The 12 Departments of Your Solo Business
The 12 Departments of Your Solo Business
Get a high level overview of all that you need to keep an eye on
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Dublin Mind Body Experience May 2025
Inner Foundations
Mindset & Business Plan
Business Skills & Peer Support
Time, Task & Info Management
Business Foundations
Finances & Legalities
Products & Market Research
Online Presence
Excellence with Clients
Marketing
Brand Voice
Building Connections
Marketing Plan & Consistent Action
Recalibrating
Coasting and Resting
Evaluate & Recalibrate
If one department is neglected, the wheel of your business won't flow smoothly
If one department is neglected, the wheel of your business won't flow smoothly
If even one department is neglected, the wheel of your business wobbles – or stops rolling altogether.
The Holistic Business Flow Framework was created specifically for holistic therapists, to give you a bird’s eye view of your entire business.
From this altitude, you can clearly see the full picture: the 12 key areas you’re responsible for – lovingly referred to as your departments.
It helps you step out of “random effort” and into conscious, focused growth.
This wheel gives you language for what’s missing – so you can stop guessing and start focusing.
You can use it to reflect honestly: “Where have I been spending my time? Which departments have I been avoiding?”
My advice: focus on one department per month – learn, unblock, systemise, and strengthen it until it supports you well.
Each department is a skillset – and no, you weren’t born knowing this. But you can learn. You’re not behind.
This framework grows with you. Each time you evolve, you’ll revisit these areas with fresh insight.
There are times for extra visibility. Other times for building systems. And there are times to rest and reflect. The key is to know where you are now – and choose accordingly.
Choose 1 Department to Improve Next Month
Choose 1 Department to Improve Next Month
Area 1. Inner Work
Area 1. Inner Work
1. Mindset & Phased Plan
A business won't grow beyond the capacity of the person running it. Your mindset, nervous system, beliefs, and energy management directly affect momentum and decision-making.
A phased plan combines long-term vision with short-term structure – you know where you’re going and what to focus on right now.
Without a long-term plan, you may keep saying yes to things that lead nowhere, feeling like you're going in circles.
Without a short-term plan, you know what you want, but not how to get there – leading to impatience, frustration and self-doubt.
Clarifying your values and your personal definition of success helps you stay focused and aligned as you grow.
2. Business Skills, Education & Peer Support
Running a business is a skillset – not a personality trait. If you haven’t learned it yet, that’s not a flaw.
Learning business skills can be approached step-by-step like any other skillset.
Without business skills, it feels like fumbling around in the dark and the journey takes much longer.
Peer support via a business-minded circle gives you access to opportunities, referrals, and strategic thinking you won’t get alone.
Seeing others in motion can expand your perspective of what's possible.
3. Time, Task & Information Management
You need a way to keep on top of your task list and a way to store all your business info. Without it, you’ll feel like you have bits of paper everywhere, but can never find what you actually need.
An information management system lets you get ideas out of your head and into a place you can easily access when you need them. This reduces mental load and increases follow-through.
Task and time management help you make real progress and get the feeling of satisfaction that goes along with it.
When the foundations are strong, the business can grow with ease.
When the foundations are strong, the business can grow with ease.
Area 2. Business Foundations
Area 2. Business Foundations
Make it easy for people to say yes to working with you.
Make it easy for people to say yes to working with you.
4. Finances & Legalities
Solid foundations give you confidence. Avoidance creates anxiety.
By not having a handle on your income or expenses, you feel like your business isn't legit yet. You know you're meant to track things, but it feels overwhelming.
Having your business legalities in order (insurance, policies, data protection) makes you feel more confident and professional
5. Offers that Sell
You need offers that work – for your clients and for you.
A good offer solves a specific problem or helps your client reach a meaningful goal.
You may love your idea, but if there’s no demand, it won’t sell. Market research helps you align what you love with what people are actively seeking.
Try this prompt: “I help [this person] with [this problem] through [this method] without [this frustration or limitation].”
6. Online Presence
Without an effective online presence, people cannot check you out before they book. Happy clients can't send a link to their friends to spread the word. You cannot be found on google where people are likely searching for the help that you provide.
An effective online presence highlights the benefits and outcomes of your therapies – not just modalities. It showcases you and your therapy in a way that builds trust and credibility.
If people can’t find you, they can’t work with you.
7. Excellence with Clients
Client care is more than just what happens in a session. Onboarding, client notes, follow-up, testimonials, feedback and boundaries (or rules of operation) are all part of client care.
Systematising the client journey helps you feel more confident and less drained.
A great client experience leads to referrals, testimonials, and repeat bookings.
Area 3: Marketing
Area 3: Marketing
8. Brand Voice
Your brand voice is how you express your expertise, values, and point of view through your content. It includes your tone, your core themes, and what you’re known for.
Think of it like your own channel – “CiaraTV”. People tune in because they’re drawn to the topics you talk about, the way you say them, and the perspective you bring.
When your brand voice is unclear, you tend to mimic others, stay vague, or go quiet altogether.
But when it’s strong, your content becomes a vehicle for connection, trust, and service.
Marketing doesn’t have to feel like a chore. It can be a natural extension of your mission to educate, inspire, and support transformation.
9. Building Connections
Business grows through relationships.
This includes peers, collaborators, groups, past clients, and community networks – online and offline.
If you’re not actively connecting, you’re relying on luck by hoping strangers find you.
Helpful, generous connection builds referrals, visibility, and trust.
10. Marketing Plan & Consistent Action
A clear marketing plan allows you to take steady, focused action. Without one, marketing feels scattered and reactive.
Your plan should include both:
Short-Term Marketing (Client-Getting): direct actions like sending an offer, posting an availability, following up with someone, or running a local intro event.
Longer-Term Marketing (Discoverability): visibility-building strategies like SEO, Google Business listings, blog posts, or guest features.
Having both tracks running ensures you attract clients now and build long-term opportunities too.
Visibility isn’t shouting – it’s resonance.
Visibility isn’t shouting – it’s resonance.
Area 4: Recalibrating
Area 4: Recalibrating
Step back. Tend. Realign.
Step back. Tend. Realign.
10. Coasting & Resting
Sometimes we are just coasting.
Our capacity is that we can just do the bare minimum to keep the show on the road. And that's ok.
Maybe that's due to life demands or maybe it's because we are deeply tired or moving towards burnout and our mojo and life force energy battery is empty.
This is included as a department so you know it's valid. Valid to do the bare minimum sometimes for weeks or months as per your needs.
Keeping your business ticking along is far better than burning out from continuing to push.
Prioritise your own wellbeing and come back into balance.
12. Evaluate & Recalibrate
Running a solo business means regularly stepping back to assess where you are and where you're going.
Make space to review what’s working, what’s not, and what needs to shift. Check in with your vision – does it still feel aligned, relevant, and exciting? You’ve gathered more internal data now: what energised you, what drained you, what you’ve learned, what you’ve outgrown.
Use that insight to recalibrate: You might adjust your offers, pricing, messaging, or even how you deliver your work. Let go of what no longer fits. Make space for what wants to emerge next.
You’re the CEO – you get to evolve, refine, and redirect
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