Negotiations,You Have To Know What You Want!
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[00:00:00] Hey there, it's Hoang Tran with hand therapy secrets. I am going to talk today about a really hot topic. It's called negotiations. How do you negotiate your salary? What are the things that you should be looking for? What are some of the things to consider? I'll share with you like. My experience as someone who's negotiated as an employee, and then I'll even share some tidbits as an employer so that maybe I'll help you with your negotiations.
[00:00:39] So I think fundamentally, Okay. Fundamentally negotiations, the only way it works is if there's a win-win situation, right? The company wins because they get the. The ability and the privilege of hiring you, you win too because you [00:01:00] get the the ability to work for them. So in both, in all scenarios of negotiating salaries, benefits, and all that good stuff is a win-win situation.
[00:01:14] And I did a poll and such a doofus when it comes to this. I had, I. I had run the poll and I got a, I got a few questions and I guess because I didn't save it as screenshots, let me look back. If I didn't save it as screenshots, then it wasn't like I, now I can't go back for it to show me what those questions were which is really stupid.
[00:01:43] But I thought if I went back through it, would I. It would show me what those questions are. I think I remember. I think I remember some of 'em and so much around the questions of negotiations were, what's reasonable? [00:02:00] How do I negotiate just in general? Like how do I, if I don't have power, I don't have, I feel like I don't have power for these.
[00:02:05] Things. Then those were around some of the questions that I had, but and I'm gonna answer as many of them, or I'm gonna touch upon as many of the topics because negotiations it's a pretty big topic. So if you still have remaining questions, then please feel free to Leave a comment below.
[00:02:25] If you are watching this on YouTube, definitely leave me a comment and let me know any follow up questions. If you're listening this on a podcast, I honestly don't know how you would leave comments, so you can send me an email if you would like. [email protected] is how you could send in your emails.
[00:02:44] If you're on my email list, definitely, just wait for an email and then send me a question about it. But but negotiations at the end of the day is a win-win situation. You negotiate what you want. They, the employer negotiates what they have the capacity for. And then if it's [00:03:00] a match, then you agree and they agree and then you work together.
[00:03:04] And that's it. That's the end all be all. Of negotiations. So let's start with let's start with how do you negotiate, right? Like how do you negotiate? There's always room for it. And I think part of your job as someone who's looking to Looking into that position is that just know that you have room to negotiate and say, okay, this is what I was looking for, this is what I want.
[00:03:29] And the company can tell you what they have room for and what they want. It, when you go to bigger companies sometimes they're. Sometimes the ability to negotiate with them isn't always as flexible because hospitals and stuff like that, they just have this rate.
[00:03:46] I'll show you with my experience. When I was looking, when I first started out as a new grad I had no negotiating power. I was a new freaking grad. My ass needed a goddamn [00:04:00] job. That's it. So a lot of times people are like I'm a new grad. How do I negotiate? It depends on what you need, right?
[00:04:09] Do you have choices in your career? Back then, I didn't have that many choices. I came out during a market I. That was not hiring full-time people. I was not willing to move, so I wasn't able to negotiate moving somewhere else and saying, oh, this place has a higher salary, so I'm willing to move.
[00:04:31] I could not move. I was Miami bound. So in that sense, I really didn't have room for negotiations, had really good. Clinical experience from my internships. And so from those internships, I was able to apply into different positions and those were the places where I was getting a call [00:05:00] back. So I worked in a skilled nursing, acute care. Acute care had some outpatient, but I didn't have a ton of outpatient. And also I didn't know, but I didn't have modality certification. So if you're a brand new grad, the first and you wanna be an outpatient or in any place they uses modalities, just go and pay for that certification and get it right away.
[00:05:23] I didn't know that. And so I didn't have my certification. Nowadays it's so easy to get it back then you just, you had to wait for this live class, and it took me longer than it should have to take that super class. But every outpatient place I was applying for was like, are you certified in PAMs?
[00:05:42] And I was like, no. They're like thank you, but no thank you. That cut off, on negotiations right there, it was a thing that they required that I didn't have. So we were not a match. There was no room to negotiate, go get your shit and then come back. That's pretty much what it was. [00:06:00] So as a new grad, I didn't really have the power to negotiate.
[00:06:04] And I took whatever position was available, if they were like, this is the per diem rate. Yep, I'll take it. These are the hours. Yep. I'll take it. So sometimes, at the beginning parts of your career you might not have as much power. And so you'll take what you take. Now, I know in certain areas where therapists are very needed and then you can negotiate.
