Congratulations on your ABA therapy practice! Starting and managing a business is a challenge but it’s a challenge that can be very rewarding and very successful! More importantly, an ABA therapy practice can create meaningful change in people’s lives. You can offer the community and the world an important service that is based on effective, scientifically based interventions for improving the quality of life of children, adults, and families.
However, to accomplish your goals of providing meaningful services, you need to have some business skills, as well. We will offer some tips and guidance on how to grow your ABA therapy practice.
Importance of Marketing
First and foremost, a business is very unlikely to survive if people don’t know about it. Marketing is the core of getting people to know that your business exists. Marketing helps your potential clients to learn about your business and the services that you offer. Marketing helps your potential clients decide if your services apply to them and whether they should take the next step to learn more about your services and then, ultimately, choose to access and pay for your services.
There are some things that you can learn about marketing to help your business be more successful, even if you don’t have a degree or specialized training in marketing. Let’s look at some marketing strategies you can use to grow your ABA therapy business.
Social Media
Social media is an important area of marketing. You can use social media to grow your ABA therapy business. By creating a social media account for your business, you can share free content with your potential customers to show them what kind of business you have and what kind of services you offer. You can connect with your potential customers by sharing helpful information about topics that are important to them and that also relate to your services in some way.
Website Development
Having a website is an essential component of a business marketing plan. Having a website allows your business to be found online by your potential customers. We live in a technological age where people are looking up resources online. When they have a problem or need a particular service, they are almost always going to search the internet. If your business doesn’t show up in their internet search, they probably won’t know you exist that is unless they happen to hear about your business by word-of-mouth from someone else. This leads us to our next marketing tip on getting referrals.
Getting Referrals
Instead of just hoping that people come to your business or that they happen to find you online and then they decide to choose your business over other businesses out there, it can be extremely helpful to have a source of referrals. To do this, you might start making relationships with local professionals who have interactions with people who might need your services. This could be doctors in your area. It could be school district staff like teachers, special education staff, counselors, etc. You might connect with local community service workers who might also be providing services to individuals who could benefit from your services.
Reach out to anyone you might think could be open to sending you referrals, share information about your business, and give them a clear explanation of what it is you offer. If you can, explain why your business stands out from other businesses.
Also, providing physical materials for your business, like a flyer with contact information on it, is recommended. This provides a tangible reminder of your business and gives the referral source something they can hand out to potential customers.
Time-Saving Tips
Growing your ABA therapy practice can be complex. It can also take up a LOT of your time. You may be tempted to overwork yourself to help your business thrive. Even as you grow your business, you can still achieve a healthy work-life balance, though. One way to do this is to take advantage of time-saving tips and strategies. We’ll share a few ideas.
Practice Management Efficiency
One of the best ways that you can help your business grow is to have a high-quality practice management system in place. This includes having an easy-to-use process for creating necessary reports, having an effective scheduling system in place, being organized with your HR processes, and being accurate and efficient with your billing. One highly recommended solution to help you with practice management efficiency – including addressing all these aspects of practice management – is to use WebABA. You can sign up for a free trial here.
Scheduling Your Priorities
Be sure that you are focusing on what is important for your business’ success. Instead of doing busy work all day, identify what the most important things are for you to accomplish each day. One way to do this is to plan ahead. You might look at your business in quarters. With that, every 3 months plan out what your business goals are, such as getting a certain number of clients, making your billing process run more smoothly, and so on. Then, break those goals into shorter-term goals. Then give yourself daily assignments to accomplish those goals.
Staff Training and Delegation
Be sure to invest time into training your staff. They are the key to your success. Even though it takes time to train your staff well, it will save you time in the long run to have staff who can manage both administrative and clinical tasks in a quality and reliable manner. Additionally, delegate tasks to staff to help you save time so that you have the chance to focus on other tasks that help your business grow.
How to Grow my ABA Practice
If you’re asking, “How can I grow my ABA practice?” consider the tips we’ve discussed. Although there is a lot more to helping a business succeed than what we could include in this article, by setting up quality and efficient practice management processes and implementing the recommendations we’ve provided, you are on your way to helping your ABA therapy business thrive. For more information about how to grow your ABA therapy practice, check out our free on-demand webinar.
