Myo Life

#18 Your First 5 Business Goals: What to Focus on in the Beginning

• Carmen Woodland • Episode 18

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Starting a myofunctional therapy business can feel overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. In this episode, Carmen walks you through the five key goals you should focus on first to build a strong foundation and start attracting clients quickly. If you’re stuck on websites, branding, or pricing, this episode will help you shift your focus to what truly moves the needle—getting clients, making offers, and taking action.

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Speaker 1:

Hey, I'm Carmen and welcome to Mayo Life. That's short for my Outrageous Life, which is exactly the kind of life I get to live since I found the courage to ditch dental hygiene and build a life I'm bonkers about as a myofunctional therapist and entrepreneur. Here you will find all the things myo business and how to build a life that you, too, are bonkers about. I'm very happy you're here. Shall we dive in. Hello, myo friend, and welcome back to the MyoLife podcast.

Speaker 1:

Today we are talking business goals. Now, if you're thinking about starting your myofunctional therapy business or maybe you've already started let's just be real for a second. You don't need to do everything right now. You're probably overwhelmed as it is. And if you're scrolling through Instagram and you're seeing everybody else's perfect branding and fancy websites and seeing you know how much they're making, and now you think you have to do all of it before you get started and that's just going to keep you from starting. So I got to stop you right there. The fastest way to burnout is over complicating the process.

Speaker 1:

The goal isn't to look like a business Okay. The goal is to get clients and make money as soon as possible. So today I'm walking you through really what I think are the first five things that you need to do when starting your business. Okay, I'm going to break it down into a step-by-step so that you can take some action today. Are you ready for this? Let's do it All right. What you're going to find surprising is that these business goals don't say anything like make a hundred thousand dollars this year. So I need to look, but I don't believe there are any. Nope, there's no financial goals here. So, goal number one get crystal clear on your who. So before you even think about websites and logos or social media, you need to get clear on who you're helping because remember, everyone is not your niche, okay, so if you try to talk to everybody, you're going to attract no one. There needs to be an ideal customer avatar that you build your business around. Yes, you might attract outliers, you might attract somebody who falls outside of those parameters, but everything that you do in your business should be centered around your ideal who. Okay, so you want to know very intimately who is your easy peasy, dreamiest client to work with.

Speaker 1:

For me, this is Shelby, and I know her, like she's my sister. She's a middle-aged woman who is focused on optimum wellness and believes that myofunctional therapy is a piece of the puzzle. She came to me, she trusts my expertise, she is motivated to get the results that she desires. She can tell me what transformation she wants and she's willing to pay for the recipe to get that transformation. She uh, she doesn't ask for different payment terms. She doesn't ask for special treatment. She's easy. She doesn't give me excuses like I'm single or I'm a single mom. Do you have a coupon? Do you have a discount? She doesn't do any of that. She doesn't expect me to operate my business outside the parameters that I have set. She doesn't send me five emails a day expecting me to answer them. She doesn't need a whole lot of handholding. She is my dream client. She trusts me, she has money to spend, she wants the transformation and she's willing to pay for it. Okay, um, that is the dream client that we are talking about.

Speaker 1:

So if you don't know who you're helping, your marketing is going to fall flat. So you won't know who's raising their virtual hand saying hey, I have this problem, I need your help. So this is why this is goal number one, and I want you to get clear on this before anything else. So, knowing who your who is okay. Goal number two is going to be developing your offer, setting your prices and designing your therapy program. So now that you know who you help, let's talk about how, what you're going to offer to them, how you're going to price it. So your offer is the bridge that takes your who from their pain point to the solution that you provide. So you kind of have them cross that bridge, if you will. So you're going to be making sure that you know exactly who you help, exactly what you help them do, how you're going to deliver that transformation. Is this going to be in one-on-one sessions, which I don't recommend, but we'll definitely talk about that in another podcast. Is it going to be in a, you know, a 12 week program, a six month program, a year long program? Okay, what's it going to cost? You are not selling sessions. You are selling a transformation. So you don't want to be saying things like well, I charge a hundred dollars per session. Instead, you should be saying hey, I help women, I help middle-aged women eliminate um jaw pain and sleep better in 180 days with my therapy program, or whatever it is that you do.

Speaker 1:

When you frame your offer this way, people see value, not just an hourly rate. Pricing their services is an area that my students often struggle with and, of course, I have a lesson on this very topic called the Profitable Pricing Lab. But I have to tell you this if you have some weird money beliefs, you got to deal with those. Okay, you have to unpack them and get right with them, because if you do not believe the results and the transformation that you offer for your clients are worth what you're charging, they're not going to believe it either and your money disbelief is going to come through and it's going to be projected onto your client, who will then also question the value of your offer. So I encourage you to find what I call your happy pricing. So this number is going to be higher than your resentment number and lower than your holy cow. I'm going to barf number. Okay, so there is no mayor of my old town and there is no going rate. I get so frustrated when I hear this or when I have a student say well, I looked around my area and near as I can tell they're charging X, so I'm going to just set my prices there. Okay, let me tell you this, friend, the last thing that you should consider is what others are charging.

