You've trained with us to become a hypnotherapist and now you want to get started. You want to help people with their problems. Whether these are emotional problems, fears or even coaching to become a better person, athlete or entrepreneur. It's all possible. Where do you need to do it and how do you make sure you get clients? Because that1st client, once that is successful the rest will follow.
In this blog, I discuss some of the factors that are important to your practice.
Space
Hypnosis is something you do with other people. You can do it through a Skype call, but of course the most effective is a hypnosis session where you are face-to-face with your clients. Do you let them move, how much personal space do you and your client need? A 2-by-2-meter room might be the most inexpensive, but is that enough for a pleasant experience?
Then you have the question of whether you can get a space that is completely private, or rather one that you share with other people. Sometimes a communal reception is nice, but there may be people who find this annoying.
Is a space in your home sufficient too?
Depending on your target audience, you can choose home or private locations.
Speaking of location, where in the Netherlands will you have your practice? Is it somewhere close to public transportation, a highway or just in the middle of nowhere?
Budget
Then there's the budget. Especially if you're just starting out, chances are you're doing this while still part-time employed somewhere. So how much budget do you have, for all things? How much money do you have for renting a space and everything that comes with it.
Your marketing, your advertising, also requires a budget. For example, a website is useful to be found and for that you need a hosting server and you may need to hire someone to set up your website, write text and give it a nice look.
Fortunately, you can also charge for the hypnosis sessions themselves. Therefore, think carefully about how much your time is worth, and if that is filled how much you will be left to live on yourself after all costs for your location and advertising are incurred.
Can you borrow money for certain things you just need right away? Or can you also quietly save it together?
Marketing
While we are on the subject of advertising, this is another area that needs attention. To get clients, it is important that people with a problem you can solve know you exist. There are several ways to make your name known, both offline and online.
Offline, for example, networking is important. Especially if you are just starting out, you can go to free networking groups with other entrepreneurs to talk about your business and ask other entrepreneurs about their experiences.
This networking isn't just fun for your marketing. It's also fun to share experiences with other entrepreneurs and to learn from each other about how business works. After all, your own practice is obviously helping people as well as a business. This way you can find people who will help you, for example, with your bookkeeping or other practical things you run into.
In addition, you can advertise in local magazines and newspapers that you exist, especially if you want your clients to be mostly from your area.
Online, you can also do a lot about your marketing. Social media, blogging and your email are virtually free and you can reach an awful lot of people. With a small budget, you can already advertise on most social media channels.
What kind of clients would you like to have?
While you're at it with your marketing, it's also helpful to know what kind of client you want to target. Do you want to help people in general? Or do you want to specialize and focus on specific problems, such as:
Or anything not even among this small list. In fact, on the type of client you want, you can customize your marketing so that it also appeals to people with those problems you can and want to solve.
This can also be a good way to be "different" from other hypnotists in your area, making you stand out to people looking for a hypnosis expert.
Planning
I once read a story of a coach who had just started, but her lack of clients meant she just stayed in bed all day. So it was not a success. That first client doesn't come out of the blue, either.
Therefore, it is important to have a schedule about what you should be doing with your day of practice when you don't have clients yet and when you do have clients.
What will you do if you don't have clients yet? Are you going to focus on your marketing? On blogging, vlogging or scheduling posts on social media? On networking with people in your community and connecting with professionals who can refer their clients to you if they can't do anything with it?
How will you organize your days when you do have clients? Then don't forget that your marketing needs continuity so that people know about you when you have a dip in your client base?
Keep practicing
In addition, it is important to get your skills right and keep them right. So keep developing yourself. Take advanced training (for example, here), read books about the problems you want to solve and, of course, about hypnosis (read my book if necessary).
There are many developments going on in the hypnosis world at the moment. A few years of not working on your skills can cause you to fall behind in your knowledge. Regular continuing education will do an awful lot for you and your clients.
Therefore, plan development moments in your calendar and find helpful events and trainings that you can use to continue developing yourself.
The Comfortable Chair
Last and certainly not least is the comfortable chair. Your clients are putting you under hypnosis and should be distracted as little as possible by anything that can take them out of that hypnosis. A comfortable chair works wonders in that regard, just make sure the chair prevents them from falling asleep (then of course the whole session won't work). Sitting a little upright is not a bad thing.
As a hypnotherapist, you too have to do a lot of thinking and pay attention to signals from your client about how the hypnosis is going. Therefore, it is helpful if you yourself have a comfortable chair that ensures that you can keep your focus firmly on what you are doing.
With all these tips, you should come quite a long way in starting your own hypnosis practice. Do you actually have absolutely no knowledge of hypnosis yet, but want to have a practice to help people? Then come to a hypnosis playshop (in Wormerveer or Zwolle) to see if hypnosis suits your practice.
On the contrary, if you want to learn more immediately (or even continue your development) see if one of our events or trainings is for you.