[00:06:27] Right, and so know your market, know your marketplace. So for example, south Florida is a very low paying, Florida is a very low paying state for occupational therapists, for physical therapy, for speech therapy. Florida is a very low paying state, and the reason why they're a low paying state is because they have very low reimbursement rates, right?
[00:06:53] Just know your shit about your state because you might hear other therapists saying, [00:07:00] oh no, your worth negotiate. Hi. Those are all great ideas, but knowing your worth there's your worth as a human being. In terms of your family, the creator, religious stuff like, yeah, you have a lot of worth, but then there's a marketplace worth, so don't confuse the two.
[00:07:21] Sometimes when you're a brand new grad or there's saturation in the market, your quote, marketplace value is not as high. So understand that it's a business. Healthcare is a business. The minute you understand that, the better you're negotiating abilities will become. Understand healthcare is a business.
[00:07:46] Yes, we can be caring. Yes, we can love on. People wanna help people, but at the end of the day, Everything comes down to business. Money comes in and money goes out, and money can only go [00:08:00] out to you if money is coming in period, right? So it's not about, charge your worth and ask for your worth.
[00:08:08] Like those are such vague. Advice. It just, it doesn't help, right? It really doesn't help because it's so damn vague, right? Know your marketplace. So Florida is, very low paying. So you coming in from California, trying to come into Miami, trying to come into Florida with the same salaries as up north, you will be highly disappointed.
[00:08:32] So understand that. So at some points you don't have the power, but what you can do is you can get the power get some skills, find out what those skills are. So for me back then, modalities was a big thing to move into outpatient. So I started just taking per diem jobs wherever I could take them, developing my skills fortifying my resume with.[00:09:00]
[00:09:00] With real experience. One of the jobs that I got was in acute care, so when I got the call back they were like, oh, can you start treating patients? Absolutely. I've done acute care. I know this and this. They're like, can you do wound care? I was like, I have some wound care experience cause I worked in a burn unit, I would love to be trained on more.
[00:09:19] And they're like, oh yeah, we can train you. Okay, then open yourself up for the learning. Open yourself up for the opportunity. So the company wins because you have the attitude that supports the need that they have. And so you both win and you both win because the salary and for the hours. Now that hospital was one of the lowest paying.
[00:09:45] Hospitals, but they're the only ones calling me back. Guess what? I didn't have the power. I took the freaking job. I took the job. I stayed there for a year, not because I had to [00:10:00] quote unquote stay there for the year. It was just like, that's how it happened. I stayed there for the year. I kept working. I developed my skills.
[00:10:06] I, I was like, every time they wanted to teach something, I was like, yes, I'm here for it. Let me learn. I wanna learn it. I took that shit. I put that on my resume, and I sent every single time. I would look back then it was monster.com, and I would continuously look for, New jobs, new experience, like work. So within a year's time, positions came up.
[00:10:30] And then I applied to a bigger hospital for a full-time position. And then when I went there, you can negotiate when more people want you, right? So I had an offer from this hospital and offer from this hospital and for me back then it wasn't just the salary, it was where I wanted to work, where I knew it was gonna get me to the next step, right?
[00:10:55] So I had the opportunity from this hospital or this hospital, and I [00:11:00] actually picked the hospital that was lower paying and was further away. And one of the reasons why I picked it, Was because there was a lot of room to grow and the management style seemed to fit my need, or the way I wanted to work.
[00:11:17] The other one, they were like super strict and demand it was like, we want you to do it like this. 1, 2, 3. Like I had to really follow the rules. I'm not a natural rule follower. I don't know if I don't know if you've noticed, if this is the first time you're watching me go check out some of my other videos.
[00:11:38] I'm like, that's not my personality. My personality isn't just to follow the rules. My personality is to push the boundaries of the rules so that. Management style really didn't fit with me and I just trusted my gut. And I said, you know what? Even though that one was [00:12:00] further, it didn't pay as well as this one.
[00:12:03] I was gonna take that for, the opportunities it was gonna afford. And actually before I started, they gave me a raise. Because when you are in, when you apply for big hospitals, sometimes they don't have a lot of room. To negotiate. And I certainly didn't feel like I had a lot of room cuz you know, I didn't have a lot of skills.
