Shorts: Am I paying too much for business support?
How to spot a bad deal, and make smart investments that actually grow your practice.
Hello! I’m Nicky, the founder of Circe Health and Circe Studio. We bring modern business tools to holistic healthcare practitioners who are looking for sustainable success.
Do your half-term plans include creating some space to explore how you can grow your practice? Book a free intro call if you’re looking for support to (re)design your website so you’ll get more traffic, and bookings in. Or if you’re looking for strategic advice, a Strategy Call will bring you clarity and actionable feedback to move your career and practice forward.
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Welcome to our second Shorts edition of The Well! In these new newsletter editions I will answer one question from you, our readers, in a bite-sized format so you get practical information in a short amount of time.
The Question
"I’m a nutritionist and want to grow my client numbers to improve my finances. I have spoken to marketing agencies to help me with my online ranking and social media. It’s hard to know which one to choose..One charges £200 per month for SEO, but they’re very vague when I ask them about the results I will get, and I need to commit to at least a three month contract. Is this too much for these services? Appreciate any advice!”
The Answer
Such a good question! If you’re looking to grow your practice and evolve in your career, investing in support and professional development is key. But quality business support shouldn’t break the bank. Are you paying monthly for website or marketing support? It might be costing you more than it’s worth..
I’ve heard these stories too often:
Practitioners who are stuck in monthly subscription contracts for websites that they don’t actually keep up to date for you, pay social media agencies that charge them hundreds of pounds a month, or SEO services that require them to commit 3 months with a total cost over £1000. All without seeing any results.
This isn’t an issue that’s unique to the holistic healthcare space, many SME or self-employed professionals are struggling to find the right solution here. You want to grow your business and are ready to invest in the right support, but how can you be sure to make the right investment?
I like the subscription model because it spreads the costs and can make a service more accessible for a wider audience. But the thing is that ongoing fees don’t always mean ongoing results, or any results at all actually. And if you’re not clear on what’s actually working, you’re throwing your money away.
Plus, some monthly fees might sound manageable at the start, until you realise you’re locked in for 12 months and will be charged hundreds of pounds when you want to end the contract. I heard of a website hosting company that charges holistic healthcare practitioners over £700 to leave their contract, that sounds like bad business to me and can seriously damage your practice financially.
So before committing to another service provider, consider the Return On Investment (ROI), the total costs of the contract and your long-term financial plan too. Before you sign another contract, ask:
Do I need monthly support or a one-time service?
Am I getting clear & high quality outcomes?
What does the small print in the contract say, does it offer me the flexibility I need?
There are plenty of professionals out there who offer more sensible fees, and who don’t trap you into long term contracts. So look out for those and in general I’d say if you’re self-employed, stay away from agencies because their fees will be much higher than individuals offering the same services. And always make sure you work with someone who knows your industry - building a website for a florist, a dentist or an acupuncturist are all completely different and you need industry knowledge to make the website actually work effectively.
PS. If you want expert support without the monthly retainers or years of subscription costs - at Circe Studio I offer quality support that’s packaged into one-off project costs so you pay only for what you need to get results. And there’s the option of payment plans as well, to bring you more flexibility. Get in touch if you want to have a chat about the options, you can book a free intro call with me. If you’d like advice on how you can improve your online presence yourself, you can book an Online Presence Review with me here.
Do you have a question you’d like to get answered in a future Shorts newsletter edition? Reply to this email or send it over to info@circehealth.co. And don’t worry if you have a bit of stage fright, I’ll keep it anonymous!