WP137 | From Summer Slump to Strategy: Staying Strong Year-Round with Julie Herres
Have you ever had that moment of panic when your private practice income suddenly dips — and you’re not sure why?
In this episode, financial powerhouse and author of Profit First for Therapists, Julie Herres, is breaking down exactly how to prevent those dreaded income slumps before they hit. From digging into your past financial data to spotting patterns, strengthening your systems, and building a safety net, Julie shares actionable strategies to help you take control of your business finances like a true CEO.
Whether you’re just starting out or running a thriving group practice, this episode is packed with practical insights to help you prepare, pivot, and protect your profit — without the stress. If you’ve ever wanted to feel confident looking at your numbers (yes, even the scary ones!), hit play now — you don’t want to miss this.
Look Back to Plan Ahead
Julie emphasizes the power of historical data. Pull reports from your accounting software—QuickBooks, Xero, Wave, or even something your accountant provides—and examine year-over-year trends. Pay attention to both gross income (total revenue) and net income (profit). Plotting this data into a graph can help reveal seasonal trends, slow months, or unexpected dips.
“If you can compare last year by month, you’ll often start to see patterns,” Julie says. “Sometimes they make sense, sometimes they don’t—but either way, they prepare you.”
Ramp Up Before the Dip
If you notice that, say, August tends to be a slow month in your practice, you can take proactive steps ahead of time:
Increase marketing in the months leading up to the slump.
Plan savings to cushion the expected dip in profit.
Delay big investments like hiring, moving offices, or launching new services until more financially stable periods.
The goal? Prepare your business before things slow down so you’re not scrambling once they do.
Strengthen Your Systems
Julie points out that practices with strong systems in place—not just financial, but operational—catch issues early. Whether it’s:
A drop in inquiries,
Poor follow-up on leads,
Delays in billing or insurance verification,
These problems often snowball without robust systems to track and respond to them.
“When you’re watching your metrics, you’ll notice problems months earlier than practices that aren’t looking,” she explains.
Audit Your Intake Process
When things slow down, don’t panic—optimize.
Julie recommends having a friend or outside observer go through your intake process. Is your website clear? Are calls or emails returned promptly? Is it easy for someone to schedule?
Slow periods are a golden opportunity to tighten up processes and make small, impactful changes.
Build a Business Emergency Fund
Julie is clear: downturns are not a matter of if—they’re a matter of when. From personal emergencies to natural disasters or insurance changes, you need to be prepared.
“Have two to three months of business expenses saved,” she advises. “Not income—expenses. It takes time to build, but it gives you peace of mind when life throws a curveball.”
This financial buffer keeps your business stable even when revenue is inconsistent.
Focus on Income-Generating Activities
Julie cautions against spending all your time trimming small expenses—like getting on the phone to shave $20 off your internet bill—when that hour could be spent doing something that actually brings in clients.
Instead, focus on actions like:
Connecting with referral sources,
Revisiting old client lists,
Improving your SEO or ads,
Creating compelling calls-to-action.
“One new client could easily cover your Psychology Today profile for a year. Don’t cut the expenses that work just to save a few bucks.”
Use the Good Months Wisely
Think of your good months like an envelope budgeting system. When income is high, don’t spend it all—tuck some away for the future.
“The good months help you get through the bad months,” Julie reminds us. “Don’t treat them like a shopping spree. Treat them like preparation.”
Become the Business Owner Your Practice Needs
Being a therapist doesn’t automatically make someone a business expert—but stepping into that role is essential. Julie’s advice: embrace your role as a business owner. Track your numbers. Understand your cash flow. Make decisions from a place of knowledge, not emotion.
“Your first job is to make sure your business can survive,” she says. “That affects your livelihood—and everyone who depends on your practice.”
Get Support When You Need It
Julie teaches Profit First for Therapists and offers ongoing support through her Academy, where she and her team help practice owners implement sound financial systems. Whether you do it on your own or with help, don’t wait for things to go wrong—build now so you can withstand anything.
Final Thought
Slumps are inevitable, but panic doesn’t have to be. With clear data, proactive planning, and strong systems in place, your practice can weather any storm. Start now. Future you (and your team) will thank you.
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Julie’s Resources
Join the Profit First Academy now and get the first month for only $17! Join now and start transforming your private practice! 👉 https://www.profitfirstfortherapists.com/academy
Links and Resources
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[00:00:00] Whitney Owens: Social media is a powerful tool for therapists, but managing it, that can be overwhelming. That's why Simplified, SEO Consulting is launching a brand new social media management package in June. Their team made of professionals with mental health degrees or with direct experience working in the field.