[00:12:25] Now I could treat, I was like, yeah, I know how to treat, I know how to do this and this and this, and I can start seeing patients right away. Absolutely right. And then the money came. Over time, and I'm so thankful that I took that position because I knew another therapist who took the position that I had turned down and she took it.
[00:12:46] And she didn't last more than six months. She ended up, I don't know if she got fired or she left. But it didn't work out. And it's because, some places their management style's not, it doesn't fit with you, right? But here's how you [00:13:00] try. You just ask. Oh, therapist here is our starting salary.
[00:13:07] Oh my goodness. Thank you so much for the offer. What are, it's the compensation total package, right? Because it's not just the money, the all the compensation also adds to the money, right? Also adds to your total package. Time off, paid time off, sick time matching. Short term, long term, all that good stuff adds to that salary.
[00:13:31] That's why when you work per diem, you make a differential because they're no longer having to pay those benefits. You get that in your hourly salary, in your hourly rate, but if you take a full-time position with all the benefits, you see a decrease in your hourly rate because the benefits package costs this much to, to give you, so therein lies what do you really want? Some people are okay. They're like, I get my health benefits from my spouse. I don't really need the time [00:14:00] off. I don't need, but there's benefits to both. You have to decide what you need and what you want for your life. Nobody's gonna tell you that.
[00:14:10] I I wanted salary. I wanted full time because I saw the benefits of the small incremental increases. The safety of when things are slow, first people are caught or per diems. They're just cut. They want the full-time people to stay and support. So I wanted that kind of support versus a per diem, you're 10 99, you pay your own taxes, you do your own thing.
[00:14:34] You can't say, I'm, I wanna be a per diem, get this higher salary, but then you have to pay for me to do X, Y, and Z as well. You have to pay for my education. You have to usually it doesn't work that way. Again, negotiation's just about win-win. So if you're all about like you, you then, You might sit there and be frustrated and that's okay.
[00:14:53] If that's that, that happens. But you can go and negotiate and say, I want X amount more. [00:15:00] And then they'll take that and say, okay you or no, but your job is just to ask. Your job is just to ask Hey, I was hoping that I would get this amount. So when I switched within the hospital, I.
[00:15:15] I went from one position to the next position. They were like, oh, okay, so it's a lateral move. You're not getting a raise. And I was like wait a second. I'd really like to, order to, but I wanted this. I was, I wanted it. And so what I did was I negotiated My success if I get, if I become a C ht, this is the kind of increase I would like to see and this is the benefit that I would like to have.
[00:15:41] So I negotiated a different, like a higher salary and then I negotiated benefit of a negotiated benefit of them paying for my continuing education. And a lot of times they will
[00:15:54] A lot of times they will just tell you that they'll do stuff and then [00:16:00] they might change their mind later. So I negotiated and I didn't have it on paper. I, it was just word of agreements and after one year, and it doesn't matter if, even in a. If you had it on paper, if they can't provide, they'll just take that away, and you can decide then if you wanna quit or if you wanna stay. That's part of the negotiations. You can quit or you can stay. So when I became a C H C, I got a salary and then they paid for my to go to a conference is they paid for my flight, my hotel, and my conference. And that lasted one year.
[00:16:35] And then the following year they were like, yeah, sorry. We don't have any more money for that. And that was it. So sometimes you don't have a huge negotiating opportunity with with big hospital settings and stuff like that. Just depends on the marketplace. If you. If you see that they have a need and that it can't be filled, if you step into it, you can, you have a higher power negotiating and then they'll give you what they can.
[00:16:59] [00:17:00] But they're tied down by their restrictions, right? Everyone's tied down by a certain amount of restrictions. But I think the biggest concept when it comes to negotiations is understanding that it's a win-win for everybody, and that you only get what you want when you one know what you want.
[00:17:17] And two, ask for what you want, right? Ask for what you want, you negotiations. Are about self-advocacy. If you cannot advocate for yourself, don't expect anyone else to advocate for you. And then I, I negotiate with my, the team that I hire, it's like they can come up, what do you want?
[00:17:38] And they, if they don't know what they want, then. Then you're subject to what I can give, right? You're always subject to what I can give. I've had people come in and their salary expectations are this high, but they have no skills to back it up. They have then they desire so many different things and so it becomes, it's not a win-win situation.
