Janet Caryk is a psychologist and business owner based out of Edmonton, AB. She made the pivot to private practice after being a long-term employee at a hospital. Her private practice is called Centre for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. She’s been in private practice for about 22 years now. Janet’s services aid her clients in treating OCD, panic disorders, and more with cognitive behavioural therapy. Rethinking therapy, Janet’s clinic offers group therapy programs, free events, and more for her clients.
In the mid-90’s there was a prospect that healthcare was going to change relating to maternity leave. Although the healthcare changes never took place, it got her thinking, “I'm not going to wait around for my pink slip. I have to do something, and that's when I started talking to my colleagues about starting a clinic.”
After sitting with the idea of owning her own practice, she began to lean into it, transitioning out of her full-time job. “I told my boss at the hospital, I'm thinking of leaving and I'd like to go part-time here. He agreed to that. I think it was like about six months of working part-time I decided that I was going to go full-time with my private practice. Then I developed the clinic with my business partner.”
Initially, Janet participated in an AWE Program to assist her with opening a gym. AWE assisted Janet is examining the decision for every angle. After careful consideration, she decided franchising a gym wasn’t a good decision for her business at the time. “Now, you can imagine that deciding not to open the gym was the best decision I ever made as a businesswoman. It was about 18 months before COVID hit.”
When COVID hit, there’s was a large demand for her psychology services. The increase in demand and limitations in meeting clients in-person lead her to have to make a digital shift quickly. She leaned on the Bold Leadership Program to assist her in becoming more tech savvy. Now, she can host events and appointments remotely and is gaining confident in her technical ability. “I think the most important thing is that I've changed my mindset. I don't automatically say ‘I'm low tech, I can't do that’. I'm no longer low tech. That's not an accurate statement. I'm not high tech either, but I am learning.”
The Bold Leadership Program helped Janet streamline her back office, which consists of accounting, paperwork, payroll, etc. “I tried so hard to figure out the best way to organize everything and the most cost-efficient way. What AWE helped me do was sit down and really have a hard look at the numbers.” By looking in depth at all her accounting, she was better able to find areas for improvement and opportunity, all while being supported by AWE.
The next big project that her Bold Leadership coach is going to help with is leveraging different online platforms so that her clinic can be easily found, and to measure which platforms are performing best.
“My experience in the Bold Leadership Program was really amazing. Everybody's so helpful, supportive and nice. There is lots of communication, willingness to help answer any questions that you have, and lots of collaboration. I call it my mini-MBA”
Janet’s advice for entrepreneurs growing their business in the digital era:
“You can’t be as successful unless you're willing to embrace the digital components. If you resist these changes, you're just not going to be competitive. You're not going to be able to grow without embracing this kind of technology.”
Janet recently completed the Bold Leadership Program with AWE. The program is designed to support women entrepreneurs who are creating new strategies, and implementing technology and processes that will improve their business performance.
