A growing Reiki practice is great, however, it’s also important to have a practice that is ready for growth. If your practice is growing without preparation, then you may find yourself scrambling to keep up with the growth and the associated administration tasks that might come with increased business.

The best way to accommodate growth in your Reiki private practice is to have a plan. With a plan, you can ensure you can respond to the growth in business as well as have more control over your growth.

To illustrate this point with an example – assume you want to hold a Reiki workshop for 20 participants. You create your advertisement and send out your marketing materials. The responses and questions come rolling in but you might not have anticipated the response and you find yourself late at night responding to emails, social media messages, and listening to voicemails.

With a little preparation, you could mitigate some of these tasks through pre-written FAQs, automatic responses, and a landing page for respondents to sign up for a newsletter list that you can use to keep in contact with all your potential participants.

Of course, another point is to consider whether you are ready for conducting a 20 person workshop as described in our example.

Knowing what you want to achieve and the resources you have available to achieve it is integral to developing your plan for growing your Reiki practice. Before you expand your Reiki practice, it is helpful to establish a solid foundation within your business so that it can cope with future growth.

There are many aspects of your business including client work, administrative work, and business development. Your client work will impact all other aspects of your business. As you gain more clients, you also gain more administrative work and business development opportunities.

Below are some common areas that you can identify for growth within your business:

• Income – money flowing into your practice
• Profit – the net result of your income minus your expenses. You can increase profit by increasing income or decreasing expenses
• Product or service offers – diversifying income across client work, workshops, ebooks, physical products, and others
• Brand awareness – increasing your brand awareness in your local community or online
• Reiki practice locations – open new locations or expand reach through online services
• Business practices – improve technology, hire admin staff, streamline procedures

As a business owner, it’s important to identify what areas you want to grow. For most businesses, growing income is the primary goal, however, there can be other aspects of your business that you might want to grow.

Your growth plan should contain the below fundamental items:

• Identify the growth you want
• Allocating specific parameters of growth, eg. $10,000 income increase, 2 more staff members, new office in Brisbane
• Resource requirements to implement the plan, eg. financial, people, etc
• Timeline to implement specific actions and overall goal – annual goals are the most useful, followed by 5 year goals
• Review the progress made along with remaining flexible to change plans where necessary

Remember that your success in achieving goals is also affected by your ability to pursue change and learn new things. You can develop a great plan, however, you also need to be aware of your personal limitations in executing your plan. If you feel this area is lacking, then you may want to engage in a business coach or some other resource to help support you in your plans.

It’s also useful to remember that plans are allowed to change. You may begin your plan with the intention to hire more staff, however, you may decide to postpone that strategy until other goals are achieved first.

Flexibility and adaptability are fundamental to success when starting new things. If our thinking remains inflexible, we will find difficult moments more stressful which in turn impacts our desire to pursue change.

Below is an example of an action plan for growing your Reiki practice:

GOAL 1: IMPROVE CUSTOMER SERVICE

• Action: Update our website and implement a plan to respond to all queries within 48 hours.
• Completion date: September 15th
• Person responsible: Mary

GOAL 2: GENERATE MORE INCOME

• Plan A – Create a monthly newsletter to highlight new booking process and promotions
• Action: Create newsletter template, create promotion calendar, outline content to include in 6 newsletters
• Completion date: October 31st
• Person responsible: Sue

• Plan B – Expand product/service offers
• Action: Identify a list of potential products/services to offer
• Completion date: October 12th
• Action: Choose 1 new product and develop full plan to complete it
• Completion date: October 20th
• Person responsible: Sue

GOAL 3: REDUCE COSTS

• Action: Review the profit/loss statement to identify possible items to reduce cost
• Completion date: November 30th
• Person responsible: Mary

This sample plan contains 3 main goals:

1. Improve customer service
2. Generate more income
3. Reduce Costs

By improving customer service, we can help retain existing customers and improve our practices to ensure new clients are happy with our service.

Generating more income and reducing costs will help to expand the business as well as identify potential areas for cost inefficiencies that we can change.

Your plan can be detailed or simple depending on the resources you have available and the complexity of your goals. The important thing to remember is that plans should always lead to action. If you spend most of your time planning, then you aren’t making any real progress toward achieving your goals. Make a plan but always take action.

As a new Reiki practitioner, you will need to spend a significant amount of time building your client list. Even if you have been a Reiki practitioner for a longer term, you may experience lulls in your client work.

For any practitioner who runs their own practice, you will need to find new clients to ensure the ongoing viability of your Reiki practice.

