How to Give Yourself a Pay Rise in Private Practice

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Money tends to land in your business in drips and drabs, and if you have ever handed your accountant a shopping bag full of paper receipts once a year and then spent the next few weeks working just to pay the tax bill (I did exactly that in my first years in private practice), this episode is for you. I walk you through how to give yourself a pay rise in private practice, and it starts with seeing that the money coming in is a response, both to how you see yourself and to how well you are stewarding your private practice finances. We look at why reactive money decisions keep you stuck under a financial thermostat, why you need to separate your business and personal bank accounts, and how to pay yourself a weekly wage through a scheduled payment so the money for tax, GST and business expenses stays put in your business account, which is also why the last quarter of the year is such a good time to build these foundations.

Then we get into the numbers, because it is very easy to look at a $200 session fee and assume the whole $200 is yours. I pulled together a rough breakdown of how much therapists take home per session in Australia, and the take-home pay after tax, Medicare, bookkeeping fees, business expenses and super is sobering: about $37 from an $80 session, $46 from $100, $55 from $120, $69 from $150 and $92 from $200. From there you can work out what it costs to fund your personal life, add 10% for the things you have forgotten, and calculate how many clients you need to see each week to cover it, and you will see why charging your cancellation fee is so important to your income. I also share why you need to track your income so you can feel safe with money, and what to do when your fees are right but you still need more clients through the door, which is where my 90 day sprint comes in. You can explore my group programs at https://brooklynstorme.com/group-programs, and do grab the companion guide in the show notes for resources to help you build financial systems for private practice that leave you feeling safe.

Keywords used: how to give yourself a pay rise in private practice, private practice finances, pay yourself a weekly wage, separate your business and personal bank accounts, how much therapists take home per session in Australia, take-home pay after tax, how many clients you need to see each week, cancellation fee, financial systems for private practice, track your income

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