Healers often come to their work with a passion. They want to do work they love, from their hearts. They envision a life where they can do work they love all the time.

If this is you, congrats! It’s a wonderful gift to bring your nurturing into the world.

I first made the transition from full-time office staffer to self-employed doula five years ago. It was a rocky road, and I’m sharing hard-earned lessons I learned along the way.

Here are some ways to make your road a little easier.

Save up for the long-haul. It could take a long time to set up your dream job as a healer. Lots of new professions require going to school to train, and this can be a very significant investment.

A typical new business requires around two years to establish itself. You’ll feel less stress, and more able to focus your emotional energy on building your business, if you save money first to get you through.

If you’re able, you’ll want to save enough to cover seven to twelve months of your regular monthly expenses. That way, when you’re having a rough month and deciding whether to stick with building your clientele or go get a day job, you’ll have a bit more confidence about sticking with the process to see results.

If you’re not in the habit of saving, it can be daunting at first. It is possible, even if it doesn’t seem to be. You can try putting away 5% to 30% of every dollar you make, before it ever goes into your pocket. (I’ll share a more on saving and budgeting soon.)

If you quit your job without saving first, you may find yourself feeling stressed, discouraged, or fearful as you lay the ground work for your business. It’s hard to establish a thriving business while you’re preoccupied with figuring out how to afford groceries. As a healer, it’s hardly calm or grounding to walk into a client session or interview feeling desperate.

With a little prior planning and determination, you can feel confident that your saving reserve will support you through your startup time.

Find the professional associations in your area and join them. Your relationships with other practitioners, in your field and in others parallel to it, will be key to your success.

Get to know others by asking questions, listening, and contributing your wisdom. There’s nothing to be shy about! People in our line of work are generally friendly, accepting, and nurturing. They can be a joy to meet and spend time with, as are you. So get out there and say hello!

If you’re nervous about meeting people, don’t worry. Everyone else feels the same way at first! They’ll have empathy for you.

If you decide to start a business and try to go it alone, without putting yourself out there to connect with other professionals, you’ll lose out on potential referrals. Lots of practitioners like to refer the people they can’t help to other professionals they like and trust. You have to be at meetings, be accessible, and contribute to the community in order to be someone others think to refer to.

If there isn’t already a professional group that is just the right fit, you may want to start one. One colleague of mine wanted support during her own parenting journey and went on to found a group that offers just that. She gathered a great group of practitioners that now operates as a cross-referral group called LGBTQ Perinatal Wellness Associates.

It can be hard for people to find good referrals to excellent practitioners, and offering a professional listing of high-quality colleagues who serve them is a wonderful service.

Think like your ideal client. Try to find yourself in the way that a client might. Where would your ideal client go if they were looking for services you offer?

Pick many promotional strategies and pursue them all. Later, you can refine your strategy and focus on the avenues that worked best. If you’re stuck, or can’t think of a dozen ways to try to get clients right now, it’s a good idea to consider taking a class, brainstorming with friends, or finding marketing help.

Make sure you’re tracking where clients heard about you. Was it a flyer? A referral? An online search? You’ll learn a lot and it will help you refine your outreach efforts.

Make sure you have a professional website and card. There are tons of DIY options for making a great card. Just make sure that what you have looks really clean and professional. WordPress.com is a wonderful website tool, and many people like to use Wix and VistaPrint as well.

I recommend working in WordPress, as it’s the most functional, convenient tool for making a professional-looking site. There are excellent online tutorials about how to set up a WordPress hosted site on WordPress.com.

You can hire a website designer later, when your business is up and running.

For business cards, you can get ready-made templates from VistaPrint or have your own cards designed and print them. If you’re wanting help with design ideas, there’s a website called fiverr.com where you can hire someone for $5 to make your card for you.

Keep your side job (or stay in school). If you don’t have a side job, get one. Working part-time as a server, receptionist, nanny, or in some other service role can save you a lot of financial stress while starting up.

Let’s be real: healing jobs are service jobs. Lots of us have a romantic vision of bringing healing into the world, which is beautiful and real. There is nothing more rewarding than serving people in a way that feels deeply aligned with your values. Yet, the work that we do, rewarding though it is, is literally in service to others.

There’s nothing less important or valid about serving people a delicious, pleasant meal than serving them as an acupuncturist or doula.

The emotional skills we use in service work are quite similar, regardless of our job title. Whether you work as a server, host, or nanny or as a doula, sex worker, or chiropractor, you are serving your clients by attending to their needs and keeping your “stuff” at the door.

Keeping a day job, at least for a while, is not only valid, but a great idea for most of us. It can help assuage some of the anxiety that could otherwise come from not being sure where your rent check will come from next month.

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In the end, there’s really only one question: Who doesn’t want to be in love with their work?

Your success depends most on one thing: the faster you accept that your primary job is to be the “CEO” of your business, the more likely it is you will succeed. What do CEOs do? They are leaders and “talking heads,” networking and sharing their empathy, wisdom and work everyday. So, let’s hear what you do!

About the Author

Lindsay K. Germain is a designer and communications strategist who  teaches classes in the Bay Area. You can view her upcoming classes here.