(meat and potatoes at the end, so read on!)

Until you run a practice like mine, you may not be able to appreciate how important contact management software is.  Every week, I get anywhere from 20 – 40 phone calls from potential clients.  Many of these have found me via my website, and the others have been referred by people who refer frequently.

My process is to retrieve the message, enter the information into my software, and call the client back.  Obvious, right?  But as we talk, I am also noting what the call is about, where they found me, and what the outcome is.  Some of them become my clients, some go to others in my practice.  Some need to find out more information or want to call back.  Some can’t afford us and are referred to our local free clinic or university counseling center. [click to continue…]

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As I mentioned in my last post, I have used Goldmine, a “contact management” software program for many years. However, it is no longer supported for small single users like me, and so it won’t work if I need to get a new computer with Windows 7.

Before I tell you what I’ve been looking at, and what I’ve chosen, let me explain what a contact manager does. Picture an old-fashioned Rolodex or card file, with a separate card for each person you deal with, or contact. The file stores their name, address, phone, number, email address, and any other information you may want to keep. Sounds pretty basic, right? You may even have all that information stored in your phone. (I’ll be posting in the near future about the HIPAA and other security concerns our smartphones create.) [click to continue…]

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I have been away from the blog, and the whole Practice \Success Tools website, for longer than I care to admit. I knew that April and May were going to be very busy with family activities, but a chance remark by my husband sent me off in a technology direction that I hadn’t expected. The good news is, now my readers to get to benefit from my hard work and research. And isn’t that the point of Practice Success Tools anyway?

Some background: If you’ve browsed the website very thoroughly, you may have figured out that I am a big believer in using what is called Contact Management software. In a nutshell, this is like a Rolodex and to-do list combined and on steroids. It’s what I use to keep track of client calls, referral sources, documents and email addresses associated with these, and the tasks that go with them. For many many years I’ve used a product called Goldmine, and it has served me well. In conjunction with it, I used a Palm Pilot Tungsten E to do my calendaring. As a full-time private practice therapist, my main need is for calendaring, and nothing does it better than a Palm Pilot.

But alas, nothing lasts forever, and though my current tools are still going strong, my husband happened to remark that neither one of these, Goldmine or Palm Pilot, are usable in a Windows 7 environment. I am using Windows XP at home and XP Pro at work, but what happens if one of my computers were to suddenly crash and die? We all know that can happen. All my data is backed up, but if I need to buy a new computer, my two main tools aren’t going to work, and that would be extremely unpleasant in a crisis environment.

I believe in planning ahead and being prepared, so I have been researching how to transition my entire professional toolset (at least the behind-the-scenes part) and it has been time-consuming, to say the least. I am happy to report that I have gotten it pretty well figured now, and am in the process of final testing before I begin the big transition. In upcoming posts I’ll be letting you know programs and devices I’ve looked at, what I’ve decided on, and the pros and cons that I see to various options.

Thanks for your patience!

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Should therapists have a Facebook page? Lots of people are talking about this, and there is no single correct answer. There’s a great article about internet privacy, especially concerning Google and Facebook, in the Washington Post that gives some good advice.

As regards Facebook pages, it seems like the main issue is how to keep your personal and business lives separate, and it really is important.  Take a look at this bulletin board exchange by some people regarding their therapists’ Facebook pages.  After that you may want to go and check your privacy settings, if you use Facebook at all.  And be aware, Facebook has once again changed its rules for privacy.  It’s complicated!

For a quick way to see what the public can see, take a look at this site.  Be aware that Facebook itself says “Please note that applications will always be able to access your publicly available information (Name, Profile Picture, Gender, Current City, Networks, Friend List, and Pages) and information that is visible to Everyone.”

For more information about Facebook settings and the recent changes, here’s a great article, and another.  Here’s a blog all about Facebook for Business .  I’d be interested in hearing people’s comments about all this.  To be honest, I am a rookie with Facebook for business, and it seems a little tricky at times.

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Have you ever had a computer crash?  Have you ever lost all your data?

Now, imagine it’s not just your own personal data, but all your client information, notes, billing information, practice financial information …. not a pleasant scenario.

If you are running a business, and I think you are, then you absolutely must back your data.  If you are like most of us, you may think that you will remember to do this, but you probably won’t.  So an automatic, “hands-free” back-up plan is best. [click to continue…]

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I’m excited about the response so far to Practice Success Tools. With very little time to devote to publicity, we are steadily gaining members every week. Some of you, as you sign up, are listing what you need to improve your practice. If you haven’t done so, please feel free to comment here (or on other blog posts as they are posted).

Obviously the primary need for all of us as therapists is to have more clients, in order to have more income. But we want to have the right sort of clients. What does this mean? [click to continue…]

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More clients? Probably … but other areas are important too, and we neglect them at our peril.

We all care about how make our practices successful. There are so many different areas to be concerned with that it is easy to get overwhelmed and do nothing. Take a deep breath … and let’s work together to make it manageable! [click to continue…]

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Part of running any business is paying taxes.  We’ll be talking in coming posts about different aspects of this, to help simplify what can seem really confusing at first.

What are 1099 forms?  [click to continue…]

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