Make the Most of Massage

Category: Start/Grow Massage Business (0 – 30K)

  • How to Grow Your Massage Business With Zero $

    How to Grow Your Massage Business With Zero $

    If you have zero dollars to grow your massage business, don’t sweat it. There is one surefire way that you can bring in clients and get your massage business rolling: Demo massages.

    Demo Massage to Build Your Massage Business

    Demo massage are done for free.

    After you get done choking on your gum I’m going to explain why free is not bad–and actually good.

    Oh, still not done?…take your time…I know this seems like very choke-worthy-stuff here…okay, you’re starting to breathe again…good…so, here’s my argument for doing demo massages.

    One, it’s the absolute cheapest way to advertise.

    Anyone trying to build a massage business, even coming fresh out of massage school with debt, can afford to demo massages.

    Hell, you don’t even need to buy face cradle covers and disinfectant wipes. You can simply use paper towels and a spray disinfectant from home.

    Also, if you’re thinking you need to have a massage chair, think again. I do my demo massages using my massage table.

    Two, you’ll be selling massage using your best marketing tool: Your hands.

    But, Mark, what about lowering the value of my service?

    I promise you that you’ll never devalue your massage if you follow these 3 rules.

    Rule #1: Not Free For Everybody

    Only offer free demo massage to strategic business allies and their clients. A strategic business ally is someone who can refer clients to you, like a hospital, MD, chiropractor, PT, personal trainer, hotel, or retirement community.

    Rule #2: It’s Free! (for 15 minutes)

    Limit the length of the massage to 15 or 30 minutes. Typically, I’ll offer a business ally (e.g. chiropractor) a free 30 minute massage. And I’ll offer her patients 15 minute massages.

    I give the extra time to the chiropractor because I want to demonstrate that I’m a good fit with her practice. For her patients, 15 minutes is the perfect amount of time to find and treat pain/problem areas.

    Rule #3: Limit the Time of the Offer

    Offer free massages for 3 months (12 weeks). For the first 6 weeks, do demo massage once a week. For the next 6 weeks, do demo massages once every 2 weeks. At the end of 3 months, reevaluate and decide if periodic demo massages in the future are important to keep you connected to your business ally and her clients.


    How to Pitch Demo Massages

    Dr. Bernie Stern is a chiropractor and one of my business allies. I built a great business relationship with him through demo massages. One day I asked him how a massage therapist should pitch demo massages to a chiropractor.

    He said it’s important to emphasize that demo massages add value to a chiropractor’s practice. Patients get a free massage and the chiropractor doesn’t have to pay for anything. He even has a special name for a demo massage day: Patient Appreciation Day. You can watch my interview with Dr. Stern here: How to Pitch Your Massage to a Chiropractor.

    What You Need

    If you’re really tight on money, just take the bare necessities to your demo massage–a table, face cradle covers (paper towels), whatever you use to clean your table and business cards.

    If you don’t have business cards, that’s okay. Have a sign-up sheet where a client can write his email address and/or cell phone number.

    How you look, how you talk and how you use your hands are what’s going to sell you.

    Probably not a good idea to dress like this:

    Source: adweek.com

    Easy to Follow Demo Script

    If you’re not good selling yourself—that can be a selling point. In other words, people appreciate not being sold. Here’s my non-selling sales approach.

    1. After the massage, I tell the person what I found (e.g., tight right levator scapulae) using an anatomy chart.
    2. Then I tell and show them what I did to address that area.
    3. I then make my recommendations (e.g., use a self-massage tool, like a tennis ball in a sock and lean against the wall to massage the levator scapulae attachment).

    Nine out of ten times the client will ask for my card. If she doesn’t, I have the option to offer her one.

    Follow Up After the Demo

    I always thank my business ally after I do demo massages. And I look for ways to reciprocate. If I think a client might benefit from my business ally’s service, I will refer her to my business ally. Sometimes I’ll introduce a business ally to my client base via an email blast. Other times I may run a free massage drawing for my business ally’s customers.

    My goal is to establish a relationship that flows in both directions. I refer to her. She refers to me. And our mutual clients are happy.

    If You Wait to Start/Grow your Massage Business, It Only Gets Worse

    The longer you wait to start demo massages, the longer you will be stuck with a massage business is going nowhere or never gets started at all.

    If you’re still a little unsure about putting yourself out there with demo massages, check out How to Sell a Lot of Massage with Your Hands.

    Once you commit to demo massages, do a Google search for businesses that might be good allies. Call and set up your demo massages. Remember to:

    1. Offer the demo massages to the business ally and her customers only,
    2. Limit the length of the massage to 30 minutes for your business ally and 15 minutes for her customers,
    3. Limit the offer to 3 months, then reevaluate to see if you want to continue on a periodic basis.