[00:17:59] They get [00:18:00] all of this stuff and then I have to debate, do I get anything? Are they valuable to me? Or are they gonna be like a time sink for me? If I have to give a lot of my time costs money, right? So I have to think my time costs money. If I'm paying you this amount, but then you are also requiring a lot of my time, then there's a huge value discrepancy.
[00:18:24] And then I as an employer think, maybe this isn't gonna work for me. And then you can negotiate all you want. But then I'm gonna say no. That doesn't work for me no longer is a win-win situation. So I think that you have to be a really good judge of the person that you're negotiating with so that it could be a win-win and that you ask for what you want.
[00:18:49] And I think just part of being nice about it, and if you feel like you don't have power to negotiate right now, if you're a coda and you don't have the power, you feel like you don't have the power to negotiate, or you're [00:19:00] a new grad and you feel like you don't have the power to negotiate, I would say what would give you more power?
[00:19:06] What would give you more power? Most of the time, and this is why I harp on it all the time, skills. Skills give you more power, right? So if you have the capacity to do more, like in the sense of if you're only seeing hands and wrist, but you say, Hey boss, I really want the opportunity to work more on elbows and shoulders as well, and I'll be able to see more patients for you or different patients that will bring more patients to our clinic.
[00:19:34] I want to be able to do that. What does that look like? Would you be willing to pay for a course? And I'll take it and I'll come back and I'll educate and I'll talk to everyone here and I can share what I've learned. So it's not just me. It's I'll learn and give back to everyone in the com. Everyone in our team you're negotiating power comes back to you, right?
[00:19:54] If you are like, I've been working here for five years. I've been working here for two [00:20:00] years and you owe me this. That's not negotiations, that's demands. And so you have to be careful with how I think there's a certain skill in terms of asking for the things that you need in a way that benefits that person.
[00:20:14] So you get, you yourself will get what you want, right? So I would encourage to say, think about how do you, I get my power back. One way you can get your power back too, is applying for other positions and seeing what's out there. Don't be afraid to do that. If you haven't gotten a raise in 10 years, ask yourself, why haven't you gotten a goddamn raise in 10 years?
[00:20:32] Are you doing the same shit and not getting more people? Not getting more patients, not getting higher paying patients? Are is that the cap of where you're at? Because you're already at the high rate, right? So you gotta have to, you have to ask yourself these questions, right? If I go and I start looking for other jobs, you don't have to take those other jobs.
[00:20:53] Listen, I was very happy I. I was very happy in my hospital job when I would interview for other jobs, and it was [00:21:00] just to open my eyes to what was available out there so I can choose, so I can have the power to choose. And I said, you know what? Even though the hospital doesn't give me a raise every year or shit, raises 2% I would go and look at other jobs and I would interview and I'd be like, you know what?
[00:21:16] That management company, that management of that department doesn't make me want to quit my really good job. I'm happy to say where I'm at, even if I can't negotiate a higher salary, cuz I see the shit that's out there. And here's another concept. Not all money is good money, all right?
[00:21:33] Not all money is good money right now. What you're seeing is people coming out and making a shit ton of money. They're new grads. They can negotiate a really high salary, but here's what's happening to them. They're burning out within a year or two based on that position. If you're going to work in an outpatient clinic and you're seeing four to five patients at a time, and they're burning the fuck outta you was that good money, right?
[00:21:58] It's good money only for a short certain [00:22:00] period of time, but you hate your life. You hate your job, and you hate your profession. Tell me how good that money is. I don't think it's that good then. So you have to make that determin determination for yourself. So clinics that bring people in at a really high.
[00:22:14] Salary. You have to ask yourself what are they asking you to do and are you willing to do it? Now, some therapists are willing to do it, and they like it and they don't have a problem with it, and they're not burning out, and that, so then that position's really good for them. But if you, yourself, you don't like it and you're burning out, then that money isn't good money.
[00:22:34] That money isn't good money. So you have to ask yourself really good questions. What's reasonable? What's reasonable, Wong for me to ask again, that comes down to marketplace. Ask for what you want, but you might not get it. What are you willing to accept? If you don't know what you want, if I'm like, what do you want?
[00:22:53] Like this, I'm gonna share a little bit of what I do. What do you want? This is what I do. What kind of salary would you [00:23:00] like? What do you want? And some people call in hot, they're like, they're, Again, south Florida is very low paying. We have a very low paying reimbursement rate. And you wanna see only two patients at a time.
