Speaker 1 (00:00.216): Welcome to the dietitian business podcast. I'm Maggie Doherty, your host, dietitian and business coach. In today's episode, you are going to be a fly on the wall in a business coaching session with Tara Durden of Nutrition Time and myself. In this episode, we talk all things about how to hire and onboard a new dietitian and how to fill their schedule. It was such a cool conversation. We got into the details of everything you need to know if you want to bring on your first employee. We ended the conversation with an amazing question Tara asked about how I got from a team of 1 to 40. If you're looking to hire a dietitian or scale your team, this one's for you.

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Speaker 1 (00:48.62): Tell me about your business. Hahaha. Then, where are you at now? Where do you want to go?

Speaker 2: Yes, I'm so excited to—like, I never actually thought this was going to turn into something. I was kind of like a COVID baby business. Well, I became a dietician in 2020. So as I was finishing up and getting hired on, I started as a clinical dietician in hospital and long-term care—kind of like a combo type of deal. And I'd start to see clients just from Instagram; I'd post my recipes or just cooking. My pre-Instagram to what it is now is so crazy looking back. A lot of them are archived by the way, but it was just random recipes and whatever. I thought I was helping the world in that way.

Speaker 2: But yeah, so I'd go to the hospital all day or long-term care, come home, see one or two clients a night and just call that my side gig. Then I got pregnant in 2021, and it kind of pushed me to do a little bit more entrepreneur stuff. Then after I had my baby, I only worked at the hospital one day a week basically at that point and did my business a little bit here and there. And then I ended up getting pregnant again in 2022—wait, was it 2023 maybe? Because I had him in 2022, then 2023. So yeah—anyway, both back-to-back babies and just being pushed to stay home for so long, I think helped me shift into an entrepreneur, building my side gig to now full-time business.

Speaker 2: So yeah, and then it has evolved so much where the specialties have changed so much to where it is now. So now here we are and I see clients four days a week and I'm hiring two dietitians now, which is super fun. So yeah, I never thought I was gonna—I wasn't sure it was going to turn into this. So it's exciting to be here now.

Speaker 1 (03:09.866): It's always cool looking back on your private practice journey and you didn't—looking back—ever know that Instagram and those posts were going to turn into a business, or this side hustle would turn into a real thing. The biggest thing I've seen with myself and a lot of the dietitians I work with is once they become moms, there's this shift where working a normal corporate job doesn't allow for the flexibility they need. So then they start this private practice to have the life that they want. And then I also see a ton—as a lot of my moms are more likely to be group practice owners. The solo private practice works kind of pre-family, and then once you have kids, okay, you can't commit to these client sessions, this schedule. Okay—now you start to hire dietitians to kind of fill in there. So it sounds like you're on a similar journey of motherhood and entrepreneurship.

Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been a really cool mix for sure.

Speaker 1: So what was it after having your kids that made you want to kind of go more into private practice or to start hiring these dietitians now?

Speaker 2: Yeah, so I think in the beginning, when I had my first baby and then I was only at the hospital one day a week, I had a little bit more space to think like, you know what, what if I expand what I'm doing here? So even then I didn't realize that I was gonna be—I thought I was going to kind of still be working at the hospital, or just another form of income. I think I still lived in imposter syndrome and probably still do five years later. But I think I was just stuck there for a little while and didn't actually believe that I could be here.

Speaker 2: But “here” is not exactly where I want to be now. Obviously, it's like every step further you get—which I'm sure you have felt too, because you have multiple services—you get there and you can see so far like, actually, I want to be there. When you were down there, you didn't realize you could get all the way there, if that makes sense. So—did I answer? I forgot what you first asked.

Speaker 1 (04:54.968): That was perfect. Okay, so right now you're full time with your practice and you have three full-time dietitians, three part-time?

Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm hiring—so one of them actually starts next week and it's very part time. And then the second one is going to start in August. So only two additional additions to the team plus me. When I started maxing out on my time allotted for the week, that's when I was thinking, okay, I really probably should get help or else how am I going to actually grow this business besides other multiple income streams?

Speaker 2: My husband is pretty involved in the business—he does all the numbers and back-end stuff, which is great. He's not fully onboarded with us right now—he still has a full-time job—but he helps a lot. So he's actually the one who was pushing it: like, you know you are getting full. How many hours left of the week do you have time for? Because I do insurance too, so I need to bill, check benefits, do all these other things. Those extra hours are going to slip by. Anyway, he's the one who pushed it on me. And I'm so glad now that I did start the process because credentialing takes forever. And yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:26.797): And it's so helpful to have that opinion outside of yourself because whether you have a business coach or a partner or a mentor—someone who can look into your business and be like, hey, what are you doing? Do you see this? That outside perspective can be so helpful: “Hey, Tara, you’ve kind of hit this glass ceiling.” In private practice you only have so many hours a day you can see clients. A lot of RDs realize they want to scale or hire when they're maxed out. The only way—because you can only see so many clients in a week—is to hire more dietitians so that number can go up. It sounds like you got to your capacity, had more clients, and started bringing on your dietitians. So one is about to start part-time next week, and then what were the other two again?

Speaker 2: Just one more—she'll be in August. So just the three of us, yeah. For now, yes. I want to see how that goes, and then of course I'm sure I'll probably want to hire pretty soon after that depending on what happens. We're all moms. One of them has her second on the way, the other has two. It's like, we all are going to have two babies, and I know it's just not realistic for any mom to be full time—maybe if you have all the support you need, but…

Speaker 1: So then your very first hire will be starting next week—perfect timing. How are you feeling with that? Where do you need help—what questions as it relates to bringing on your first dietitian?

Speaker 2: Absolutely, yeah. I am super excited—very excited to bring her on, learn from her, have her learn from me. We did go to grad school together, which is cool, but now we've done our separate things for the past five years. I'm excited to have someone I trust and would love to support (and vice versa). It's really—I think the scary part is knowing how to start to fill up their schedule and transition them onto the team. She's been in another private practice, so I know she has capability, but I don't know—maybe because you've hired tons of dietitians—how did you know how to start filling their schedule? How did you know what to do when they began? I'm reading all these things about structuring, training, onboarding, and I have a general idea, but I'd love your perspective.

Speaker 1 (09:10.796): What's your plan right now—what are you thinking in terms of her training, onboarding, and how to fill her schedule?

Speaker 2: Yeah, so I'm thinking next week is going to be a very light week in terms of clients. I'm hiring as employees, not independent contractors. So I'm not just going to be like, “Hey, can you help me a couple hours the next few months?” I'm actually giving them set hours that don't need to be client-facing necessarily. So giving space next week to go through what the practice looks like—beyond what's in writing and on the phone—what a real day, real week looks like.

Speaker 2: I'm not expecting them to learn how to bill or anything like that. Of course they can if they want, but they're mostly going to do client-facing and contribute in other ways too—marketing, blog, etc. So next week maybe a couple client calls, if that, and focus on ops.

Speaker 1 (10:32.398): Do you have a checklist of things you're planning to hit on with her, or is it in your head?

Speaker 2: It's like a random document, but I should organize that. I'm going to open my docs right now and make it into a checklist. Yes.

Speaker 1 (10:48.906): What I’d recommend is turning that into your onboarding agenda/protocol. In private practice, you often develop policies after you realize you needed one. You didn’t need an onboarding doc before; now you do. You’ll add things as you go—like “oh shoot, I forgot to train on documentation” or how to send an ROI in the EMR—then add it. Every time you train someone, you’ll tweak it. Since they haven’t started yet, let’s take that doc and talk through what you have and what could be missing. What do you have so far?