One of my new friends and resources that I’ve made on Twitter is board-certified music therapist (MT-BC), Rachel See Smith.  We were tweeting a while back about the open house she was planning for her music therapy practice when it occurred to me that you need to know about it, too!  Rachel has graciously agreed to write this guest post so that music therapists (and other mental health professionals, too) can see how easy and profitable it is to host your own open house.

(If you are interested in writing a guest post, check out the guidelines here.)

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A Guest Post by Rachel See Smith, MT-BC

As a new private practice owner, I had to start from scratch when it came to establishing a client base.  Out of all of the various marketing efforts I tried, the one that proved to be the most successful was hosting a free music therapy open house.  Although free demos require time without pay, preparation, and plenty of advertising beforehand, I highly recommend hosting a few.

What I Did

Since I work primarily with children, I decided to host the open houses at local pediatric therapy clinics (building fees may apply).  In these locations, I held two 30-minute sessions at no cost to the participants.  The first time slot was for ages 0-5, the second, for ages 6-10.   (Suggestion – Allow at least 15-30 minutes between sessions to talk with parents and to invite them to share in cookies/drinks, or pick-up your music therapy materials).  I also invited siblings to attend, as many of the parents may not have been able to come otherwise.

I was extremely pleased with the turnout at these open houses and, as a result of proper preparation and execution, I gained countless clients!

Now it’s YOUR turn!

Here are three easy steps to creating your open house for your music therapy practice . . . .

Step 1 – Prepare

Creating a successful open house involves marketing beforehand.  Advertising your event can be done via email, your website, newsletters, posters, support group message boards, and in pediatric therapy clinics.

Having news of your upcoming event spread through word-of-mouth is one of the most effective ways in increasing the number of open house participants.  This word-of-mouth advertising may come from asking parents of current clients to tell their friends and connections about the demo, or, from established connections with other therapists (speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, etc.) in the area.  For example, my fellow therapists emailed or talked to their clients about the open house information and encouraged their families to attend.

You may or may not decide to have open house attendees RSVP beforehand.  I recommend it, as it gave me an idea of how many people I could expect in order to prepare appropriate interventions and to have plenty of copies of handouts.  Which leads me to my next step . . . .

Step 2 – Create

Here are the materials I suggest you create and have ready for your open house:

• Thank you notes
• Music therapy brochures
• Information sheets about your private practice
• Plenty of business cards and other marketing materials out for display and available for pick-up

Step 3 – Follow-up

At the open house, encourage parents to sign-in (have a sign-in sheet ready and available at the door) and follow up with them via email or phone.  Be sure to sincerely thank them for coming, then ask if they are interested in future sessions.

And don’t forget that your open houses/demo sessions are TAX DEDUCTIBLE!

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About the Author: Rachel See Smith is a board-certified music therapist (MT-BC) with a Master’s in Music Therapy and a B.A. in Communication Disorders.  Rachel is currently employed as an independent music therapy contractor in Austin, Texas, and is the owner of Music Therapy Services of Austin.