COLLABORATING WITH COMPLEMENTARY & ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE (CAM) ORGANISATIONS
I believe that there is a huge opportunity for holistic practitioners to thrive!
The Western world has a health crisis that isn’t being managed by orthodox medicine, and people are moving towards more natural and traditional approaches to heal. Unfortunately, many holistic practitioners don’t know how to market themselves effectively, to build sustainable businesses.
Collaborating with me is the missing piece of the puzzle, you support your customers to provide the best health and wellbeing service for their clients, I provide the marketing and business support to help them find their clients.
In England between 2005 and 2015 the number of the general population using complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) rose from 12% – 16%.
THE REALITY OF WORKING AS A PRACTITIONER
According to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), there are 3.2 million self-employed people in the UK, and 20% of small businesses fail in the first year.
From my own observations of studying, working as a CAM practitioner and becoming a trainer in my discipline, approximately 20% of my peers and students qualified but never practised, and of those who did, 50% had stopped working as practitioners within 3 years.
71% of CAM professionals didn’t manage to establish a full-time practice.
Gale, N K (2014) How can you make a career as a complementary therapist?, Dissemination Report, ‘Putting Embodied Knowledge Into Practice’ (ES/J002828/1). Birmingham: Health Services Management Centre, University of Birmingham.
The Reasons Practitioners Struggle
Having worked with practitioners from many different disciplines, there are three main, areas where they struggle in building a successful business:
- Limited business and marketing skills.
- Lack of ongoing business support.
- Low confidence levels.
There is a tension between commitment to and passion for the therapy and being business-minded. Nevertheless, discovering that setting up in practice is also about being in business is the core challenge of the transition.
Gale, N K (2014) How can you make a career as a complementary therapist?, Dissemination Report, ‘Putting Embodied Knowledge Into Practice’ (ES/J002828/1). Birmingham: Health Services Management Centre, University of Birmingham.
WAYS I CAN HELP...
We have a common goal for holistic practitioners to succeed. The missing ingredients for many are the marketing, business, and mindset aspects of setting up and running a successful business.
I have an extensive library of content and can deliver it in a selection of formats to fit with how you like to train your customers, your budget, and timings from standalone masterclasses to ongoing programmes including support.
I work with organisations to support their customers or members to:
Set Marketing Foundations
What they need to understand about the ethical and legal side of marketing, having an offer, pricing, messaging and simple branding.
Create a Personalised Marketing Recipe
A repeatable marketing strategy that works to their values, strengths, skills, and available resources.
Ongoing Support
Accountability will help practitioners to take the action they need to market themselves effectively. This is teamed up with dealing with any mindset demons that arise along the way.
WHY ME...
I’m a chartered marketer, author, coach-mentor, content creator and speaker. I spent over 20 years working in marketing and business before following my interest in personal development.
I worked as a CAM professional for 14-years, so I know what it takes to set up and run a business and be visible. Within four years I was earning a living as a practitioner, working three days a week but earning a full-time salary.
My passion for marketing and business never left me, and I recognised that these were the areas my fellow practitioners struggled with most. I realised this is where I could make the most difference, so in the summer of 2022, I retired as a CAM practitioner to focus on helping other practitioners build their ethical businesses.
HOW I WORK WITH OTHER ORGANISATIONS
Each organisation I work with has different requirements from a one-off project providing a series of training videos, to running bespoke workshops. I have an online platform that can host training videos and provide access for your customers. These are the typical steps we would take:
- I deliver ‘Future Proofing Your Holistic Business’ a complimentary workshop to your customers. This session will be beneficial no matter what stage of business they’re at.
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Get feedback from your audience during the Q&A session at the end of the workshop which will help me understand the support they need. This can also be done as a short survey of your customers.
- I then tailor my approach to suit your requirements and the needs of your customers.
The following tables provide an idea of what I can deliver to your customers. The prices are to give you a guide and will be based on your requirements.
MARKETING CLINICS
Topics
Relevant discussion points are provided for each clinic to encourage conversation and prompt reflection and questions
Goal
Provide marketing support and Q&A sessions to help your customers succeed on an ongoing basis
Format
Monthly 60-minute marketing clinics with a Q&A session on Zoom, recording provided for your library
Prices From: £197
BESPOKE MASTERCLASSES
Topics
Individual topics agreed on, and classes created to suit the needs of your customers, e.g., Branding on a Budget, Holistic Business Essentials, Planning to Thrive or Marketing without Social Media
Goal
Equip practitioners with skills they can implement in their own business
Format
A practical and interactive 90-minute live session including workbook and/or worksheets on Zoom plus access to the recordings for 12-months
Prices From £397
2-DAY COMPREHENSIVE MARKETING TRAINING
Topics
Marketing fundamentals including legals, branding, products and services, pricing, niching, client journey, messaging, promotion, planning
Goal
Equip your customers with the marketing basics to help them find clients and succeed
Format
2-day live workshop on Zoom including worksheets plus access to the recordings for 12-months
Prices From £1997
PREVIOUS COLLABORATIONS
Angela Carryer, Programme Leader
"I have worked with Helen for over two years. I approached her initially with a view to incorporating a marketing element into the curriculum of the College’s undergraduate Bachelor in Osteopathy (BOst) programme for our final year students. It was clear to me from the outset, that Helen understood the needs of our students in terms of their journey into becoming self-employed osteopaths.
Upon excellent evaluation of the sessions, we expanded our collaboration and invited Helen to deliver practical two-day workshops for our more junior students. These workshops covered topics such as ’marketing foundations’ and ‘marketing your practice’. Learners found the sessions to be interactive, engaging, fun, informative and highly relevant to them!
I cannot recommend Helen highly enough. She is professional, extremely knowledgeable and experienced in her field of expertise, relates well to our mature learners, delivers an excellent product and is a pleasure to work with."
Inna Duckworth
Medical Herbalist & Team Leader
"The 6-week program that Helen developed specifically for NIMH members covered all the basics of modern ‘expert marketing’, such as: evolving a vision, choosing a niche, DIY branding, creating and delivering key messages via various channels of communication.
Helen was very practical, explaining everything and how to translate them into a personalised action plan."
