Massage Practice Builder

You Know How to Massage, Now Learn How to get Clients

Julie Onofrio

The Myth of the Ideal Massage Client

By 1 Comment

ideal massage clients

I first heard about the concept of the “Ideal Massage Client”  in one of my early sessions with my supervision group in about 2001.  Creating a vision of who your ideal client is and working towards having a massage business that is filled with clients who are all ‘ideal massage clients’  is just another form of self care!  For the longest time, this made me feel so inspired and so much better when working with clients. The basic ideal client was one who appreciates massage, values their health and values massage. They show that by being on time for appointment, coming in regularly and referring their friends and family.

Someone who may not be an ideal client would be someone who is always late for their sessions and expect the full amount of time or who don’t show up at all and don’t contact you. Someone is not an ideal client if they try to direct the sessions and complain the whole time about their lives or bring uncomfortable topics into the session like politics or they start telling you how they are sleeping around on their partner who is also a client.

The marketers will tell you that Your ideal client will be very fulfilling to work with and You will do your best work when you feel fulfilled.  Working with less than your ideal client will often leave you feeling drained and tired, frustrated and possibly even resentful.  If you are feeling drained and uninspired after working with someone, it isn’t about them….It is about YOU. These are the clients that you will learn the most from. These are the clients that will make you take care of yourself better so you can be there for them.

It was a way to let massage therapists think that they could just fire people who were not their Ideal Client and that would be the end of it.

No such thing as an ideal client

In the last few years though, I have come to realize that this is just hyped up marketing talk to make you feel better for awhile. There really isn’t any formula of an ideal client. People are people. They come late and have unreasonable expectations. They do annoying things. Clients are not always easy to work with. Being a massage therapist means also being a professional and having boundaries. It is your job to deal with difficult clients in a compassionate and caring way, yet stand your ground and ask them to comply with your policies and boundaries.

The first sign that a person is doing something that is annoying or that does not comply with your policies, they need to be informed that there are rules and consequences. There are late fees and no show fees and rules for when they show up late. There is massage table etiquette directing how much people talk on the table and what they talk about.

Holding your boundaries

   In order to be able to work with difficult clients, you will need to do your personal growth work to work on yourself to be strong enough to deal with every challenging client in a professional manner.

Learning to address issues with clients the minute they begin will help get you started along this path. It may start out being difficult to do and you will struggle to find the right combination of compassion and boundaries but with practice, it will get easier every time.

Starting Simply – Share office space

By Leave a Comment

Starting a massage business on a shoestring budget is usually a good way to go when you are just starting your massage business.   You don’t really have to find your own office space and take on all of the expenses of overhead.   It is much easier to just find an office space that you can share with already established massage therapists or other health care providers.  That way you can share the expense which should be much less than renting an empty office space on your own.

Searching for your space

To start with think about what type of office space you would like to be working in.  Are you more clinically minded or more of a spa type of massage therapist?  What do you envision your space to look like and what will the people be like that you work with?  This is really important in finding a good match.  Sometimes you don’t know though right off the bat and you may need to try different situations so that you can find out what you don’t want.

Think about the area of town that you want to be in.  Do you want to work in a downtown area with a high population density or in the suburbs where the population density is less?   The biggest thing to look at would be accessibility and client safety.  Would people feel safe coming and going at night in the dark?   Consider your travel time and efforts needed to get to the office since you will be going frequently.  How far away from home do you want to be?

Once you narrow down an area of town start looking at different offices of massage therapists already there.  Next look at other alternative professionals – Naturopaths, Acupuncturists and Chiropractors.  Chiropractors are one of the most obvious places as they usually are very open to massage.  Many often hire massage therapists to work there as an employee or subcontractor.   They might be open to just letting you rent space from them if you can show them how it would help their business.

Interview the Person you are thinking of renting from


It is also important to really interview someone you are considering renting space from.  You might want to go in first as a client and receive their work and see if you like what they are doing.  Take a look at things like:

  • What are their hours of operation and how it might affect you and your available time?
  • What is the size of the room available – make sure it is big enough to put the massage table in and have enough room around you to work.
  • What are the other practitioners’ policies and procedures are on things like late fees, no shows and such to see if they are compatible with yours since you might be sharing clients.
  • What is their philosophy on healing and providing care?
  • How do they treat clients?
  • What office furniture and equipment can you share?  Fax machines, phone, answering service, receptionist, copiers, computer, billing software.
  • Will they promote your business?  Will you be able to promote their business?
  • Can you share in marketing projects, health fairs, chamber of commerce memberships, phone book and online advertising?
  • Can you share a website or do you need to get your own?