They know how to create content that speaks directly to your ideal client and to celebrate, they're offering 10% off for select clients. That's a savings of $480 plus. They offer a range of pricing options so you can find what works best for your practice. Don't let social media drain your time. Claim your discount today.
Hi, I'm Whitney Owens. I'm a group practice owner and faith-based practice consultant, and I'm here to tell you that you can have it all. Wanna grow your practice, wanna grow your faith, wanna enjoy your life? Outside of work, you've come to the right place. Each week on The Wise Practice Podcast, I will give you the action steps to have a successful faith-based practice while also having a good time.
Now let's get started.
[00:01:08] Jingle: Where she grows your practice and she don't play. She does business with a twist of faith. It's Whitney Owen and Wise Practice Podcast, Whitney Owen and Wise Practice Podcast.
[00:01:27] Whitney Owens: Hello friends and welcome back to The Wise Practice Podcast. I'm looking forward to sharing an interview I had today with Julie Herres, who is the owner of Green Oak Accounting. Always such knowledge to bring to the field for practice owners mental health, going alongside your money concerns, and kind of, we're gonna talk a little bit about the summer slump, but really all kind of slumps.
And so when you're having those money fears, what do you do about that? What are changes you make? What are systems you need to be looking at? And we talk a little bit about Profit First, and so I'm looking forward to you hearing from her. So, but I wanted to talk to you a little bit about. In-person events because I recently got back from Chicago.
That was my first time ever going to Chicago and just loved it where I attended the Group Practice Scaling Summit. So shout out to Nate Hendricks and Brent Stutzman. Y'all hosted an awesome event and I got to have the honor of speaking at that event, and it was such a breath of fresh air in my life because I reconnected with people that I've known.
I also met new people and it's just so different than being on Zoom. I was inspired by the presentations that were given, the conversations that happen. These conversations can't be planned. They're, IM these ideas that come up. I came up with some ways I wanted to change the structure of some of my business and also things that I was excited about offering practice owners.
I was able to spend real quality time with my mastermind group, so when the conference ended. My current mastermind group, we've been together for around five years. Two of them flew into Chicago and we spent three to four more days together. We laughed. We had fun. We strategized, we were honest about our businesses and it reminded me of how much I love face-to-face moments like these, I.
This is why I host the Wise Practice Summit 'cause I love being together in person. It's gonna be this October, 2025 in Greenville, South Carolina. This is our signature event for faith-based practice owners wanting to grow, thriving, values driven businesses. You're gonna walk away from this summit with actionable strategies, meaningful connections, and spiritual refreshment, fueling both your business.
Your calling as a practice owner and clinician. We have top-notch sponsors and speakers, breakout sessions with workshops tailored to your phase of practice and or exactly what you wanna work on in your practice. Plenty of space for rest, connection, and dreaming bigger. We are gonna be on the Grand Bohemian along the river, right in downtown Greenville, South Carolina.
So whether you're a solo practice owner ready to scale, or you're leading a group practice, this event is for you. So the tickets are on sale now. The website is wise practice consulting.com, and you'll go and hit the summit button and there you can grab your tickets. Let's do this together. Let's build our practices, honor God, and let's have a really good time while we're doing it.
I'm looking forward to seeing you in Greenville. And until then. We're gonna keep getting here on the podcast, and I have Julie and Green Oak, who actually is also a sponsor at this year's event. So I'm looking forward to you hearing from her today on this episode where we're gonna talk about slumps in our practice.
Today on The Wise Practice Podcast, I have Julie Ayers, who's an expert in Profit First. She has helped hundreds of practice owners gain financial freedom. She's the founder of Green Oak Accounting, the country's largest firm serving the mental health industry. Julie is an accountant, consultant, speaker, author of Profit First for therapists, and host of the Therapy for Your Money podcast.
Julie, thanks for coming on the show, Whitney, it's gonna be here. Yeah. We always have such great conversations together around lots of things. And then today we're gonna talk about summer slumps. Yeah. And how that impacts therapists. I.
[00:05:27] Julie Herres: Yeah, so it's a really interesting financial thing, right, that most summers with, with just a handful of exceptions.
I would say 2020 was an exception where there was no summer slump because basically no one left their their house in 2020. But usually we see a summer slump financially, at least for our practice owners in the summer. And yet, most summers, it comes as a surprise to a lot of practice owners. Like, oh wait, what is happening?
