This article has been written without reference to rapidly changing advice surrounding public health in the current situation. As always current law takes precedence in line with your Code of Conduct (A7).
Consultation rooms
Until 2019 many people qualified to practice EFT or both EFT and Matrix Reimprinting with the vision of seeing clients face to face, being in the immediate energy of their transformation; being in the hug zone. Personally, I love holding space for someone in physical terms and being able to build a rapport that is tangible, as part of the work. I’ve lost count of the times a client has completed a session, stood up, beaming, and said “Can I please hug you?” So rewarding. I suspect most people experienced similar feedback during their initial training, and I’ve walked round in hotel conference rooms, holding space for up to 30 people at a time during their practice sessions, enough times over the years to know that with this modality, it’s not unusual at all.
Many can (or did) automatically develop a vision of working in an ideal space that bears little or no resemblance to their home environment, and rush off to find a consultation space in a clinic. While it is highly unlikely that any local rooms for hire will exactly match the dream, the high ceilings and white walls, smell of incense and gilt-edged Sanskrit wall art can seem new and exciting and so much more like ‘good enough’ than your old home office, even if you have one.
Here’s the truth about clinics and room hire: no matter how amazing the clinic, or the other practices and therapies taking place there, no matter how marvellous the newsletter and the group identity, or how impressive the front entrance, you need clients first. None of that sparkle or professionalism will bring you clients just because your photo goes on the wall or your cards on the reception desk. You are not hiring the other users as a marketing team and nobody is going to refer across for no reason, and they are not going to find a reason unless they know, like and trust you and see you as an introduction that their clients will thank them for. In short, they need to be sure that recommending you increases their reputation. Having a taster session with you or seeing your results once or twice will not be enough to bring them to that level of enthusiasm.
What will? Seeing you turn up, receive clients, get good reviews, month after month. It takes time to be seen as a sure thing by people who are reliant on their reputation for their income, so unless you already know one of the other workers there and can piggy-back their reputation and goodwill, its safe to budget for at least a year of worry-free room hire for no return.
Things to consider about hiring space:
- Do you want sole use so you can lock tools or documents in there safely?
- Do you want the same day or half day every week?
- Do you want the freedom to book time only when you need it, and can your clients wait to find out if you can have the room?
- Does you landlord expect you to use the space if you’ve booked it even if you don’t have a client?
- How bustling is the business there?
- Will your potential clients be impressed or will they never have heard of it?
- Can you afford 6 to 12 months of the charges irrespective of income?
- How many ways are there to be useful and build community and reputation within walking distance?
- How long were other users in business before hiring a room – any succeeded in starting out there, yet?
- Are there any services or benefits that come with the hire eg a spot in the clinic website?
- Access: is there disabled access, how good are the toilets, do you get keys?
Things to consider about working from home or at home:
- Do you see clients in your home? Fixed location = work from home
- Do you work out of a laptop which could be at any location? = work at home
- Do you know what you can and can’t charge to your business in each case?
- Do you need planning permission/change of use/business parking?
- Do you need the landlord’s permission?
- Can you get the right insurance cover and what does it do to your home insurance?
- Health and Safety
- Duty of care – Is the general environment suitable to hold space for client work?
Working online
According to Holistic Insurance Services Ltd, the most important element of working online is making sure the client knows (and agrees to) the laws you work under, by making a statement to that effect in your contract.
How safe is your VoIP service?
UK guidance: ncsc.gov.uk – NCSC (National Cyber Security Centre) cloud security guidance addresses 14 security principles.
UK law: ISO 27701 is privacy legislation to do with Privacy Information Management Systems.
As with consumer law and safeguarding issues that affect us directly, the actual laws and guidelines informing the services we rely on can appear complicated.
There was a time when many people left Skype for Zoom when Skype reportedly had some nasty security issues. Microsoft’s replacement, Teams, now states that it is compliant with HIPAA, SOC1, SOC2, (all American), EU privacy clauses, and the ISO27701. ISO stands for International Standards Organisation
Zoom states that it complies with all applicable privacy laws, rules and regulations in the jurisdictions in which it operates, including the GDPR and the CCPA (California).
An EU privacy verdict from July 2020 (Schrems II) could have eventual knock-on effects for both services, as the ruling prevents businesses from carrying out basic data transfers to non-EU countries, eg taking the name and email of an EU-based customer and storing it in America where the business or supplier happens to originate. Implications for the UK are unclear, or whether we count as in or out.
When choosing a service provider, go to its website and search terms such as GDPR, security, or ISO, and make sure the service is named in your practitioner-client contract.
Author: Cheryl White, EFT Test Manager