While you can’t always know all of the details and how it will be the main thing to figure out is can you work with this person (or people) around?

Some places to consider looking at:

  • Other Massage Offices
  • Hair Salons
  • Massage Franchises/Spas- they might actually rent you a room if they are slow
  • Acupuncturists
  • Chiropractors
  • Dentists
  • Physical Therapy Offices
  • Naturopaths
  • Doctors Office
  • Psychologist’s office

Figure out what you will need in an office space:

  • Website – shared or your own? Your website needs to work.
  • Large enough room to work comfortably
  • Parking for clients and you
  • A mentor to work with
  • Who will supply the massage table?
  • What will you pay in rent and when will you pay rent?
  • How long will your lease be for?
  • What other expenses will there be – laundry, utilities?

Summary:

  1. Create a vision for your ideal office space including location, people to work with and your potential client base.
  2. Start visiting various places that fit the vision.  Go in as a client first if you can to see how they work.
  3. Ask if they have office space for rent.
  4. Draw up a rental agreement/contract that outlines everything specifically as to who is responsible for what.  Don’t overlook this even if you are friends!
  5. Get the support that you need in the form of a mentor and supervisor.

Massage Therapists Business Survival Guide During COVID-19

By Leave a Comment

EVERYONE is being affected by the COVID-19 Virus. This could really help the profession and create new opportunities. How I don’t know yet but I see this as a great opportunity and think that we will be one of the first businesses to be able to go back to work. With so many massage therapists and massage businesses living so close to the edge financially, some may not be able to remain open even after this passes.

The first thing you might want to add to your closing announcement is to remind people that they can buy gift certificates and prepaid packages. Most are willing to do so. You have to remember to make sure that when it comes time to go back to the office that you will have enough time to work on everyone who has bought things to keep your income balanced.

For immediate income look to companies like Uber Eats, Instacart and Doordash and start delivering food to your neighborhoods. Grocery stores are hiring like crazy. The schools are closing and kids will need care. The Boys and Girls club and other organizations will be hiring and home day care people are needed. Find your local Facebook groups and find or create resources for sharing.

Find your communities!

Government Financial Aid

We are all in the same boats! It is our government calling for all the closings and social distancing. They will have to bail us out. #bailUSout The first Federal Bill I just saw is HR 6201 Families First coronavirus response bill. that passed the house over the weekend and is in the Senate. This is most likely the first of many things to come. Remember when they bailed out the banks and car manufacturers? It is the people’s turn now.

It is really up to our government now to provide for us. Our communities are also coming together in a way never seen before. People who are in quarantine are being delivered food and supplies. Cities like Seattle are declaring that no one can be evicted and power/water cannot be shut off. Rent is being reduced.

It is a good time to relax, learn and take care of yourself.

San Diego Pain Summit is offering free access to all of this years summit recordings!

Walk, Meditate, have Skype supervision meetings with your peers to talk out your fears and share ideas.

Websites for making extra income

I have always recommended that massage therapists have another source of income. My personal second income is through things like this- having a website for massage therapists and writing ebooks etc. I also have a few other websites that I will now have more time to work on. Right now they have just been on hold and working on them very slowly so that they will be making me money when I planed to retire in 3 years. If you are an expert on a specific area of massage or any other topic, then maybe creating a website on that area/topic would be a great way to supplement your income. It won’t make you immediate income but when I started my first website to sell ebooks back in 2002, my first sales started coming in 4 months. Learn more about how to create residual income through a website. Here are some ideas for websites.

Learn to bill insurance.

One of the things that is coming in handy right now is the fact that I have been billing insurance for clients – mainly health insurance which covers massage therapy in WA State. A few weeks ago and last week before everything went south, I billed insurance for about a dozen sessions. I will be getting paid in 2-4 weeks! Income doesn’t stop. People also will have a tendency to come in more often even during a recession when the insurance is paying. Learn to bill insurance (auto, workers comp and health insurance) and I wonder if we will find that more states need to adopt something like the Every Category Law like we have in WA that allows us to bill health insurance.

What does our profession need?

  • Better leadership to be working with the government on issues like this and connecting with them to provide resources for getting through things like this.

Surviving and Thriving COVID-19 for Massage Therapists

By 1 Comment

** This was written before the call for social distancing ramped up this weekend. If you can stay home for 2 weeks do it now. If you really really can’t, be extra vigilant in your cleaning, screening and care. It may come a time within the next week or so that the Federal or your State government will tell you to stay home. Help is starting to come in the form of bills and legislation that should help all. We need to start helping each other!
H.R.6201 – Families First Coronavirus Response Act

COVID-19 is all around us, hitting our communities hard with schools closing for 6 weeks, all major events closing and the stock marketing crashing. As massage therapists it is a really scary time not knowing if your business will survive or if you will be able to continue to work.

