Life, Outsourcing, and Massage Therapy – Part 1

Just reading the title, you may be wondering what the heck I’m talking about. Well, you may have noticed that it’s been a while since I’ve posted to this blog. Life happened. Life is still happening. I teach, I have a family, car repairs, sports massage events, I’m in school taking classes, and I’m working on setting up a business. I just got busy.

The thing is, so do our clients. Often, as massage therapists, we wonder where our clients go. The truth is that many times it has nothing to do with the client not wanting to come back. Life just got in the way. Very few people I know have large blocks of time in their schedules to do with what they wish. MTs often fall prey to thinking that they are only competing against other massage therapists. Some who see a little bit more realize that they are also competing against other niche products like chiropractic, pain relief, and stress-reduction activities. But in the broader scheme of things, we are fighting tooth and claw with almost every other business (and even person) out there for one thing. Time.

Time and Our Service Economy

We are competing with sports events, TiVo, concerts, charity events, kids’ recitals, theme parks, you name it. Time is our clients’ most precious commodity. It seems that all too often, even when you want to get together with a friend, they have to check their schedule and pencil you in in three weeks. More and more, people are just so busy they can’t get away for anything.

What does that have to do with the service economy? Few would deny that massage therapy is a profession that rests firmly in the service sector. Whether you look at it as health care or a luxury, it is still a service. In one of my business classes recently, I learned that the rise of the service economy in the U.S. really began after World War II. What ended up happening is that incomes rose so that people had more to spend. At the same time, a counter-trend was occurring in that people had more demands on their time. The result was this, people began to pay others to do time-consuming services that they didn’t wish to do. Things like dry cleaning, painting the house, dining out increased. People began outsourcing more of their needs to others.

Outsourcing

The way I see it is that our clients have outsourced some of their care needs to us. We provide a therapeutic service and can rattle off all kinds of therapeutic benefits for massage therapy. We’ve been contracted to provide something that our clients want or need, but either can’t or don’t want to do themselves.

Think for a minute about the things that you want or need and can’t/won’t do for yourself. A person could get in shape without a personal trainer or a gym membership, but isn’t it easier to pay the membership or have somebody else guide you? Massage is kind of the same. People could reduce their own stress, there are many forms of massage that people really could do for themselves. But that isn’t really the issue. It’s time and focus.

General Busy-ness

A month ago, I wrote about my TFL and my plan for addressing it. I was going to chart the progress and write about it here. I know this stuff. I teach this stuff. I recommend it to my clients. Did I do it? Nope. It wasn’t important enough to me at any given moment to do much. Oh, I worked on it a few times. I got some massages at my school. But did I do the entire protocol that I laid out for myself? Sorry.

The point is that our clients are the same way. It’s not that they’re lazy, or uncommitted, or that they don’t want to be healthy. It’s that they have a gazillion priorities and their health is only one of them. Proper nutrition requires a lifetime commitment while McDonald’s only requires a commitment of $5, right now. When so many people demand so many things, something has to give. Unfortunately for us, for many people that seems to be massage and taking care of themselves.

And Back to Outsourcing

The answer to busy-ness for most people is one of two things. Put it on the back burner to be ignored or forgotten OR… outsource it. Our clients are outsourcing part of the wellbeing to us. We just need to know the best way to go about it for our particular group of customers. So what can we do to fulfill our contract as outsourced wellness providers? I’ll save that for part 2… (nice teaser, eh?)

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Diversity in Your Practice

Jack of all trades, master of none - or so they say.

While there is a lot of merit in specialization and becoming a master of your chosen niche, it is important not to become overly limited and specialized as well. And in that respect, I'll use another old cliche - moderation is key.

Why Diversify?

In investments, you diversify to minimize risk. In the workplace to capitalize on different cultures and viewpoints. In massage, it's both.

Risks?

What risks, you might ask? In massage school, we all should have learned (and hopefully learned well) the risks associated with improper body mechanics and repetitive strain injuries. We learn how to help our clients deal with and prevent these things in their lives. But what about ours? Massage is physical work, and even using the best body mechanics isn't going to eliminate all potential problems. We all come into this work with a different history, a different accumulation of life's wear and tear on our bodies, and different genetic predispositions. Some can certainly last longer than others, and proper body mechanics employed consistently and habitually should allow any therapist to (as I always say in class) "let you work for as long as you choose to, not for as long as your body will let you." So, performing the same movements over and over again in your work can create the potential for RSIs.

Let's not forget that we are holistic beings here, so we can't neglect emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of specialization as well. Personally, I thrive on novelty. I love new projects, getting things kicked off, establishing procedures and efficiencies, building businesses, and starting careers (that's why I love teaching). Doing the same darn thing day in and day out is torture for me. For me, psychological burnout is a bigger concern than physical problems. There is a real danger to the client-centeredness of your practice when things become so habitual you stop asking questions and start running on autopilot. Work becomes less fulfilling, monotonous, and a chore. I'd venture to suggest that just as many, if not more, MTs leave the profession because of this as for physical reasons. It can also lead down the slippery slope of focusing on what you're getting out of it (aka $). Not a good road to go down.

Specialization has its rewards too, but I don't hear too often any discussion about the downside. A healthy MT/practice/career strikes a balance.

Diversify

OK, so over-concentration in a single area can be risky. What do I do about it? How do I diversify?

Well for starters, it may mean using some different techniques. I'm sure there are a lot of things you learned in massage school that you haven't used in a while. Or you could watch a massage DVD, even search on YouTube so you could see some different techniques. Trade massage with an MT that uses a different style than you do or purchase one. Read a book. Even learn something from a discipline that is similar but different like PT, emotional healing, yoga, breath-work... You could also just make the effort to change up the emphasis in your sessions - do a lot more stretching, try some techniques that require client participation, mix zen shiatsu into your Swedish.

Another way is to provide some complementary services. Body wraps, exfoliations, hot stone, aromatherapy, and others are all great ways to mix things up. They can use your body in a different way or potentially use your body in the same way but with an entirely different thought process. It helps to keep you (and your client) engaged in the process.

It might also mean diversifying your work environment. Getting out of a rut means breaking routine. Try working in different environments - a spa, chiropractice office, a pain clinic, a law firm, a house call, outdoors at the charity 10K... Try working with some different clients that have different challenges for you to work with.

Got some ideas on how to diversify? Let me know!

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Raising Your Rates

A touchy subject for all massage therapists. When do you do it? How? What do you say? This question was recently posted on LinkedIn's Massage Therapists & Bodyworkers group:

I would like to hear what other therapists tell their clients when they ask why you've raised prices. (or if they complain about it). I raised my prices last year from $70 to $80/hour. I was underpriced for my area, now I'm competitive. I own the business so about 30% of my clients tip but I don't count on it and it isn't expected or considered in my financing. We all know why we have to raise our prices: 1) To stay competitive and not under-value our work. 2) To pay for the increases in the cost of doing business so that our profit margin remains the same. People who are employed get annual 'cost of living' raises. we don't unless we raise our prices. I am resentful of people who don't understand this, and have a hard time coming up with a concise, professional way to explain. I certainly think I'm worth the raise, so that is not the issue, and I'm not defending that. Thanks!

Cass Vertefeuille Garrett of Greenleaf Therapies, LLC

First off, Cass has it right. When we're self-employed, we are the ones who have to give ourselves a cost-of-living adjustment. I think that Cass has already presented some good reasons why we need to raise prices, but let's take a look at the thought process behind it and the when and how of increasing rates.

Why Raise Rates?

The thought process here is a simple one. Our prices aren't static, as our clients often seem to think they are, and like we MTs can even fall into the trap of believing. There are lots of factors that drive our pricing, some of the most obvious being: inflation, increased cost-of-living, increased costs of doing business, having increased experience, training, or specialized skills, and so forth.

Because these expenses aren't static, neither can our prices. We need to build that mentality into our business plans and practices. Ideally, we should also build this into our clients' expectations. Think about the example of a client who wasn't informed that they might be sore following a massage who then becomes sore afterwards. The are upset because it was a surprise and worried that something might be wrong. The same can happen with your business practices. Build in the expectation that prices will change periodically to reflect the current economic environment and it won't be such a nasty surprise when it happens. I'd include this expectation in your policies from the very first appointment with your client.

When to Raise Rates?

The knee-jerk response to this question is "when you need to" and that is a valid answer. But it is also an answer that implies a lack of planning or control. While you do need to be responsive to factors such as rent increases and the like, that shouldn't necessarily be the only reason to look at your rates.