Finding new clients can sometimes be stressful as you will need to develop some new skills to develop marketing techniques. This may be uncomfortable for some practitioners as it requires a sales orientated mindset to effectively market your practice to the public.

It’s a good idea to develop an overall strategy that will help you undertake the marketing techniques that you need to.

Marketing to potential clients is an important part of establishing a client list, however, you need to know where your clients are so that you can create a strategy for targeting your potential clients.

Your therapist marketing strategy should include:

• Understanding who your ideal client is
• Identifying where your ideal client can be found
• Developing an ethical marketing message about your practice
• Establish a professional directories network
• Establish communication channels to the public – eg. Newsletter, social media, website
• Develop an advertising suite of images, sales copy, and marketing materials

Each of the items above is listed as one step, however, each step has the potential to reach a larger network. If you are able to implement the above steps in your marketing strategy, you will have a comprehensive approach to marketing your therapy practice.

Some of the common avenues where Reiki practitioners can work include:

• Private practice
• Mental Health facilities
• Hospitals
• Veterinary practices
• Health Care facilities
• Retreat facilities
• Community support centres

These represent the more traditional avenues of working with clients. Working with these avenues can provide a solid approach to developing your Reiki practice. In addition to the above, you can use the reach of the internet and market your Reiki practice in less conventional places online. This is especially relevant when using social media and online groups.

Once you have determined possible areas where your potential clients can be found, you can begin to create marketing materials. Your advertising should be created based on whether you are communicating directly to the client or referral groups.

MARKETING DIRECTLY TO CLIENTS

This marketing is created to communicate directly to your potential clients.

• Offline advertising – community groups, flyers in public places, TV, radio.
• Online advertising – includes Google Ads, social media advertising, online directories.

The marketing materials that you create for this group should include how you can help clients. Your marketing materials should detail the common problems that your ideal client experiences so that your potential client can identify themselves in your message.

MARKETING DIRECTLY TO REFERRAL NETWORKS

This marketing is created to communicate to those in professions who can refer their clients on to you for Reiki.

• Mental Health facilities
• Hospitals
• Veterinary practices
• Health Care facilities
• Retreat facilities
• Community support centres
• Other therapists

The marketing materials that you create for this group should include how you can help clients and how to make referrals to your practice.

Your marketing materials should be focused around your qualifications and should detail the demographics of your ideal client so that other professionals immediately think of you when they treat your possible ideal client.

We’ve included some previous blog posts that will help you find clients for your Reiki practice:

MARKETING

• Create a Free Offer to Build Your Email List
• Create an Annual Social Media Plan in 1 Hour
• How to Build an Email List for your Reiki Practice
• How to Use Google Analytics in 5 Easy Steps
• Online Courses to Improve Your Marketing Skills
• The Best Marketing Methods for Reiki Therapists
• Understand the Marketing Cycle of Your Reiki Practice

NETWORKING

• 10 Reiki Associations and Organizations
• How to Create a Business Network
• Professional Networking for a Reiki Practitioner

DISCLAIMER: You should seek advice from your accountant or finance professional when implementing a system to record your financial information. Your accountant will advise you what financial information is required for the specific tax laws in your region.

As a private practice Reiki practitioner, you will discover that financial and administrative tasks are a significant part of your obligations to running a Reiki practice.

Financial information helps you assess the financial health of your Reiki practice as well as determining your tax obligations.

Some of the financial information you will need to record is:

• Income
• Expenses
• Assets
• Liabilities
• Salary
• Retirement
• Taxes

Managing your financial information is based on establishing a robust recording system to ensure you accurately capture all relevant information about the operations of your Reiki practice.

Your financial system should interact with external sources such as your accountant, bank and government departments for taxation purposes. This interaction might involve direct uploads or at the least, a method to export and import data.

Financial considerations you will need to explore include:

• Insurances
• Software for recording income and expenses
• Paying a salary
• Taxes
• Retirement savings
• Client payment methods
• Business registration
• Producing invoices/receipts for clients
• Business bank account

EXPENSES:

Below are common expenses you can claim as part of your business operating expenses. The common rule in deciding whether a cost is deductible is to ask yourself if the expense is related to generating your business income. The information that you are required to record may vary based on your tax legislation.

