Web Extra: Evaluate Your Business Potential

Before you spend time and money developing a business plan, it's a good idea to determine your potential for success. Identify areas of strength and weakness, and get insight into your market, competitors, start-up costs, sales and financing. With this, you can make an educated decision about how and where to build your practice.

Gather Income Statistics, Client Usage and Trends

• U.S. Department of Labor (www.dol.gov)
• Professional Associations
• Practitioners in Your Field
• Trade Journals
• State and Local Licensing Agencies
• futureLMT.com Online Resources

Research Potential Markets

• People most likely to utilize your services (See “Target Market,” from Issue 4.)
• People or conditions you want to work with

Estimate Supply and Demand

• Calculate the numbers of potential clients in your market
• Find out the average number of people receiving your type of work
• Determine the average number of sessions per client
• Ascertain the number of practitioners in your field in your city
• Project the average number of clients seen by current practitioners
• Divide the potential clients by the number of practitioners