Category: Advanced Marketing

If you’re not doing massage then you’re not working.

What do you think about that statement?

It makes sense, right?

If you’re not actually doing massage then you’re not bringing in money.

But there’s another layer here.

That statement doesn’t say anything about how to get people on your table so that you can be  doing massage (making money).

In fact, if that’s your mindset–I’m not working unless I’m being paid to massage–you’ve hit a roadblock to bringing in clients and building a massage business.

So what am I supposed to do, Mark, work for free?

Actually, yes (but that’s a qualified yes).

You work for free now as an investment for a return later.

I know that unpaid work for future dinero is a hard concept to swallow. It took me a long time to accept. Here’s why I think we (MTs) struggle with this concept.

Always Doing Massage Brain Explained

We’re in a business of instant $.

If you work for yourself you get paid every time you work on a client.

But I don’t work for myself, Mark.

You get tips, right?

When the massage is over the client hands you some cash. Boom. Instant $.

Massage work = instant money.

Believe me, I love instant money as much as you.

But instant money reinforces the idea that “if you’re not getting paid right away, you’re not working”.

This is a problem because if you want more clients and/or want to build a massage practice, you’ll need to put in some work time even though there will be no instant payoff.

But, Mark, I’m good at my massage. My work will speak for itself and my business will grow.

If you have a mortgage, kids in school, or debt from massage school then you better hope that your work speaks really, really fast.

The reality is massage is competitive. And you’re not going to make the money you need to make until you start putting in some “free” time.

Our Phoenixville office is in massage row. And within massage row are a lot of talented MTs.

Who gets the clients?

The person who works for “free”.

But remember you’re not really working for free.

You’re working for future money.

You’re investing your time now for a financial reward in the immediate, near and distant futures.

By the way, I’m still a work in progress when it comes to thinking I DON’T have to be doing massage in order to be working.

Last month we opened up our third office. And being an introvert means I’ll do anything I can to NOT  meet people.

So, one day this week, I had found a lot of things I could do on the computer for our new office.

I thought to myself: Yeah, I’m doing unpaid work here for the future growth of our business.

And I was ready to give myself a pat on the back when something didn’t feel right.

Here’s what didn’t feel right: Our business didn’t need me to do computer stuff right now. It needed me to get my butt out there and let people know that we we’re open.

So, I forced myself to visit other businesses within walking distance of our office.

The first place I went to was a local fitness center. To my surprise, the owner, Bill, wanted to talk and talk and talk…

About 15 minutes into the conversation I reverted back to the “MT must rub” mentality.

I thought: We have new bills to pay. I need to be doing massage. What a waste of time!

But then I remembered how building relationships at our Phoenixville office netted clients.

There we consistently get referrals from chiropractors, personal trainers, and the local running store.

All of these relationships were built through “free” work.

So, cool your jets, Marky. You ARE working.

I ended up talking to Bill for an hour.

Was that a good “free” work investment?

I honestly don’t know.

But I do know that Bill and I connected and I will continue to explore ways we can partner on some things in the future.

And if nothing else, I’m learning how to get better at making “free” work payoff.

Ready to invest your time now for future business?

Here’s a good place to start: Build referral bases.

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Join my email group.

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I’m free! That’s what you said after you quit your massage job and started working for yourself.

But let me guess what happened next. You thought more people from where you’d worked would’ve followed you to your own place. Of the followers, only a few sent you referrals. Rent was a little higher than you had anticipated. And there are 10 massage businesses within a 5 mile radius of you.

At the end of the day you are now making less money than you were making at your old massage job. And the stress from making less money is almost worse than working a job you don’t like.

Freedom feels freakin’ scary, right?

BUT freedom doesn’t have to be scary. In fact, it can be everything you dreamed it to be—once you understand what you have to do to make your practice run.

Here’s what you have to do: Take 100% responsibility for bringing in clients.

100% Responsible

Here’s what I used to think taking 100% responsibility looked like: I put up a sign in front of my office. I hung out in my office in case gym members had questions about my massage. I did the best job I could possibly do on each client.

