Empowering Mental Health Clinicians

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in business development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Danielle Kepler, Founder of Be Your Own Biller, LLC., located in Chicago, IL, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

Be Your Own Biller is a consulting company that aims to educate mental health clinicians about health insurance credentialing and billing. Our customers are solo private practice clinicians, group private practice owners, non-profits, and other mental health agencies. Our hope is by helping mental health clinicians credential and bill insurance, this helps improve access to mental health care for people who need services and cannot afford to pay out of pocket and/or want to use their health insurance.

Tell us about yourself

I first started to Be Your Own Biller after starting my own solo private practice in 2015. I was not taught how to credential or bill insurance, and I realized I had a knack for it and learned the ins and outs quickly. I then created a Facebook group for clinicians after realizing there was not a specific Facebook group for insurance for mental health clinicians. After that gained popularity, I started to Be Your Own Biller to offer private consulting to clinicians. Even after seven years of running the Facebook group, I still keep screenshots of the praise people say about the group. Knowing that I am not only helping clinicians figure out something that seems so challenging but, in turn, helping create more access to mental health care is what really keeps me motivated.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

There have been countless times when clinicians have told me that I 'helped them save their business,' and every time I hear that, I am overjoyed that I was able to help someone save their business and continue to be able to provide care to clients. My Facebook group has over 19,000 clinicians in it and counting.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

Realizing that you cannot please everyone. Throughout the years, I've had people get upset about one thing or another and have learned to learn from the incident, take what I can from it, but then move on from it. If you dwell too much on one person's negative experience, the feedback becomes unhelpful and does not move you forward.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

It all starts with an idea and a need. You can't have a business without both of those.
Building your audience/customer base before you launch can help customers build trust in your product and have natural buy-in.
Take any feedback, good or bad, as helpful. It's very easy to get defensive when getting negative feedback, but try your best to learn from it and then move on from it.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.beyourownbiller.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/beyourownbiller
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellekepler/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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