Recently, we caught up with Kelsey Ruffing of Kelsey Ruffing Counseling. Kelsey serves the greater Chicagoland area with her counseling and group therapy services.
Continually Learning, Always Serving
Kelsey has her Masters in Counseling with an emphasis in sports and injury rehab. Her passion to help others stems from her own personal experience. As a competitive athlete herself, she experienced 3 ACL tears during her sports career. She now strives to serve others that are experiencing frustration, pain and the loss of identity that comes with a sports injury.
Kesley is currently finishing up her doctorate. In addition to her own private practice, Kelsey is an extern at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
Launching Point
For months Kelsey wrestled with the idea of starting her own practice. This past summer that vision became a reality. As of August 2019, Kelsey opened the “doors” of Kelsey Ruffing Counseling. Her practice specializes in serving individuals living with chronic pain, chronic illness and sports injuries.
She serves her patients through one on one sessions as well as group therapy sessions. Her goal for everyone she meets with is that they would fully grasp that PAIN IS NOT WHO YOU ARE. She offers strategies & tools to her patients to help them cope and manage their physical health.
Turning Barriers into Opportunities
In launching her own practice, Kelsey had to determine if signing a lease for an office was a smart investment. Just like many aspiring entrepreneurs, Kelsey desired to have a profession space to meet her clients, but did not know 1) how often she would need the space & 2) if the office leased would be a good fit for the work she is doing.
In searching for space in the suburbs, she first looked into subletting space with another therapist as that is a common practice in the counseling world. Her search efforts fell short.
Then she ran into another dilemma. Even if she could find someone to share a counseling office with, she would likely be limited to specific days and hours in which she had access to the office. In speaking with us she stated, “I wanted as much flexibility as possible, but sharing an office with another counselor made that difficult.”
That’s when Kelsey discovered The Day Offices. She was excited about multiple aspects that this private office, co-working space could offer. Not wanting to spend an arm and a leg on office space, Kelsey was pleasantly surprised by the reasonable hourly rate. The layout and overall design at The Day Offices offered a warm, welcoming space for Kesley to meet with her clients. The offices were fully furnished including one office that was specifically designed with counseleors in mind. Plus within The Day Offices there are a couple of larger offices with tables for Kesley to host her group therapy sessions. Her immediate thought was, “This is kind of too good to be true.”
She decided to give TDO a try and fell in love. She told us, “I love The Day Offices the most because of the flexibility.” The Day Offices offers individuals space on an hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly basis. You only reserve the space during the time frame that you are going to need.
Home Sweet Home
After utilizing The Day Offices for a couple months, Kelsey decided to call 132 W Lake St in Bloomingdale her home. And she found that renting monthly works great for her and is still cheaper that subletting or leasing another office in the area.
Plus, Kelsey was able to reserve a mailbox adjacent to the building. Now she is able to add a professional address on her business cards. Her patients and her mail all come to the same address now.
The mailboxes for Kelsey was really ideal. She explained, “I did not want my personal life and professional life to merge.”
Like other professionals, Kelsey prefers to keep her work life at the office and have the ability to be fully present once she gets home.
Kelsey’s Advice: Just Do It
In just a few short months Kelsey was able to launch her own practice and establish a home base for herself. We asked Kelsey what she would tell others wanting to get started in their own practice and these were the tips that she offered:
- Talk with multiple other professionals who have already done
- Take the first steps. It’s not as difficult as you think it could be or will be.
- Just do it & find the people that will support you.
Once Kelsey made the decision to launch, it took two weeks to get everything set up from the website, meeting with lawyer, brading the name, etc.
NOT Too Good To Be True
As Kelsey mentioned, many people often think that affordable co-working space is too good to be true. However, you can’t knock it until you try it! Kelsey is now a promoter of The Day Offices. She even told us, “I’ve been telling everybody about it.”
If you desire your own workspace and possibly your own mailbox, we invite you to give The Day Offices a try. Accountants, counselors, entrepreneurs, and dozens of other professionals have found The Day Offices to be the perfect fit, With the flexibility you can appreciate with an hourly rate that is extremely reasonable, many trail blazers like Kelsey are beyond grateful that they discovered The Day Offices. Are you ready to learn more? Visit our website or drop us an email to see how The Day Offices could serve you and your business!
