The calculator above will help you play with all these numbers and give some recommendations to help you. We’re only offering this to the public for a short time, then it will be exclusively within our membership community The Practice Academy. 

So you’re busy in your private practice and it seems like you should hire, but you’re not sure when it’s the right time? 

There are so many factors that go into hiring a private practice therapists: 

• What is their niche?
• Do you have the intake flow to support the hire? 
• Do you have space in your private practice? 
• Do you have operational systems? 
• 1099 or W2 and How much to pay a therapist? 

If you’re not sure how much counselors make, this calculator will help >>> 

When I think about hiring, it’s usually when you or your other therapists are 60% full. Imagine this:

Today in your private practice, your therapist is 60% full, they do EMDR and trauma work with adults. You have a steady flow of 1-2 referrals a week and almost 100% convert to work with them, your therapist is charging $150 per session and after all your costs, you get about 25%. That means that every session you get $150 x 25% = $37.50 

Let’s walk through why you should start hiring your next therapist when counselors are 60% full, not completely full. 

1. Today: 60% full post for another therapist
2. 1-2 weeks: People start applying and your therapist is now 70% full 
3. 3-4 weeks: Review applications, invite to interview, decide on final candidate, your therapist is now 80% full 
4. 5-6 weeks: Make offer and new counselor wants to give 2-4 weeks notice or can only start 1 day a week until they sort out their other job situation. Or maybe they will start slow with you and take their time growing depending on what model you have for paying your therapists. Your other therapist is now 90% full. 
5. 7-8 weeks: You onboard the new therapist, get them in the EHR, double check training, licensure, get payroll set-up, they start seeing 1-2 clients. Your other therapist is 100% full. 

Bam! 

So in the calculator above, I’ve put together what I use with my consulting clients, a proven roadmap to predict when to hire, how much you’ll make, and plan for growth. Of course, I don’t know your exact situation so we’re applying our best math and knowledge to help (my way of saying, it’s not guaranteed per my attorney). 

What you’ll need, if you don’t have these do your best guess and play with the numbers, sometimes it’s fun to see if we raised the intake calls by one per week, what would that do to the bottom line? : 

• How far out do you want to plan your hiring of therapists? 
• Average number of new intake calls/emails per week 
• What percent of therapy clients convert to schedule an intake?
• What percent of therapy clients how up? 
• Average you are reimbursed per session
• How many sessions does the average person come for therapy? 
• What do you consider “full” for your therapists? 

That’s pretty much it, the rest walks you through how to know when to hire your next therapist for your private practice.