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Basic Steps for Starting Your Own Business

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“To be or not to be, that is the question.”  In today’s world, therapists have the option of being their own boss or being an employee of a company. As your own boss you will be responsible for everything to make the company run.  You will make most of the decisions, create your own business processes, and hire your own team to help where needed.  In today’s blog, we break down the steps to starting your own therapy business.

As with any business, there are startup costs including both time and money.  A therapist who wants to start their own business will need to do the following things to get started:

  1. First, you will need to name your business.  While this may sound easy, a company’s name is really important to convey what the company encompasses.  I have met many business owners over the years that have changed their company’s name several times, because the name just wasn’t quite right, or the name really didn’t convey the heart of what the company does.    
  2. The next step is to set up your business with your state’s government. Each state’s filing fees may differ, but Indiana’s is about $100.    
  3. Then you will need to obtain professional liability and some general liability insurance.  These insurance policies range in price based on your experience, what profession you’re in, and what company you get them through.
  4. You will also need to obtain an EIN number from the federal government.  This will be your business’s social security number, so to speak.  This is free to obtain and can be done online. 
  5. A bank account is needed as well.  You will want to keep your business funds separate from your personal bank account(s). 
  6. Finally, you will want to hire a professional accountant to help with all of the finances and taxes for your business.  A good accountant can help prevent you from making some of the most common business mistakes.     

“Snowmen at Halloween” – Ideas for Speech & Language Therapy

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We are excited that you’re visiting our blog at IEP Therapy and wanted to take a minute to introduce ourselves!   We’re Erin Johnson, MA, CCC-SLP and Chrissy Mooney, MS, CCC-SLP, ASHA certified SLPs who work as the therapy managers and support a school-based team of IEP professionals at IEP Therapy.   Erin attended Southern Illinois University for her bachelor’s degree in Psychology and then Northern Illinois University for her master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology. Erin has been working for IEP Therapy since 2009.  She has a passion for working with children using creative literacy-based language activities!  Chrissy attended Indiana University for her bachelor’s degree in Speech and Hearing Sciences and then Western Illinois University for her master’s degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders.  She loves finding ways to help IEP professionals stay organized and be efficient with time.

We will be sharing ways we are using books and materials with students. Since Halloween is just around the corner, we chose a brand-new book called “Snowmen at Halloween” written by Caralyn Buehner and illustrated by Mark Buehner.

“Snowman at Halloween” is the newest addition to the Snowman at Night series, which is a New York Times Bestseller. There are many opportunities to work on speech skills and language concepts in this book! We’ve outlined a few below help you keep targets in mind for grab-and-go therapy.

Vocabulary

  • Basic – pumpkin, Jack-o-Lantern, snow, snowman, trick-or-treating, parade, spooky, bats, owls, costume (witch, ghost, pirate, cowboy, vampire)
  • Advanced – autumn, moonlit, village, beckon, heap, disguise, anticipate, maze, fortune, fate

Compound Words

  • Moonlit, Everything, Outside, Snowmen, Snowstorms, Overnight

Verbs (use the actions words to create present and past tense verb forms and to formulate descriptive sentences)

  • Regular – Carve, glide, beckon, heap, follow, paint, bob, wink, paint, anticipate, wander, giggle, settle, melt, pass
  • Irregular – bite, hang, give, see, tell, begin, make, get, find, think

Adjectives (to help form descriptive sentences)

  • Gooey, scary, twinkling, spooky, afraid, full, twisting, orange, warm, fun

Wh Questions

  • What costumes are the snowmen wearing?
  • What did the snowmen get to carve?
  • What beckoned the snowmen into the village square?
  • What filled the snowmen’s buckets?
  • What message did the snowmen leave for the children?
  • Who made the snowmen?
  • Who wore the costumes?
  • Who painted the snowmen’s faces?
  • Where did the snowmen go?
  • When did the kids make the snowmen?
  • Why did the snowman?
  • Why did the sister have a box of dress ups?
  • Why did the snowmen go see the fortune teller?
  • How did the snowmen get gooey grins?
  • Which costume is your favorite?

Other Activities

  • Compare and contrast – pumpkin and jack-o-lantern; Witch and pirate (both wear a hat and have a spooky smile; different – one wears a cape and one wears a vest); autumn and winter; Snickers and Milk Duds; bat and an owl
  • One of the best parts about using any book in therapy is that you can always find words that contain targeted speech sounds!
  • If you’re working on phonological awareness, there’s a lot of rhyming in this book! Pile-smile; ghost-most; afraid-parade, etc.
  • Practice trick or treating with your students to work on manners
  • Make broader connections with your students by asking them personal questions such as
    • What are you going to be for Halloween?
    • Where do you go trick or treating?
    • What is your favorite candy?