How to Start A Spiritual Business

Are you one of the growing number of people who is keen to opt out of the rate race and do something you feel is more in tune with your spirituality?

Often, when people want to change streams, the first thing they think about is the possibility of earning a living using some kind of healing modality, such as Reiki.

Working for yourself and doing something you passionately believe in can make all the difference in the world to how you feel about going to work, but before you make the jump you do need to think in practical terms.  Here are just a few things for you to consider.

Covering your bases

Do your research and see who is doing what in your area.  If you discover that there are already five people offering what you intend to do in your small town, for example, you might decide to go in to practice further afield where there is less competition.

Find out what legal requirements cover what you intend to do.  The law is very clear about what you can and can’t say about yourself and the work that you do.  For example, if you practiced any form of alternative healing modality, you must not make any claims to be able to cure any diseases that can’t be supported by approved clinical research.

Check if you can get insurance. Depending on the kind of therapy that you do, being insured might be a professional requirement for you to hold a current licence from your regulatory body.

Decide where and how you will work.  Working from home can seem a very attractive option, but if your business takes off you could feel hounded out of your own personal space!  At the very least, try and have a separate room where you see clients and a separate business phone line.  Alternatively, you might try renting a room in one of the increasing number of alternative health centres that are springing up in towns and cities everywhere.  The advantage of this is that they usually have their own reception service and there may already be a flow of people who already use the centre who might be attracted to the service you offer.

Get a head for figures.  You will need to learn how to love doing your own books and tax returns, or employ someone else to do it for you.  You also need to do a few quick calculations before you start in terms of what you will need to spend on your business in its first year and what you will need to live on to help you work out what to charge for your services – especially before you have any promotional materials printed!  There is nothing more demoralising than realising two months into starting your new life that you are working at a loss.

Decide if you want it to be all or nothing.  Building a successful practice can take longer than you think, so you might want to do your own thing part time alongside other paid work until you are sure that you can support yourself one hundred per cent through your new business.

Watch out for burn out.  Doing something you love can give you huge reserves of energy, but build in down time and try and get away and take holidays when you can, otherwise you can exhaust yourself.  Working as a healer can be incredibly demanding and you need to balance care for others with care for yourself.

Presenting yourself

Presenting yourself is also very important so make sure that you have brilliant leaflets and a good website. These things do not have to cost too much money, if you only have a small budget make sure your website is clean and simple. Let the world know what is in your heart but also show it is a quality service by your literature being of the highest quality that you can afford.

What makes your business unique? There may be dozens of Reiki practitioners in your area, for example, so what is about you that is different?  Get clear on this and make sure it forms the basis of your promotional materials.

Will you work under your own name, or will you give your business a unique name different from yours?  There are pros and cons to using each approach.

Don’t go crazy on advertising until you know where to advertise and if that advertising is going to pay off. My success began with word of mouth.  If you’re good, the word will spread! You can always offer to do some demonstrations of what you do at local health clubs, hairdressers or wherever appropriate.

Give something back!

I think all successful businesses in this field needs benefit from ‘giving back’ as it promotes good energy and reminds us on a daily basis why we want to work in this field.

There’s a lot for you to think about before you start.  And if you’ve got any tips from the front line, we’d love to hear them!