One of the many challenges of setting your fees for your massage business is getting them to be just right. They need to be low enough to get people in the door but also need to be high enough so that you can stay in business and have your business be profitable!
People buy things based on what they need. If you don’t have anything that your client wants, they won’t buy from you. People also buy based on the value they receive from a service. You can also set your fees that way based on So what do potential massage clients want?
They want to know that you can handle whatever issue it is that they have. They want someone they can trust. People are hesitant to part with their hard earned money until they trust you. Trust is developed though having a content rich and optimized website that people find on their own as compared to through an ad.
Massage Therapists are generally known to undersell themselves and charge less than then need to make and less than they deserve to make. They also seem to forget to include the other things that take time like the time that is needed in between sessions, the time to do laundry, marketing and paperwork.
When you are first staring out it is often intimidating and yes even downright scary. You want to set your rates low enough and are afraid that people won’t come in if they can’t afford you. The feelings and the accompanying excuses or reasons not to charge what you need to make are what get in the way of your being successful. Fee setting has a way of bringing up many emotions that are usually connected to your self worth and self confidence.
- I am not good enough to charge that.
- I’m just starting out so I can’t charge the going rate.
- I just want to keep my rates low so everyone can come in and enjoy massage.
- I’ll charge more in a few years when I have more experience.
There are basically four different things to consider when setting your fees.
- What is the going rate? What will the market bear?
- What is different about your business? What sets you aside from all of the other massage therapists out there?
- What do you need to charge to cover all of your business expenses (rent, website, marketing, laundry, CE classes, etc) and give you a decent living?
- How much do you need to make to cover your living, take vacations, save for retirement, have an emergency fund, have savings, have for your family?
I have written about this topic previously. See how to set your fees for massage.