I was approached recently by a friend who had a business idea and wanted my take on it. In talking with him, it refreshed for me the importance of developing a solid plan to work with. It occured to me that it is very similar with massage students. In my friend's case, he had a business idea for a product - he had no real expertise in designing it or in marketing it. In massage it is a little bit different, but many of the principles remain the same. Chances are at some point when you are conducting or planning a business, private practice or otherwise, you will need to borrow money from somewhere. And to do that, you'll need a business plan.
It Starts With An Idea
I've mentioned this in prior posts before, but you have to have a firm idea of what it is that you want to do. Form a picture in your mind and abide by Stephen Covey's words, "begin with the end in mind". What is it you are trying to create? The typical answer is "a successful business", but you need more than that. What is successful? A full schedule of regular, loyal clients, or a team of MTs that work for you in your own spa? What clientele are you wanting to work with, what kind of challenges do you want to handle? Pregnancy, cancer, orthopedic surgery, stressed-out executives? In what environment? Describe it all.
Develop it into a mission statement. Then take it down to 3-4 sentences at the most. This will be your pitch (they call it the elevator pitch). It has to describe who you are, what you do, and where in a short, concise statement. Think long and hard on making this perfect - people will decide if they want to know any more based on this statement alone.
What Do You Bring To The Table?
In my friend's case, this was a hurdle. If you want to start a business, you have to have something to offer. I tend to simplify it into three general categories:
- Expertise
- Money
- Connections
Expertise
When it comes to massage, schools quite rightly put a lot of effort into graduating competent massage therapists. Their technical skills are sound. In this conext it means that they have technical expertise - they know how to do the work.
Money
Any business is going to require start-up money. The bigger the business (or dream) the more money it usually takes. For a private practice, we're looking at money to support you unless you have another job, licensing/permit costs, marketing costs, transportation, decor, supplies and equipment, rent, utilities, phone, and any other expenses one has in order to conduct business. This is often a challenge for many new therapists, so it is usually a good idea to have a job or "boot-strap" a business start - starting small and allowing the growing business to pay for it's own growth.
Connections
Deal-maker skills, that's what this is all about. It can be who you know, it can be access, it can be the ability to get the right people together. This is the ability to go out and sell yourself, your idea, your plan, and recruit others to the cause. If you have no money and no expertise, you at least had better have the ability to get people who do on-board.
What About The Idea?
My friend's thought was that the idea was a piece of this equation. The original idea is simply the little nudge that gets the ball rolling. It isn't much in the way of capital all by itself. You have to have one of the other elements to have anything to work with. The idea is the fuel that feeds the business plan, the unifying theme that ties it all together, but is as useless as a fleeting thought all by itself. It needs the plan to become a reality.
Writing The Plan
A key point to remember is that this document is for them, not for you. Leave nothing out and make no assumptions about what the reader knows and does not. For ease of understanding and readability, there is a standard format that you should follow in your plan. There is a good business plan outline available for you to follow online. This has all of the elements that an investor is going to want to see. Remember, although you are trying to promote and sell your vision to the other person, it is your vision and not their's. The prupose of the plan is to demonstrate that you know what you are talking about, you've done your homework, minimized the risks, and maximized the potential for the investor to get their money back and have a return on their investment.
As I was explaining all of this (admittedly in more detail), my friend chuckled and asked if I was trying to scare him into abandoning his idea. "If you can't even put the work into this plan, how can you expect anybody to believe you could actually make this dream into a reality?" was my reply. I consider the business plan an acid test, a rite of passage to see if the entrepreneur has the mettle to get the job done. Have they looked at every angle? They better have, because I'm sure not going to place my money on their faith!
A Closing Word On Doing Business With Friends & Family Members
In my experience, it is always risky to mix business with personal relationships. In the world of business, money, and livelihoods, the decisions and the relationships are often necessarily objective and calculated. You wouldn't think twice about changing banks or insurance companies for the same service at a lower price, would you? You wouldn't expect your credit card company to simply forgive your debt.
The problem is that personal relationships are never so clear-cut. We accept people's faults and forgive them for them. We teach and educate those we care about because we care. We have different boundaries with those we are close to in the same way we have different boundaries with our clients in the therapeutic relationship than with a friend. And because of that, business and personal relationships - with their contrasting boundaries and demands - can be sticky things to mix.
Good luck!
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