My recommendation is to develop a process to systematically examine your pricing structure. Earlier, I used the word "periodically" to describe when rates would change (nice foreshadowing, eh?). That means that there is some kind of established and regular time-frame for when the rate changes occur. I go with a yearly period, but you could go shorter or longer if you'd like.

This evaluation should take into account all of the changes to your personal business climate over the course of that period. Some examples:

1. Taxes - increase or decrease?
2. Expenses - personal and business
3. Inflation - don't overlook this one!
4. Local changes in the market - competition, new regulations...

Inflation alone means a pay-cut every year if you don't adjust your rates. A 3% inflation rate means you essentially earn that much less in spending power that year. Over a couple of years of static pricing, that really adds up!

Generally, I would suggest that you factor all of the cost increases in and figure out the percentage that impacts your real income (not dollar amount, but buying power). If it's not too big, you can hold off tacking on another $5 onto your rates, but then plan on it for the following year. Just make sure that you establish a schedule - a fiscal year, if you will.

How?

This is probably the one most MTs have the problem with. How do I actually break it to my clients? Won't they be resentful? Will I lose clients? These are common fears.

As far as resentment from your clients, nobody likes to have prices go up, but it's a fact of life and if you have prepared they way with client expectations it won't be as big of a deal. And losing clients? Maybe. But if a client leaves because of a small and realistic price increase, they weren't there for you, the health of your business, or the results you deliver; they were there for price alone and you won't miss them. That's a reason why I only use low introductory rates with caution - it fosters an relationship where the most important factor is your low price relative to the competition. If you do have some clients that truly cannot afford your new rates but you want to keep in your practice and they need the work - try including these clients in part of your planned charitable giving. All individuals and businesses should plan on giving some of it all away, either for free or at cost. It's good for everybody. Set aside a certain number of appointments a week (I shoot for 10%) that you can either give away or perform at a reduced price. That way the cost to you is limited, accounted for, and planned on. Everybody wins.

Breaking the news is not the most pleasant of tasks, but like other forms of boundary enforcement, it is necessary. It should be done in the spirit of both acceptance of the fact it must be done and compassion for how it affects your clients. It should be delivered firmly and clearly, with compassion but not regret or apology. Some suggestions that I posted on the LinkedIn forum:

You might try something along the lines of:
"Dear valued client, As I'm sure that you are well aware, the current economic environment has placed additional pressures on all businesses. Unfortunately, my practice has not remained isolated from these pressures and in order to continue to operate soundly I need to increase my rates to (insert your new rate schedule). These new rates are effective on (date). Thank you for your continued support."
Or...
"Periodically, I must adjust my rates to reflect changes in inflation, cost of living, and operational expenses. As a result, I will be increasing my rates to... on (date)."

Promote It

As a teacher, I've had to deal with from time to time is change - curriculum changes, textbook changes, procedural changes - and times of change can be stressful to students (and clients). The important thing when you are implementing a change, even a rate change, is to promote the positives. Sometimes it icludes an explanation about why, sometimes you just emphasize the improvements. With rates, it could be as simple as "to continue to provide the same level of service in the face of rising costs". Your students, and you clients, will pick up on your attitude about it and it does influence how they feel about it. If you are positive, it will move their feelings about it in a more positive direction. If you are negative, they will fight you on it. And if you are wishy washy about it, they will feel they can get you to make exceptions and special allowances.

One thing that can turn the change more positive is to tie in the rate increase with a promotional period. Give a date for when the new pricing takes effect and allow your clients to take advantage of getting in some more appointments at your current rate. Even allow them to buy packages or gift certificates at your current rates up until a certain date. This can have the effect of increasing both the amount of business and having money in your pocket up front. If you worry that things might get tight, you could restrict the discounted certificates to certain times or days so it doesn't interfere with your full-priced business.

So to summarize, make sure you regularly evaluate your pricing and make sure that your pricing is optimal for your business climate and meeting your needs. Be positive, firm, clear, and compassionate about how you communicate a rate increase to your clients. Expect you may lose a few, but most will understand and the ones that leave aren't the healthiest clients for your practice anyway.

Good luck!

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Bad Experiences

Another Critical Thinking Exercise from class...

The Question:

Think of a really bad experience you had with a “professional”, a business, or a service provider.

1. What went wrong – with the circumstance and the resolution process?
2. What happened after? Was it resolved?
3. If you were them, what could you do to have prevented or dealt with this situation?

The Ugly

The students had some fun with this one. I mean, who doesn't like to tell their horror stories about something like this. Statistically, if someone has a bad experience with a business, they will go and tell at least 10 other people about it. Why? Because people love to gossip about this stuff and see people's reactions ("They did what?!"). If only they did the same thing when they have a good experience.

These stories ranged from a hotel room paid for a month in advance with a bug infestation and the fight to get their money back, to a dentist that started drilling without anesthesia or permission, to auto sales, to insurance claims, to omnipresent and dastardly telecom companies, to a doctor that assumed everybody that he saw was filing a fraudulent workman's compensation claim and refusing to actually do his job and diagnose their pain, to a landlord taking a complaint about an authorized cat to the level of screaming that their tenant was a bad mother and a worthless human being. Man! Everybody has one of these stories to tell.

We've all had these ugly experiences. Getting shuffled from department to department and having to explain the same thing over and over to an army of people, none of whom are equipped to help you with your problem. Skepticism or outright disbelief that you, the customer, are actually telling them the truth!

The Bad

In these student stories, we identified a number of common themes that make for a bad experience:

1. Rude, abrasive, aggressive, or insulting: This one was common. Resorting to insults and attacks will never turn the conversation in a positive direction. In fact, it will almost inevitably escalate the hostility in the conflict. If a client does this to you, it still isn't right to return the favor.
2. Assumptions: We all know the old saying here about assume and "u and me". There is a distinction between using experience to make an educated guess in anticipating the needs of another and making an assumption that you already know what they're thinking or want.
3. "Own Agendas": One of the biggest problems I see with unsuccessful MTs/sessions is that the therapist thought they knew better than the client about what was right. That way the needs were ignored. You use your knowledge to inform your work, but we don't dictate to the client what is right for them (and it is unethical to do anything that benefits you at their expense!)
4. Conflicts of Interest: Who are they really working for? You or their shareholders? This goes hand in hand with having your own agenda. Client-centered practices require that you do what is best for your client. It should for all business!
5. Bait & Switch: Of course this is illegal as well as unethical. Misleading clients into getting something other than what they expected won't win any hearts.
6. Lack of Concern: They just don't care about you and your life, only about your customer number, payment history, profitability. Massage is a people business, so caring is our business. Don't make this mistake.
7. Incompetence: There's no excuse for not knowing what you're doing or what you're selling. One student had an experience where the sales clerk didn't even know the most basic things that they sold in their store, before copping an attitude about it!
8. NOT LISTENING: Big one, this, and common. It goes along with agendas, rudeness, and others. When customers get angry, it's most often because they aren't being heard (of course this is set off by something). You can't solve the problem if you don't listen to what it is.

The Good

Whew! A lot went wrong, didn't it? On the other hand, the class identified a number of themes as being essential to the relationship either to begin with... or to repair it when things have gone wrong.

1. Boundaries: Know what you are willing to give and take and stick to it. Communicate it clearly and firmly and keep things "in bounds". Limit discussions to the matter at hand. That landlord was way out of line for calling her a bad mother simply because she had a cat!
2. Respect: We've all heard of the Golden Rule - treat other the way you would want to be treated - but the platinum rule takes it to the next level - treat others the way that they would want to be treated. Not everybody wants to be treated like you would. This automatically rules out aggression, insults, and dismissal.
3. Follow Through: If you say you're going to do something, do it. No excuses. You should always operate this way, but when you are trying to mend a relationship, it is an absolute must. Don't make promises you can't keep.
4. Accomodation: Know what you are willing to part with or what you are willing to do to placate this customer. Figure this out ahead of time so that you don't make a mistake in the moment. It may include bending the rules a little - like coming in on your day off or staying late for them, or comping a service or gift certificate. Remember - a customer who had a problem that was resolved to their satisfaction is more loyal than a customer who never had a problem at all.
5. Communication: Honestly, most conflicts are the result of mis-communication. Don't make it worse by continuing the mistake. Make sure that you take extra efforts to ensure that both parties are clear on the message. Listen. Listen. Listen. Often, when people are angry, it is mostly out of frustration that they are not being heard. Allow them to speak. Make sure you pay close attention not just to the words, but to the meaning behind them.
   