[00:23:10] One patient at a time, whatever. I'm like, And then I have to sit here and train you because you don't have the skills and you don't know how to treat this. So now I'm paying you and I'm utilizing my time, so I'm losing money hiring you. It's not a win-win situation. So when I ask people and they tell me a really high salary that I can't afford, Like me as a small business, I can't afford that salary.
[00:23:35] It's a no. It has absolutely nothing to do with you as a therapist or as a person. I just can't meet your demands and I'm not about to negotiate you down because if I negotiate you down, you're not gonna be happy with me cuz you wanted something else. So maybe what you want isn't in alignment with what is available in the marketplace.
[00:23:59] So then, [00:24:00] It breeds a certain amount of unhappiness and a certain amount of frustration. You have to know what you want, right? And what the marketplace allows. And now this is without your C ht, okay? So without your C ht. Once you get your C ht, then I. Then what power do you have and what's reasonable for you?
[00:24:22] It's a different level. So understand that when you have special certifications, that in itself gives you some higher power negotiation abilities to say how bad do you want me? And how bad do you wanna keep me? How bad do you want me and how bad do you wanna keep me? So my experience was when I became a C H T I would get here, offers here and there, which wasn't really great.
[00:24:54] And then at some point or another all these positions at the same time came out of nowhere. And [00:25:00] people were asking, oh, Juan, what about this position? What about this position? And I was like, you know what? I'm really happy and the best time to negotiate is when you're happy.
[00:25:09] Best time to make decisions is when you're happy. When you're unhappy, you're desperate. You make, you don't always make the best decisions. So one, be happy. Be in a good place in your head when you're making. Decisions. And when you're negotiating it really helps. I wasn't desperate. I had a really great position.
[00:25:29] I loved my job. I loved my boss, I loved my coworkers. I was bored. I was looking for something else. And so I said, let me, it doesn't harm me to go and talk to these people, right? It doesn't harm me at all to go talk to these people. So I went on several interviews and I talked to people. One company doesn't have a really good reputation, but I was willing to sit and talk and.
[00:25:49] They excited me for what I could bring to the company, even though they had a really bad reputation. And of course my ego was like, I can help, [00:26:00] I can do this and, we can build this really great company. And then I saw their salary and then I was like no thank you. I was like I'm not leaving my really nice job to get a pay cut.
[00:26:14] Because it's not always money, it is also benefits. So you have to look at the whole compensation package of what you will receive. Being a full-time therapist at a company for 10 years, some of my benefits was I had almost five weeks of vacation time. And when you're per diem, like it's on your own term, but as a full-timer you get that benefit over a period of time that you get more and more over a period of time.
[00:26:40] So I was like, I would be taking up. Pay cut in certain areas of my life that I'm not willing to ne negotiate down. Like I'm like, I have this, and this, and you're gonna tell me I only, I have less money and less benefits. I was like, that's not a win-win. You get to win off of my reputation and my credentials, [00:27:00] but I'm not winning.
[00:27:01] The only thing I was winning was that it was down the street from me. I've been driving 25 miles to work and from work. For 10 years, this drive does not bother me. That's where I was coming from. And then another company came and was like, yeah, they wanted me to work. And their their volume was pretty high and.
[00:27:25] I was like, and then they, I was like, okay, I would love to continue to talk more and I can provide, I, I can see myself working here, working clinic and working with a surgeon. And I said, that would be really interesting. Let's talk about your salary and the benefits. And so they gave me their salary and I said, that's too low.
[00:27:45] I negotiated higher. And they're like, sorry, we can't do that. Okay, no problem. I'm perfectly happy in my position. I'm gonna stay in my position. Three months later, they called me back and,[00:28:00] met my requirements and I was like, okay. So I came in, hi. On that requirement. So I ended up coming in with a really high salary, coming in with a really high salary.
[00:28:13] I pretty much knew that there was no more room to come up that I had hit in that company. I hit my glass ceiling just because I know my marketplace. I know that South Florida is low paying in terms of reimbursement and stuff like that. And reimbursement isn't just for you as a therapist.
