Making Peace With Money - The Social Worker as Entrepreneur
By Lynn Grodzki, LCSW, PCC
Social Work Today
Vol. 4, No. 7, Page 18

Patricia, an overworked executive director of a community mental health center, interviews a clinical social worker wanting to join her staff. Patricia asks the social worker a hypothetical question: How would she, the social worker, handle a client who accrued a large, unpaid bill at the mental health center for counseling services? “Well, to be honest with you, I am not very good with that. I don’t really care about the money,” says the social worker. “I just care about the client.” There is a pause. Patricia sighs and says, “At this agency, for us to stay in business, you need to care about both.”

Patricia voices the reality today for many in the social work field. No matter what the work setting—whether they are in private practice, on the staff of a nonprofit organization, part of an EAP, or employed by a government agency—social workers are hearing that they need to become more entrepreneurial.

What does it mean to be entrepreneurial when you are a social worker? For many social workers, it means reconciling opposites, such as profit and service. For others, it means balancing competing agendas: making sure that the needs of your clients do not overshadow the needs of your agency that serves them. As the executive director of a nonprofit organization recently told me, “We all have to be entrepreneurial today to stay financially viable. I continually educate my staff of social workers so that they understand our financial reality, know how to meet the public, and can market our services competently. We are all in business—the business of therapy—together.” (In this article, the word business will mean all types of public, private, for-profit, or nonprofit organizations.)

Becoming an Entrepreneur

As a business coach for therapists and a social worker myself in private practice for almost two decades, I understand how hard it is for social workers to warm up to business. The social workers I coach are reluctant entrepreneurs. They wish they could just concentrate on what they know best—delivering clinical services—and avoid the need to think about money, budgets, profit, management, administration, outreach, marketing, staffing, or organizational sustainability. And yet, many already understand that to survive managed care, government funding cuts, or a donations decrease, they need to know how to become “engaged entrepreneurs.”

What exactly is an entrepreneur? An entrepreneur is a business owner. But in our culture, we use the term entrepreneur to mean more than that, to connote people such as Oprah Winfrey or Donald Trump, icons who exemplify an energetic and savvy attitude about business and unlimited opportunity.

Linda Pinson of the Small Business Association says: “I have always thought of an entrepreneur as a person who starts a business to follow a vision, to make money, and to be the master of his or her own soul [both financially and spiritually]. Inherent in the venture is the risk of what the future may bring. Therefore, I believe that an essential key to success is that the entrepreneur also be an educated risk taker.”

Business Principles

The thought of a social worker being an educated risk taker may be a stretch, but surely a social worker can be visionary. And who would deny a social worker’s inherent interest in all aspects of life, including work? Perhaps the average social worker is an entrepreneur-in-waiting. The services of social work are historically offered via a business setting of some type: it may be for-profit or nonprofit, public or private, or group or solo endeavor, but social work and business do go together. And yet, few social workers seem to enjoy the business aspect of their work. As a result, many social workers feel internally torn between the clinical work they love and the business world they operate within, which they often hate. As a business coach, part of my mission has been to help my fellow therapists heal this split and learn to be more at ease with, if not love, the business of therapy.

Here are three key business premises that, when adopted, can help change a nonbusiness mind-set into one that is more comfortably entrepreneurial.

Premise #1: You are not your business.

A major reason that social workers dislike business stems from relating to business in a “fused” position—they overidentify with the business. Solution? Just as in any other relationship, you need some differentiation. Separate yourself from your business. See it as distinct from you, even if it only exists as the result of your efforts. Don’t take business ups and downs personally. Think of your business as a child you birthed who has a lot of you in him or her but is still separate from you. Entrepreneurs understand that businesses, like children, have their own specific needs, nature, and personality. Be a wise parent and objectively give your business what it needs to flourish.

Premise #2: Your business reflects your strengths and weaknesses.

Your business is a mirror of certain aspects of you—and it’s not always flattering! For example, if you are disorganized and live with clutter and chaos, chances are your business paperwork is hard to find and file and your treatment reports are late. Recognizing that your business is a good reflection of you means that when you want to make a change in your business, you may be able to address this change easier by making it within yourself first.

Premise #3: All actions you take in business are fear-based or love-based.

Too often, social workers are anxious or fearful about taking business actions. Faced with an unfamiliar business situation, you may feel tentative about what steps to take, but at the same time feel pressured to see results. Motivated by fear and worried about your organization’s viability, you grit your teeth and force yourself to take the dreaded action. For example, you may need to do some business marketing. Doing this from a basis of fear means you say to yourself, “If I don’t reach these people and make a good impression, I won’t survive.”

Imagine the pressure that kind of thinking places on you as you try to develop a professional network. Who could love a business that puts you into this kind of a spin? But if you take the same action, motivated by a basis of love, you say to yourself, “I am calling this person to let him know how much I love the work I am doing. I want this to be win-win, not just based on my getting something, but on my giving as well.” Same action, different perspective, different experience of marketing.

Every time you act with regard to your business, do it from a basis of love—love of self, love of others, love for your business, or love of the profession. Love makes you feel expansive and open-hearted and is a good way to operate in business.