6. Informed Consent: They want to know what their in for and it is your job to let them know. Build realistic expectations with your clients and make sure you give them all of the information they need in order to make an educated decision about what is right for them.
7. Professionalism: Conduct yourself appropriately and diplomatically. Make sure you maintain your client-centered attitude throughout. Professionalism is a skill and a habit. Make sure you think about these kinds of situations ahead of time and figure out how you would like to handle them to create and ideal resolution.
8. Deliver: Make sure they get what they pay for. Don't overstep your bounds (and scope of practice), but make sure you live up to your billing. Make sure you bring your A-game to the table every time, for every client, without fail.

Once again, an excellent discussion. Mind you, I helped to frame some of these terms, but my students came up with all of this on their own, simply by relating their own stories. Kudos!

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Effects and Benefits of Massage Therapy

This is the first in my Critical Thinking Series of questions from class discussions.

Question:

How does understanding the effects and benefits of massage or massage techniques make you a better massage therapist and/or more successful?

As we discussed this topic as a class, several themes emerged:

1. Effectiveness & Outcomes
2. Contraindications
3. Professionalism
4. Marketing
5. Communication & Education

Effectiveness & Outcomes

The very first student comment to this question was in selecting treatment. We examined the adage "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail" and how it applied to this idea. In understanding how a massage technique will affect the body, we also can determine whether or not it is appropriate or effective for a given problem. Selecting more effective techniques leads to better outcomes.

Contraindications

Naturally, the prior discussion led right into the discussion of what to do when massage is not appropriate. Understanding the effects is a large part of the "do no harm" mantra. It can prevent possible harm, but sometimes it can serve another positive function in practice - positive regard for the client. This overlaps into the next theme, but it demonstrates a positive regard for the client's well-being to help them find the help they need, even if it isn't with you.

Professionalism

As part of this discussion, I asked the students how many of them had had a client who had asked them about a particular massage style or technique and what it did. Of course they all had. The follow up was "what did you say?". It was quickly determined that many hadn't felt they had provided the best answer, or that they had to think about how to condense an entire class down into a simple, understandable statement. The consensus was that you look like an idiot when you are unable to give an answer to those questions. Who should know better what a technique does, you or your client? Understanding these effects makes you appear more professional in the eyes of the client - more competent, more knowledgeable, more credible.

Marketing

Why should they buy what you're selling if you can't even give them a reason? Understanding effects is the foundation of what you need to communicate to your clients. But it doesn't stop there. A discussion of effects seldom means a whole lot to the client. Enter benefits.

Effects vs. Benefits

Effects are what happens in the body - mechanical, physiological, reflex... increased circulation, parasympathetic stimulation, enhanced lymphatic flow, and many, many more. Benefits are what the client experiences because of those effects - they sleep better, experience reduced pain, improved body image... Clients for the most part don't care about the effects (in marketing we call them features) because it doesn't really mean much to them. Benefits, on the other hand, are the things they care about - that register on their consciousness.

Back to Marketing

When a student learns the effects of massage techniques, the next step is to be able to translate those effects into why it is a good thing for the client, aka the benefit. Often this is a very different way to frame it and it is also highly dependent on the audience. It doesn't do a whole lot of good to discuss with an athlete how massage will help them sleep better when they are really concerned with performance improvement. Likewise an insomniac won't care about increased rang of motion and power out of their throwing shoulder. A thorough understanding of effects and benefits allows you to speak in your client's language about their problems. Not grasping this is like trying to speak a foreign language with only half the alphabet.

Communication & Education

Effective marketing is honest education - education about why your service is valuable to your client. Communicating and educating about effects/benefits effectively increases the value that you offer to your clients. You can't teach someone why what you do is important if you don't already know it yourself! To be honest, this category encompasses all of the ones we've talked about so far because education and communication are such an integral part of what we do.

Anything we missed? Please add it to the comments below. Happy massaging!

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Other Massage Bloggers

There are some amazing blogs out there discussing different topics on massage therapy. I thought I'd put some links down here to some of my favorites (in no particular order). I tried to place links to some of the interesting articles, but this is by no means exhaustive for everything available. Enjoy!

Fingertips:

1. Tendinosis
2. How Inflammation Causes Fatigue
3. Shin Splints
4. Therapeutic Communication
5. Silence as Communication
6. Buying a Massage Table
7. 100 Best Foods
8. Client Comfort
9. Knees
10. Manipulative Behavior
11. MBLEx
12. Anatomy Clothes
13. What's the Point?
14. Valuable Customers
15. Creating a Professional Appearance

Massage, Mind, and Body:

1. Which Massage for Which Aches?
2. Say No to Splenda
3. Cancer Fighting Tips
4. Old injury, New Pain

The Bodyworker:

1. Recession Proof Your Massage Business

Massage Therapy Benefits Blog:

1. Start a Massage Business
2. Index of Benefits, Techniques

Massage Success Tips:

1. Attending Massage Conferences

Massage Geek Blog:

1. What CEUs to Take?

The AromaConnection Blog

Massage Marketing Rebellion

Creating a Prosperous Practice

The Enlightened Body Blog

Massage Therapy Online

Free Massage Video Blog

Massage Nerd Blog

Please feel free to comment and add your own blogs or favorites to this list. Thanks!

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Teaching Massage

Since I'm on a roll discussing the process of teaching, I wanted to talk about how excited I am about ABMP's new "Teaching Massage" book and class. I've taught martial arts and I've taught massage therapy for almost 5 years now, but this is the first time I've such a great resource for the art of teaching massage.

About the Book

I will say that I haven't read the entire book yet, but I have read the first few chapters and had time to browse through the rest with some depth. The book is authored by some of the major players in massage education over the years and was written collaboratively. Even just a glance through the table of contents is enough to get a massage teacher excited. It is packed with information about different learning and teaching styles, classroom management, learning theory, instructional methods, adult learners and special needs, lesson design and planning, and tips from the experts on how they teach certain subjects like pathology or ethics.

Why It Is Needed

I don't know about any of you massage teachers reading this, but when I started teaching I was thrown to the wolves. I'd never had any formal education or training in education itself. All I had was my natural talent for teaching. I'm told that I am a good teacher by people who have had the training, but that doesn't mean that I have a solid theory or system to what I do. I'm still, 5 years later, feeling my way through the process. This book (and course) is a Godsend for the massage instructors who experienced the same thing I did - which I am sure is most of us.

Unfortunately, it is often assumed that if you are good at what you do, you will also be good at teaching it to others. I have known brilliant practitioners that simply fall apart in the classroom because it requires a completely different set of skills. Instead of being the authority on where people go for the answers, as a teacher you have to set the stage for the students to discover them and be able to apply them - a very different prospect.

Because there also seems to be a fairly high turnover in the teaching of massage as well, I think it is fantastic that there is now a resource in which a massage teacher can get a foundation in instructional methodology and be better prepared to hit the ground running.

Why so expensive? It actually is sold as part of a 20CEU class, so at a little over $150 (or around $121 through amazon) it's well worth it.

I'll keep posting as I work my way through the book. Until next time...

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5 Quick Tips to Build Clientele

I posted this response to a question on the Associated Bodywork and Massage Professionals group on LinkedIn.com. I thought I'd repost it here since there are some good, quick tips for building your client base.

The Original Question:

Hello, I am a massage therapist in training. I will be completing my studies in
October 2009. Is there any advice that can be given or suggestions as to how to
start building a clientle. -Nicole Morris

My Response:

Nicole, There's a lot of great information here (referring to other posts)! You need to find your balance between different methods of building your business. I'm always for spending as little as possible to the best effect, so let's look at a few to get you started. Others have mentioned networking here. Networking is in my experience by far the most effective, but it takes time to build it up. There are however some things you can do to speed the process.

