Massage Practice Builder

An important part of being successful in the massage profession is your perception of the money that you pay out for various services - are they a expense or an investment in your massage business?  So many massage therapists seem to want to skimp on paying for things that are essential in building a business.  Something as simple as your own phone line instead of using your personal cell phone can go a long way in creating an image for yourself.  They don’t want to spend money on classes or their website and try to get away with just getting whatever is the cheapest.  I can understand not wanting to spend money when you don’t have it and that brings up a whole other can of worms in why don’t you have the money that you need to invest in and create your ideal massage business but just changing your thinking from one of the money going out as being an expense to the idea that the money going out is an investment in yourself and your business can go a long way in creating your massage business.  The idea that money going out is just an expense is also a great reflection of your beliefs about money.

Each year about this time I start creating my spending plan for the next year.  I create a plan rather than a budget.  I plan on what I am going to need and then figure out how to get what I need.  If you just start out without knowing how much you need to make, how will you know what it is you need to do to make that happen?  I allow for a massage each week, two vacations away somewhere, a class or two, my website for my massage business and a few new ones to develop new ideas with and the usual costs of doing business - phone, rent, business cards, any other marketing things, taxes, savings and retirement savings.  Even these things are an investment in your massage business.

When you invest in your massage business, you are saying that your business has value and meaning to you.  You are willing to put money and time into it and know that the returns will make it worth it.  Having faith in these challenging times is challenging in itself.  Often when you are starting out it is important to just take little steps and make little investments in your business and see how they work out so that you can build faith in yourself.  And if they don’t work out that doesn’t mean that they don’t work as in just creating a one page website without doing any optimizations or reading about creating websites.  This is where the faith comes in that will help you stay with the process of creating a website that works for your business or doing whatever it takes to get the clients you need in the door.  ( I always just talk about websites because they are what saved me from having to go out there and market myself and do those ’sales related’ things that I hate to do and I also make most of my living now just from my two websites - www.massage-career-guides.com and www.thebodyworker.com alone.)

Here is my list of essential investments in your massage business:

1. A website that works- one that gets you a steady flow of new clients and makes you money as you do massage
2. Business cards that are printed professionally that have the necessary information on them to contact you.
3. A separate phone line to keep your business and personal life separate.
4. A financial counselor to help you create and manage a spending plan for your business.
5. A class each year to inspire and support you
6. Regular supervision sessions with a more experienced massage therapist or counselor to help you create professional boundaries and enforce them in difficult situations
7. Regular in depth counseling to help you become more aware and do your own personal growth work.

Investing in your massage business is just part of good self care. What do you invest in for your massage business?  What would you like to invest in to add to your massage business?

One of the most challenging things for massage therapists is setting fees for massage therapy services but it is one of the most important forms of self care that is needed to avoid burnout or even business failure.  Money is such an interesting thing for many as it often equated with power and it is a place where we all project our old beliefs onto.

Massage therapists don’t want to charge for massage because it is such a nurturing, wonderful service and they think that people shouldn’t have to pay for things like that.  They set lower rates than others thinking that is what they need to do to get people in the door and keep them coming back.  They don’t have cancellation policies that support a business and often just let no shows or last minute cancellations go without paying.  Massage therapists seem to put their own needs for financial stability aside in order to get and keep a client.

The thing is that people do want to pay for your services.  When I first started out 20 years ago,  I opened my own business at a health club where the person before me was charging something like $25 an hour for a massage.  Even back then, that was a really low fee for massage.  It was a struggle raising my rates to match the going rate in the area.  An accountant friend of mine even told me not to do it because I would lose too many clients.  I did lose some but there were new ones that came after and they paid the higher rate.  Every year when I raise my rates, I usually get at least one complaint but all of the others say things like “It is about time your raised your rates”.  Actually the person who complained last year is one of my wealthiest clients.  What people can or want to pay has little to do with how much money they have or don’t have.  I also have a client who is a single mother and a day care teacher who makes it a point to always have money for her massage.  The difference is in how much they value massage.  I personally only want to be working with people who value me and my massage service.  Anything less becomes a drain on your business and your self.  That is why setting and raising your fees is one of the highest forms of self care.  I even created a new page on my website on setting your fees and it is linked from the section on Self Care.

So often I work with massage therapists and I hear things like “I can charge less because I work at home and don’t have as much overhead.  I work with mothers and they don’t have much money.”  They also say things like “I just can’t charge for massage because it is such a personal thing”.   These therapists don’t have a retirement account and are hardly getting by but they would rather ’sacrifice’ their time and take a client who pays less.  Setting introductory fees can be a way of getting people in the door or having special offers occasionally but consistently undercharging and thus underearning can hurt your massage practice (and the massage profession) more than one might think.

In some ways we are providing what people should have got for free- nurturing, relaxation techniques and support for their physical, mental, emotional processing.  How do you put a price on that?  I sometimes think we should be charging more like $500 an hour for massage sessions because of all the things that massage really can do.   I once had a client who had severe neck pain and compressed discs in his neck.  In about 6 sessions he was a different person.  He told me he had come in looking for relief from his pain and he left being a more peaceful person.  He was friendlier and easier to get along with.  How much is that worth to someone?