Starting and Managing Your ABA Firm
We recognize the field of Behavior Analysis has a need for a book aimed to guide practitioners of ABA in ethically building quality firms. This is chiefly in response to the new market strategy of private equity firms and venture capitalists acquiring and managing Applied Behavior Analysis agencies. Like each of you reading this book, we love the science of ABA, and we are concerned that the business interests of firms run by those who must report to investors are antithetical to a consumer-centered therapy as intensive as ABA. This trend, while distressing, is not irreversible.
​
Holding these convictions and seeing this development, left us with one solution…do what we can to level the playing field. We all recognize BCBAs are clinicians first, and financial expertise and business acumen, rightly so, are not taught in our programs. This book represents our knowledge and experience gleaned by starting, structuring, growing and marketing (even regionalizing) an ABA firm, from start to finish. Our intention was to structure the book in such a way that even students could begin to plan towards their own future and dream of starting a firm. Behaviorists, not bankers, are the optimum choice to own and manage ABA agencies.
​
Furthermore, we realized that the average clinician would need access to forms and documents that are crucial to starting and managing an ABA firm. We’ve opened the treasure trove of documents from our successful agency, which is administered by multiple BCBA-Ds. We have created a website that includes documents for Hiring and HR, Clients, Contracts, P+P Manuals, Billing Templates, Clinical Templates for BASPs and much more. Big wins, like our state legislature funded grant, are even included to serve as models for other entrepreneurial agency owners. See a full list of documents online at Behavelikeaboss.com and start the journey towards independent agency ownership. Instead of watching business/investor firms continue to inundate our field, why not start your own firm?
With this book and website, you can begin to make your dream of owning your own agency a reality. The time is now and the future of our profession is in your hands!