EP. 315 The Fully Booked Therapist Standard 11: Why the Most Important Business Decision You Will Ever Make Starts With Your Numbers

Do you know your numbers right now? I don’t mean having a rough idea of how much you’ve made this month or feeling like your bills are probably covered. I mean knowing what’s coming in, what’s going out, how many sessions you need each week, and what your rate needs to be for the math to work without requiring you to see more clients than you want to see.

Standard 11 of the Fully Booked Therapist is this: fully booked therapists know their numbers and their money, and they touch their facts to inform their decisions. There’s a difference between knowing some of your numbers and having an honest, ongoing relationship with them. Your revenue, expenses, fully booked number, rate, rebook rate, cancellation rate, and new-client numbers give you information about what is actually happening in your practice.

I want you making business decisions based on that information instead of what feels safe, what another therapist charges, or what you’re afraid might happen. When you know what is true in your business, you can decide what needs to stay the same and what needs to change.

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What Does It Mean to “Touch Your Facts” in Your Business?

Touching your facts means maintaining an honest, ongoing relationship with your business numbers so your decisions are based on what is actually happening. It goes beyond knowing your income. You need to know your actual monthly business expenses, your personal financial needs, what’s coming in, and what’s going out.

I see therapists get worried about their business and immediately start reacting to how things feel. When that happens with my clients, I ask them to touch their facts. How much money is already coming in this month? How many openings are actually available to fill? Looking at those numbers often shows them that the business is safer and more secure than they were thinking.

This needs to be part of how you normally run your practice, rather than something you do only when you’re worried. Your numbers can show you what’s working, what may need to change, and where you may need to develop a skill. They give you concrete information you can use before deciding what to do next.

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What Is Your Fully Booked Number?

Your fully booked number is the number of sessions you can see each day and week while staying energized, present, and able to do your best work with every client. It is not the maximum number of people you can physically fit into your schedule before you collapse. Your number is personal to you, your body, and the way you want to practice.

This number matters because your fully booked number and your rate work together to determine how much money your practice can make. If the financial math only works when you’re seeing more clients than you can comfortably sustain, something in that math needs attention.

Once you know your fully booked number, you can stop treating more clients as the automatic answer to making more money. You can look at your rate, expenses, financial goals, and the amount of time you want off, then make decisions based on how those numbers work together.

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Why Shouldn’t You Set Your Rate Based on What Other Therapists Charge?

Setting your rate based on what other therapists charge builds your pricing around someone else’s unknown financial situation instead of your own numbers. You don’t know how that therapist chose their rate, how many clients they need to see, what their expenses are, or whether they’re making enough money.

When you choose a rate because it falls somewhere around the local going rate, you also don’t know whether that number works with your fully booked number. You could end up needing to see far more clients than you want each week for the business to cover its expenses and support your personal financial needs.

Inside Foundations, I have therapists calculate their rate using their own numbers, including what they need and want to make, their expenses, their fully booked number, their goals, and the time they want to take off. The number that comes out can feel uncomfortable, especially when it’s higher than what they currently charge. But now there’s a reason behind that rate, and we can work with the thoughts that come up instead of choosing a number because it feels safer.

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Can Seeing Fewer Clients Actually Help You Make More Money?

Seeing fewer clients can result in more income when your numbers show that your rate, rather than your client volume, is the part of the business that needs to change. One of my clients, Deidra, used to think more clients were the answer to every financial problem. If she needed more money, she would see more people. She was also working a second job because even with a full schedule, the math in her practice wasn’t working.

When Deidra ran her numbers, she discovered that seeing fewer clients each week was what would help her stay in business long term. The problem wasn’t that she needed more volume. Her rate needed to change. She raised her rate, cut her hours, and made more money than she had before. She was also able to leave her second job.

That decision gave Deidra more time with her husband and more room for hobbies she had stopped making time for because she was working so much. She didn’t get there by automatically adding more clients. She looked at her actual numbers and used what they showed her to change the way she ran her practice.

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Why Should Your Business Decisions Start With Data?

Your business decisions should start with data because your actual numbers tell you what is happening before your feelings tell you what you fear might happen. Your feelings still matter, but they aren’t the same thing as your revenue, expenses, client numbers, cancellation rate, or the openings actually sitting on your calendar.

When you touch your facts first, you have information you can use. You can see whether your rate works with your fully booked number, whether you really need more clients, and whether something in the business needs to change. You aren’t making those decisions based on what another therapist charges or what feels safest in the moment.

That is Standard 11 of the Fully Booked Therapist: know your numbers and your money, touch your facts, and let the data inform your decisions. The more clearly you know what is true in your practice, the more deliberately you can decide what to do next.

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Ready to Get Fully Booked?

The Get Fully Booked Challenge is coming November 9th through the 13th, and we’re spending five days working on how you run your hands-on business.

I’ll walk you through a clear path toward keeping your calendar booked, leading your clients with confidence, and making real money doing the work you love. If you’re building a practice, close to starting one, or already booked and ready to build something stronger, this challenge is for you.

Block off November 9th through the 13th on your calendar and make sure you’re on my email list so you’ll be the first to know when it’s time to grab your seat. Join my mailing list: themfrcoach.com/mailing-list 

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