Like. This happens every single year. This happens every year. We should not be surprised about it. We can prepare for it. And yeah. So that's what we're talking about today.
[00:06:04] Whitney Owens: Yeah. And we were talking a little bit about my practice before we got on and, and Julie, I would totally agree with you prior to like 2021, but I have found that every summer I don't, we have not slumped all that much.
Okay. Okay. Which has been surprising to me. But you know, it kind of comes back to some of those things that, that we're gonna talk about today to help practices not experience that summer slump.
[00:06:25] Julie Herres: Yeah. And, and today, I mean, just because of the, the time of year, we're talking about the summer slump, but we could also call it the winter slump, right?
During the holiday season, kinda mid-December to the second week of January. Like you can see slumps seasonally at various points in your practice. Also, depending on the type of practice you have, right? Practices with a lot of kids tend to see less clients right after school, just let out. And then a, you know, a big wave of clients coming in.
When school is back in. So it really just like, you can take the word summer out and apply this to any, any slump that you see in, in your business. Really.
[00:07:01] Whitney Owens: Yeah. Well, I think that's a good point. And even when things happen in the news, like, you know, when first they were talking about the tariffs Yeah. That, you know, did not last as long as we thought it was going to.
I even noticed a dip in calls those few days.
[00:07:16] Julie Herres: Yes. Yeah. That, that can have a big, that can have a really big impact. Yeah.
[00:07:20] Whitney Owens: Yeah. Well, great. And so what are some of the recommendations, things that we need to be thinking about to prevent slumps in our practice?
[00:07:28] Julie Herres: Yeah, I always think that looking back is going to give you a lot of, a lot of data.
And so if you have financial records, that would be, you know, QuickBooks Monthly reports or QuickBooks, zero Wave, whatever accounting platform that you are using, or even just a report from your accountant if you have that information available. Just looking back and seeing what happened. Last year, what happened the year before that?
Right? If you just do a report like the year, last year by month, it's gonna give you a lot of information. Both the gross income, that's all the dollars coming into the practice, and then your net income as well, right? So that it's the profit. How are those things varying year over year? And if you're able to do a comparison of, of that, you can really.
Quickly see some trends. Usually, sometimes it makes a lot of sense. Sometimes it doesn't make a lot of sense, but you can kind of see like, are there specific areas in your own practice where you can expect that you're going to make less money? And with that knowledge then you can go ahead and, and prepare for that, right?
If you know that these things are going to be likely happening, you can either, you can do a lot of things. Like one of those is you can ramp up your marketing right before that happens, right? To try to prevent it. See, can I. Counteract this and, and. Make, make it so that there is no slump. Can I save up knowing that that period of time is just going to be a little bit tighter?
And so I might need to have some funds either personally or in the business saved up knowing that we're just gonna have a, a, a small profit margin in that month and we should expect that. And so maybe that's not the month that we're making a big investment or starting a new program or moving into a new space, right?
You can kind of time things in a way that's going to align. To not be within that. But I think that the most of all, you can just know that and not be surprised if and when it, it does happen because you're, you're ready for it and you, you knew it, it was a possibility. And so you're not left, you know, needing the money to come in and not having that happen.
And so, you know, all three of those, those items are just ways that you can be proactive instead of being reactive and kind of freaking out about what's going on.
[00:09:37] Whitney Owens: Yeah, such a good suggestion. I'm like sitting here like, why haven't I ever done that before? Thank you for that. And you know, we were kind of talking a little bit about numbers earlier before we got on and I was kind of talking about my practice and you know, we get so fixated on that, how many clients are calling, how many, and, and I totally think practice centers need to be watching that, but.
If we're just watching that, we're missing part of this picture where you're talking about look at each month. Because like for us, the month of April, we actually get a little less inquiries than we did the previous April. But now hearing you talk, I'm like, yeah, but it was our best month ever. And so it's not always about looking at the inquiries, it's sometimes about looking at the money for each month.
'cause we can make a lot more money off retaining clients Better Yeah. Than getting them.
[00:10:28] Julie Herres: Yeah, and if you wanna really geek out, which is Uhhuh, definitely MySpace. I mean, you can grab the data from QuickBooks and just put that into a graph, right? And see like what is the graph doing? Are there any, any patterns there?
