Anthony Centore

Need-based businesses are all around us: pawn shops, Western Union, USPS, bus stations, even airlines. The DMV is the quintessential need-based business. The more something is need-based, the less likely customers will receive anything in the realm of an exceptional experience.

A friend of mine has a great job as a web developer. Recently, in his off time, he published a 6500-word analysis of a tech company’s website that got some industry attention. I asked him, “Joe, I know you’re busy; you’ve got a good, and demanding, job. Why did you bother?” His answer was on point. He said, “According to the world, if you don’t write it down, you don’t know it.”

Whether it’s a product of New Year’s resolutions, or “Blue Monday” (Jan 23rd, the most depressing day for the year–and the day by which most everyone has blown their resolutions), or the fact that the holidays are over and the days are depressingly short and dark and cold, for many counseling practices January, February, and March are three of the busiest months of the year.

Selling a practice. It might be the largest single financial transaction of your life. And it could go very well, or it might not happen at all. Depending on the choices you make, your practice could fund your retirement…or it might be worth close to nothing. While it’s a much larger topic than this column can due justice, this month I’ll provide a few tips to help you increase the value of your counseling practice.

Recently, I was speaking with a counselor at Thriveworks Counseling Philadelphia and she said “I schedule clients for only one session a month because I don’t want them to get dependent on me.” I want to say that I was shocked, but I wasn’t. Too often I hear counselors with exceedingly poor ideas on clinical care.