    That’s it. And once you get your first demo under your belt, the next one will be easier.

    Free Course: Starting and Growing Your Massage Business

    Need more help starting you massage business?

    I have a free course🙂

     

  • How to Do the Things That Matter

    How to Do the Things That Matter

    A client, Marcia, once told me that my massage business card sucked.

    Actually she said: “Holy crap!” as she held my card in her hand.

    Marcia was a graphic designer and rattled off a list of fouls I had committed when I designed my card.

    So, guess what I did the next day?

    Nothing.

    Today I still have the same generic business card that Marcia hates.

    But if Marcia had walked into my office ten years ago and offered a custom design and logo on my massage business cards in exchange for massage, I would’ve accepted.

    What’s changed with me?

    I understand that a business card is not going to make or break my business.

    It’s low on the Must Do List for building a business.

    Massage Business Card Versus the Hard Stuff

    Marcia thought it was high on the Must Do List because design was her business.

    The problem was business wasn’t her business.

    And she didn’t actually know what made a massage business run.

    Frankly, it wouldn’t matter if your massage business cards were cut out of paper grocery bags as long as you did these 3 things right:

    1. Relationships
    2. Customer service
    3. Internet presence

    Let’s start with relationships.

    Relationships

    Good relationships = happier clients and better treatment outcomes.

    Here’s what I mean:

    Darius comes in for neck pain. There’s a lot of nerve stuff going on and he doesn’t have a diagnosis. So you refer him to a PT doc for a diagnosis.

    After Darius goes to the PT he tells you he was diagnosed with Facet Joint Syndrome. You talk to the PT and find out what they’re doing to treat Darius and find out/figure out how you can support their work.

    There are only positive things here.

    1. You learn more about Facet Joint Syndrome.
    2. You learn how you can support the PT’s work.
    3. You’ve done the best job possible for your client.
    4. By-product of all this is that your galvanizing your relationships with your client and the PT.

    Which brings us to customer service.

    Customer Service

    Is Darius going to remember that you have a crappy business card or is he going to remember that you were with him every step of the way on the road to recovery?

    Uh, I’m thinking he’s going to remember that you give a sh**.

    To me, customer service is simply channeling your genuine care and concern for your client into business habits.

    No schmoozy.

    No cheesy marketing tricks.

    Just you.

    Here’s how I do it: How to Compete with Massage Envy.

    Now for the non-massage-y part: Creating an Internet presence.

    Internet Presence

    An Internet presence is important especially if you don’t have any outside signage at your office.

    Stay with me. I’m not tech savvy either. But nowadays you don’t need to be. I created all my websites and do all my SEO.

    To have an Internet presence you need a website.

    If you don’t have a website, here’s how you can build one fast and cheap: How to Build a Website Fast.

    Once you have a website you can advertise for free on the Internet simply by ranking high in local and organic searches.

    For now, you just need to focus on the local search.

    Here’s how you can boost your ranking for local search: Massage Marketing Tips: How to Pick Winners.

    On second thought, Mark, maybe I just need a new design for my business card…

    Deep breath.

    Relationships, customer service and an Internet presence do take a lot of work. But that’s where the payoff is.

    Rubbing Marcia’s back in exchange for a massage business card design is easy and comfortable. The return is squat.

    Want to have a massage business that continues to grow?

    Throw yourself into relationships, customer service and an Internet presence.

    And stop worrying about the font on your business card:-)

    Hey, I also wanted to let you know that I have a free mini-course for building a massage business.

    Click here and it will take you to the sign-up page.

    And don’t forget about my free email group.

    I send you my latest everything about making more money, building a massage practice and staying out of pain.

    Sign up below:-)

    [contact-form][contact-field label=”Name” type=”name” required=”1″][contact-field label=”Email” type=”email” required=”1″][/contact-form]

  • A Niche Market = More Clients ($)

    A Niche Market = More Clients ($)

    If you want to work for yourself, you’re going to need at least one niche market to feed your business. You don’t need to be an expert in a particular modality. And it doesn’t have to cost you any money. I’ll explain how I did it, but first let’s talk about niche markets.

    “You don’t need to specialize in a modality to have a niche market.”

    Niche Markets

    By niche market I mean a group of potential customers who have specific characteristics and a common need. Anybody who wants a relaxation massage is not a niche market. But moms with kids, ranging from 1 to 12 years old, who want a relaxation massage but can’t find the time to drive to an office is a niche market.

    But I’m Not Special

    When I was out of massage school 25 years ago, I freaked out. Besides feeling like a fraud, I couldn’t possibly imagine that I could make a living without having a specialty. But the truth was, I could. I just needed to find a niche market.