Those were important things to do, but not nearly everything I needed to do to bring in clients.

Being 100% responsible means you accept the reality of what you need to do to sustain your freedom.

And for me, that happened only when I put numbers to my work.

Power of Numbers

Say you want to net $50,000 a year doing massage.  For easy math, we’ll say your expenses are $5,000. You want two weeks off, so that means you have to make $55,000 in 50 weeks.

Divide $55,000 by 50 weeks and you get the weekly average you need to meet your goal: $1100 per week. Let’s say you charge $70/hr. That means you need to do a little less than 16 hours of massage a week to meet your goal.

Oh, crap, how I can generate 16 clients every week? Maybe I shouldn’t have quit my massage job.

Maybe you shouldn’t have BUT don’t bail yet.

Why not? I’m a massage therapist not a marketer!

You don’t have to be a marketer to get new clients. You just have to do more than what you’re doing now.

Like what?

If you’re just starting to build your massage business, do this: Jumpstart.

If you can’t get over the 30K a year hurdle working for yourself, go here: Accelerator.

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Quick question: Who’s your ideal massage client?

I’m not talking about who you see the most.

I’m talking about who you want to see the most.

This is an important distinction.

Why?

So that you know where to put your time, energy and money.

Ideal Massage Client Darkness

Not so long, my wife, Lisa, and I had a meeting with a PT group.

Sherry, the managing PT, asked us to describe the people who came to see us.

(BTW, when was the last time a PT asked you that? Never, right? But times are changing. Change with them: How to Get Your Massage Into Mainstream Medicine.)

We had a couple of answers.

We see clients who have pain and stress issues.

We see clients who have injured themselves and want to try massage as an adjunctive treatment to their regular treatment.

The Unasked Question

Then Sherry asked us one more question. She asked: Who’s your ideal client?

This question was a little different.

Ideal didn’t necessarily mean who walked in our office the most.

It meant who did we want to see walk in our office the most.

From a business standpoint, it was clients with disposable income who were concerned about and motivated to improve their health/wellness.

Hmm…was that where I spent most of my marketing effort?

Not really.

My Client History

Though I did have a niche market of runners and they fit into the health/wellness profile (people with disposable income who want to improve their health/wellness), I had no game plan in place for attracting wellness clients.

And when I looked at my history of clients, I had to admit that most of my wellness clients came to me by chance.

So, I’m changing that right now.

Here’s what I’m going to do.

My Ideal Massage Client Plan

First I’m going to…

1. Let other health practitioners know who my ideal client is.

Hear ye, hear ye! My ideal massage client is…

Not quite like that.

I’ll start a conversation with a health-practitioner buddy about ideal clients and just see where it goes.

2. Market people already sold on the idea of wellness.

This will be a two pronged approach.

One prong will be through existing clients who fit the bill of my ideal client.

Say a current ideal client, Tara, belongs to a country club. She’s my potential in to ideal clients at her country club.

So I’ll talk to her about how I could offer something of value to get a foot in the door at her club.

For instance, a long time ago, I hooked up with a personal trainer and we offered stretching and massage before a golfing event at a country club.

That was a homer.

The other prong will be some form of paid Internet advertising targeting people who spend money on wellness (e.g., yoga and personal training).

3. Go after Massage Envy clients.

Massage spas have a lot of ideal massage clients—and I want some!

(Imagine copyright-protected picture of Montgomery Burns here.)

How am I going to grab these ideal massage clients from big massage spas?

This one is a secret for now.

Not trying to be coy. I’m just not sure I can pull it off in a reasonable amount of time (or at all).

But if/when I do, I’ll let you know.

Well, geez, enough about me already. What about you?

Who is your ideal massage client?

And what are you going to do to bring that ideal massage client in?

If you need to bounce ideas, I’m here:-)

And if you want my latest info about making more money, building a massage practice and staying out of pain sign up for my email group below.

It’s free.