Nutritionists! Stop giving away your work for free
There are a few reasons folks don’t charge enough:
Nutritionists might fear their rates will keep folks from booking
Nutritionists undervalue their worth
Imposter syndrome and lack of confidence
Folks don’t always do their market research
Now, I realize when folks are getting their CNS hours and are new to clinical practice it can be helpful to see a few mock or pro bono clients. You can get your “sea legs” with clinical practice. You can gain practice doing an intake, keeping a charting note and using your clinical work flow.
It is confidence-boosting to iron out the kinks in your clinical work flow with a patient who is familiar to you. These early consults help you get comfortable with your intake form. You can also use the intake form we provide you in our CNS Supervision Program.
Not everyone feels this way, some folks getting their CNS credential, are transitioning from coaching or personal training and feel comfortable charging from Day 1.
If offer pro-bono consults in the beginning there are a few important things to do
Set your prices before you do free consults so you can contextualize these visits for folks
Reframe from FREE to donation based
Limit the time frame you do this for. Decide this up front. I.e. you will offer donation based consults for 3-months.
Limit the number of people you offer this to, i.e. 4 people max
Only extend to people you know
If you want to go longer, consider working at a free clinic. Check out this panel discussion on working at free clinics.
Once you wrap up a few pro bono consults, you NEED to start charging for your consults.
How do you go about setting your rates?
First decide if you will offer packages 📦or a la carte packages. Here is a great video about how packages increase client retention.
Calculate your overhead. Include your internship cost, EHR, liability insurance and all associated expenses.
Do your market research. Identify 5 competitors or colleagues in your geographic area or your niche. Calculate their hourly and per visit fee. If there are no CNS’s look at dieticians. Note if they take insurance. Note their years of experience. Consider whether they are practicing in a group or taking insurance. If someone has been practicing 20 years they may not be the best clinician to include in your research.
Crunch the numbers. How many clients do you want to see a week? What will you make per month and per year if you charge $150 per consult? Look at the numbers and see what it looks like
In my experience, nutritionists rarely want to see more than 25 clients per week. We spend time behind the scenes, making recommendations and meal plans. This time is really high in the beginning but it will go down as you practice. As you resource yourself and streamline your systems (Kate talks about Chat GPT to hack your workflow).
Now that you have set your rates. You want to practice money conversations so you can communicate those rates to your patients!
Rebecca Snow has been a CNS Supervisor for 10 years and a clinical nutritionist for 20. She is owner and founder of the Nutrition & Herbal Collective. As a CNS Supervisor, and nutrition mentor, Rebecca gives generously of her wisdom and experience to build up new nutritionists for success. She specializes in chronic illness and has worked in academia, group and private practice. Come meet the supervisors of our internship for nutrition students, and learn about who they are.
Attend our monthly Practice-building Working Group to get support from an experienced CNS supervisor and clinical nutritionist on all things business and marketing: discuss nutrition business ideas, get feedback and tips on nutrition marketing, and answer your questions on starting a nutrition private practice or group practice.
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