Anthony Centore

In the previous column, we discussed the importance of building a sellable private practice, and we looked at formulas for valuing a service business. In this column, we’ll review 11 ways that you can make your business worth top dollar to an acquirer.

If you’re just getting started in private practice, selling your counseling business is possibly the last thing on your mind. However, it’s never too early to start laying the groundwork for building a counseling practice that will someday be attractive to an acquirer. In fact, realizing at the beginning that there will one day be an ending is good forethought.

While some counselors today are reaching for their pens and notepads, others are reaching for their laptops. With the help of Electronic Health Record (EHR) and Practice Management (PM) software, counselors are trashing their metal filing cabinets and announcing that they’re “going green!” Eco-friendship aside, a good EHR-PM program can help a practice to organize files, improve treatment planning, measure client sessions and attrition, monitor client balances and accounts relievable, track authorizations, file insurance claims, schedule appointments, and more…or at least that’s what it says on the box!

I don’t like risk, and the risks of opening a new practice are many. We need the right location, the right staff, the right operations, the right credentialing, and even the right marketing. The failure of any one of these key areas will cripple the project. While risk abounds, I try not to fear it, and over the years I’ve improved (perhaps only slightly) in my ability to access and manage it. In this column, I’ll write what I know about risk as it relates to business in the counseling profession.

A question I’m often asked by counselors is whether they should specialize. That is, should they focus their counseling practice in a specific area? It’s a hard question to answer, as even successful business people disagree. In this column, I’ll describe four ways that counselors can specialize, and offer some insights into how specializing can help (or hurt) a counseling practice.