[00:28:32] Reimbursement supports the staff that put people on your schedule. Reimbursement pays for the person that gets the money in the door. Reimbursement, billing, reimbursement, pays for your room and board. Essentially, the rent, the utilities like. Reimbursement comes in and it's not just for you, the therapist's, just cuz you actually provide the therapy.[00:29:00]
[00:29:00] There is so many other factors and aspects, from a business standpoint. And I think I had a certain amount of understanding of it. So it was helpful for me so that I wouldn't, I wasn't frustrated, right? Like I knew once I negotiated that salary that there was no coming up from it. I was seeing three patients at a time, evals, treatments, whatever.
[00:29:22] It was like boom, all the time. Documentation was on my own time cuz documentation is not a billable time. And that's where I think people get real frustrated cuz there is some unrealistic expectation of stuff, of how it used to be in the old days. And, things change, times change, healthcare changes, the delivery of healthcare changes and it really, it's helpful to know what those are so you can work and live with less frustration.
[00:29:51] That's my whole motto. How am I gonna live? How's Juan going to live? And less frustration where, to a certain extent it is win-win for [00:30:00] everybody, right? So you have to first know what you want. So this happened to one of my members. She became she did all this work. She paid for lots and lots of different programs and resources and blah, blah, blah.
[00:30:14] She studied, obviously she used your time and she passed. Now All of that is yours, right? All of that's yours to expect that it belongs to someone else is. Untrue because when you invest in yourself, no matter where you go, you take your credentials, your skills, your experience with you, you don't leave that behind for the company.
[00:30:43] So it is not for them to do for you. You do it for yourself. But the whole idea that she had was that once she became a certified hand therapist, that certification gave her a certain raise and a certain bonus that [00:31:00] they so had promised. And sometimes people promise you things and they don't hold up their end of the bargain.
[00:31:08] Or they hold up their end of the bargain, but there's strings attached, right? And when there's strings attached, you have to be careful with what are those strings. There's a learning lesson in this, and the learning lesson is. That if you don't, if you don't have anything in writing then you don't have anything.
[00:31:35] And if you're not, Asking the right questions or diving into a certain amount of details, then you also have nothing. They promised the salary, but I'm not really sure that it was discussed. How much, how often da. And then all of a sudden they came in with a non-compete.
[00:31:56] So in order for you to get X, Y, and Z that we said that we were [00:32:00] gonna give you, you're gonna sign this non-compete. Right now, a non-compete is a whole nother conversation, right? So there's a lot to non-competes, but she was really frustrated, really angry that all of a sudden they were taking back their promise and also putting strings attached to it.
[00:32:22] And I said, first of all, don't get upset, right? You get upset and you're gonna, you can, sorry, I said, get upset and then get the fuck over it fast. I said that, and the reason why you have to get over it fast is because your anger and your frustration deters you from making the best decision for yourself.
[00:32:47] Be angry at them, but get over fast. Take a few days if you need, get over it, and then go back to the no negotiation table and say, where's this win-win? They wouldn't because now [00:33:00] you're a C H G, they can negotiate higher reimbursement. They could go and use your credentials to market themselves, right?
[00:33:09] Themselves and their company to bring more patients in, right? To bring revenue in, in order to pay. You totally get that. That's what I do. That's good business. But here's the thing is if you have to sit there and you have to really dive in and read the terms of the non-compete and understand from a legal aspect what the non-compete can and cannot do, right?
[00:33:34] And you have to be really careful with reading it. I, myself, in my business, Protect my business and I have a non-compete for my therapist. Now you can go and you make sure that you read the terms of the non-compete. I personally don't want to hurt the therapist that I bring in. So my non-compete is really specific to.
[00:33:58] I am not gonna train you. I'm not gonna spend the [00:34:00] time and all the money and stuff like that to train you, for you to work down the street from me in the same type of clinic, right? That's just not happening. But I won't stop you from working as a ot. You can do peds, you can do skilled nursing, you can do hospital.
[00:34:14] I don't care what you do from that standpoint as an ot, as long as you're not working in the exact same setting. That's my non-compete. That's just one aspect of my non-compete. So as a therapist, you need to read your non-compete and you've got to make sure that you're not getting screwed. The company is going to protect themselves.
[00:34:36] Like my company is a, an entity that has to protect itself cuz I employ different people and one person's not gonna fuck it up for everybody. So a company is, if you can. If you can put aside your need for a second and think about the company you're gonna get a different perspective that will help you to negotiate, right?
[00:34:56] It's going to help you negotiate better [00:35:00] terms. And so you gotta read that negotiation that non-compete sorry contract and see what is in there that's helpful or harmful. And then the terms of it, oh my god. Piece of hair in my face. Sorry. What are the terms, what are the miles, what are the length of the the non-compete?