1. Be ready to talk to everybody about it. And even more importantly, you have to know what you want to say. Make sure you know your market and what it is that they are looking to get out of what you do. Then you can craft what you say to appeal to them. Get your message as clear and concise as possible, then be ready to say it whenever anybody asks what you do.
2. Recruit your network. You're a member of Linked In here, so you know the power of networking. Use the network you already have of friends and family. I have my students write a letter to them explaining what they've been doing and what they do (back to #1). By telling them in your words, they are more likely to use your language in describing your work to their friends and family - which appeals you your target market more. And then be sure to ask them directly for their help - "please help me build my practice by telling all of your friends and family about my work" - or more directly - "invite your friends and family...". That way they know what you'd like them to do.
3. Partner-up. That doesn't necessarily mean a business partner, but build a network of people to refer to you. In my work it used to be networking with concierges in hotels, who in turn referred clients to me. Think about how you can create win-win-win situations for you, your referral network, and your clients.
4. The right kinds of incentives. Don't assume that everybody wants to have a free massage or a discounted rate as a reward or incentive. Sure they can be the cheapest, but they aren't always the most effective. Ask them what they want and give it to them - then they'll give you what you want.
5. Track it. Make sure you keep tabs on where your business is coming from. Track the top 20% of referrers in your network and make sure you keep them happy and referring as they'll probably send 80% of your referrals by themselves. Hope that helps. I write on these and other topics frequently on my blog ( http://www.linkedin.com/redirect?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Emassage-continuum%2Eblogspot%2Ecom&urlhash=OjAp&_t=tracking_disc ) if you'd like to read more.

Additional Comments:

I can add to this that as she is a student, she should start building her client base now. Word of mouth takes a while to build and the sooner she starts, the better. She should begin letting her potential clients know where she is with her business development and can start working on these clients (maybe with student rates even). Many students who choose not to charge while they are in school still make quite a bit in tips. One word of caution though, make sure you build in the expectation up front that rates go to your normal professional rates after you graduate. If you don't build this in from the get-go you may run into problems later in transitioning these clients to paying (or paying more).

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Constant Vigilance!

Having just gotten off the phone with our friendly neighborhood police department, I thought Mad-Eye Moody had it right in Harry Potter when he said "Constant Vigilance!".

Unfortunately, we live in a world where you have to watch over what is yours and keep it safe and sound. In my case today, somebody got hold of my debit card number and wired themself some money from my account. Luckily I caught it before the charges actually hit my account, but still I spent the last hour on the phone with my bank and the business charging me and with the police department. I certainly can think of better things to do with my time. It is very frustrating to have to spend a lot of time and effort dealing with something that shouldn't have happened in the first place.

It got me thinking about the importance of keeping your eye on things. Complancency can get you into trouble. Many of us have the tendency to assume that things will continue along just as well as always - even if we don't pay attention to them. Generally however, it is the things we don't pay attention to that go awry.

Business Sense

Really it is like driving a car. You wouldn't go out and drive a car by leaving your hands off the wheel and then just before you crash trying to get back on track. It is much more effective to make little corrections, to monitor your travel constantly and avoid trouble before you come to it. That's how we need to run our businesses (and lives?) as well - not taking things for granted, giving everything the proper attention, and dealing with problems before they arrive instead of damage control.

The majority of the students that enter my massage program want to have a private practice or even their own massage business that employs other MTs. Although owning a business does take a certain temperament and willingness to take risks there really isn't anything all that special about it. The most important thing to being successful in running a small business is managing the details - lots of details. Of course managing them the right way is the other half of the equation.

Top dogs don't stay top dogs by accident. Success is a process that doesn't end - it must be maintained.

Confidentiality

My current problems with my bank account really come down to the fact that somebody didn't manage my private information properly. I've purchased things online from unkown vendors without much of a thought about whether they would protect my information/ Part my fault for trusting them, but definitely their fault for negligence.

We can run into the same problems with our massage businesses. We keep private health information, contact information, collect checks and credit cards. As business owners, it is our job to safeguard that information. HIPAA laws detail the protection and obligation to protect health information, but we don't have the same kinds of standards for the other sensitive information that we handle in our work.

Controlling Access

Make sure that only those who need to see the information can access it. That means securing it so that the opportunity isn't even there for unauthorized access. Password protect. Locked and secured storage. Provide physical barriers to the access.

If you work with others and especially if you employ others, you need to establish policies about protecting client information. Your employees need to know what information they need to safeguard and how. Contractors also need to receive this instruction. If you work in a group setting, make sure that you have these policies outlined with your colleagues. If you work in a business where these policies are not in place, initiate it. The last thing that you want to have happen is to get involved at the center of a fraud investigation.

Positive Habits

It is a good habit to get into to keep a close eye on your obligations. Make sure you access your accounts regularly and frequently to make sure all is well. Respond quickly if there is a problem, as these matters often take time to resolve - the sooner you get started the better. It may seem like a hassle to keep an eye on everything, but you will avoid the aggravation of having to prove your innocence of fraudulent charges and the navigation of countless automated phone menus.

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Massage and Money

Money. It's a word that has a lot of baggage tied up with it. And it's something that I have noticed that many people seem to be uncomfortable with. Especially massage therapists. I have had plenty of students and seen plenty of practicing MTs that have an unhealthy relationship to money. Why? Massage is about relationships, and this post is about a massage therapist's relationship with money.

I've heard many people misquote the Bible as saying that "money is the root of all evil". Actually it says that the "love of money is the root of all evil." A big difference and a lot more true. Money itself is just a tool. A medium of exchange. A knife isn't a good tool or bad tool, it's how you use it.

Another heavily quoted line is "do what you love and the money will come". A lot of people do what they love and money doesn't come, so what gives? This statement has the priorities right, but misses the mark. I choose to interpret it as

"do what you love (follow your passion with a systematic plan) and the money will come (if you respect it for what it is and what it means to you)"

So why do so many people have such an antagonistic relationship with money?

First off, some people hate what money represents. They have seen what some people do to others to get it and don't want to be associated with that. It could be a matter of worth or value - the the therapist doesn't feel that they are worth the money - a self esteem issue. It could be a sense of idealism or a genuine desire to help without need for compensation.

Money can seem hard to come by. It can seem like there is a chronic lack of it. Especially in these economic times. A person can get used to thinking that there is never any money for them, hating it all the while. Some people pursue money as an end to itself, a way to keep score, as if just having money affords the status or life that they want.

The problem with the pursuit of money is that money is a very poor motivator for happiness. People (and studies prove this) don't gain a whole lot of satisfaction or improved quality of life from having more money. Ironically, the reverse is true though, that not enough money is a huge de-motivator and a source of distress and unhappiness. Money can't buy happiness, but not having any leads to sadness.

Putting Health and Money at Odds

Our society often seems to pit health and money against each other. When we hear studies of the impact of some diseases on the poor and the exclusion of 40% of americans from our health care system because they can't afford it, there is an association with money. In fact, the increasing inclusion of massage in health care may make massage more exclusive instead of more accessible.

Many massage therapists have an idealist streak that creates guilt about charging money for what they do. Massage is like a divine gift, something that is present in all of us and can sometimes feel like charging for bottled water when people can get perfectly good water out of their tap.

Unfortunately, this can lead some MTs with a burden of guilt about money and their business. It sets the stage for a struggle with their career. After struggling in their private practice, they may get a job at a massage business and harbor resentment towards the business for collecting the money the therapist feels guilty about charging! Sometimes the MT grows disillusioned, thinking that the bodywork itself was tainted when it was their attitudes and beliefs about money that were the problem. They end up moving into a profession they don't really care about but is more "reconcilable" with their ideas about money.

Cultivating a Healthy Attitude About Money

If you already have a healthy attitude about money, you can skip this next part. This is for any MT who feels at all guilty about collecting money for their services.

Money isn't evil. I'll say it again. Money isn't evil. You say it. Really. That wasn't so bad, was it? The first step to cultivating a healthy attitude about money is to acknowledge that, at the risk of being redundant, money isn't in fact evil. It's your attitude that is.

You have to realize that you need to make a living. If you can't make a living doing massage, you'll need to make a living doing something else to pay the bills - which means that you won't have nearly as much time to give the gift of massage. Massage-wise, everybody loses that way. You aren't doing what you love and your clients won't get to receive the benefits of your work. I suppose your new employer would benefit from your awesome-ness, but that's not quite the point.

A healthy business supports both you and itself. And when I say supports, I don't mean just squeaking by. It should support your lifestyle and help you to achieve your dreams.

Example. I knew a massage therapist a while back who had been working longer than I had. She'd been out of school for maybe four years and still had plenty of clients that were paying her student rate - half her regular rate. I found this out after asked some questions following her wondering why she was having trouble making her car payment. When I asked why a significant number of her clients were still paying such a reduced rate, she told me that she was afraid of losing them if she charged them more. Several weeks after we spoke, she did decide to raise her rates. Not all the way, but much closer to her going rate. She did lose a few clients, but most stayed with her, and a few even told gher straight out that they had wondered why she hadn't raised her rates a long time ago. She ended up making more from the remaining clients than she did with her full load at the prior rate. The clients that left only came to her because she had the cheapest rate around, not out of any loyalty.