EDUCATION:

• Books
• CD’s/DVD’s
• Digital downloads (ebooks, audio, video)
• Conferences
• Education
• Professional Magazines or Journals
• Online courses
• Seminars/Workshops/Webinars

CLIENT SESSIONS:

• Therapy equipment
• Room equipment

PROFESSIONAL:

• Liability Insurance
• License Fees
• Professional Memberships

MARKETING:

• Advertising
• Office equipment
• Email List Service
• Marketing materials
• Networking Events
• Online Directories
• SEO costs
• Website design
• Social media agency fees
• Video/Audio equipment

OFFICE EXPENSES:

• Bank fees
• Computer, Tablet, Printer, Copier, Fax
• Credit Card Processing Fees
• Internet
• Home Office (pro rata)
• Office Furniture
• Office Rent
• Office Supplies
• Phone
• Shipping
• Software
• Subscriptions
• Utilities
• Website Hosting Fees

SERVICES:

• Accounting Fees
• Business Coaching
• Legal Fees

TRAVEL:

• Business travel
• Parking
• Tolls
• Train/Bus Fare
  *Note that travel costs are claimable in accordance with the tax laws within your country.

When establishing a financial system it is important to make your system easy to record and access data that you enter. By operating an easy financial system, you will be more likely to consistently manage your financial data.

The system you create will become part of your policies and procedures that will provide you with a step by step process to record your financial information. This means you can provide your policies and procedures to future staff members to follow as your Reiki practice grows.

Develop your financial recording procedures using checklists to be completed on a regular basis. If you do tasks once a year you may forget how to do them each year. Therefore, it is helpful to record yourself doing the task so you can review the recording each year and complete the task without relying on your memory.

HOW OFTEN TO RECORD YOUR DATA

Some small business owners undertake their business finances one time of the year when tax obligations are due. This can be onerous as you will need to sort through an entire year of data which will is time consuming. This can lead to errors when you have to rely on your memory about specific transactions throughout the year.

The frequency you can record your data are:

• Annual
• Quarterly
• Monthly
• Weekly
• Daily

The most common timeframe for recording financial information is monthly. A monthly timeframe requires you to record your financial information only 12 times a year. It is a short enough timeframe to give you insight into the current financial position of your Reiki practice so that you can make any changes to your income and expenses.

Weekly and daily financial record keeping may be onerous to a small business owner, however, if you have support from administrative staff you could easily meet a weekly or daily frequency.

The frequency of how you record your financial information is significantly impacted by how easy your recording process is developed. For example, if you have one bank account then you only have one source of financial data to manage.

If you have multiple accounts, a PayPal account, a credit card account, and other various sources of receiving money, this will require managing multiple points of data that need to balance to a central financial position.

Fortunately for technology users, even if you do have multiple accounts, most vendors have integrative processes that enable you to share your financial information across multiple portals. This can help you seamlessly integrate your data.

FINANCIAL RECORDS METHODS:

You can record your financial information using a variety of methods including:

• Paper and pen
• Spreadsheet
• Desktop software (Quickbooks, MYOB etc)
• Mobile apps

Your financial information is recorded so that you can meet your tax obligations.

Additionally, you can also use your financial information to make informed decisions about your Reiki practice and how it operates.

After reviewing your financial data, you can informed business decisions about your income and expenses to improve your business profit. Regularly reviewing your financial data allows you to make timely decisions so that you can better plan for the financial success of your Reiki practice. This includes preparing for your tax obligations and ensuring that you can adequately cover necessary expenses for your business.

For more blog posts about managing your financial information in your Reiki practice visit the below links:

• 10 Steps to Set Up Your Reiki Practice
• 10 Ways to Increase Your Reiki Income
• 5 Easy Strategies to Increase Profit For Your Reiki Practice
• Recording Financial Information For Your Reiki Practice

The effects of a Reiki session can be felt immediately after the session as well as some time after. Each person’s response is different. Often, we will look for proof of mental or physical changes in response to Reiki treatment, however, much of our inner is conducted at the subconscious level. We typically use our conscious thoughts to inquire, investigate and rationalize thoughts. In the case of Reiki, much of the healing is done outside of our own conscious efforts and therefore can be difficult for us quantify.

The impact of a Reiki session may be felt in the way you feel about your perception of a situation or event that follows your Reiki session. You may feel more relaxed and calmer and more present with where you are. Your sense may be more heightened with touch, taste, and sight. If you are going through an emotional transition, you may feel liberated from emotional repression. You may feel dehydrated and tired and should hydrate with water soon after your session.

These effects can normally last from hours up to 2 days after your session.

Remain open to the effects of your Reiki session and understand that your body and mind are working in tandem with the energy flow of Reiki.

You can spend some time after your session reflecting on your emotions, thoughts and physical response to the Reiki session. Use this time to write in a journal or record your thoughts somehow. You may want to meditate, create art, go for a gentle walk in nature. Participating in kind and loving self-care for yourself after your Reiki session will help extend the benefits that you receive from Reiki.