An Entrepreneurial Profile

Successful entrepreneurs aren’t just born, they are made. They are taught how to think and behave. How do you think and behave when it comes to business? Are you a worrier—dwelling on worst-case scenarios, feeling down about your lack of success, rejecting possible ideas because you assume they won’t work? Are you a planner—making mental lists of what to do next, staying focused and motivated? Are you overly optimistic—seeing many opportunities, not able to prioritize, needing direction? Are you a procrastinator—coming up with good ideas but never feeling ready to start?
How you think about business influences your ability to take action. Negative beliefs and critical self-talk hamper your efforts while constructive, optimistic, yet pragmatic thinking help you take big steps. Developing an entrepreneurial mind-set—the combination of thinking, feeling, and sensing that is the hallmark of successful business owners—is a big step in the right direction.

Social workers often have aspects of this mind-set developed but need to activate additional elements. For example, we are often skilled at sensing and can read subtle cues and unspoken signals. This is good and can be helpful in business situations. But we must also learn to use the linear, unemotional, unwavering thinking that is necessary in business.

Successful entrepreneurs (and social workers who learn to be more entrepreneurial) demonstrate the following mind-set:

• Given a set of challenges, they see opportunities. You need to see the possibility inside every setback and keep an optimistic, yet pragmatic attitude. Taking action in the face of an obstacle means combining a hopeful stance with realistic expectations. One door closes, another opens.
• They expect a lot from themselves and others. They want a lot for themselves and others. Successful entrepreneurs set high standards. Having clear boundaries around your requests means you can express your needs and wants directly. Expect those around you to come from the best in themselves, and hold yourself to this standard as well.
• They operate from a state of abundance. Abundance means seeing a world of circulating surplus. There is enough (money, clients, time, friendship, assets, information) for you (and your clients) to attract the resources needed to meet future goals.
• They like to think about money. Get moneywise so you can think and talk about all aspects of money without discomfort. Treat the topic of money with the same curiosity, openness, and intelligence you would bring to any other important subject.
Which of these four qualities do you currently possess as a social worker? Which do you need to develop to be more entrepreneurial? If you are like most social workers, the last topic (money) is most likely the biggest stumbling block to having an entrepreneurial mind-set.

Making Peace With Money

It’s not just social workers who are conflicted about money. Many high-functioning people who are mature in every other area of their lives struggle with money. But you need to resolve this struggle to succeed in business. As an entrepreneur, your developmental task is to cultivate an adult relationship with money.

You need to identify and resolve any childhood-based, negative beliefs that may be influencing the way you conduct business. For example, maybe you grew up with money deprivation. There was never enough money for your basic needs as a child. You still believe money is in short supply, watch every penny, and fail to give your business the resources it needs to flourish.

Or perhaps you grew up believing money was mysterious because no one in your family understood how to make it or save it. You ride an emotional money roller coaster. Mostly you are confused because there is so much about money you don’t comprehend. Or you may have been taught that money is inherently wicked. You saw anxiety on your parents’ faces when they talked about money, so you feel scared or impure when you have to deal with it, too. You hate to raise your fees, negotiate with vendors, or hold your boundaries about your established policies. You find all aspects regarding money unpleasant and suspect.

The solution? Resolve any negative beliefs and irrational behaviors that impede your business growth. Reconcile money and service. Separate the caring you have for your clients from your skills, recognizing that you charge solely for the skills; the caring is free. Think about the time and value you provide and the viability of your business. If your business doesn’t make a profit or meet its budget, you will no longer be able to provide services.

The Business of Therapy

Let’s be frank. As social workers, we have chosen one of the tougher jobs around. We extend ourselves, hour after hour, to others who are in pain and crisis. We train and hone our services far beyond what most professionals feel required to do, often at our own expense. Our work does not stop when the office door closes. We adhere to strict codes of behavior to maintain our licensure and professional ethics. The complexity and rigor of our caseload does not lessen over time, regardless of our years of experience.

When we add to this the stresses and strains of operating a business, its no wonder many of us feel burned out, defeated, or overwhelmed. To make it even tougher, most of us are unschooled in knowing how to build and operate a successful business. The business of therapy consistently gets short shrift in the offerings from universities or professional associations.

So if you feel like you have not done as well as you might as an entrepreneur, it may be because you have not had the support or training you needed. Social workers spend considerable time and money refining our clinical skills each year yet tend to give little attention to obtaining entrepreneurial skills. But it’s not too late to acquire these skills. Entrepreneurship is an ongoing process. It involves a recognition and pursuit of opportunity with confidence. It requires that we learn flexibility and resilience, to change course as necessary. It means we must find new ways to access the resources we need to achieve our goals.

If we can become creative in finding the entrepreneurial abilities we need to build and grow our businesses, we will all improve our chances of professional success.

— Lynn Grodzki, LCSW, PCC, is a psychotherapist and professionally certified business coach from Silver Spring, MD. She is the author of Building Your Ideal Private Practice: A Guide for Therapists and Other Healing Professionals (WW Norton, 2000) and 12 Months to Your Ideal Private Practice: A Workbook (WW Norton, 2003). She can be contacted through her Web site, www.privatepracticesuccess.com.