End-of-Year Reflections for your Business: The Power of Pattern-Tracking
Introduction
This is an excerpt from Delightful Sites — a weekly email series helping therapists, coaches, and entrepreneurs build sustainable, values-aligned businesses, through the power of website marketing. 💐
I know that 2025 felt like a doozy for a lot of us, personally & professionally.
On a professional level, you may have noticed any of the following:
Finding clients felt harder.
Trying to fill your practice took more effort than in previous years.
The question of whether to raise your fees (or any financial decision) felt more complex & nuanced.
And you might be wondering: how can I set myself up for a successful year in business for 2026?
(Whatever successful means to you — you get to define it.)
Maybe it’s my neurodivergent brain, or a byproduct of working with some excellent business coaches — but I love tracking patterns across my business.
*gestures to color-coded spreadsheets* 🗃️
In fact, I consider pattern-tracking an essential part of running a business that supports me not just now, but for years to come.
Whether this is your 10th year running a private practice, or your 1st, let me just say – congratulations.
Your work matters, and it takes a big heart & SO many skills to hold space for people and run your own business, in these times. I’m grateful to call you my colleague.
🗄️ Next, I want to share a practical system that helps me run my therapy practice & set myself up for a confident transition into the new year.
Every time I receive a new client inquiry, I record the following information in an Excel spreadsheet:
(1) How did they reach out? (email, contact form on website, booking calendar on website, phone call?)
(2) How did they find me?* (Google search, social media, directory like Psychology Today, word-of-mouth referral, or somewhere else?)
(3) Did they become a client? (yes or no)
(4) Any other notes? (ex: they wanted to work together, but weren’t a financial fit at the time, or preferred in-person sessions while I’m online only, etc)
*If “how did you find me?” isn’t already a question on your contact form / something you ask prospective clients, I 100% recommend adding it in! It offers so much information that’ll make your future marketing easier.
I record this information for every single inquiry, including the ones that don’t convert into clients.
At the end of the year, I set aside 1 hour to review all the data (while listening to a cozy lo-fi playlist & sipping a cup of hot cacao — because there’s no reason that “business tasks” can’t also be a sensory-joy-filled experience).
Long story short: the data tells me that the vast majority of my clients find me via Google (thanks to the SEO work I’ve done on my website).
📊 When you look at the data from your business, your patterns might look different from mine.
That’s to be expected, since each business is unique, serves a specific audience, and exists within the context of your community / ecosystem.
What is true for every therapy & coaching business, going into 2026, is the need for a high-quality website.
Because even if most people are finding you via the doctor’s office in town that refers to you, you can bet that most prospective clients — if not every single one — is going to check out your website before they actually reach out.
As you notice the patterns in your business, my hope is that you’ll feel more clear on where to direct your marketing efforts, and where it makes less sense to invest time & energy.
Feel free to let me know how your pattern-tracking goes. And don’t forget to turn on a good playlist & pour your favorite hot drink!
Take good care of yourself, so your business can take care of you, too.
Talk again soon,
Liz
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Liked this blog post?
It’s an excerpt from my newsletter, Delightful Sites — a weekly email series helping therapists, coaches, and entrepreneurs build sustainable, values-aligned businesses, through the power of website marketing.
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