How to Set Financial Goals for Your Practice for the New Year

For wellness clinicians and therapists in private practice, the final months of the year and the first months of the new year reveal an opportunity to take the financial temperature of our businesses and set financial goals for the year ahead. 

3 steps to setting financial goals for the new year

As we swap from our therapist cardigan to our business-owner suit jackets, we want to take a read on how our business is running from a financial perspective.

In our day-to-day, we’re making sure our clients are cared for and functioning to the best of their ability.

We should all devote the same care to setting business goals for our practice. 

Step 1: Evaluate the past year

The end of the year is a great time to evaluate how the past year went for your private practice and what areas need some extra attention moving into the next year. 

Here are a few questions that can guide you as you’re doing this evaluation and start to set financial goals for your business: 

• What unexpected expenses did I have this year? 
• What business opportunities did I have to pass on due to financial limits? 
• How comfortable was I with my take-home pay?
• How is my business savings account doing today? 

These four questions can give you an indication of your practice’s financial health. If you feel comfortable with the answers to all these questions, then you’re likely operating a fiscally responsible and healthy practice. And, if that’s the case, you can begin to consider ways to potentially grow your business in the new year. 

However, if you weren’t comfortable with the answers to these questions, then calculated risk-taking should be put on pause, and it’s time to revamp your current practices.

If revamping your business is what’s needed, then ask yourself the following: 

• How organized are my budgeting practices? Am I tracking every dollar in and every dollar out of my business, or do I need to change the way I budget?
• What am I spending money on right now that’s not having a direct impact on my ability to reach and effectively serve my clients? 
• Where am I saying “yes” right now, when I should be saying “not yet”? 

I’ve written before about how to set financial goals and effectively budget in private practice.

It’s vital that as business owners, we feel completely confident in the budget we have for our businesses—or make necessary changes to it if not.

These questions will guide you toward what needs to be addressed.

This process takes some personal honesty and will likely test you, but you’ll be better prepared for the new year as a result. 

Step 2: Set financial goals for next year

As our own bosses, we’re not subjected to any kind of annual performance review—but that doesn’t mean we should skip out on this beneficial practice.

Set a time for yourself this season to review the business goals you had for the prior year. Didn’t set any? Now’s a good time to get into the habit. 

Good goals are SMART. That is specific, measurable, achievable (or attainable), relevant, and time-bound.

For example, instead of setting a goal of “I want to see more clients,” set a goal of “I want to increase my caseload by 5 clients per week, by the end of July.” The first is incredibly broad, which makes it hard to measure your progress or hold yourself accountable, while the second is a SMART goal, and easier to measure. 

If you did set business goals for the past year, review them one by one. If you met the goal, congratulations! Ask yourself what led you to success in that goal, and how you can replicate it going into the new year. 

If you didn’t meet your goal, that’s OK.

Have some compassion for yourself, and then think about what prevented you from successfully meeting that goal. Was it not SMART, or overly ambitious? Did you not give yourself enough time?

Some common goals you want to look at include your rates and overall compensation, your caseload and potential areas of expansion, and your marketing efforts.

See how you are feeling in each of these areas.

What goals have you set and met in each area?

What goals are moving slow and need to grow? 

Step 3: Make plans to meet your business goals

So, we’ve evaluated our financial practices and evaluated our goals. Now we get to pull it all together to reach the new goals we’re setting for ourselves, and see what areas need adjusting in order for us to meet them. 

As business owners, it’s likely many of your goals will be financial ones.

As part of your review of the past year, identify your pain points alongside your moments of success.

To avoid repeating the same pain points in the new year, strategize ways you can handle your money differently. This may include things like creating new savings accounts, increasing your rates, or decreasing your spending in other areas. 

As part of your review of last year’s goals and setting new ones, make sure you’re setting yourself up for success. Go over your goals again and make sure they’re SMART goals, and adjust where they aren’t. 

If you find you consistently have trouble meeting even SMART goals, there are other things you can do to work through it, like working on your time management, connecting with an advisor or mentor, or hiring support and outsourcing things you don’t have time or bandwidth for.

It’s also a good idea to set regular business meetings with yourself, to evaluate your budget and goals to make sure you’re on track. When you have that meeting regularly throughout the year, you’ll be able to course-correct more often, rather than leaving it all for the end of the year. 

Every practice is different. If you’re a solo practitioner, your needs will be different from someone managing different locations or multiple clinicians.

The goal isn’t to try and be something you’re not—rather, the goal is to be the best version of what you want your practice to look like.

This doesn’t happen all at once. It’s in the little moments of intentional examination, and the tweaks that follow.

With best practices like these, your business will be steady and strong for the year to come. 

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