Decide if you want to stay in business or close

It’s a difficult choice. The call for social distancing is becoming louder and louder. WA State just closed ALL schools for 6 weeks. Restaurants are closing their doors all over. The guideline here is to stay 6 feet away from people yet students will be sent to daycare places where that is impossible. Costco and other big box/grocery stores are mobbed with shoppers. It’s mixed messaging to say the least and leaves massage therapists fending for ourselves to make the decisions.

My Massage Therapists Guide to COVID-19 provides the details you need to know about the virus, illness and keeping your office clean and inviting.

  • Can you afford to close your business not just for 2 weeks but possibly longer –6 weeks, 2 months, 3 months?
  • Are you healthy yourself with no underlying immune issues, heart or lung diseases or other things?
  • Do you have family members at home that are risk for catching diseases and not being able to fend them off adequately? Are you taking care of family or friends with underlying conditions that are a higher risk?
  • How do we deal with the guidelines for distancing vs staying in business? It may no longer be a quandary if/when the State Department of Health and the Board of massage shut us all down. There has been so much discussion over whether the mandates for social distancing – stay 6 feet away — apply to massage therapists. AMTA-WA has approached the DOH/BOM for their recommendations.

People Need Massage

Everyone has added stress from all the fears of the unknown that are now arising and we all know how stress affects most every system of the body. Many are in pain from working on computers and are also working on the front lines in hospitals and nursing homes and fire/rescue departments. While the risk may be too great for some massage therapists, the opportunities are there if you want them.

People are staying home now and working from home when they can. They have more time in some ways. It may take a week or so before people have made the needed changes in their lives to adapt to working at home and now having the kids at home so hopefully they will be coming out for massage as things get more settled.

Write an article on your website about stress and write about how massage can help.

First steps

Create a page on your website and send out a news brief to all of your clients either by email or regular mail. Think about the things that a client might be fearful of when coming into a massage office. Some of the things that they are concerned with is will they be safe coming into your office and laying on the table. The face cradle brings up extra questions and fears.

I just got one from the place that makes my glasses that is very well written.

  • Tell people that you are not sick and have not been sick or around anyone that has been sick.
  • Tell them what cleaning protocols that you use and have been using to keep the office disinfected.
  • Tell them how you are responding to the pandemic and what you are doing to protect the spread of the virus.
  • Invite them to ask questions and have a specific way for them to ask either by email, text or by phone.
  • Offer them gift certificates for sale or package deals for sale to help keep your cash flow balanced. Ensure them that you will remain in business so that they will be able to cash them in or what you would do if you had to go out of business.
  • Give them options for laying on the table without putting their face in the facerest. It is a great time for sidelying work!
  • Offer then $10 off if they bring in hand sanitizer!

Screening clients

Everyone that comes into the office needs to be screened carefully which is part of building the clients confidence that you are taking this seriously and also keeping from spreading it through your office.

Have them wash their hands or
use hand sanitizer upon entering your office!

  • Have you been sick with a flu or cold in the last few weeks? I have added colds to the list too. Many cases of COVID-19 are going undetected because of lack of testing. Many cases are so mild that they think it is just a cold or maybe regular flu. If someone is sick, they need to be tested and if positive for COVID-19 quarantined until better and cleared of the virus.
  • Has anyone in your immediate household been sick with a flu or cold in the past few weeks? If someone is sick in their immediate household the risk is too great that they might have it and not know it.
  • Have you been in a building or store where it has been declared that someone infected with the illness was there in the past few weeks? While this is getting tricky to determine where people have been and what they have done, it is more about making people feel safe.

Keep clients coming in the door

  • Update your Google Business listing daily with offers and posts to reassure potential clients that it is still safe to get a massage.
  • Find local Facebook groups that are in your specific area and share information and let people get to know you before making a post to tell people about your business. Many working at home are looking to support local businesses.
  • Find your local area on www.nextdoor.com and get to know people there and offer your services.
  • Get involved in your community by checking in on your neighbors, having small get togethers in coffee shops and do what you can.
  • Change your hours to accommodate people having to stay home.
  • Let them bring their children in.
  • Consider adding services like foot massage.
  • Consider going into people’s home – but there is a risk there too. Bring your own cleaning supplies!
  • Consider setting up for chair massage for employees of stores like Costco and local grocery stores that have to stay open and are dealing with such overwhelming shopping.