    Here’s how I found my first niche market.

    Niche #1

    The first couple years of my massage career, I cut my teeth in chiropractors’ offices. One office was in a fitness center. When I worked on clients, I liked focusing on tight spots and problem areas. Personal trainers and yoga instructors noticed this and started sending me clients.

    As I worked on their clients, I realized that many of them wanted some TLC (relaxation massage), too. So I started to blend focus work with relaxation massage.

    Before I knew it, I had a niche market. It was 50+ males/females who were committed to improving their fitness and worked with a fitness professional.

    Niche #2

    Soon after, I became certified in neuromuscular therapy (NMT) and started my massage practice. For a while, I thought my practice was primarily made up of clients who had acute injuries, like biceps tendonitis.

    Eventually, it became clear to me that the majority of my clients were chronic pain sufferers. Specifically, they were 55+ males/females with chronic pain, who had discretionary income and lived within 10 miles from my office.

    In Search of Referral Sources

    I discovered my latest niche market by accident. Recently, I wanted to build more referral sources for our new office so I contacted physical therapists, chiropractors, personal trainers and a running store to set up demo massages.

    I wasn’t able to set up anything with a PT, but the chiropractor, personal training studio and running store panned out. After I did demo massages at each place, the referrals started coming in. But one referral source really took off—the running store.

    A Niche Market Found Me

    After the first demo massage at the running store, Mary came to see me. The manager of the running store was here running coach. They both were happy with the massage.

    Two weeks later I went back to do another demo massage. This time I worked on a store employee/runner who had a calf issue. After her demo massage, I showed her a self-massage technique.

    Since other runners were dealing with calf issues, I decided to shoot a quick video of me doing self-massage on my calf. I posted it on our Facebook page (here it is) and I let the running store manager know. They loved it!

    Then, Serena, a runner who I met at my first demo, came to my office for a massage. She had a hammy issue and was training for a marathon. Fortunately, I was able to help her and she posted good things about me on their Runners’ Group Facebook page. And that’s when the appointments really started to come in.

    In essence, my niche market defined itself for me. It was male and female runners, 30+ years old, who were training for a running event.

    Find Your Niche

    When you’re trying to find a niche, don’t over-think it. Here’s what I would suggest doing:

    1. Identify what type of massage you like doing.

    For example, are you good at relaxation, infant, lymphatic, pain-relief, ______ massage?

    1. Identify at least 3 local businesses that are a good fit with the type of massage you do.

    Keep an open mind when you’re making your list. I could have talked myself out of approaching a running store because I’m not a runner. Glad I didn’t!

    1. Connect with 3 businesses that could refer clients to you.

    Nothing builds relationships better than getting someone on the table. That’s why demo massages are my number one way to connect with other businesses. In How to Grow Your Business with Zero $, I explain how to set up demo massages.

    At some point, one of your referral sources is going to out pace the others. What are the demographics of the referrals you get from this all-star referral source?

    These customers are your niche market.

    1. Work your niche.

    It can feel scary to narrow your focus because it will seem like you may be missing out on a lot of other customers. But all those other customers will be hard to reach unless you do some heavy-duty advertising. Conversely, in a niche market setting you only need to make a few people happy for your name to spread quickly.

    Here’s how I’m working my runners niche market in the next 30 days:

    1. Event: do demo massages at the next local running race.
    2. Business/group: offer demo massages to a local podiatrist who specializes in runners’ injuries.
    3. Information: create a page on our website dedicated to runners’ issues.
    4. Advertise: create more self-massage videos for runners and post them on our Facebook page. Pay for targeted Facebook ads.

    Get Your Niche On

    A niche market can start and sustain a massage business. You find a niche market by first figuring out what type of massage you like doing. Next, identify and connect with businesses that are a good fit with your massage.

    Which of these businesses becomes your number one referral source? The people coming to you from that business is your niche market. Now work that niche market.

    If you don’t have money for advertising, think about how you can provide information that could help out potential customers in your niche market.

    Need some more help starting your business? Then sign up below for my free Jumpstart course.

  • Massaging Mom Until One of Us Dies

    Massaging Mom Until One of Us Dies

    I wrote this post in December of 2015, a few months after my dad died. I added a postscript to this post in February of 2020, a few months after my mom died.

    Before you read on, I need to say this: I don’t always love massage.

    In fact, there are times in my life when I absolutely hated massage. You know what I’m talking about–difficult clients or not having enough clients or your body is falling apart or all the above. (By the way, that’s all fixable. Go here.)