There Is Plenty Of Money To Go Around

You may not believe it, but there is. For example, here in the Bay Area we have around 7 million people and a median household income of a little over $70,000 per year. If we estimate an average household as 4 people then we're looking at somewhere around $120 billion every year flowing through this area. That's a plentyhuge pie to capture a very small slice of.

The other thing is that that money is going to be spent anyway. Either they go to buy a car, or they go to the mall, they order an iPod online, or they invest it somewhere - but money is changing hands all the time. All you want to do is have some of it pass through your hands first. There's no need to feel guilty about that. Shed the attitude that just because you make money, somebody else loses it. It's just not true. All you need to do is figure out how to tap into that flow.

Tapping the Flow

Think synergy (boy am I full of cliches in this post!). It's not really a competition. When you do well, your clients do better, you do your part to keep the economy chugging along, et cetera. Synergy is when the sum is greater than the parts. In this case, your massage + your clients' money = better lives for everybody. Really, your work helps to make your clients' lives better, and isn't that what they are out there earning money to do? Gee, I hope your guilt meter is starting to read zero by now!

Think Win-Win-Win

Thinking synergy involves thinking win-win-win. You win, your employer or business partners win, and you client wins. Everybody likes to play when they can't lose. Think of money as the tool that it is - a device to help everybody win.

Another way to look at money to develop a positive attitude about it is to look at it literally - as a means to an end. Money by itself doesn't do much for you. It's what it allows you to do that makes it important. Think about the things that enough money will allow you to do - expand your business, take that vacation you've been longing for, take scuba lessons, whatever. Look at money as a stepping stone to your goals (see my last post for more on defining success).

Parting Thoughts

Think about money differently. It is not a dragon to be slain, a mountain to be conquered. It is a tool of the trade. A necessary tool that will allow you to continue helping people while also experiencing what life has to offer. Now get out there and tap into the flow.

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Defining Success

Me: “So what are your goals as a massage therapist?”
Student: “I want to be a success…”

Every time I teach my business classes the subject of success comes up. So what is it? Students want to be successful… who doesn’t? The problem is that people seldom know what they mean by “success”. It’s made more difficult by the fact that it means something different to everybody. Let’s take a look at this thing called success.

Dictionary.com defines success as:

1. the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors
2. the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like
3. a successful performance or achievement
4. the achievement of something desired, planned, or attempted

What is Success?

The first three definitions above sound good, but when you get right down to it, do they really mean anything? How do I know if I am successful? I could argue either way about my success to this point and I would be right – if those are the criteria. The fourth definition is a little bit better – it introduces a concept of planning and a desired outcome. It turns out that that is the key to finding success – knowing what you want in the first place.

Intention & Priorities

You have to start by asking yourself what you want to accomplish. Simply saying that you want a successful business isn’t enough. What do you want to get out of it? And who do you want it for? You could say “I want to help people”. OK, a little better. Wait, you want a business that earns money too? Now you’ve got more than one person involved! How much money? “I want to be rich” is often the facetious reply to that question (and I’ll tell you now that there are much easier professions to grow rich in). My reply is usually, “How rich is rich?” In essence, you need to make it definable.

I like to use visualization in this process. How do you picture success? I want you to get that image in your head and then start to think of all of the elements that make your vision so appealing to you.

What gets me is that many people don’t really think about what they want to get out of their “success”. Money is one way to define it, but certainly not the only one. Do you want freedom – financially and with time? Esteem, reputation, honors & accolades, respect, credibility, recognition, gratitude, satisfaction, or any of the other things that can be derived from your work? These can all be measures of success.

There, I said it. Measure. It is one of the key points in attaining success. In order to do this right, you should list out all of the things that you want you or your business to accomplish. Then you should prioritize them in order of importance. Finally, you have to find a way to measure it.

For example, you could define success as:

1. Having work that allows you to earn a full-time income on 30 hours a week
2. Operating a business that earns enough to support you and itself (be sure not to short-change yourself and set this number as the bare minimum to pay the bills – it has to support your lifestyle)
3. Being able to take a 2-week vacation to another country once a year.
4. Owning a home (again, be specific about the type of home and where…)

…or a combination of things. Setting SMART goals is an effective method that helps you to define and attain success for yourself. More on that later. The most important thing for defining success though is being specific.

Stay on Target

Knowing what you want helps you to stay on track and not go astray. I have witnessed massage therapists let their career get away from them – either drawing in clients that weren’t their intended market or growing so dissatisfied with their jobs that they leave the profession. I would say that this is most often an alignment problem – that their internal (and undefined) idea of success and what they were actually doing were worlds apart. Defining your idea of success gives you a gold standard to compare everything to – a set of criteria. If what you’re doing doesn’t fit in with your vision of success, if it doesn’t move you closer to those measurements of success, then it’s not for you.

The best part of setting measurements of success is that you know when you get there. Do you ever wonder why kids always ask “Are we there yet?”? It’s because they don’t have a measure of how far you’ve gone or have to go. As we get older, we do have those tools. We see a sign that says 20 miles and we can instantly figure out that we’ll be there in 20 minutes – counting down the time all the way. It makes the long trips easier (and your career).

Having a specific measure of what success is to you provides motivation as well. You’re on the way. Your path. To a place that you know you want to be. And when things get tough, it’s the light at the end of the tunnel.

What to Measure

That being said, think carefully about what you measure. Make sure it really is what you’re looking for. I get asked all the time by my graduates “They pay this much at this spa. Is that good”. I don’t know, is it? The real question is, does it get you where you want to go? I’ve seen many people, in many different kinds of jobs, lose focus of what they really wanted and leave a better, lower paying job for a higher paying, higher stress job that they hate and tears their family apart. Or they do it for benefits. Or sometimes worse, they settle. Don’t do it just for the money.

If I measured my success based on money, then in my eyes I’m a failure. I won’t tell you what my definition of success money-wise is, but I can tell you that I’m not making it on a teacher’s salary. I did not say that I’m not a success though. I’m esteemed in the eyes of my colleagues (OK, so that is hard to measure). I just finished a degree. And here’s my favorite one. I’ve personally graduated and changed the lives of 120 students who by the averages are out there having made a combined $8 million! If only I got royalties!

That is a serious measure of success in my book.

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Leadership & Massage 3 - Characteristics

Part 1   Part 2

In the last post, we looked at the power that leaders possess. Here, I’ll take a look at what makes a leader a leader. While there are many descriptions and lists of leadership characteristics, there are a few that seem to be universal.

A Compelling Vision

So where are you leading your followers? A leader has a vision of the future. Something that isn’t here yet, and will take work and time to get there, but is possible. An effective leader has a very clear vision, one that is almost tangible. A vision that offers hope of a better future, a place that others want to be. Nobody wants to follow a vision that takes them to a worse place – although they may be willing to suffer hardship to get to a better place.

Having this vision is central to leadership and directly impacts other essential leadership components such as passion and inspiration. It isn’t enough to just have a loose idea of the future, the vision must be clearly defined and articulated. Write it down as best you can. Try to formulate a simple statement that encompasses your vision. It isn’t a good vision or goal until it’s outside of your head. Which leads us to our next vital component of effective leadership…

O Come All Ye Faithful

Sorry, I couldn’t resist the holiday cheer! But it is a very appropriate statement in this case because we’re talking about communication. Not just communication, but creating the faith in others that they want to follow you. This is why it is so important to clearly define and articulate your vision – you have to share it with others. You should be able to describe it easily to other people. And frequently. As a leader, nobody should have to wonder what it is you’re all about. Why? Because you will tell them straight up consistently and often.

You need to tell people where you are going and if your vision is compelling enough they will join you.

Passion, Enthusiasm, and Optimism

These three go hand in hand and all spring from your vision. When the vision is compelling, it is a source of motivation. Most people, even the extremely unmotivated have little trouble getting started when they are working on something inspiring. It becomes a positive circle in which the vision feeds the action, passion, and motivation and they feed back into the vision. It is hard to get motivated and passionate about a ho-hum vision.

Hope springs eternal and it also is the fuel for the journey. A positive outlook is attractive and draws others into following you. People like to be around positive, energetic people. You need to believe that your vision is possible – if you don’t you need to choose something you can believe in. Think Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh, he was always depressing to be around – not exactly an inspiring figure.

