Massage Practice Builder

One of my concerns in the massage profession is the way massage therapists are treated by employers and also figuring out what is the appropriate status for a massage employee.  Most massage therapists work as independent or subcontractor status which is basically saying that you are self employed.   It is my personal belief from the research I have done through the years that most are being hired as subcontractors when they should really be full employees with full employee benefits.   I have yet to find a concrete legal reference and there is a lot of conflicting information.  After talking to and reading many questions from massage therapists there is not of course one clear answer.  Figuring it out is actually the responsibility of the employer because they are the ones who will be hit with back taxes and penalties.

There are many different criteria for figuring out your own status and I have a bunch more info on my regular blog citing articles online from many different sources -www.thebodyworker.com

There is the legal aspects of this that are important not only for who pays taxes but the legal aspects also fold into the ethical aspects – do you want to work for someone who may be taking advantage of you?   It will not only come out in how you are paid but also how much you are paid.  It will show up in how you get along with the person who hires you and the company itself.   Ethically speaking you want a nice place to work and one that also respects you and makes you a part of the team.

If anyone has any other legal references let me know and of course all stories you have would help others in trying to figure this all out!

When I first started out 20 years ago, there was no such thing really as a job in massage.  People became massage therapists because it was more of a lifestyle choice.  People were looking for independence and the freedom to do as they pleased while making a good living.

Today while the statistics from ABMP and AMTA don’t quite reflect the increase in job opportunities websites like www.citytowninfo.com make it out to be.  Our professional associations still say that more massage therapists start their own business.  I am not sure if that is still true or not.  These type of career and salary sites show such a wide variety of salary ranges it is impossible to really know what is going on out there.

I do know that having more massage franchises has opened up more job opportunities but with the rate of pay so low is that really an advancement?

I get more emails from massage therapists asking me to hire them or tell them where the good jobs are which show me they are really lacking in job seeking skills to begin with.  But the trend from being self employed business owners to more employees seems troublesome to me.   People looking for jobs are seeking security in the form of a job and income.  While there is nothing wrong with that really, it is the rest of the things that go with it.  Massage used to be more of a calling and a way of life.  People came to the massage profession wanting to help others and learned to be of service to others.   Now people are just looking for a job to fill their time and get paid.

How will these recent job trends influence the massage profession?  We don’t even really know since we seem to get such conflicting statistics.

I was also wondering about the increase in the number of Massage Envy like places and was wondering if it would be possible to have franchises that charge more and pay the massage therapists more and also use tools like supervision (not in the usual sense but as in clinical supervision ) which would seem like more of an advancement to me.

I was also reading a really good book by Robert Kiyosaki called “The Cash Flow Quadrant” which describes the employee, self employed person and business person really nicely.  You can read more about it on my blog but it got me thinking that maybe more Franchises are needed that do provide better working conditions, better massages, and charge a reasonable fee (as compared to the cheap fees of some franchises.)

Since jobs seem to be on the rise we may as well figure out how to provide more and better paying jobs.

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?

Finding a job in massage seems to be getting more difficult in some areas of the country that are harder hit by the economy.  I have been getting many emails from massage therapists asking where are all the massage jobs that were promised in massage school.  I am not sure what people are expecting but if they have done their research they would find that massage jobs are low paying and you can’t really make a living working at one of the many franchises that are hiring massage therapists.  Most entry level jobs start at $15 an hour and you only get that when you are actually working on a client.  You get paid minimum wage or somethings nothing at all to sit around and wait for clients to call.

I have also been getting all sorts of stories about very difficult situations in massage jobs – places closing without notice and chiropractors hiring people as independent contractors when they should be employes, high end spas telling massage therapists that they should do work on people that is contraindicated, massage therapists not having any say on who they work on….the stories go on and on – low pay, no pay, no respect.  Then there is always talk of a union for massage therapists.

I actually don’t know much about unions except that I don’t think it is the answer.  That would create the same level of pay for everyone whether or not they are doing a good job or not.  What needs to happen is the massage schools need to start showing people how to create their own jobs instead of thinking that they are stuck having to take what is out there or start telling people what the job market is really like.  I guess they won’t do that because then they wouldn’t have any massage students.

What if massage therapists started taking more of an active role in creating jobs for themselves or participating as a team member in a job?   We teach people how to treat us so what if massage therapists stopped taking the low paying jobs and stopped putting up with being taken advantage of?   Would there always be someone out there who would any job and work for the cheaper wages?

What if people started thinking more about having a career in massage and following a vocation rather than just getting a job?   I have been doing some reading on jobs and the idea that jobs are just usually thought of as a way to get a paycheck.  James Hollis, a psychologist and author of the book “The Middle Passage” says:

“A vocation is what we are called to do with our life’s energy.  It is a requisite part of our individuation to feel that we are productive, and not responding to one’s calling can damage the soul.  We do not choose a vocation; rather it chooses us.  Our only choice is how we respond”.

Another of my favorite authors -A.H. Alamas in his book Diamond Heart Book One says:

Your career, interests, relationships are very important – but they are only as important insofar as they lead you toward a deeper understanding of yourself.  Otherwise they are irrelevant.

So many people do come to the massage profession with a calling like that but end up taking jobs just to eat.  I propose that there is another way if we only support each other in following the calling and start really taking the time to create our own “Ideal Massage Therapy Job” rather than taking jobs and complaining every day about it all.   That would involve a process of self discovery and maybe taking a few bad jobs so that you can know more about what you do want.  What do you envision for your self in finding a job in massage?  What do you desire?  What if you could take all the time in the world and didn’t need to make money right away – what kind of job would you really want and take?

See also the massage therapy job center on www.thebodyworker.com