I think that can be, you know, a good way to see the information that you're trying to, to find. But to, to your point, Whitney, I mean we were chatting ahead of recording and I know that you mentioned you had less inquiries lost. Month. But you knew you had less inquiries last month. Right. Which one of the trends that we're seeing on the accounting side is when there are not.
Some strong systems, and not just financial systems, but strong systems in a, in a practice around attracting clients, converting clients, retaining clients around billing, right? Making sure that money is coming into the practice on a regular basis. And for private pay practice, that's just. Like, who's the one charging the, you know, charging the card, right?
It can be as simple as that, but as complex as like who's doing the verification of benefits and, and checking that people haven't lost their coverage, right. Those kinds of things. But when you have those strong systems and you're measuring the metrics, then I suspect that you found out like, Hey, these numbers are going down.
Probably months sooner than maybe a practice across town that just is not looking at those things and they just don't know. They just haven't noticed yet. Right, because you're, you're looking at the leading indicator, not the lagging indicator, which is like, oh, there's less cash available than usual.
[00:11:56] Whitney Owens: Hmm.
That's such a good point. Yeah. A lot of people, I mean, that goes all back to profit first. It's like you're looking at your bank account mm-hmm. And the one bank account, and that's all you're looking at, instead of looking at the data. About your practice that does influence the bank account.
[00:12:11] Julie Herres: Yeah. Yeah.
And when you know, like if you're just looking at session counts, for example, if, if you had, you know, 300 sessions last week and 200 this week, we know next week there's gonna be less money available. Like that's just how it's going to be in an insurance practice. It might even be a couple in a couple of weeks.
Like we know that dip is coming because numbers just went down that significantly.
[00:12:31] Whitney Owens: Yeah. And so we actually started implementing Practice Vital back in. Yes. Yeah. So we have loved having that integration and my clinical manager, he's on it like watching it more than me. He came up to me the other day. He was like, Whitney, before we get into May, 'cause you know, you and I are recording this in May.
He was like, I wanted to let you know that May is historically the month that we have the most cancellations and the most rescheduled. Oh. It's like, what an interesting statistic, but like what an important thing for us to know. Then we were able to meet with our staff and say, Hey, we wanna make y'all aware of this.
And we also know that people who have good retention are the ones that charge their clients the cancellation fee. And the ones that have poor retention are not charging the cancellation fees. 'cause a lot of people are like, well, I can't charge when they, I'm like, no, you need to charge them. They're actually more likely to return if you charge them.
[00:13:24] Julie Herres: That's so interesting. And, and I was not expecting. May. That is surprising to me, but what an interesting stat to have. So why do you think May, is it for you, so like graduation? Yes. Just like all the things that are Life is lifeing. That's right. That's right. Yeah.
[00:13:41] Whitney Owens: Okay.
[00:13:42] Julie Herres: Yeah, the schools,
[00:13:43] Whitney Owens: I mean, I know schools end at different times all over the place.
The schools here end next week.
[00:13:47] Julie Herres: Okay. So
[00:13:48] Whitney Owens: like the third week in May. And so I think that has a big part to do with it.
[00:13:52] Julie Herres: Okay. So like, possibly vacations, Memorial Day and graduations and all the end of year stuff. The, the concerts and the, and the things. Okay. I mean, that makes, that makes a lot of sense. I still would not have pegged.
May as being the, the highest cancellation. So you are just then going ahead, like getting proactive with it, talking about retention early. So do you think your clinicians are then in turn going to their clients and saying, Hey, let's look ahead at May. Why don't you look at your calendar and like, let's, let's make sure we, we can meet every week.
Is that what's happening?
[00:14:24] Whitney Owens: Well, I don't know. Maybe, I mean, what I said, you better charge 'em when they try. It's the last minute and I try to remind them like, Hey, you know, if five of y'all were not to do that, that's like some pay for your person taking your calls. Let's pay for these other things. So let's, let's all make sure we're paying attention to that because that money coming into the business really does allow us to do the things we need to do.
[00:14:47] Julie Herres: Yeah, yeah. Oh, that, that's really incredible. Yeah. That's the power of, of looking at what is happening. What's happening in the business in real time? Right.
[00:14:56] Whitney Owens: Most definitely.
[00:14:57] Julie Herres: Yeah. So knowing that, is this a time of year that you typically will hire? Well, good question, Julie,
[00:15:05] Whitney Owens: but actually we are hiring because one of our therapists has put in her notice, but we haven't announced it to the team yet.
