After reading an article a few weeks ago in another magazine ( I am not sure if I should say the name or not!) titled “Massage Franchises – The Impact on the Profession” I have to say I was quite saddened initially. The two most alarming things I read were about the new relationship that Massage Envy is creating with Corinthian Colleges saying that they will be teaching Massage Envy requirements in their schools and the other statement saying that this should be a positive wake up call for private practitioners! A part of me wanted to get out of the massage profession right away if that is what it is coming down to! What happened to massage being a calling and a lifestyle that I joined the career for back in 1987??? After much online discussion in various forums, massageprofessionals.com, Facebook and writing on my own blog I have to say I am more inspired then ever to continue teaching massage therapist that there is a different way!
You can just say no to low paying franchise jobs! You can also use them to get where you want to go in starting and running your own business. Running your own business is also different than being an independent contractor where you are half employee and half self employed (Paying your own taxes but working doing massage for someone!)
As a self employed massage business owner you do have the opportunity to make much more. You can start a business without much investment but no it isn’t always easy and it does take a commitment to learning to step out and promote yourself! It can be an extraordinary growth process! Many massage therapists use the reason that they don’t want the hassles of running a business but even if you work for someone you have to do many of the same things as a self employed massage therapist would – get and keep clients. You can hire a bookkeeper and a billing person if you hate that part of it! You can hire a receptionist to take calls or use some of the tools that are available to streamline your business so you can focus on what you do best – doing massage!
Everyone seems to go back to the same reasoning that what other career can you make $25 (with tips) from a franchise on 500 -1000 hours of training? If you compare it to an independent contractor where they often end up giving away half of what they gross (which is a whole other topic – most should really be employees!).
As a business owner you get to keep more! As a self employed massage therapist I make $85 an hour average a week. I am not sure why anyone would not want that.  Yes I have overhead but it doesn’t compare at all to how much you have to pay when you give 40-60% of your gross to an employer as a so called independent contractor! I pay rent but share an office space with others doing massage keeping the costs low and I am in the center of downtown Seattle, cell phone, website and that is about it! I don’t advertise or do much in marketing because my website does it all for me!
There are others who are also teaching massage therapists that you can make more with your own business- Meagan Holub author of “The Magic Touch - How to Make $100,000 a year as a Massage Therapist.” There is Woody Haiken with his work at “The Growing Practice”.  Laura Allen is a gifted author writing on the topic of building a business so that anyone can do it and our massage pundit!
There are so many good resources out there today to help you along the way! There is no reason why you can’t learn how to start and run your own business. If you don’t want to then don’t complain about those franchise jobs! You can either go and get a higher paying massage job or start your own business!
I think with all of this talk of the end of the self employed massage therapist I should start a campaign – “Just say NO to low paying massage jobs” and also a new marketing campaign for massage therapists starting their own business ” I fix $59 massages!” (OK I hate the word fix because I don’t think we do fix but it is just for the impact like a commercial on tv lately with a cheap hair salon offering $6 haircuts and a small business barber/salon who puts up a sign across the street staying “I fix $6 haircuts”)
