How can a massage therapist make more money?
Well, you can do more massages (or hire massage therapists to work for you) OR you can start a side hustle.
By side hustle I mean doing another job or owning another business that may or may not be related to massage.
I’ve had a lot of side hustles throughout my massage career.
Here’s a short list: writer, gardening business owner, personal trainer, health and wellness workshop presenter, teacher, anatomy and movement consultant, and business development consultant for a corporate fitness management company.
As you can tell, I love side hustles. They…
- keep life interesting,
- prevent massage burnout,
- provide additional revenue to your normal massage income,
- raise your earning potential,
- add an extra layer of security in case you injury yourself and can’t do massage.
And here’s another great thing about a side hustle, you can make some money as you’re acquiring a new skill that can turn into a job or business.
But not all my side hustles worked out.
A while back my wife, Lisa, and I had started a hotel massage business. One day we decided to offer other on-site services, like an on-site chef.
A gourmet meal and a couples massage at your house sounded pretty good, right?
Just one, small problem. When we had a gig lined up we didn’t know if the chef was going to show up!
Besides the chef being unreliable the program was doomed because we couldn’t price the chef service at a point where we made enough money.
Fortunately. most of my side hustles worked out.
I think they worked for two basic reasons.
One, I took the leap of faith.
And, two, I committed to a goal.
Take the Leap of Faith
To me the leap of faith is directly connected to wanting it.
It?
Sometimes “it” can be more money.
Sometimes “it” can be a change of pace.
Sometimes “it” can be following a dream.
Sometimes “it” can be maintaining freedom.
The “it” has to propel you.
The “it” is what makes you take the leap of faith.
The leap of faith happens when you take the first step towards actualizing your side hustle.
Often my leap of faith happens when I create a website or start a blog around a side hustle.
But that’s not true for everybody. A leap of faith could be taking classes or getting certified for your side hustle.
It could be renting office space.
Unfortunately, the leap of faith alone isn’t going to be enough to get your side hustle off the ground.
You’ll also need to commit to a goal.
Committing to a Goal
This is a trip step.
It’s easy to get fired up and purchase a domain name (I have lots of them…lol) for your side hustle, but it’s completely another thing to get that side hustle up and running.
That’s why you need to commit to one goal.
Personal Training
When I decided to get into personal training my first goal was to get paid by a client.
That goal forced me to up my game so that I could attract and keep a personal training client.
After I got paid by my first client, I had more incentive to push on.
Writer
My first goal with writing was to sell one article. It took me many months and about 50+ query letters to sell my first article.
In fact, the journal that wanted my article, didn’t pay for articles. But I wasn’t letting go of that article until I got some dough. So, we negotiated, and I sold the article for $50.
At the end of the day , the amount of money that I sold my first article for wasn’t important. It was the fact that I was getting paid for something that I wanted to do that was important.
Positive Indirect Effects of a Side Hustle
When I decided to start this blog my goal was to simply write an article every week for a year.
That was a tough goal.
But as I stuck with it, cool things started to happen.
I developed a habit of meeting weekly writing deadlines.
I connected with a lot of MTs all over the world.
More teaching and coaching opportunities came in.
I sold more articles.
And my income grew as a byproduct of my blogging.
But a side hustle isn’t always the answer to making more money.
Negative Effects of a Side Hustle
Let’s circle back to my personal training side hustle.
When I jumped into personal training it seemed like a perfect fit with my massage since my office was in a fitness center.
And in the beginning it was. Some massage clients wanted personal training and I made some extra money.
But here’s the thing, my massage business wasn’t all it could be at the time.
And I didn’t know how to fix it.
So instead of diving in and figuring out how to bring in more clients and how to massage more clients without being in pain, I took a chunk of my time and invested it in personal training.
What would’ve happened if I had thrown all my energy into my massage business?
My guess is that I would’ve figured out how to bring in more clients and how to take care of my body 15 years sooner than I did.
Why do I say that?
Because eventually I did figure those two things out and I made/make more money just cranking out the massage.
Here’s one more thing to consider—maybe all you need is a temporary job for fast money.
Temporary Job
For example, if your massage business is down because of COVID-19, you might just need supplemental income until you can crank up your massage business after the pandemic smoke clears. If that’s case here are some immediate temp-job options:
Contact tracer: Indeed is advertising for contact tracers. And if you do a Google search, local contact tracer jobs around where you live will likely show up in the organic search.
Amazon driver using your own car: Yep, you can use your own car—pretty cool. Their whole deal is here: Amazon Flex.
Uber or Lyft driver: Go here for Uber. Go here for Lyft.
Shopper: With Instacart you have the option to be just a shopper or a shopper and a deliverer.
Dog walker/pet sitter: Easy to do these days through Rover.
So, where does that leave us with how you can make more money?
It leaves us here.
How Can A Massage Therapist Make More Money Recap
If you just need a temporary job to supplement your massage income as you build your business or wait until COVID clears, get a temp job that produces immediate income. Some options are contact tracer, Amazon driver, Uber/Lyft driver, shopper, or dog walker/pet sitter.
If you’re leaning towards a side hustle, a business or job you plan on doing for a while, ask yourself why you’re wanting to start a side hustle.
If it’s because you’re running away from massage because you’ve hit a road block, like you can’t bring in enough clients to make a living, think about fixing that first before you jump into a side hustle.
This article will help you with that: Protect Your Time & Money Doing Massage.
And if the barrier for building your massage book is that massage is killing your body read this: The Question That Will Save Your Body.
If you want to start a side hustle because you’re bored, inspired, need a change of pace, want multiple streams of income, and/or want another option for bringing in money for security reasons, then go all in with a side hustle.
Take the leap of faith.
You take a leap of faith by making a move towards actualizing that side hustle.
Sign up for a class or get certified in your side hustle or make something real happen regarding your hustle, like building a website or starting a blog.
Website help here.
Blog help here.
But remember that to be successful with a side hustle, you’ll need more than a leap of faith. You’ll need to…
Commit to a goal.
Goals come in many flavors, like getting paid by your first customer or sticking to a work schedule.
Make your goal a stretch, but not too far of a stretch.
Don’t stop until you accomplish that goal, then re-evaluate to see if you want to continue with the side hustle.
Writing articles and blogging are side hustles that have worked for me.
Personal training was good in the beginning of my career because it met certain needs for me, including financial ones, but ultimately, held me back from taking my massage business to the next level.
Still not sure about what to do?
Email me.
Also, if you’re new to Make the Most of Massage, I have a free, email group.
I’ll send you my latest everything on making more money, growing your massage business and staying out of pain.
Sign up below:-)
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