Every week I get the same emails and the same questions. Somebody finishes her clinical training, she’s thrilled, and then within a few weeks the excitement turns into panic, because nobody told her what happens next. She has the skills. She has zero idea where to start building the business around them.

That’s the trained but stuck pattern, and I know it from the inside. I sat in that exact spot when I finished my own 12-week training, holding a brand new skill set and no plan for what to do with it on Monday morning. So this is the roadmap I wish someone had handed me: the five things to focus on in your first 60 days of building your myofunctional therapy practice, and the order to do them in, so you can stop guessing about what comes next.

Prefer to Listen Instead?

This article is based on The Profitable Myofunctional Therapist™ podcast, Episode 94: Your First 60 Days of Building a Profitable Myofunctional Therapy Practice: What to Do in Order. You can listen to the podcast here.

Prefer to Watch Instead?

Why the Order of Your First 60 Days Matters

Here’s the thing most trained therapists get wrong. They don’t lack effort. They do the right tasks in the wrong order, and then they wonder why nothing sticks.

They build a website before they know who it’s for. They set a price before they know who’s buying. They post on Instagram before they have a business name they’re allowed to keep. Every one of those is a task you’ll end up doing twice.

If you want the bigger picture of why so many therapists stall right after training, start with what to do after myofunctional therapy training. This post is the next layer down, the sequence itself.

Step 1: Build Your Business Foundations

When I first recorded this, I called business foundations the most important step. Then I caught myself, because it isn’t the most important. It’s simply where you have to start, because you can’t grow a business you haven’t created yet. Think of this as your business setup season.

Start With a Business Diagnostic

When someone comes into my coaching, the first thing we do is a business diagnostic, and it is literally a checklist. Do you have this. Do you have this. Do you have this. It tells you what exists and what’s missing before you spend a single hour on marketing. If you want to see what that looks like, I walk through it in the business diagnostic for an online myofunctional therapy practice.

Check Your Business Name Before You Fall in Love With It

So many of you are naming a business you haven’t even checked to see if it’s available. Search the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and check with your Secretary of State before you order the business cards.

Trust me, rebranding is a pain in the butt. And you don’t want to build a beautiful, thriving business and then open a cease and desist letter in the mail telling you to stop using your name, or worse, find out someone is coming after you for using it.

Buy Your Domain, Choose Your Structure, Get Insured

Buy your domain now. Don’t build the website yet, just buy the domain so it’s yours.

Then decide your business legal structure, whether that’s an LLC or whether you’re going to run as a sole proprietor for now. Either way, you need business insurance in place.

This is a checklist, not legal advice. Your attorney, your accountant, and your insurance agent handle the specifics for your state. Your job is to make sure every box gets checked before you move on. For the full setup list, read how to set up a myofunctional therapy business.

Step 2: Nail Your Who

If you’ve been around me for any amount of time, you knew this one was coming.

Your marketing has no direction until you know who it’s for. I talk about this ad nauseam and I’m going to keep talking about it, because it makes your job so much easier. Every piece of content I create starts with one question. Am I talking to my Lola or my Sarah?

My Sarah is the bored, burned out hygienist who hasn’t been trained yet and doesn’t know there’s something different she can do with her life. My Lola is the trained but stuck myofunctional therapist who isn’t going to be able to do anything different with her life until she gets the car out of park. Two different women, two different problems, two different messages. When I know which one I’m talking to, the words show up.

Your who is your ideal client avatar, and until you can name her, everything downstream is a guess.

Step 3: Build Your Irresistible Offer

Once you know your who, you can build your irresistible offer, and not one minute before.

You can’t put a price on something until you know who’s going to buy it. Your offer comes after your who, not before. If you’ve got this backwards, you’ve got to go back and fix it.

When you’re ready to put numbers on it, how to price your myofunctional therapy services without undercharging walks through it.

Step 4: Set Up Your Client Pathway Systems

Business foundations, check. Your who, check. Your irresistible offer, check. Now you build the system that carries a client from the first click to the finish line.

This is where you figure out the software you need and get it running, from scheduling all the way to your client graduating from therapy. That’s the whole pathway. I talk about 17hats a lot here because it handles all of it in one place, and some of you are using something else. I don’t care what you use. I care that you know it cold.

Run a Pretend Client Through It First

Here’s what I have my students do. They set up the business in 17hats, then they create a dummy account, Suzy Q Test Dummy or whatever name makes you laugh, and they walk her through the entire pathway.