If you have employees

Having employees makes it even more of a difficult decision as you are partly responsible for other people’s income. In WA State, they are implementing extra unemployment benefits for those affected. Check to see what your state is doing. Some large employers are choosing to pay their employees even when not working to keep things in place and provide for them.

Train them in cleaning protocols and help them manage their fears. Teach them how to talk with clients. Provide ways for them to talk about it among themselves and with you to help alleviate their fears.

Other ways to make money

Get Massage and pay for it from other massage therapists! You will need it!

Taking insurance cases. This is more of a long term solution. This virus is not going away anytime soon. There are many businesses closing and people out of work permanently. People are more likely to continue to come in when their insurance is paying. Most states allow massage therapists to bill for car accidents or work related injuries. More and more health insurance companies are paying. Insurance will take 2 weeks to a few months or even a few years to pay so in a way it provides income during slow months. It may be a good time to start working on getting massage therapy covered by insurance. The world is really going to need it! I have it all explained in my book — The Massage Insurance Billing Manual

Add stretching to your list of services. This will allow people to leave their clothes on which is another measure of protection and they don’t have to lie in the face rest.

Become a delivery driver. The community will be scrambling to take care of each other. With restaurants closing or being faced with the threat of closing, many are moving to expanded delivery of food and products. Grocery stores are moving to that more too.

Become a census taker. These are temporary positions that may help you survive this. https://2020census.gov/en/jobs.html

Offering Consultations for support and teaching home massage techniques. I have seen some massage therapists talking about doing that. It is important to stay within your Scope of Practice though.

Look into making money with a website and sharing your expertise. I always have a source of income through my many websites. It won’t help you immediately but will help you survive, thrive and weather any future emergency events.

Grocery stores and Big box stores are getting slammed and are hiring people to work.

Self Care

Taking care of yourself is mandatory. You won’t be able to help anyone if you are run down or stressed about this. Find your support groups on Facebook or start a local support group. With supplies like hand sanitizer and sanitizing wipes, think about sharing them with others if your business takes a downturn or you have extra supplies.

If you have a mentor or supervisor it is a good time to set up phone meetings or online meetings to talk through your fears and struggles so you don’t take them into the massage room.

Go outside and get back to nature for walks around your community. Stay grounded.

If you get sick

If you get sick with any kind of illness you will need to stay home. It could be the coronavirus so check with your doctor. If you do have a confirmed case of COVID-19 you will have to quarantine yourself away from your family and others until you are cleared medically. Some are saying you just have to have 72 hours where you are tested to be virus free and in other places I have read that you should quarantine for 2 weeks after getting and having the virus. Only your doctor will know what is right for you.

If/When you have to close

Things are happening so quickly and things change minute by minute. Your City, County, State and our Federal Government will have to do something to help every single person affected by this which could be millions and millions. in Seattle our state is making it so people with jobs can get unemployment benefits and are working on getting funds for small businesses and even the homeless may finally get the help they need. It probably will take time and we don’t know for sure what is coming or not. Our communities will have to start taking over and help each other.

Hang in there! You are not alone!

Making sense of COVID-19

By Leave a Comment

This is my attempt at trying to understand why this is really happening. After 2 1/2 weeks of this COVID-19 being around in the Seattle area, it still does not make any sense to me. I had to set that aside a few weeks ago because so much was happening so fast that I had to just give into the what I think is misguided actions – to survive.

I must be missing something but none-the-less, the response is happening all over the world.

What I still don’t understand:

  • Why did this not happen during H1N1?
  • If 80% of the people have really mild symptoms and recover quickly, why the pandemonium?
  • The numbers are way off. We have hardly tested at all. S. Korea supposedly has a way lower death rate because they have tested faster and better. Our numbers are going to change drastically when we get more testing done
  • How many get the virus and recover?
  • How many get exposed to the virus and don’t get sick?
  • Yes people are going to die from this but they are dying from the current flu and always have. We do have treatment for that and vaccines yet people die all the time from the regular flu–why are we not doing this with the flu?
  • Is all that is happening now the shutting down of everything and the crashing of our financial system worth it? More will become homeless. Many won’t be able to retire because of the hit that was just taken on everyone’s investments. Businesses will be closing. Unemployment will skyrocket. Is it just the system resetting itself?

On Wed. (03/11/2020) I did come across this website – www.flatteningthecurve.com that finally explained part of it.

In the USA, our health care capacity is under 1 million staffed beds; this is not adequate to accommodate the number of hospitalizations we are expected to see (4-8 million). Johns Hopkins University did a 3-year global survey of pandemic preparedness. Although the USA ranked at the top of the countries, even the US only scored a 42 out of 100. We simply don’t have the equipment, training, or messaging in place and we need to ramp up fast. No one does. That is why your choices today matter so much.