Okay. The team will know by the time this airs, by the time it airs. Okay. Yeah, and she's one of our real heavy hitters. I mean, I'm gonna go with the top three revenue producers. Okay. It's good for her though. She's moving home actually closer to you, Julie. So she's in Richmond, so she'll be moving back to Richmond.
So we're really sad to have her go. But yeah, so I'm like, oh, we need to. Fill this role. She's actually MDR specialized and all that kinda stuff, so, so yes, we are actually hiring, but it is kind of a funny time to hire. But I'd be curious what you think. I, I think hiring when you're slow is great because you can invest more time and energy onto the onboarding process.
They're not so stressed out. The team's not so stressed out, and that way they can grow their caseload slowly instead of feeling like, boom, I just got 10 clients my first week.
[00:15:59] Julie Herres: Yeah. I mean, yes, I think that there's a lot, there is some benefit for you as the, as the practice owner. I, it, it depends on the compensation model as far as I'm concerned because if you are ending up paying someone for a lot of non-billable hours or, or hours where they're not seeing clients, that can get really expensive for the practice.
As well. Right? If you're paying them a lot of training hours. So I, it's kind of always a balance, right, of you've gotta get them in front of some clients soon so they can make some money. You can make some money. But yeah, that does give you, give you a little bit of space. I also think when, when things are slower, in general, it's a, it, it can be a time where you want to go, just go.
You know, change everything, but really it's often a time to stabilize and just shore up the things that are already there. Right. So take a deep dive into like, what is your intake process looking like these days, right? Like, maybe you haven't done it as the business owner for a while, but we, we, I know we were recommending to many of our clients in the last quarter, like, have your friend.
Go to your website and like go through the whole process. What is it clear what they have to do? Are they calling and it's taking two days for someone to get back to them? Like what does that process actually look like from them reaching out to your team, to them actually hear from hearing from someone or getting scheduled and see if it, if that's what you expected or, or intended.
Because like when, when things are going. You know, as gangbusters as you want it, that's a great time to go look at that and then make improvements in, in the process too. Mm-hmm.
[00:17:33] Whitney Owens: Yeah. So it's kind of making, taking advantage of the space, maybe mentally. Yeah. And. Time to really look at some of the things that might be going on in your business, revamping your website.
I mean, I just went and looked at my website and I was like, oh gosh, that thing that I thought was on there isn't on there anymore. We need to fix that. Like it's amazing how things can change. You didn't even realize they changed or you weren't aware and just doing those regular. Audits.
[00:17:57] Julie Herres: Yeah. And I don't know if this ever happens to you, but it has happened to me many, many times where you, you know, you change something and you think you change it everywhere and you're like, oh yeah, we did talk about that over here.
And like, and you know, a year later you realize, oh wait, this page is inaccurate, but you know, or this, whatever it may be like, oh, there's always things to fix and shore up. Yeah.
[00:18:20] Whitney Owens: A hundred percent. Well, that's also from our Enneagram oneness. Yeah.
[00:18:24] Julie Herres: Yeah. Yes, yes. Yeah. And I mean, Whitney, you know me, I, I would be remiss if I didn't also say, you know, in, in small business, it's not a question of if there will be a financial downturn there, it is a question of when, right?
Like something is going to happen at some point. Whether it is, you know, changed healthcare last year or a. Hurricane comes through your town and you have to cancel sessions for a week or whatever it may be, right? Like at some point something is going to happen. And so the, the more you can plan ahead for an emergency, the better.
And that usually means from a financial standpoint, like just having an emergency fund in the business, right where you are not waiting for today's deposits to come through to pay tomorrow's payroll, because that's just a really stressful way to live. And then if anything happens, anything goes wrong.
You can't make those payments and the business is immediately at risk. So I generally recommend two to three months worth of expenses as. An emergency fund in the business. And so notice I didn't say two to three months worth of income, right? Expenses. So it's a smaller amount. It's still a big amount of money, and it takes time to build that up.
But I can tell you no, every time there's been that kind of big, sweeping challenge, there's a really big difference between. The attitude of someone who is worried but knows that their business is going to survive, versus someone who like can't even make payroll next week, won't be able to make their credit card payment, like won't be able to make rent.
Like there's just a really big difference in the anxiety level and the panic as well.
[00:19:56] Whitney Owens: Mm-hmm.
[00:19:57] Julie Herres: Yeah,
[00:19:58] Whitney Owens: most definitely. And so if a practice owner is kind of in a slump, do you have any other specific suggestions of things that they could do to improve that? Maybe even from a financial standpoint? Like should they review their expenses or what should they cut out?
