Side Hustles

In all the professional categories, there are what are commonly referred to as "side hustles".  For a nurse practitioner, it might be injecting stem cells on the weekend for fun and profit.  For doctors, it might be overseeing a med-spa.  For social workers in private practice, the sky is the limit.  

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In my practice, one of the side hustles that I have engaged in from time to time has been doing assessments.  These are typically based on the ASI model of the bio/psycho/social assessments.  This type of assessment can be used for working with criminal defendants and for driver's license appeals.  Just two or three criminal defense attorneys or attorneys who help people appeal their driving privileges referring clients to you is enough to supercharge a side hustle like this.  I charge a $150 flat fee for these, and they take me an average of about an hour and a half of total time.  Not a bad rate.  These referrals sometimes come from probation officers, criminal defense attorneys or even from people being sanctioned by professional licensing boards.  

 

Pro Tip: If you want to cut the time it takes to do an ASI (or any assessment where you are going to be writing up a formal document), consider typing the document at the same time you are doing the assessment.  In the beginning, I took handwritten notes on the printed-out ASI and then transcribed the highlights to the final document.  This ended up taking up to 3 hours, and this made my hourly rate only $50...hardly a lucrative side hustle.  Creating your document as you go allows you to go back after the client session has ended and simply complete the summary, diagnosis, prognosis and any recommendations and finalize it with some nice formatting.  You can even drop in your signature to avoid printing, signing and scanning the document.  This only takes around 20 minutes on top of the hour for the assessment.  When you consider an additional 10 minutes to email it to everyone it needs to go to and text the client to let them know you did this, you have 1.5 hours.  That is an effective rate of $100 per hour.  Now that is a decent side hustle!

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My point here is that there are a lot of different side hustles that you can do even as an intern, and you are only limited by your creativity.  These may account for as much as 20-30% of your total income once you have developed a solid referral base for these, or they could potentially transform into your main practice.  In private practice, you can do, within some reasonable limits, whatever the heck you want, so be creative.  Always remember that there are people in the state who need your services, and all you need to do is figure out where your future clients are hanging out and connect with them.  

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Later on in your career, you may also consider taking your specialized areas of expertise you developed as a therapist and create a coaching program.  These are amazing because you can reach a wider client base by doing something that is not specific to your social work license.  Your license is limited to the state(s) where you are licensed, but a coaching offer can reach all corners of the country and even internationally.  I have coached people in the UK, Canada and Australia as well as in several places in the U.S.  This was based on a skill set I learned and became certified in and was technically outside of my license and my work as a therapist.  I even have a disclaimer on my coaching contract that states that we are not entering into a traditional, therapy relationship.  This potentially extends my reach to anywhere in the world.  Not bad.  

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To begin this mindset piece, below I have included several examples of ASI's that I have done along with a copy of Life's Work Clinic's official letterhead for use during your internship.  As time progresses, I will add more ideas as they come to my attention.  Please let me know if you come up with any!

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