That way you see what it looks like as the CEO and what it looks like as the client. You find the broken link, the confusing email, and the missing form before a real client does, and you become intimately knowledgeable about your own process. For more on what to build first, see the three myofunctional therapy business systems and the CEO systems your practice needs.

Step 5: Maximize Your Visibility the Right Way

This one is last, and it’s never going to be finished.

Notice I didn’t say go post on social media. In your first 60 days, you likely don’t need to worry about that yet. Visibility in this season means three things.

A Website Built for SEO and GEO

Your website needs to be built so people can find you, on Google and in AI search tools. That means having the right words in the right place, saying the right thing to the right person. And the right person is your who. That’s the order paying you back.

A Legal Website

Your website needs a privacy policy. That’s part of running a legal business, and it’s required if you use Google Analytics, which is in Google’s terms of service. I cannot, in good conscience, tell any of my clients to publish a website without it, even if it costs you a few bucks. That’s the price of doing business.

Your Google Business Profile

Set up your Google Business Profile so you show up when people look for help in your area. It’s free, it’s yours, and it’s one of the first places a potential client checks.

The Five Steps, in Order

1. Build your business foundations: diagnostic, name check, domain, legal structure, business insurance.
2. Nail your who.
3. Build your irresistible offer.
4. Set up your client pathway systems, and test them with a pretend client.
5. Maximize your visibility the right way: a website built for SEO and GEO, a legal website, and your Google Business Profile.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should I do first after finishing myofunctional therapy training?

Start with your business foundations. Run a business diagnostic, check that your business name is available, buy your domain, choose your legal structure, and get business insurance in place. You can’t market a business that doesn’t exist yet. For more, read what to do after myofunctional therapy training.

Do I need an LLC to start a myofunctional therapy business?

Not necessarily. Some therapists form an LLC and some start as a sole proprietor. Either way, you need business insurance. Talk to your attorney and accountant about which structure fits your situation and your state.

Should I post on social media in my first 60 days?

In most cases, not yet. Your first 60 days are better spent on your foundations, your who, your offer, and your systems. When you do focus on visibility, start with a website built for SEO and GEO and your Google Business Profile.

Why do I need to know my ideal client before I set my prices?

Because you can’t put a price on something until you know who’s going to buy it. Your who shapes what your offer includes, how you describe it, and what it’s worth to the person buying it. Offer comes after your who, never before.

What software do I need for a myofunctional therapy practice?

You need one system that carries a client from scheduling all the way to graduating from therapy. I use and teach 17hats, and other platforms can work too. What matters is that you’ve set it up and walked a test client through every step. See how to set up a myofunctional therapy business for what to build first.

Does my myofunctional therapy website need a privacy policy?

Yes. A privacy policy is part of running a legal business, and it’s required if you use Google Analytics on your site. Put it in place before you publish.

Keep Listening: Related Episodes

• EP66: What to Do After Myofunctional Therapy Training: Why Most Therapists Get Stuck: The why behind the stall, before you get to the step-by-step order.
• EP68: How to Organize a Myofunctional Therapy Business: What to Set Up First: The full setup list behind Step 1 of your first 60 days.
• EP65: How to Set Up Your Myofunctional Therapy Practice: The 3 Systems You Need First: The deeper dive on Step 4, your client pathway systems.

Stop Guessing What Comes Next

If you’re sitting in that gap right now, trained but without a business, you don’t need more information. You need the order, and someone to help you see where you are in it.

That’s exactly what the Get Unstuck Call is for. We’ll look at where you’re at, what you’ve already done, what’s working, what isn’t, and where you’re getting in your own way, because that last one is a huge thing for so many of you. Then we’ll map out what your next 60 days should look like. Book your Get Unstuck Call and let’s get the car out of park.

Xo,

💙 Carmen

About Carmen Ball

Carmen Ball (formerly Carmen Woodland) is a renowned, global myofunctional therapist, business coach, and host of The Profitable Myofunctional Therapist™ podcast. Over the past decade, she has helped thousands of people in her private myofunctional therapy practice (Impact Myofunctional Therapy – formerly Integrative Myofunctional Therapy) and coached hundreds of trained therapists to build profitable online businesses of their own. She is the creator of The Profitable Myofunctional Therapist™ program and Learn Myofunctional Therapy in 60 Days or Less (LMT60), a clinical training program for dental and health professionals. Carmen’s approach is simple: you already have the skills and the license. Now let’s build the business around them. She works with therapists around the world who are ready to stop spinning their wheels and start building a business they are genuinely bonkers about.