Or is it bad time to invest in some coaching or marketing endeavors? 'cause I think a lot of people think, well, I'm in a slump. I shouldn't invest in this, but maybe they should.
[00:20:22] Julie Herres: Yeah. So I think it's always a good idea to look at your expenses. However, as the business owner, you also have. The, the innate ability to go generate money as well, right?
So sometimes I think too many business owners will go down the rabbit hole of, well, let me spend an hour on the phone with Comcast to try to get $20 off of my internet bill when like, that's a whole hour that you could've been. You know, talking to one of the doctors that refers all the time to you and telling them like, Hey, we have immediate availability, dropping some donuts off at their front desk.
Right? Like, doing something that will actually generate hundreds of dollars to save 20 bucks. So I think it can be a good idea. And like if there's waste eliminated, right? There's subscriptions, you're not using it using like get rid of those. Great. But I think as the business. Owner, a lot of your effort needs to be on income generating activities, and that might be working on your, your SEO or building ads or figuring out like what is the thing that is going to get people in the, in the door.
Or it could be like working with your. Your team and looking at, you know, building a list of who are the clients that we haven't seen in at least six months and like, can we each reach out to five people and try to get them back on the schedule? Right. Whatever that may look like for, for, for your practice.
Like those are income generating activities that can have a, a true effect and impact almost immediately in the practice.
[00:21:48] Whitney Owens: Yes. And all those things you said don't cost a lot of money.
[00:21:52] Julie Herres: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Truly, like looking at your website costs $0. Right. Networking with the physicians that already refer to you, like almost zero do.
Right? How much is a dozen donuts at Dunkin? I, I don't, I don't know, like eight, $12 and no more than $12. I can, I would think, who knows? But you know, like it's, they're just not super expensive things that you can do to make some money.
[00:22:16] Whitney Owens: Yeah, I love that. I started working with the practice owner pretty recently.
She's a group owner in Texas, and she was like, I just need inquiries. I need inquiries and I need them now. Mm-hmm. And I was like, okay. And so I went through like three, four things like I want you to update your Psychology Today profile. And I kind of walked through the copy because our copy wasn't really hitting the pain points.
Let's change your headshot. You know, because your husband's not very professional. And then we need to do the Google reviews. Let's just get three or four, like just ask a few people. Send 'em the link. Here's your copy. Look, Chachi PT can tell you exactly what to say to ask people for reviews and oh, and then we audited her intake process.
You know what you were just saying? Yeah. What you find. She immediately got five new referrals in like three days.
[00:23:01] Jingle: Oh my gosh.
[00:23:02] Whitney Owens: Amazing. And I was, and she, she vox her message, she was like, oh my gosh, it's a miracle. It happened so fast. I did it with another girl two weeks earlier. The same exact quick these things.
And she had the same thing happen. She had like, she had three people reach out, but like, I was like, yes. Like this is great. And so I think what you're saying is like, there's so many simple things we can do and we freak out looking at the money and waste our time and all these other. Things. Yeah.
[00:23:25] Julie Herres: Yeah, yeah.
And, and I, I see often in therapist Facebook groups, someone will say like, oh, I'm not, I, I'm not getting any referrals from Psychology Today. Like, and that's possible, right? But like, that's $30 a month, and like, when's the last time you looked at it? Like, is it, you know, accurate? Your picture looks like it's from 1992, your, you know, to your point, I'm like.
Okay, you're spending, but you know, reducing that expense of $30 a month, that's not usually a good expense to reduce. Right? Like, what is the best, are you gonna get a much better bang for your buck if you get one single client from that? Like, you're gonna make your money back And so, yeah. Yeah, that's where I get, I get a little bit hesitant with reducing expenses.
It's like, it depends what it is, right? Like if you are reducing this thing that could potentially bring you a lot of clients, that's not good. Mm-hmm.
[00:24:19] Whitney Owens: Definitely. And, and it can be sad 'cause I think a lot of people pull back even on their marketing sometimes. Yeah. It's like, that's the thing that's actually helping you or business consulting.
Well that's the thing that's helping you think through these things and make those changes. And so we sometimes, I guess, shoot ourselves in the foot, you know, get into a worse situation than we were in because we start pulling back from everything.
[00:24:40] Julie Herres: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's easy to do that. Like professional services are sometimes on the, you know, on the table as well, or like, oh, well this my ad manager, like, they're not getting any results, so I'm going to just, I'm not gonna work with them anymore.
