Table of Contents

-Business Outline
-Structure
-Choosing a name & Logo
-Designing a Website
-Business Cards
-Legalities
-Insurance & Marketing Strategies

BUSINESS OUTLINE:

• Sample Business outline PDF

Structure

There are two main business structures you can choose when becoming a Biblical Counselor for a business: For-Profit & Non-Profit. Most biblical Counselors are for-profit businesses as this structure works best for individual counseling businesses. As a for-profit you can choose to be a sole-proprietor or LLC. If you are desiring to start a larger biblical counseling organization, you might want to look into starting a non-profit ministry/business to best serve the mission you have within your organization. Below are helpful articles for you to learn more about how to start the process based on which one you decide on.

• Should Your Business Be For-Profit or Non-Profit?

• How to Start a For-Profit Business

• How To Start a Non-Profit

Choosing a name & Logo

Once you choose your name, you have the option of paying professionally to get a logo created, or you can consider using free or low-cost options yourself. One of the recommended sites we use at WBW for all of our logos, and content creation is CANVA. You can use it for free, or pay a small monthly fee to be able to design logos with a transparent background.

Quick Tips for choosing a name:

1. Make sure the name is available for an email address. You can check this by creating an email through GMAIL.

2. Make sure the name is available online for a website (if you are desiring to have a website for your business). You can check this by searching to see if the domain is available through SQUARESPACE DOMAIN SEARCH.

Designing a Website

As with the name and logo, you also have the option of paying professionally to get a website created, or you can consider using free or low-cost options yourself to design your site. Our recommended web creator is SQUARESPACE. They allow you to purchase the domain, and create a site all in one. It is the most user-friendly web creation platform we have found. Squarespace has different monthly or annual payment options depending on what you are desiring to use your site for.

• To learn how to create a site through Squarespace, you can follow this helpful video tutorial to get you started. Squarespace Website Tutorial Video.

Business Cards

Nowadays, business cards aren’t always necessary, but we have found them to still be beneficial as a counselor to have and pass out. Our recommended low-cost website where you can design business cards as well as other business items is VISTAPRINT.

Legalities

• Business Owner Resources:

  Note: Women Becoming Whole recommends that you  speak with a tax consultant to gather more information about this might affect you directly.

  • https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/self-employment-taxes/tax-topics-for-freelancers-contractors-and-consultants/L3hB3EjOs

  • https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/independent-contractor-self-employed-or-employee

  • https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/moonlighters-must-pay-self-employment-taxes.html

• Release of Liability:

  • We would recommend you create a release form for the women you counsel. The easiest way to create a simple release form is through Google forms. You can email the forms to each person and then save them just in case anything were to happen. These forms protect you from liability and we would highly recommend you create one. Here is the link to our agreement for an example. RELEASE OF LIABILITY

• Marketing Laws Information: https://www.biblicalcounselingcoalition.org/category/legal-issues/

• Quick Tips as a Counselor:

  • Who You Are: You are an unlicensed counselor.

  • What You Should Say to Your Clients:
    -I recommend that you…
    -I am not a licensed professional but something I have personally found to be helpful is….
    -Can I pray for you….
    -I would recommend you talk to your doctor before starting…
    -I think it might be helpful if….
    -I am happy to help find you a resource who can help you with…
    *Stick to I recommend or it might be statements

  • Your Scope of Care:
    -Stick to what you have been trained on, and outside of that
    only help in areas you feel comfortable helping in.

  • Who You Are NOT:
    -You are not a licensed professional counselor, nutritionist, or doctor.

  • What You Should NOT Say:
    -You should do this….
    -You should eat this…..
    -I want you to…..
    -I am going to pray for you now…
    -You definitely need to start this program now, even if your dr. said otherwise….
    -You need to…..
    *Avoid you should or need to statements.

  • NOT Your Scope of Care:
    -Helping a counselee in any area you have no training in and feel uncomfortable doing.

Insurance & Marketing Strategies

• Cheapest insurance for biblical Counselors: HPSO insurance under Pastoral Care.

• Marketing Strategies:

  Ideas to help you get clients: These are just ideas. You do not have to do any of these, but hopefully they help you build a network for you as a counselor. The more established you are, the more opportunity you have to get clients.

  • Lifestyle- As a counselor, your life reflects the work you are putting in. Start by working on yourself, so when other people come to you, or they see what you are doing on social media they are looking up to you and the way you glorify God with your life.

  • Business Cards- There are always opportunities to share with others what you do, and being able to pass out a card can be very helpful! For cheap business cards we recommend vistaprint.com!

  • Networking- Find opportunities to network in your day to day life. You can also network at local networking events, gatherings, events, or start a facebook group etc.

  • Church community- The people in your church should be some of the first people you think of! What better way to counsel others, than people who you already know are desiring to follow the Lord.

  • Social Media - Make videos, take pictures, post about your counseling, get creative and involved with marketing to get people interested.

  • Blog - Starting a blog so people know more of who you are and your passions can help others feel more comfortable starting counseling with you! If starting a blog sounds overwhelming, we are always looking for more bloggers to write for us! Email womenbecomingwhole@gmail.com if you are interested. We will promote your blog and your IG account on our social media networks.

  • Website - Creating a website helps establish yourself as a counselor and showcase who you are, what you do, and what you provide. (If you need help with website design you can schedule a Business Consult with Jaime and she can walk you through how she designed her site and help you get started)