Tear about my girlfriend’s potential business idea

[boydantrim]

She recently became a qualified counsellor. She’s bloody good too, has been coaching others in her work for 2 years or so. Her idea...

She wants to help youths/adolescents, and is not overly concerned with making bank, but does not want to be out of pocket. Now, largely, youths can not pay for much, and will not be likely to pay for counselling services.

Her out of the box idea; target schools and programs that work with schools (like youth suicide prevention programs and organisations that work with troubled kids, etc) and get them to pay a subscription to allow the kids under their organisation attend my girlfriend’s sessions at no cost to them.

I think as well, she wants to largely be an online counsellor, at least eventually, to be able to have a bigger reach, and kids and their devices these days, amirite? So things like school chaplains are great to have but are they of any benefit to kids after-hours/all day (when youth suicide rates increase dramatically) or just 9-3?

Things she will need to consider; (public) schools don’t have large budgets as it is. Nor do a lot of these organisations; they’re not exactly money-making machines. Also, their needs to be a motivation for these places to front the costs.

I would love to go to her with more feedback and thoughts but may be biased myself, as I can see how passionate she is about this and might be caught up in that, and not thinking analytically. Any thoughts or insights?

 

[daniel24]

@boydantrim A friend of my wife is a youth counselor and does pretty well doing court mandated counseling. She also testifies a lot in child custody cases as to the effect that a parent is having on the kid.

Has she done a great deal of online counseling? I think it is going to be tough to break into effectively, agree with Whalwani that most communication is non-verbal (fidgeting with the hands and feet, etc.) and its going to be tough to pick that up on a screen. How is she going to read body language to know when someone is holding something back when she can see only a small percentage of their body.

 

[boydantrim]

@daniel24 You’re absolutely right, body language is where most of the communication lies... her motivation for doing online is that, at home after school or work is when people can really begin to feel alone and like they have no one to talk to, and that she has often been the person that others will come to to talk about their problems, which 9/10 times happens with essays via text or FB. But in the arena of a counsellor, body language is important as well, so you make a good point. I’m going to try and bring it up with her and ask her what her thoughts are on that; thanks!

 

[bluemoonzenna101]

@boydantrim Some thoughts:

There are a dozen or so platforms already out there. Decide if she's doing a 'service' or being the 'platform'.

If it's the platform then=>

HIPPA alone will eat up the initial costs of getting started.

A solid developer or two will be needed just to get it off the ground.

Lawyers/HIPPA experts needed

Stand alone server with all of the other specs.

As a service:

Find a platform that suits her need and then she can provide those services. You'll be at the mercy of the costs of said platform but they will be theoretically much cheaper than any attempt she'd tried to do.

The money out there is really the only hurdle. Expect to do lots of prospecting and figuringout the pathways. In other words get 3 groups to map out their buying processes and why they should want it. Just go talk to the people you think would buy it (the check writers) and see who else needs to be involved, the problems around counseling and you'll get some better feedback.

 

[bluemoonzenna101]

@boydantrim You nailed it.

A service is her doing the prospecting, lead generation, some of the other business stuff and the service. Platform is the medium by which it's done like you mentioned chat or video. You wouldn't need as much infrastructure if it's just her trying to grab clients.

So as a service you'll be better off to test this. Talk to 3 to 5 of the groups she wants to have as clients and see how and who they pay right now.

 

[613jono]

@boydantrim Don't private schools and colleges make a hell lot money?

 

[boydantrim]

@613jono Private schools do. College (university) I think is a little older than her target market, at least mostly. And either way, she still needs to get them to pay her

 

[613jono]

@boydantrim Just target private schools! P.s. it's a great business strategy

 

[rfoobs]

@boydantrim 7-cups is a free online chatting counseling website, though you can also do Skype chatting or counseling too

 

[beacon28]

@boydantrim I have tried online counseling through a platform called "better help" and while this might work for others, it didn't for me. Being behind the screen will cause her to miss much of the tell-tales of body language. I think I'm stating the obvious here but that was my experience. She can try it out with a small audience first for a small fee and if it works then widen the circle and increase her charge. Good luck.

 

[boydantrim]

@beacon28 When you say you tried it, were you the counsellor or the client? But you do make a good point, that’s where a lot of the communication happens. I don’t know if it’s something she has or hasn’t considered yet but I’m going to try and bring it up with her and see her thoughts; thank you

 

[beacon28]

@boydantrim No I was the client. The counsellor was good in terms of follow up, but communication was a bit slow (1 reply per day). So with all honesty it had no value at all. Not all approaches are made equal though. Your gf can try hers and assess the feedback. Cheers!