A Plan

Finally, a leader must have a plan. You must know how to get there, or at least a pretty good idea. Your followers want to see progress, action, something being done to reach the goal. The vision can be a prize that can get a person through a rough patch along the way, but if no progress can be seen, if the leader seems to be uncertain, then the followers will begin to lose interest. Have a plan. Create milestones. Chart the progress. Take the time to step back and reflect on how far you’ve come from time to time. Leaders hate to be stagnant and are always changing and reworking things to better fit their vision.

Control

Leaders will not hesitate to enforce boundaries or redirect the course of events to stay on track. The first sign that things aren’t quite going right is the feeling that things aren’t quite going right. Evaluate it against the vision and if it doesn’t fit, redirect. Non-followers can damage your following through negativity. Leaders employ a “healthy surveillance” to monitor the goings-on within their sphere of influence and act accordingly.

Leadership in Context

Just to bring things into perspective a little, let’s take a look at the recent presidential election. In my opinion, Barrack Obama won because he demonstrated stronger leadership qualities than his opponent. Obama campaigned on a vision of hope, restoring American status in the world, a new energy future, and better health care. He was able to convey the hope well and I think that this was the primary reason that he one so convincingly.

In order to keep us engaged however, he’ll have to fill in some blanks and operate on more than just hope. We’ll need to see a plan and the milestones along the way. He’ll need to repeat the vision often and clearly.

Other characteristics that I’ve seen described as essential to leadership are:

1. Sacrifice – This one goes with passion. If you’re fired up about your vision, you’ll go to great lengths to see it through and be willing to put up the time, money, and effort to achieve it.
2. Moral Character – People hold their leaders to a different standard. We expect them to be better than us. Make sure you demonstrate the qualities that your followers expect. A part of this is to “practice what you preach”. Related to this are credibility and honesty
3. Self-Confidence – When you have a clear idea where you’re going, there is a degree of certainty about your actions that creates confidence in yourself and your followers.
4. Emotional Intelligence – AKA empathy, it’s the ability to recognize emotions in yourself and others. Great leaders are able to feed off of, address, and even develop desired emotions in their followers.
5. Desire – You have to want it.
6. Comfort Zone – Ironically, although leaders push their followers outside of their comfort zones in the pursuit of a better future, the leaders themselves create a new comfort zone within the vision. They provide a structure or framework from which to operate. The leaders don’t have this safety net however, and must draw on their own drive and passion to persist.
7. Win-Win Thinking – Leaders get the advantages of power, but they have to bear in mind that following is voluntary and that the power is received at the whim of the followers. In other words, the followers must see the advantage of following. For that to happen, the leader must operate from a position of mutual reward.

Leading & Massage Therapy

Your clients come to you to be led. That’s a part of the therapeutic relationship. It’s up to you to exercise that power in the most effective manner for your client. Pay respect to client-therapist boundaries; to the effects your actions, words, and attitudes can have in either a positive or negative way. Understanding leadership is an important part of leadership.

Where are you leading your clients? Are you on the same page? Are the benefits balanced? Do you have clarity about your vision? Do your followers? How can you use your power for the most benefit? These are all questions you should ask yourself in your massage practice so that you can truly own your role as a therapist… and a leader.

So where are you leading your clients?

Compiled from various sources (Human Relations, Dubrin), (Supervision Today!, Robbins & DeCenzo), (Leadership, Chapman & O’Neil)

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Leadership & Massage 2 - Power

<<< Part 1                                                                       Part 3 >>>

I know that you didn’t get into the field of massage therapy because you wanted power over people, so don’t get your bonnet in a twist. You do have power, however. A leader’s power is derived from the followers. In other words, they give it to you! There are three different kinds of power:

Role Power

As I mentioned in the last post, power is inherent in the therapeutic relationship. The client has lost power over their condition somehow and is turning to you for help. This kind of power is called Role Power – or the power of your position. You are the therapist and they the client. They have given you power over their healing. As we facilitate the healing, we gradually give their power back, but there will always be a degree of role power in play.

Other examples of roles that are given power (to a greater or lesser degree) are parents, your boss, teachers, police officers, or the president of the United States. Sometimes these roles have authoritative power attached to them – such as the police officer’s ability to have you do something against your will.

Role Power is effective when you need to “lay down the law” such as with enforcing boundaries when someone in your charge has stepped out of bounds. However it becomes less effective the more you use it. It is best to rely on role power only when necessary.

Personality Power

Charisma. Likability. The power of persuasion. This power comes not out of respect for the role you occupy, but because of respect for who you are. Are you courteous, respectful, trustworthy, optimistic, communicative, amiable, welcoming, helpful, and/or a whole bunch of other good things? Have you ever convinced (I won’t say manipulated) a friend or family member to do something they didn’t really want to do but you could get away with it because of your relationship? Personality power in action!

Knowledge Power

People like to be led by others that have the answers. It is a cliché that knowledge is power, but clichés only become clichés when they are true. The more knowledgeable you are about something, the more power others will give you with regards to it. Never stop learning! The more knowledge power you have, the more credibility you will have when you give you clients helpful information.

Use of Power

Obviously we need to wield our power effectively and appropriately. Our job is to gradually give our clients back much of their power. We use our power in our clients’ best interests. That is part of the essence of being a leader – the proper use of the power that has been given them. The most effective leaders apply these different types of power at different times and in different situations, something called situational leadership. There are times where you need to put our foot down and use your role power to redirect the ship. At other times, you convince. Others you educate. Wise leaders learn when to do which.

Next, we look at the characteristics of leadership…

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Leadership & Massage 1 - Intro

Massage Therapy and leadership? What do those have in common? You might say, “I got into this profession to help people, I don’t want to lead them!” But you do.

Why Leadership?

Leading your clients is an unavoidable circumstance in massage or any other healing profession. It is inherent in the therapeutic relationship. They look to you for guidance. In the therapeutic relationship, one person is always in need. They seek out the therapist to address that need. Your clients will have varying needs, some common themes, but they all are coming to you for help. They look to you for guidance, expertise, assistance, and yes, they want you to lead them to their goal. Sometimes a client won’t even know what they want from you, so again it takes leadership to help them to discover it!

Leaders and healers are both involved in empowering their followers.

You steer the ship. You chart the course. You choose the destination. When you allow your clients to participate in the planning, you are still the one that decides upon how to get there. In some ways it can help to envision your massage practice as a kingdom with you at its heart. Your clients are the people who live in your kingdom (just don’t get too carried away with this image!). People choose to live in your kingdom or not, they must have a reason to stay there. You control that for them. No matter whether it is your private practice or some regular clients at your work, your practice (your little universe) is centered around you (take that Galileo!). If you cease to lead, your universe (or massage practice) ceases to be.

So what makes a leader anyway?

Are they born or made? Most sources will say that although some characteristics of leadership come naturally to some people, most leaders are developed. The good news about that is that it means it is something you can learn to do. If you truly want to be successful in your massage business/career, you need to learn to develop these skills.

Even better news for us all is that there is no standard definition of what it means to be a leader. How is that good, you might ask? Because it means that there is flexibility both in how you choose to emphasize your leadership, and on the leadership characteristics that you choose to develop!

Defining Leadership

In my studies, I have come across numerous definitions of leadership. Here are a few to wet your appetite (not my definitions, although I modified a few slightly):

1. “Leaders have the ability to influence others towards challenging goals.”
2. “Leaders bring about constructive change”
3. “Leaders get people to think, believe, see, and do what they might not have otherwise without your presence”
4. “A person with a compelling vision that he/she can communicate to and inspire others with.”
5. “A leader is a conductor, director, or guide”
6. “One who has influence or power”

In a later segment we’ll take a look at specific leadership characteristics, but first, let’s see where leaders get their power in part 2...

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Stacking Services with Massage Therapy

Would you like to be able to earn more money for your work?

The real question is who wouldn’t? There are several ways you can earn more money by increasing the value of your work – making it more convenient, offering better results with advanced techniques, et cetera. Today I’ll talk about stacking you services.

What does “Stacking Services” Mean?

Stacking services means performing more services that you can charge money for within the same amount of time. An example from my spa days was to have a base rate for a one-hour massage and then charge more for add-ons. For instance, you could charge an extra $10 for deep tissue or aromatherapy, or $15 for both together. The key here is that you are increasing revenue without increasing time.

Stacking services is a way to become more efficient with your time. Let’s step into the shoes of a spa manager for a moment. You’d know that you have a certain number of treatment rooms and that you are open for a certain number of hours per day and per week. That means that there is a certain dollar-value in revenue for each room. What stacking services does is to increase the revenue that each room would make every hour.