Speaker 1:

I teach my students how to build a premium practice, and this does not involve crowdsourcing what your price should be. Everybody is different. Everybody needs to make a different amount of money, and many of the businesses or the humans out there telling you what's an acceptable charge a lot of those, you guys, are circling the drain. So why would you want to model your business after somebody who's not even profitable? No, thank you, I will tell you this. People pay for results, not just sessions. So structure your offer around the transformation, not the time. Set your prices and know what the offer includes.

Speaker 1:

Okay, now I will tell you this. This isn't going to be your final answer either. You're going to have many iterations and you're going to get better and better with time. One thing that you won't change is your decision about your prices. You don't want to change your price just because you get scared that somebody won't pay it. That's important. My students try and do that all the time. No, what you want to do is make it more valuable and also make sure that you are talking to your easiest, dreamiest client. Okay, you don't want to be fighting to convince hard clients that you're worth it. Also, here's a shameless plug. If you need help with this, then you should consider joining my private coaching program called Grow, where we will work together six months or a year and I'm going to help you with all of these concepts. So I will make sure that we put that information in the show notes.

Speaker 1:

Okay, goal number three start having conversations. This is also known as getting your first client. So I will let you in on a little secret. Your business does not start when you have a website. It starts when you start talking to people and when you get paid. If you aren't earning money, you have a hobby. Too many business owners hide behind busy work. You're tweaking your logo, you're worrying about website colors and branding or the perfect Instagram grid, but meanwhile you have zero clients. So here's how you're going to get them. First, you're going to know who you're looking for. Second, you're going to know all about the solution you bring to the table. This means that you need to understand your who, okay. Next, you're going to tell people who are raising their hand to you that you can help them.

Speaker 1:

A lot of my students get really weirded out about selling, and I'm you can't see me, but I'm in air quotes selling, selling. They feel dirty selling. I'm like you're not selling, you're educating. And somebody has already raised their hand. If they contact you there, they have already said hey, I think you can help me. I have this problem, I have this pain point. I'm asking for your help. So these people have already raised their hand saying, hey, I need help. So you're going to be telling people that, like, you're not just going to go out and shout it from the rooftops to people who aren't in your sphere, no, but you're going to tell people you might tell them in your operatory chair like, hey, I can help you.

Speaker 1:

Then you're going to conduct consult, consults, and keep getting better. Okay, every time you do a consult, you're going to get better. Every time you do, um, an exam, you're going to get better at bridging the gap. You're going to always get better at communicating hey, here's where you are and here's where I'm going to take you and here's how I'm going to do it. Okay, and here's why I'm the best person. Next, you are going to deliver amazing results so that you get referrals. You've heard me talk about this before, but this is your best marketing Get amazing results for somebody and they're going to send more people.

Speaker 1:

Okay, and then next, you are going to focus on taking massive action on the tasks that are going to get you more clients. So this is going to be marketing when are they, where are these humans, where are your who's and how are you going to reach them? Okay, you've got all sorts of ideas. Start working on those. And you're going to take imperfect action. You're going to gather data. You're going to evaluate what's working, what's not working, what would you do differently? What do you want to stop doing? And then you're going to go take more action. You're not going to go change your decision. Okay, if you keep doing that, you're never going to have data to look at. So let me remind you conversations, equal clients.

Speaker 1:

If you're not talking to people, you don't have a business. You have a hobby. You're just pretending. So you've got to be talking to people. So that's goal number three start having conversations, all right. Goal number four so this is where you're going to set up your business basics. So I have seen way too many people get stuck here. You do not need to spend months overthinking your business name, your LLC paperwork or your logo, okay, you just need to make quick decisions and get going.

Speaker 1:

So here's what you actually need your legal structure. Okay, are you going to be an LLC or are you going to be a sole proprietor? Are you going to be an S corp? You're going to be a a a corp? Okay, you're going to talk to a CPA about this. You're going to need your bank account. Okay, you got to keep your money separate. That's a big thing. You can't mix business and pleasure money, okay. So, um, this is one thing that I teach inside my own money. Um, but you'll need a bank account and actually, if you take the my own money program, you're going to need, uh, five of them, because you're going to have a revenue account, you're going to have an account for owner's pay, operating expense, a profit sharing account and then also a tax account. So, if you're curious, you can also check out that program. We'll make sure the link is in the show notes.

