Building a Successful Holistic Nutrition Practice – How to Balance the Client Work of Today with the Business Growth Aspirations of Tomorrow

Balancing the demands of client work, while simultaneously steering your business toward growth, is truly an art. As health professionals (and aspiring ones!), let’s take a moment today to explore some strategic ways you can harmonize your client-centric efforts with the expansion of your Holistic Nutrition practice. 

Navigating the Balancing Act: Tips for Busy Health Professionals

1. Keeping a Calendar:

• For Client Work: Prioritize your client appointments and commitments in a way that works best for you! One suggestion would be to book all of your 1:1 calls on 1-2 days of the week, so that can be your sole focus on those days. Then, the rest of the week you can focus on writing protocols, developing other offers (for example: a group program, masterclass or course), and developing engaging social media content to help new people find you.

• Business Growth Tip: Set aside dedicated time each week (away from client work) to focus solely on business development. The more you can zero in your focus each day, the more easeful this process will feel. A word of advice: If your calendar is overwhelming you, it may simply need to be re-worked!

2. Streamlining your Services:

• For Client Work: Streamline your services for efficiency and quality. In other words, take some time to consider a new client’s journey, from the moment they come into your world, to the moment their time with you is complete. Is it easy for them to download your initial questionnaire, or do you need to take an extra step, and write each person an email in order to get it? Could you have this somewhere on your website that they could download on their own? Do you send out a welcome letter? Could this be pre-written as a template to make this process smoother? If need be, jot down your client’s “success roadmap,” and turn it into a checklist, streamlining and automating as many steps within it as make sense for you, while still maintaining a strong personal connection through your coaching calls!
  

• Business Growth Tip: Identify areas for service optimization or potential new offerings. In practice, you may quickly realize that you are repeating many of the same suggestions to your clients. For example: How many times have you discussed gluten with someone who is dealing with an autoimmune condition? Is there a video you could record where you explain what you need to explain one time, and you could simply save this as an unlisted video on YouTube and be able to send it to every client who needs this information? If you are teaching every single client about low-tox living, or about how to balance a plant-based meal, is there an opportunity to take this information you’re sharing over and over, and instead pre-record a 7-day mini course, where you teach the information one time, and can sell it on auto-pilot instead? Where can you take the things you’re doing over and over again, and start to streamline these teachings so you can put the work in one time, and serve many more people in less time?
  
  

3. Time Blocking

• For Client Work: Implement time-blocking for client consultations. This goes back to the idea of having certain days, or chunks of time each week that are solely focused on service your 1:1 clients! Perhaps Mondays and Tuesdays are dedicated to your clients, Wednesdays are for content development, Thursday is an admin day, and Friday is for answering emails and building out protocols. How can you organize your week in a way that takes the overwhelm out of things for you, so you can focus on enjoying the process, and serving others in a big way?
  

• Business Growth Tip: Allocate specific time blocks for business strategy, marketing, and networking. Same as above, but with a focus on building upon the body of work you already have. Can you join a local networking group, where you meet with them once a week? Can you dedicate one day a week to marketing, content development, or business mentorship?
  

4. Client Retention Strategies

• For Client Work: It’s one thing to grow a business, but it’s equally as important to MAINTAIN and serve the community you already have, powerfully. Think of it this way: If you have a community of 200 people, and you’re not showing up for them because you feel that you need an audience of 10,000 before you can grow, a perspective shift needs to occur for the people who have already said yes to getting to know you. Keep those who are working with you, and who have chosen to be part of your community now as a priority, and serve them well, so they’ll want to stay in your world, and continue to grow with you. A year from now, you’ll look back and see that the people who stuck with you from the start have become your “lifers,” and the biggest fans of your work.
• Business Growth Tip: Reach out to satisfied clients and ask for testimonials and referrals to fuel your growth. If you do develop a client journey checklist, be sure that somewhere along the line, you’re asking for testimonials and feedback, either personally, or via an automated “thank you” email, because the words of your satisfied clients are gold for promoting your body of work. Why? Because hearing about the experiences of others is the best way for others to see what it’s really like to work with you behind the scenes!
  
  If you receive negative feedback, don’t let this bring you down! Instead, simply view this information as valuable data that can help you improve your methods and practice over time, and explore any hidden blind spots where a shift may (or may not) need to occur. On the contrast, if you receive positive feedback that you can share with your community to help them see what it’s like to work with you, you could be providing others the exact words they need to hear to know that YOU are the person who’s going to help them achieve their wellness goals!
  

5. Outsourcing

• For Client Work: Outsource any tasks that free up your time, so you can focus your energy on your direct client interactions! What repetitive, mundane tasks can you hand off to someone else to make your life easier?
  

• Business Growth Tip: Delegate any non-client tasks to a VA so you can focus on strategic business initiatives that will help your body of work to expand over time. This allows you a path out of the weeds, and into the seat of the visionary!

6. Networking

• For Client Work: Build a strong client & community network through meaningful connections. Encourage your community and clients to share your work, and your content, with their family and friends!
  
• Business Growth Tip: Extend your network to industry professionals, potential collaborators, and mentors. Don’t be afraid to reach out to brands that you’d like to collaborate or do a live interview with!

We’d love to hear your thoughts!

How do you balance the energy of busy client work, AND the aspirations of your business growing to new heights? Share your tips and insights below, and let’s together plan for a successful future in our Holistic Nutrition practices!