Survey

WHAT'S NEW?
Is the economic downturn effecting your business? Therapy is sometimes seen as a luxury and may be one of the first things that people cut back on when times are hard. On the other hand this may be just the time when some people need support the most. What can we do to ensure our business survives through the hard times? Please send me your thoughts and suggestions so that I can share them with our readers.

What Works Latest

So far our survey (on this website and through our newsletter) gives a big thumbs down to advertising. Referrals/word of mouth seems to be the most effective way of getting clients. You can help to make this more effective by having leaflets and newsletters for your clients to hand to their friends.

WATCH OUT FOR ADVERTISING SCAMS
There seem to be an increasing number of advertising scams that are aimed at therapists. Two in particular have come to my attention recently.

• The first has been running for some time and involves people phoning you up and asking if you would like to advertise on a plasma screen in a hospital or GP surgery. In fact there is no plasma screen and no advertising opportunity. A number of therapists have lost money to this one.
• The second has hit our area (Wokingham) in the last couple of weeks and may be running in other areas too. This involves someone phoning and claiming to be selling advertising in a leaflet for a pharmacy. They even offer to come round and show you the leaflet. However, when someone actually phoned the pharmacy in question they knew nothing about it.

So if someone calls you about advertising make sure you check it out thoroughly before spending any money.