Like, sometimes that is the right decision for your business. Right. But that should be a decision based on, on data, not just on, it's not working. Like, have you seen improvement Sometimes, a lot of times. With ads, with coaching, like it takes time, right? It's not an overnight fix, just like on the accounting side.
Like we can help turn things around, but it's also not, we're not gonna fix a three year tax problem overnight. That's just not possible, right? It's gonna take a couple months and you're, it's probably gonna get a little worse before it gets better, but it's fixable if you're, if you give it enough time.
[00:25:25] Whitney Owens: Yeah, so, so kind of this goes into knowing your numbers, talking about Profit First, which we, we talk a lot about and people, there's previous episodes of us talking about that. Yes. But knowing your numbers is what allows you to know how to use your money. I.
[00:25:41] Julie Herres: Yeah, absolutely it does. And, and it, you know, profit versus I, I, I'm biased, but a very simple way to figure out what's going on in your business, right?
It quickly shows you the ebb and flow. How much money is coming in on a regular basis, whether that's weekly, biweekly, monthly, how much money is going out, where is that money going? Where am I spending more than I thought? Where am I spending less than I thought? But just having that knowledge allows you to become a better.
Business owner, right? A better steward of your practice. And I would even say like. Become the, the business owner that your practice needs you to be. 'cause a lot of, a lot of therapists just don't have a business degree, nor nor should you, you don't need one. But once you're a business owner, you need to fill those shoes too.
And so it just allows you to do that in a, in a better way and ensure that the business is okay. I, I think once you put that business owner hat on and you become a business owner, your primary responsibility is to ensure. The, the, the livelihood of that business, right? Like your first job is to make sure that that business can survive and continues to survive because that affects.
Everyone around you, your clients, your clinicians, your team members, your admin, right? And so if you are not putting that as, as one of the very first priorities, you are putting it your business at risk every single day ultimately, and your own livelihood, right? Like, I didn't even mention that. That's a very, very.
Important one too, but like everyone who depends on that business is at risk, so. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
[00:27:06] Whitney Owens: Well, what I love about Profit First is it's a percentage based system. Yeah. So even if we're having a slump or we're having a, a great month, like it allows me to organize my money and invest it in certain accounts based on the percentage of what came in that month, not based on just an actual amount.
So I found that so effective in being a practice owner.
[00:27:26] Julie Herres: Yeah. What I also really like is that the, the Good Months help. You go through the bad months, right? It's if, if you, if you think of the, the envelope system that maybe your grandmother taught you, right? Or like where sometimes you're putting in a little bit more than you need and when you're having a great, a good month and that's great, and you just leave it there because sometimes there's a month where like something happened, right?
If you were thinking about it from a personal perspective is like maybe. The, the car needs a new muffler or a new, a new whatever, right? And like there's this unexpected $700 expense, but like, okay, we've got, there's money tucked away for that. And it's really the same in the business where the, in the good months, you're not just taking all that money home or spending or saying like, oh, let me go.
Find new things to spend the money on. You're just saying like, it's gonna hang out here because at some point there will be a slump or a slow down, or I will need it, or an emergency, or someone's gonna go on leave unexpectedly and it's going to help you get through that. Definitely.
[00:28:25] Whitney Owens: Well, you have a course right for therapists and Profit First Academy.
[00:28:29] Julie Herres: I do. Yeah. So we have, I teach Profit First, first in the book, profit First for therapists. But we developed this, the Academy is a, a course in a membership group where we work one-on-one with therapists practice owners to help them implement profit first in their, in their practice. So everything that I know is in the, in the book, you can implement it with a book alone.
But I just found that a lot of practice owners were reaching out to us and saying, I really would love. You and your team support, and I want to know that I'm doing things right and I'm setting things up in the right way. And so Profit First Academy is where we do all that. We have weekly office hours where you can get one-on-one support.
We have a lot of additional training. I do a monthly q and a in, in that group as well where I teach on a little piece of profit first and then answer member questions. And so it's a, it's a great time and you can get that at Profit first for therapists.com/academy.
[00:29:23] Whitney Owens: Great. And is that open at any time?
Can people kind of come in and
[00:29:25] Julie Herres: out? It is open at any time. No long-term commitment. You can join for a month or for a three or for six or for forever if you like.
[00:29:33] Whitney Owens: Yeah. So do you need to be at a certain level in your private practice to benefit from that or be making a certain amount of money to benefit from that?
