Regardless if you've chosen the path of opening a center, working in schools, working in homes or consulting, you need clients. Where do you find them, where do you start?
Past Clients
I'm not telling you to "poach" clients from your previous employer. I actually vehemently ask you not to contact any of those families except to ask if their transitions are going smoothly. But, some families / clients may reach out to you and want you to do their therapy. There is n o t h i n g wrong with this.
Have them follow the same procedures and intake policies that other new families would have to follow and move along.
Autism Speaks, Autism Society and other Autism Organizations
Contact your local autism organizations in your area and ask them how to get your information on their websites. For many of them, it's as simple as sending them your contact info and a brief bio for your organization. Knock out as many as you can.
Social Media
I mentioned in previous posts that you should have a social media presence. If you've already started a facebook / instagram / twitter, you should be posting regularly about your progress.
Many parents use facebook as their first search tool. If you've already garnered some followers, open the lines out communication and start chatting with them.
Have an open house and post about it. Get friends, family and colleagues to share the post and see who comes.
I did this and the post was shared about 500x and was seen about thousands of users. I had about 8 families come to my open house, and 4 of them became clients. It is valuable!
You may not know this, but there are many, many facebook groups out there for parents - something like "Autism Moms of New Orleans." They talk a lot about their experiences, and they get very specific, mentioning agencies, BCBAs by name, technicians by name, etc. If you've done great work, there's a good chance that they'll be talking about you agency when you first open.
Autism Awareness Walks / Events
Become a sponsor, get a booth and get the word out about your new facility. Make sure you're there. They want to meet you. They want to know if you're the right person for their kiddo.
Have a fun activity at your booth and show off your skills.
Get to know the other booths / agencies. Mingle with them, let them know that you're trying to get clients and give them your card. These people are not your competitor or enemy. I refer families to other facilities every day, and other facilities refer clients to me in return. We're all working together to help these families.
While you're there, see if any local hospitals / psychologists / etc. are present. I randomly ran into one of the top psychologists in the area and gave her my info - she said she'd add my information to their recommendations page that they give to families newly diagnosed with autism.
And sure enough, a few months later, I saw my agency on the list! My agency starts with the letter A, so it was one of the first ones listed alphabetically. From my talks with parents, many of them begin calling down the list or call the agency closest to home.
Diagnosticians / Psychologists / Hospitals
As I mentioned above, these professionals are a direct line from evaluation to you. Get to know the big players in your area - for me that consisted of 3 major hospitals: Tulane Center for Autism and Related Disorders, LSU-Health, and Children's Hospital.
After that, do a quick google search for diagnosticians in your area that specialize in Autism Spectrum Disorders. Call them or show up in person with snack (preferred!) and explain your new agency and see if they'd be open to adding you to their referral list.
In my experience, many of these places will actually come find you and ask you to refer potential clients to them (I met 6 different psychologists / diagnosticians like this). We posted their business cards on our bulletin and added them to our list of autism diagnosis agencies. They in turn began to refer clients to us.
Promote Your Website
You don't have to run ads - I recommend that you don't, unless you are very familiar with the costs and uses. I did not get any clients from ads.
I posted my website everywhere - facebook, instagram, business card, pinterest posts for sensory activities, teachers-pay-teachers resources, everywhereee.
This will build traffic to your website and in turn, potential families will be able to see what you offer.
Contact google and apple to have your organization / building added to their maps and search engine respectively. That way, when a parent search "Autism Clinics" in your area, your agency will appear with the rest of them.