Creating Your Identity and Building Your Therapy Practice

You are starting out as a new therapy practice and business owner.  What should you name your practice?  This is an often asked question on many facebook sites by current and new business owners in the field of therapy (speech therapy clinics and more).

Shakespeare said it best “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

Many contributors to the social media sites will often suggest google word frequency and the like.  Choosing a name is important and is more than a word search and catchy phrase.  With so many professionals opting in private practice, for various reasons, the business owner has to go deeper than a name.  This is about IDENTITY.

IDENTITY and BRAND.

Who are you really?  What is your practice mission?  What is the philosophy?  What do you want the perception of you to be?  What is your message?

These are all questions to answer in deriving your practice name.  Delving deeper in understanding your Identity and Brand will:

• Drive your marketing products, engagement, and appearances.
  
• Position you as the niche or general therapist by your message…attracting your ideal clients.
• Help you better understand your ideal client rather than saying yes to all those who call to inquire about and for your services.
• Give you insight into how to package or frame your services, making you distinguishable from your colleagues and competitors.

When you open your practice, you may be inclined to accept all calls because of the reality of time, space, and income.  When your identity and brand are undefined by you, they become defined by “I need and want clients”.  This does not create a best match scenario and may create more headache because the ideal client-therapist fit did not occur.  The same can be explained by hiring and on boarding staff, you begin to move beyond “I need more people” and towards a fit for identity, mission, and brand promotion.

And yes, operationally speaking

• The name or tagline should be clear of hyphens and unclear messaging. 
• Your identity and brand products should be consistent.
• Visual tagging and symbolic memory should be part of the logo imagery (when people see the logo, they know it’s you)
• If the brand has a certain level of marketing attraction, flyer hanging with phone number tags may be inconsistent with the messaging. 

You want to get your practice name in the community.  You want to get out there.  There are many many factors that drive the business owner in frenzied calm, but going deeper than name is essential in building your brand and displaying your identity.

Happy Name Selection!

And remember to THRIVE and not just Survive as you move towards awesome practice building!

~Landria, The SLP GURU