Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in health and wellness but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Cynthia Carrera, Founder of Conversa Speech & Language Therapy, located in Santa Rosa, CA, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
I am a speech-language pathologist in private practice. I treat both adult and pediatric clients. The majority of the clients I see are very young, under the age of 7 years old. Often times what I do would be referred to as "general practice." I see everyone from speech sound therapy to long-COVID cognitive deficits. Although unexpected, my last school district contracted with them for cases requiring my panache. In this arrangement, I treat students from Kindergarten through 7th grade in 3 different school settings: traditional, Waldorf, and homeschooling.
Tell us about yourself
I have always worked for some entity, a district, a county Dept of Ed., a home health agency, or a regional center. I felt safe being a worker, collecting my pension, paying my bills, and helping all my families. Then I became a mom. I wanted to be with my child. I wanted to hear all his babbles, read him all the books, play with him and nurse him until it was no longer an option. I morphed into Mega Mom, so when the district I was employed by gave me a hard return time or canceled my contract ultimatum, well, I had to put my family first. I decided it was the best time to enter private practice. My fiancé has encouraged me along the way, being a source of energy, a sounding board, and at the time, my financier. This work is an emotional investment in families as much as it is a scientific one. In this field, you can't neglect one or the other. I guess you could, and you just wouldn't be very popular, nor would you see growth in your clients. If I had to translate that feeling I have about my purpose as an SLP, I would have to say that being able to offer hope in a stressful or unexpected circumstance and then delivering on that anticipation is what drives me each day to give my best to my clients.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
Where do I even begin? I am a female, Mexican-American child of a single mother, the first to graduate from college in my entire family (on both sides), a product of Title 1 schools, latch key kid who dreamt of having her own room and springing up to a tree full of gifts on Christmas mornings like on TV. Stepping out of my safety net and making the right contacts, taking time to learn things I didn't know how to do after the baby went to sleep, like getting an EIN and creating a website, then choosing a name that represented me and the specialized care I wanted to put into the world, all this took great dedication. I am most proud of that. Now, I get to build my new dreams. I still pinch myself on occasion, this is my life, and I am the CEO.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
The very different languages you must become familiar with: tax language, billing language, office, and leasing terms, payroll, marketing, purchasing, and accounting; those are all foreign unless business is your background, I suppose? Stamina, gotta keep up the momentum and speak to oneself in affirmations because building a business has a number of hurdles.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Learn about your type of business so that your resources are used/spent in the most efficacious way.
- Know that you may not be able to pay yourself right away; prepare.
- Trust others who have been successful in your field and build professional relationships with them; you just don't know if there could be mentorship, partnership, or reciprocity within that connection.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://www.conversatherapy.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mscarrera/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
Turn your craft into recurring revenue with Subkit. Start your subscription offering in minutes and supercharge it with growth levers. Get early access here.