When you start a professional Reiki practice, you are becoming a self-employed small business owner as well as a spiritual healing practitioner. To have your practice succeed, you will need to follow many of the mainstream business concepts, practices and actions that all small businesses follow. The most common questions I receive from my Reiki students and in my ReikiChat™ calls (1) are about how to let potential clients know about the existence of their Reiki practices. I have been writing a continuing series of articles for Reiki News Magazine on that topic. “Defining Your Reiki Practice – Part One (2),” covers the importance of defining your heart intention for your Reiki business and getting comfortable talking about the spirituality of Reiki. Part Two relates how to introduce Reiki to medical personnel. Part Three addresses how to establish your Reiki business identity through branding, as well as by developing your business name, logo and tagline.

Create Your Business Identity

Your business identity, the way that your Reiki practice is known to the public, needs to reflect that you are a professional Reiki practitioner. So to begin, look at other professional healing businesses, such as acupuncture, massage, spas, chiropractors, etc. How are they presenting themselves? Your business will have the same practical needs, yet you will also want to be unique in how you define your business since the structure of your business will be your personal vision. What do you want to say about your business? How do you define it? How do you present the benefits you provide to your Reiki clients and students? What is unique about you? A professional self-image aligned with your heart intention will help you formulate your words and guide you in the right direction as you create your business identity and personality. To develop your professional self-image, take some time to give yourself Reiki as you ask Reiki to help you answer these questions:

1. Why am I in business?
2. What do I believe?
3. What inspires me to do my work?
4. Who are my clients and students?
5. What problems can help them solve?
6. In what other ways can I serve my clients and students?
7. What is unique about my Reiki services?
8. What business personality do I want to present?
9. What words do I use to define my Reiki practice?
10.What design elements, such as color, image, feel and so
forth express your personality?

Branding

Once you have determined your professional self-image, it’s time to communicate that image to the public. This is referred to as branding. Good branding is consistent in every interaction with the public: online, in social media, in print and in person, making it easy for people to recognize your Reiki business quickly. When your branding is clear, it will communicate your message, your authentic truth about Reiki and your sense of purpose for your business. Branding also takes into account the design elements of your business name, logo, tagline, color choices, images and written content.

Listed below are a several important branding guidelines:

1. It will express your authentic self.
2. It will be consistent.
3. It will be transparent.
4. It will be professional.
5. What you offer will deliver on your brand promises.

Here are examples of my business brand consistently used across all mediums (3).