Speaker 1:

Then you're going to need a payment processor. So this is going to be like Stripe or Square or PayPal pick one, move on. I have Stripe for everything and it was very easy to set up. Your business basics are also going to include a website or a landing page, so you can start with one page explaining who you are, what you do and how to book. Okay, now I will tell you this you can have a paying client. You can have 25 paying clients before you ever even get your website set up.

Speaker 1:

I do think that a website is part of getting your business built, but it doesn't have to be the first thing. Okay, you should not be delaying having conversations, which was goal number three. You shouldn't be delaying having those conversations just because you don't have a website, but you, um, you should be working on that, okay, and it can be simple to start. And then a scheduling system. So, again, this is something that I think you should do closer to the beginning of your business, so that you don't have to go back and forth with emails and stuff, trying to get things set up, but don't turn money away. If somebody says, hey, I want to book an exam with you or I want to start therapy with you, don't turn them away because you don't have a scheduling system. I just have many students who don't want to get their scheduling system set up because they don't want to spend the money, and I do think it's a it's an important system to get set up and get it all organized while you're new and you don't have a lot of clients taking up all your time. But again, if somebody is coming to you and they're saying, hey, can I pay you for therapy, then by all means do it.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so, so, business basics don't spend days and days and days researching, um, all the things that you need to do. Wherever you are, there's probably resources for you to know what you have to do for your town or your municipality, your state, and follow those steps. So that's goal number four. And then goal number five is build your MVP. So I call this the minimum viable program. So this is the simplest version of your offer that gets you started and this kind of just piggybacks on goal number four. But you don't need all of these things in place to tell people. You can help them to be talking to your who's about how you can help them, to be making them offers to book a complimentary consult, to be making them offers to book an exam. You, you don't need everything. If you're going to do therapy with somebody, you're going to need a kit, you're going to need a way to get paid and then a way to deliver your therapy and then everything else you're kind of building out.

Speaker 1:

So in my pro uh, in my business experience, I developed my minimum viable program way back at the beginning because I took a training program that just wasn't great in teaching me. Okay, now, what do I do with this information? So as I built out the program or my program, I just kept thinking, okay, what do I need If somebody called me tomorrow? If somebody called tomorrow and said they want to give me money to do therapy, what do I need? So I knew I needed to get kits, I needed to have a way to deliver therapy. So that was, you know, getting on zoom or getting on Skype or whatever program that you're going to use. I had a really easy way to take notes, you know. So I was able to you know, quote unquote hang my my open for business shingle out very quickly, because I wasn't worried about oh my gosh, do I have an email list started? Do I have a lead magnet? Do I have, um, an Instagram account? Do I know how to run a Facebook ads? Do I know how to set up my Google analytics? Do I know how to build a website? No, I was already working on those things, but I was able to help somebody, or tell somebody. I could help them very early on, which is why I had a paying client, you know, 12 weeks after I took my training, and you can too. So that's with goal number five. You're going to build out your minimum, like the minimum stuff that you need to do to get started, and then you're going to just keep getting better and better. All right, so let's recap Goal number one was getting crystal clear on your who.

Speaker 1:

Goal number two, developing your offer, setting your prices, designing your therapy. So both of these two, these first two goals, are so important because that's going to help you when you're creating marketing content, when you're talking to people. You meet Susie at the, you know, at the mall, in the parking lot, and she hears about your business you're starting. She wants to know who you're working with. This is going to help you answer that succinctly, okay. Goal number three is having conversations. So now you have to get your clients. You got to tell people hey, I can help you. Okay, once you know who you're looking for, you know what problems you're going to help them solve. You know how you do that. They're asking for your help, you're going to get them amazing results and you're going to keep marketing.

Speaker 1:

Goal number four was to set up your business basics, and then goal number five was to build your minimum viable program. So here's your action steps Get clear on your who, develop your offer and your pricing. Start having those conversations. Don't get stuck on your who, develop your offer and your pricing. Start having those conversations. Don't get stuck with your business basics and then lot launch your MVP. So you know, I'm just thinking.

Speaker 1:

My process with my first client was way different than the process with my thousandth client. Okay, so there's a lot of iterations. Now it has been the same for years because I finally dialed in my process, but until then I was always getting better and you're going to be doing the same. So, all right, I think we can land this plane. My friend, what you should focus on in the beginning of your business, you now have an idea. So I hope you found that helpful. If you did, do me a favor, share this episode with a friend or colleague who needs help also. Um, that helps us grow the podcast. That is it, my friend. I will be back soon for some more Mayo business goodness and in the meantime, keep building a life that you are bonkers about. I'll see you soon.