and delegating an important skill to develop.
As this is happening - changing the financial model, adding an office manager, hiring new therapists, expanding space - culture will inevitably change.
Along these lines, Cat shared that it was “hard for some of [her] foundational therapists to adapt to those changes” and that it is all “about finding the balance between trusting your own leadership and vision as well as making sure your team feels seen and has influence” throughout the process.
Some of Cat’s other initial pieces of advice include:
The recommendation to have “regular supervision or director meetings with each of your clinicians, to avoid resentment or miscommunication.”
Be open to and ask for feedback from your team. Don’t create a leader silo!!
Be faithful to your values and vision.
Remember that Profit is a necessary ingredient of success. Without it, scaling will not happen!
LIKE your team. And spend time with them (especially in seasons of transition and big changes)!
Use integrated EMR/EHRs where possible, even if it costs more. In the end, the ease of a streamlined process will be more valuable.