Doing More with the Same

The same thing applies to large spas or private, individual practices – you have a certain amount of work that can be performed and it is limited. For an individual therapist, that limit would be the number of massages one could do in a week. For a simple example, if a MT can do 20 massages a week and makes $50 per massage then they are limited to a maximum of $1000 per week. In a perfect world, this MT would earn that much, but in the real world we know that they would seldom be fully booked and would be lucky to make 75% of that.

Now if this same MT stacked some services and raised the average profit per massage to $60, then the weekly income would go up by 20% without working any extra hours. Nice improvement!

For a real-world example, at my old spa, we charged an even $100 for our base one-hour service, a one hour Solace Massage (more on branding later), but our average billed service ran $128 for an hour. All due to stacking. Needless to say, this improved our profitability by 28% without any more hours.

What Can I Stack?

The key to stacking is to do more things in the same time frame. It is fairly common for massage establishments to charge more for specialized massage treatments that require additional training – clinical deep tissue, pregnancy massage, manual lymph drainage, hot stone therapy, and so on. This reflects the fact that fewer people know how to do it. Do you have skills that you could charge a premium for? If you are looking to acquire some skills, find a good balance between what you want to do and what your clients are looking for. If you don’t know what your clients really value about your work – find out! Here are some examples of things you can stack easily:

1. Hot Stone Massage
2. Aromatherapy
3. Deep Tissue work
4. Sports Massage
5. Reflexology
6. Body Treatments – Exfoliations & Body Wraps
7. Eye Zone treatments
8. Signature treatments (i.e. your specialty scalp massage)
9. Postural Evalutations

This is by no means an exhaustive list. Do some brainstorming and think about what you can do to add value for your clients. Will they all jump to take advantage of your add-ons? No, but if you really take into account what they want and look to you to deliver, these add-on services can tailor their treatment to even more perfectly fit their needs.

Adding Time

Another relatively easy way to increase the efficiency of your time is to increase the length of your service. I found that when I was doing outcall massage to the hotels in San Francisco that maybe half of the time if the client had booked a one-hour massage and I asked if they would like to go for a 90-minute session they would say yes.

Now this is different than stacking because it actually does take more time, but especially for outcall massage it is more efficient because it maximizes your travel time.

You see, it would take about 30 minutes to get to and from each appointment for me. That meant every appointment actually took me 2 hours for a one-hour massage. However, with the upsell to 90-minutes, I got paid for 90-minutes of 2.5 hours instead of one-hour out of two. That’s 10% better. You’re already there, so why not make more while you’re at it?

The only problem with this one is when you’re already working close to your limits. Adding time isn’t the best option in that case.

Wrapping It Up

Make sure that when you think of these things that you are looking at it from your clients’ perspective. What do they value about your work and how can these add-ons make it better? If an add-on isn’t a win-win for both you and your clients, don’t do it. They’ll resent it and feel you are trying to gouge them if it only works for you. And you’ll resent having to do it if it only works for the client. If you own a massage business, it has to be win-win-win: for you, the client, and for the massage therapist doing the labor.

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Repeat Clients Are Golden

Have you ever noticed how cell phone companies always seem to offer the best deals to new customers? To customers that switch from other carriers? How you, as a loyal customer only get ho-hum deals on upgrading a phone or changing your plan?

Another one I love is when you’ve been a customer of a company for a while, you call to cancel and they transfer you to “customer retention” where they offer you a deal at half the rate you’ve been paying. Why didn’t you offer me a better rate before?

How does this make you feel as a customer?

In many business and marketing classes, you are taught how to find new customers – a necessary and worthy endeavor. The trick is to balance the quest for new blood in your practice with honoring those who have been with you all the while.

The Cost of a New Client

What many people don’t realize is that gaining new customers costs money. If not money, it costs time; but as the old saying goes, time is money. So just how much money does gaining a client cost you?

Well first you have to determine how much money you are spending on your marketing efforts. Tally up what you spend on business cards, mailers, maintaining your website, open houses, charity functions, etc… so you have a dollar amount. The next part is a little harder – figuring out the intangible costs.

To figure out the intangibles, ask yourself, “Are any of my promotional efforts costing me money in time or potential lost business”? If your time is plentiful, this may not really be a cost. But if it isn’t, you might be “spending” money that way. Also factor in things like transportation, refreshments and any other costs direct or indirect.

Let’s take an example (numbers entirely fabricated) by evaluating all you spend on marketing broken up by category. Then, you have to keep track of how many clients you get from each source. And finally you divide to see how much each new client costs you…

Biz Cards	$25	5 clients	$5 each
Paper Ad	$150	3 clients	$50 each
Online	$50	2 clients	$25 each
Health Fair	$400	8 clients	$50 each
Mailer	$100	5 clients	$20 each
Totals	$725	23 new clients	$31.52 average

What this does is allow you to see how effective each effort is. In this example, our imaginary MT spent $31.52 to gain each new client. New clients are expensive! But wait, there’s more! If you give an introductory discount, it can be even more.

Say your normal rate is $70 per hour. If you give a $20 new client discount on top of that then those clients from the newspaper ad and the health fair were given a free massage. You’d better make sure they come back! The business cards were more efficient, but during this time frame their appointment was still given for:

$70-31.52-20 = $13.48

New clients are vital to any business, growing or established, but don’t lose sight of the big picture and focus all of your efforts here. Not many of us can afford to do all of our work for $13 an hour. It can be an eye opening experience to find out exactly how much we can spend to get those clients in the door. The added bonus to this strategy is that it can really help us focus on our most successful and efficient marketing efforts.

Repeat Clients Are Golden

Now that we’ve seen the sticker shock of how much new clients can cost, how much do returning clients cost?

Nada.

Quite often a client will come back with a simple “would you like to book your next session now?”? Don’t miss this opportunity to ask the client to come back. Show your appreciation for their business and to let them know how much you genuinely value them. Gratitude can go a long way.

Going back to the cell phone company example from the start of this post, why don’t you go a step further and offer a VIP program, a “frequent flier” type program, or a discount for booking a massage at least once a month?

If you look back to working with new clients, you have to look at your conversion rate – how many of those new clients come back for another massage? And another? Personally, unless there is a major clash of personalities, I consider it a problem with my service if a client wouldn’t come back for another session. I use that as an opportunity to evaluate if I could do something better. Of course there could be any number of reasons why a client doesn’t return, so find out what those reasons are! You can’t do anything about it if you don’t know!

Invite those clients back, entice them for more, and as they say in show business, always leave them wanting more (but not wanting what they came for in the first place).

The 80/20 Principle tells us that 20% of your clients will provide 80% of your bookings and income. Make sure you know who they are and you treat those 20% the way they deserve. (More on the 80/20 Principle to come)

I had a client once that turned to me as he handed me the check with a bemused grin on his face and said “wow, with all this money I’ve spent on massage I could have bought a car!”. He followed that statement up by saying that he had enough cars anyway (much to my relief) but it also made me realize that he had spent thousands of dollars with me. When I looked at the books, it turned out that this one client had provided almost 10% of my income for the year!

Follow Up

If you haven’t heard from one of your regulars in a while, make a point of calling them to see how they are doing. Although many new massage therapists blanch at the idea because they are afraid it seems pushy, it has always been a good thing for my practice. In fact, I usually get a booking out of it and I have had quite a few clients thank me for calling – genuinely grateful because I was concerned for their well-being. You’d be surprised how many of your clients think about coming to see you but life gets in the way and they don’t get around to it. Make it easy for them.

There are any number of strategies out there to maintain contact with your clients, so look them up and use them! Ask your colleagues what they do. Ask your old teachers. But above all…

Don’t neglect your repeat clients!

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Building Your Personal Network To Build Your Massage Business

This is a very simple, yet powerful technique to kickstart the best way to build your business – word of mouth. I’ve taught this method in my business classes for years, and the students who apply it meet with great success.

Building Word of Mouth

This is far and away the most effective long-term strategy for a healthy business. It involves building a reputation and confidence in your customers that if they send their friends to you that they will be well taken care of. It starts with exemplary service to your customers. Provide top-notch customer service to every client and potential client. They won’t recommend you if they did not have a good experience.

But how do you take the next step, getting them to refer their friends and family to you? With some clients, you don’t have to do anything – they will sing your praises to anyone within earshot. It’s the others that you should focus on (without forgetting these wonderful people of course!)

What Do You Want Them To Say?

One thing that I’ve seen very few people pause to think about is what people are saying about you. Remember that everybody has their own view about what massage is and what it means to them. People will talk about what massage does for them, not necessarily what it can do for their friend.