[00:29:40] Julie Herres: No, we actually have members who are just starting their practice right now and they have heard of Profit First and they wanna start. With this system in the, you know, on day one. So really we, we support members everywhere from day one until like multimillion dollar a year practices. So, because we will meet you wherever you are in your practice, right?
What is the challenge that you're facing? Let's, let's tackle that. That's, yeah. So I think. The best time to implement profit. Profit first is when you first start the practice, and then the next best time is, is today. Right? Because like we can't go back in the past. So today's the next, next best time.
[00:30:19] Whitney Owens: I love that.
I love that. And, and you know, Julia, I had the honor of, you know, you interviewing me for the book and we talked about profit. Yes. I always think in the book Think Yes. So I always like to think back on like how much anxiety I gave myself about implementing Profit First and how simple it was. And I like say this to practice centers all the time.
It really is just walking into the bank and setting up the accounts. It took like an hour and I worried about it for like six months.
[00:30:44] Julie Herres: Yeah. Yeah. Yes, I remember. Yeah, I remember that you did. And it was so simple. I'm gonna share a little secret with you. It's not, I, it's not public yet. I am just finishing, I just finished writing a workbook to accompany Profit first for therapists.
So we're, I get like all the way in the weeds, like. All the way down. We're going, we're going all the way in the details of like every little thing because there's so much overthinking. So we're just gonna do it all together, like step by step by step, like even more nitty gritty. And that will be out in October.
[00:31:16] Whitney Owens: Oh my gosh, that's so cool. Well, you're like my hero because you create all these amazing things for therapists and I just love it. So when does it come out? Does it come out in time for the summit?
[00:31:27] Julie Herres: It will be available. What's available for presale now? So you can go on Amazon or anywhere books are sold or most places book books are sold and pre-order, it'll be out October 21st.
[00:31:37] Whitney Owens: Okay. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. So Green Oak will also be sponsoring the Wise Practice Summit. Yes. And so Sarah's coming, correct?
[00:31:45] Julie Herres: Yeah. We're excited to be there. Yeah. Our team will will be there to chat with all the attending practice owners, and I think this will be our fourth year at. Practice Summit. So excited to be with you again.
[00:31:58] Whitney Owens: Yeah. Wonderful. I just think there's such an advantage to attending a event like this and being able to walk up to the sponsor tables and ask all the questions, get all the information so you will have someone there to answer all your money, your money needs, your profit first needs right there, and I don't think this is a secret.
We can cut this part if it is. Yeah. You're hosting a conference, correct?
[00:32:19] Julie Herres: I am, yes. Okay. Yes, so I mean, I'm a. I'm a big fan of, of in-person live conferences. I mean, and Whitney, your event is just so much fun every, every year. So you put on a great event, and I just think there are not enough live events for, for therapists these days.
Like there's just fewer, fewer and farther between. And so I teamed up with Joshua Brummel from Therapy Flow, and we are hosting a live event in Chicago, September 4th and fifth. It's called Group Practice Con. You can find it online as well, but for. Practice owners who are scaling. So kind of in that million dollar plus mean annual revenue.
So we're looking at like really the challenges of that scaling practice, both financially from a recruiting standpoint, from a marketing standpoint as well. And so yeah, that's a new, new event coming soon.
[00:33:07] Whitney Owens: Well, I'm excited for both of y'all 'cause I think the world of both of you, so I'm sure it's gonna be an amazing event in Chicago and September.
That's a pretty good time to go, right? Yes.
[00:33:16] Julie Herres: That's a beautiful time of year in Chicago. Yeah, I'm excited for that too.
[00:33:20] Whitney Owens: Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show, all the information. It's always a pleasure to talk with you.
[00:33:26] Julie Herres: Thanks for having me.
[00:33:30] Jingle: So click on follow and leave a review. I keep on loving this work we do with Whitney Owens and Wise Practice podcast, Whitney Owen Wise Practice Podcast.
[00:33:49] Whitney Owens: Special thanks to Marty Altman for the music in this podcast. The Wise Practice Podcast is part of the Site Craft Podcast network. A collaboration of independent podcasters focused on helping people live more meaningful and productive lives. To learn more about the other amazing podcasts in the network, head on over to site craft network.com.
The Wise Practice Podcast represents the opinions of Whitney Owens and her guests. This podcast is for educational purposes only, and the content should not be taken as legal advice. If you have legal questions, please consult an attorney.
