Massage Practice Builder

Last night when I was watching Oprah I was so moved by the story of the guy who was a singer who would rent out theaters to perform in and then go out on the street with a CD player and let people listen to him singing and sell tickets to his shows.  He started with a small theater that he rented for $3000 without actually having the money in the bank and went and sold tickets all weekend so that he could have the money deposited by Monday when the check went through.  He of course made it.  The most interesting part really is that he rented a theater in Chicago for $18,000 and was attempting to do the same.  He put a video up on Youtube and invited Oprah and Gail to go to the show.   Gail showed up at the theater and invited him to be on the Oprah Show.  The thing is that he had the video up for awhile and was really hoping and counting on Oprah showing up.  The day before Gail showed up he had given up hope and he said he was actually crying all day in his room.  Gail showed up when he had given up – surrendered.

Marianne Williamson who is a teacher of the Course in Miracles is also another story like that.  She taught for free for years before becoming a well known speaker and writer.  She just had so much passion for the material and lessons that she just kept with it not knowing or caring if it did become anything.

It got me thinking about just how much passion is really needed to make things happen. While I know some massage therapists have that, others don’t and I think it is the reason that so many struggle to start and build their massage business or even find a job.

What would you do to build your massage business?  What would you do to find a high paying ($45 an hour) with good benefits job in massage?

Offer free massages for a month?   Offer to work for someone for free for a month to show them how much you could improve their business?

I also keep thinking of a story that I read in a book but can’t remember where about a story about a Chiropractor who was wanting to start a business in a small town of about 6000 people that already had many chiropractors.  He went door to door in the community and asked people about their health and what they needed.  He focused on the people.  Of course his business was full right from the start even though he didn’t actually promote his business in the inquiry.  He was just gathering info about what his community needed so he could provide it.

Would you go door to door to everyone in your area to find out what they want in a massage or massage therapist?

Would you offer free consultations?  Go into offices and offer free consultations?  Work for free for a month or as long as it took to build the trust and respect of your community?

Would you set a massage chair or table up on the street in front of your office offering a sampling of your work and selling appointment times until your business was full?

Would you offer free massage classes for couples or friends until your massage business was full?

Would you work for free at a hospital, spa or medical office to show them just what you can do for their customers and how you could enhance and increase their profits?

What would you do to make your massage business a success or to get the best job in the massage profession?

There is some contoversy over working for free.  Massage therapists struggle at fairs, conventions and such giving away free massages.  Some people who get free massages just want free massages.  But I think if you change the context of the free massages and look at it as an informational gathering session or come into it with so much passion in your heart that people can just tell what massage means to you – that it is an amazing healing method that can help to heal a persons physical and mental/emotional injuries.  It is different from behaving like a used car sales man (who always get the bad raps!) who is selling and conniving just to get something.

Do you love doing massage so much that you would stand on the street and offer free samples and ‘sell appointments’ like the guy sold tickets to his own performance?  I guess you also have to see the Oprah show where they showed him visibly moved by all that happened and how passionate he was about singing.  He was just born to sing. Here is a clip.

Were you born to do massage?