To tailor this message a little more, first you need to understand what it is that you deliver. That involves several pieces…

1. What do you do? (Frame it in terms of what the client gets out of your work) and what do you enjoy doing? What are the challenges that you like to face in your practice?
2. Who do you work with? This ties in to what challenges you like to face, but what kinds of clients do you work with? Athletes? Pregnant women?
3. What environment do you practice in? Clinical? Spa? Outcall to clients’ homes? This is tied heavily to the clients you work with. It can also include the kind of “functional” environment that you create. You can create a spa feeling within a clinic and vice versa.

The final step in this process is to create a mission statement that includes these pieces. Try to make it clear and concise – preferably something that is easy to say aloud. Why? Because you will be saying this to your clients in so many words and more importantly, this is what you want your clients to be saying to other people.

Get The Word Out

Once you have refined a mission statement, you need to get it out there. Let all of your current clients know about it and use it in your marketing and in conversation with potential clients. You don’t have to say it word for word every time, but it should be clear enough that every person hearing or reading your message will be able to describe fairly accurately what you are all about.

It is not limited to only potential clients though, and here is the magic. When you make a simple, clear statement about what you do (that really communicates your mission) then that is what sticks in the person’s mind. You’ve created an association in their mind, you’ve created a special category for you, your brand of massage therapy, who you work with, what environment you work in, and what problems you deal with. From that point on, any time one of those topics comes up, they have a much better chance of recalling you.

Recruiting Your Army

Finally we get to the simple, yet powerful, technique I mentioned at the start of this post. The Friends & Family Letter (FFL). To understand how this works, think about what you do when you need something you don’t know about. Where do you turn to first? Simple, you turn to the people you know to ask about their experiences. Then you rely on other people’s testimonials and personal familiarity (like you drive by the business every day but have never been in it). Then, and only then, do most people turn to marketing. Of course that doesn’t mean that you should neglect your marketing, but that shouldn’t be your first effort.

The FFL is designed to recruit the people you already have a relationship with to be your sales & marketing force. The good news is that because these people know you they will hear you out. They care about you and they want you to succeed. You can sound like a dork in the letter and they won’t care because they already like you!

To write it, discuss the following:

1. What you’re up to: Are you just graduating or still in school? Are you starting a private practice? Are you job-hunting? Give them an update
2. What you do: Here is where the personal mission statement kicks in. Make sure you frame it in terms of how you can benefit them (your friends & family). Make sure it is in terms of how they should talk about it to their friends and family. It is very important to be clear here, because what you say here heavily influences what they say about you – which is exactly what you want.
3. What you want them to do. ASK! Make sure you come out directly and ask them to help you. They like you already so it isn’t a great imposition. Do you want them to come in and get a massage? Do you want them to tell all of their friends and family about you? Do you want them to ask their friends and family if they have heard about any massage jobs for you? All of these? Make sure you ask them directly – don’t just hope that they understand what it is that you are looking for.
4. Thank them and let them know what they get out of it. You might have a referral program or you might offer your undying gratitude. Make sure you show your appreciation.

You can tell your friends & family that they can forward it on. Send it as a letter or as an email.

Effective?

So does this work? I had a student who sent out a FFL by email the night of this class lecture. Over the next 2 days she got over 20 new appointment bookings from people she knew, booked herself out for that weekend, and ended up getting established with a successful weekend BBQ massage business – all by referral. In fact it was so successful that she turned it into a monthly newsletter that continued to help grow her business.

These people know you, so they are likely talking about you already. But are they saying the right things? Do they know what you’d like them to say? Do they know you’d like their help? Do they know what they can do to help? This FFL helps to answer all of these questions.

Good luck! And let me know how it works for you!

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Massage Therapy in a Down Economy

Given the fact that there is an update in the news every single day about the steps the government is taking to address the current financial meltdown, I thought it was appropriate to talk about how the general economy affects massage therapy.

It’s not as simple as saying business hurts during a recession. There is a letter from a massage therapist in the current issue of Massage & Bodywork that says their practice is thriving in spite of the economy. So what gives? Why are some MTs continuing to see success ad others going bust when the economy takes a downturn?

So What Happens?

There is some good news these days. Massage isn’t seen as solely a luxury anymore. The MTs and massage businesses that cater to clientele in this category can experience some belt tightening, but this isn’t the only market segment. Many more people see massage as therapy and health care these days than in the past. Before you get out of the massage-for-luxury market though, there are still people out there spending money on these things, so it isn’t as if the jobs are going to vanish. Hiring may slow down, MTs may not see as many clients these days, but the world isn’t going to end.

The simple fact is that when times are hard economically, people cut down on their spending and some of that spending may be massage. Usually people cut out what they see as dispensable first. So whether your massage business suffers greatly depends on how your clients value our work.

Building Value

Value is a perception. It is a perception of how much something is worth. Yes, there are some universal qualities to value, but it is mostly subjective. When you go to the ballpark and get charged $4 for a soda, you may feel like it is overpriced, but it is worth more to you there at the time than leaving the park to go somewhere else to get it more cheaply. So really the value is in the convenience.

If you sell your services as relaxation, people associate a certain value with that. People will associate a different value with pain-reduction; with athletic performance; with restored function, etc… You need to know what it is that you provide to your clients. Find out what makes you indispensible.

So What Can You Do When The Economy Isn’t Working In Your Favor?

1. Diversify
2. Refine (or Learn) Your Mission
3. Target Your Market
4. Be Proactive
5. Roll With the Punches

Diversify

Branch out a little. Don’t be afraid to explore new markets, new niches, for some extra income. Be creative in some of the ways you can do massage. You aren’t necessarily tied to your office. Do some chair massage, supplement your private practice with a job at a chiropractor or some independent contracting. Find some local sports events and call up the coordinators to see if you can come down to work on the athletes. Work a charity event and split the proceeds with the charity. Use your imagination.

Another option is to take a look at your books and your schedule and figure out when your down time is. At our spa, we found that M-Th before 3:00pm was our dead time. Then figure out what you want to do with that time, you can offer a discounted rate to book during that time, we closed our doors during that time without prior appointment, or you could even use that time to hold down another job.

Refine (or Learn) Your Mission

When things become challenging, it is a good time to make sure that your message is on target. What are you trying to accomplish with your work? Of course for you, but more importantly to your clients, what does it do for them? Really home in on that benefit and make sure that is the message you’re sending. If you have never really sat down and thought about it, start. And keep reading this blog because I’ll keep building on this topic.

Target Your Market

Once you have a really good message you have to make sure it is getting to the right people. Who benefits from what you do? And don’t say everybody. A mission that is too broad has little appeal to most people. Try to hone your message so that it really appeals to precisely the people you want to come into your practice. A jack of all trades is a master of none they say, so try to become a master of your chosen niche. Since I’m speaking in clichés – you can please some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, and some people none of the time. You don’t want to try to appeal to everybody all of the time – focus on the some people you can please most of the time.

Be Proactive

When in doubt about what to do, do something. One thing is for sure, sitting around and whining about how things aren’t going well isn’t going to make them better. Massage is a business that little just falls in your lap. You may be the best MT in the world, but if nobody knows about you, you’ll have no business. The only way they’ll know is if you tell them.

Being proactive isn’t about just doing anything though, it’s about working smart. Take the time to identify the things that are in your control, that you can control, and focus on them. Try to break it down into small, actionable steps, preferably into steps that you can do in a short period of time, like an afternoon or a couple of days. That way you don’t have to wait too long until there is some kind of payoff. Set some attainable goals that allow you to taste some success and keep you moving in the right direction.

If you aren’t already, call up those clients who haven’t been in for a while and check up on them. You’ll find that a good number of them will be happy that you care about them and you’ll get some appointments out of it. Send a letter or email to all of your friends and family and ask for their help (more on this technique in another post). Nothing beats referrals.

Roll With the Punches

It can be hard on your attitude when times are tough, but you have to maintain your outlook. Don’t waste your time dwelling on the obstacles, but look for the silver lining and the paths around those obstacles. I know it sounds trite, but there really is an opportunity in every problem, so try to look for the bright spot and how this can benefit you in the long run.

Conclusion

Above all, realize that things will turn out alright. I speak from experience. When we opened our spa in the Westin in Silicon Valley, we did our very first appointment the night before the 9/11 attack and the bottom fell out of the travel to our region. We rolled with it although it certainly changed our business plan. Do what you can do, try to minimize your risks, and don’t worry about the things you can’t control.

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