Are people being put on ventilators actually coming off of them? I was just talking to my neighbor who used to work with people on ventilators saying that most do not come off of them.

Also this post is going around the internet with the potential numbers

So the reason that EVERYTHING in the US and the World is being shut down and sent into financial ruin is because we don’t have enough beds for everyone? How will we recover from that?

How many are dying from the regular flu?

Infections
COVID-19: Approximately 102,472 cases worldwide; 340 cases in the U.S. as of Mar. 7, 2020.
Flu: Estimated 1 billion cases worldwide; 9.3 million to 45 million cases in the U.S. per year.

Deaths
COVID-19: Approximately 3,491 deaths reported worldwide; 14 deaths in the U.S., as of Mar. 7, 2020.
Flu: 291,000 to 646,000 deaths worldwide; 12,000 to 61,000 deaths in the U.S. per year.

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/index.htm

Other arguments

So we don’t have a vaccine… so what? The regular flu vaccine we get is never 100% effective.

We just got 1 trillion dollars put into the stock market…why can’t it go to getting more respirators or to bolster hospitals?

COVID-19 for massage therapists update

By 4 Comments

If you are one of the massage therapists still laughing about the thing that you see as a mass hysteria event or media hyped event — the COVID-19 pandemic will set you straight soon enough.

Two and a half weeks ago, I was the same way. One of my clients said they went shopping and spent $500 on food and supplies and I asked what for? Then on the weekend, Costco, other big box stores and even regular grocery stores were out of all the basics – beans, canned goods, frozen foods, toilet paper, cleaning products hand sanitizer and just about everything. I was still saying what is going on. It really does not make any sense.

I still don’t get parts of it yet I am in the middle of one of the ground zero areas living 5 miles from the Life Care Center where it started and having my office in downtown Seattle where most everything has been or is shutting down. A week ago (03/04/2020), every one of my clients came in and said they were told to go and work from home until April 1 or some March 24. Schools were just closed yesterday and our Governor closed any event with over 250 people and advised smaller groups to meet only with the recommend guidelines in place.

I didn’t understand why it was happening until I got some numbers yesterday that explained it more.

In the USA, our health care capacity is under 1 million staffed beds; this is not adequate to accommodate the number of hospitalizations we are expected to see (4-8 million). Johns Hopkins University did a 3-year global survey of pandemic preparedness. Although the USA ranked at the top of the countries, even the US only scored a 42 out of 100. We simply don’t have the equipment, training, or messaging in place and we need to ramp up fast. No one does. That is why your choices today matter so much.

https://www.flattenthecurve.com

I still don’t get it totally though as this is going to create a disaster of unbelievable proportions in the economy with businesses like ours taking a big hit along with restaurants, hotels, airlines, travel of any kind let alone the stock market moving to a bull market. Employees in every industry are panicked to say the least maybe except for www.amazon.com and other tech companies that can work at home. Restaurants are closing temporarily they say. Is shutting down all business and travel worth removing the extra burden on our healthcare system that is supposedly happening or will happen?

That still doesn’t answer my question of why did this not happen with H1N1.

Will this go down as the great American hype pandemic or that we averted a real disaster?

Calling the Massage Profession

I still have not seen any help coming from our professional associations except for an article from AMTA and ABMP saying wash your hands etc. Here is WA we wish we had more help in understanding the situation and how it affects us and our clients. We are figuring it out on our own in closed Facebook groups sharing our fears and strategies.

In my Massage Therapists Guide to COVID-19 report, I included some suggestions for the massage profession to consider. We are clearly not ready for this type of emergency.

What if we had (thanks Laurie Lyons):

  1. A Dedicated full-time infection prevention practitioner to work on infection prevention aspects of the preparations, including education, training, and exercises.
  2. Designate a medical director to work closely with the infection prevention practitioner.
  3. A pandemic preparedness committee (or use an existing emergency management committee) that includes representatives of all clinical and support departments as well as senior administrators. ( applies to larger clinics, spas etc..)
  4. Participate in a local healthcare coalition, which includes neighboring clinics , local public health agencies, and emergency management. Members of multi-clinic health systems should integrate system-wide planning with local planning with other local clinics.

Still no updates from the major Franchises

I was also hoping for some statements from the major Franchises like Massage Envy, Hand and Stone and Green Spa on their policies mainly because they are so visible in the community and have been a spokes-company for the massage profession even though it is not all good things coming from them.