[00:35:17] You want to look at that. If a company has multiple locations, you wanna see what it entails because you might have a mileage that blocks you. So this happened to a friend of mine years ago. She was working at two different clinics going back and forth to help them. She had a home clinic, but she would go back and forth to the other clinic and when she quit her non-compete locked her out of both locations, the radius around, and it really locked her out of all of a huge section, forced her to move for a year.
[00:35:46] And I don't. I think you have to be very careful with that. I think you have to be careful with what you sign and what you are willing to agree to. Because when I took this position[00:36:00] at that place, I, one of my demands, but I'm not signing a non-compete. They didn't even bring it up. It wasn't even brought up.
[00:36:09] But nowadays what you'll see is, it's hard to get CHCs. And so one thing that companies do is they make it mandatory if they, if you wanna be hired that you sign a non-compete. And so if negotiating no non-competes is not an option and you still want that position, you have to decide how bad do you want that position versus the non-compete.
[00:36:32] And then if you do need to sign a non-compete how can you negotiate those terms to make it beneficial for you? Or, with negotiating, you have to be willing to walk away. That's it. You have to be willing to walk away. That company came to me and was like, this is your salary. There's no room for negotiations cuz this is what we can afford.
[00:36:51] Then bitch, you can't fucking afford me. That's it. I'm perfectly happy with where I'm at. [00:37:00] So you see where when you are not desperate right? Then you do know. What you're capable of, you do know. And so that is part of negotiations. You have to know what you want. You have to know what you're quote unquote worth, right?
[00:37:16] If I want a high salary, and I wanted a high salary for me, for you to pull me away from my really great position where I was barely treating at, like at the most 12 patients a day. Oh my God, I'm so busy. So busy. I went from seeing 12 patients in the morning. I had 20 to 22 patients on average.
[00:37:46] Bitch, somebody fucking paying me, right? That was my that's my mental, like talk inside. To make me like, yeah, I, if I'm gonna see that number, like that volume, I want a salary. I need to make that worth it for [00:38:00] me. Otherwise, I'd be sitting pretty in my, hospital job. That was it.
[00:38:04] Obviously there was a secondary gain that I was looking for is something different that I was looking for as well. Negotiations it's, you have to know what you want, what do you want? I always think about the notebook. What do you want? I.
[00:38:22] In negotiations, you have to know what you want. You have to know what you're willing to walk away from. You have to know what you're willing to take, what you're willing to give for the things that you want, right? It's got to be a win-win situation. And only you can determine. Only you can determine that you can't, I see these questions on social media.
[00:38:47] What do you do? What do you, and part of it's like you're just looking for some confirmation of what other people do to say I'm allowed, but, give your permiss yourself permission to say yeah I'm allowed to ask for what I [00:39:00] want. Now you might not get what you want, but you can ask for it, right?
[00:39:04] And then from there you learn what is actually. What is actually available in your market? What is available in your market? I talked to a lot of therapy clinics that, if they're insurance based, if they are Cash base, what can, sometimes it's not so much about the salary there, but the environment, the culture.
[00:39:25] Like how are you working? People who make more money. Also, usually the idea of like when you can make, if you wanna make more money, you have to be willing to live with less certainty. That's how you get more, you can, if you can bring in a book of business, again, it's business.
[00:39:45] If you can bring in a book of business, meaning I can bring money to you, right? I can bring revenue in, then I can extract. Better salaries just cuz that's how business [00:40:00] works. Money comes in and money goes out. But money, in order for money to go out at a certain level, money has to come in first period.
[00:40:09] That's how business works. And healthcare therapists we're a business. Often I'll say you, you have to see yourself as a business. This is why. Negotiations. You see yourself as a business, you can, you have better power to negotiate. I hope that helped. That was a lot of, information.
[00:40:28] Let me know if that helped. Let me know if any part of this conversation has helped you. And then, I can do some follow-up discussions on it based on your comments and your questions, your follow-up questions. So leave them below for me. And thank you so much for listening. My name is Hoang.
[00:40:46] I'm an occupational therapist and certified hand therapist, and my goal here is to help occupational therapist have more choices. All right, have more choices. There's so many different ways for you to have more choices. All of it starts with you. All right, [00:41:00] talk to you soon. Bye.