    But as I look back over the last 30 years I can not ignore the huge, positive impact that massage had on my relationship with my mom. And that’s what these two stories are about. So, here we go starting with…

    Massaging Mom Until One Of Us Dies

    The room was silent except for the pings of the medical devices that were keeping my dad alive in the ICU. The family sat around him. My mom was in a wheelchair and held dad’s hand.

    The elective heart surgery had not gone well and we, the family, had just made the decision to take Dad off life support. I worried how mom was going to do when he was gone. Little did I know that her massage sessions with me would help her get through some tough times.

    Mom and Massage

    I started training to be a massage therapist in 1992. As with most schools at the time, the practicing part of massage happened outside the classroom, and my mom happily volunteered to be my first massage body to practice on.

    Mom was a great massage body. She was good at giving feedback without hurting my feelings and didn’t complain when I had to poke around to find a particular muscle.

    After I got my massage certification, I was ready to move from massage bodies to massage clients. Ironically, mom was too. She now wanted to be one of my paying customers.

    It made sense that mom would want to continue with her weekly massages. She had learned that massage could help her manage her post-polio pain, and she liked having the one-on-one time with me.

    The Imperfect Son

    I wish I could say that I was the perfect son and embraced my mom’s request as an opportunity to further connect with her, but to be honest, it felt more like a life sentence: I was going to have to massage my mom until one of us dies.

    There were several reasons why I felt this way. For one, I wanted to be the therapist that actually got clients better, not the therapist who only helped clients reduce their pain. In addition, I had worked on my mom for a year—I knew all her conditions and she was not a challenge.

    But the most significant reason why I didn’t want to work on my mom was that even though I felt close to her, I had some unresolved family issues that were affecting my desire to see her on weekly basis. Emotionally, I was in a difficult place.

    Fortunately for me something stronger than self-preservation won out in my brain: Guilt.

    Guilt had a strong case: Mom had made all the mom sacrifices to raise me—and she was genuinely a nice person. If I didn’t massage her until one of us died, I would be rightfully consumed by guilt.

    A Powerful Force

    Massaging my mom for the first five years was a mixed bag. Sometimes we would joke and other times she would lecture me and I would dismiss everything she had said on the basis that she was my mom.

    But as time went on things slowly started to change. We laughed more. We actually listened to each other. And I felt more connected to my mom than I ever had.

    To me, the turn of events in the massage room couldn’t be explained entirely by the idea of people mellowing with age. I believe that there was another powerful force at work here, something that we as massage therapists harness each day at work—therapeutic rapport.

    Therapeutic rapport is the means by which one connects (psychologically and emotionally) and stays connected to a client to positively affect treatment outcomes. Over the years, as I became more experienced as a massage therapist, my ability to maintain therapeutic rapport throughout the entire massage session became automatic—even with my mom.

    Don’t get me wrong, there were times when mom and I still had our disagreements and my rapport was not so therapeutic—but if that happened, it wouldn’t be long before my automatic pilot took over and I was back to focusing on what’s best for mom.

    A Treasured Gift

    On Sept. 15, 2015 my mom climbed onto my table like she had done for 23 years except this time something was profoundly different—the man she had loved and been with for 68 years was dead.

    I could tell my mom really needed to talk about dad and as I listened to her I felt myself become overwhelmed with grief. But before I lost control of my emotions, my automatic pilot took over. This time, this hour, was about my mom and what she needed in order to feel better. It was a good feeling knowing that I could hold it together, maintain therapeutic rapport, and help mom process her thoughts and feelings.

    There’s no doubt that working on a family member can be tricky because you share a deep and complicated history with that person. However, if you can learn to establish and maintain therapeutic rapport throughout each session wonderful things can start to happen—and who knows, you may discover that at first what feels like a life sentence may actually turn out to be a treasured gift.

    Okay, it’s me, Mark-in-the-“present”. Now the postscript…

    After my dad died, my mom was still driving. So, getting to my office for a massage was not a problem…well, then her driving sort of became a problem. One day a streak of white mysteriously appeared on the side of her Buick LeSabre.

    Hey mom, how did that white paint get on your car?

    Beats me. Can you hand me my Coke, please?

    Later her friend confessed that they brushed up against a fence. Hey, at least they didn’t go through the fence.

    Eventually, after a lot of deliberation Mom decided to stop driving. And that’s when I found GoGoGrandparent, an app that acts as an interface between Uber/Lyft and the customer who doesn’t have a smart phone.

    That worked great. Mom loved chatting it up with the different drivers, but overtime it became a little expensive, and the fam ixnayed the Uber-ay, which meant we were down to my brother driving her.

    That worked for a while, but as my mom’s health declined, I and the rest of my family needed to give her more hands-on care and massages dropped to inconsistent.

    During the last 6 months of her life, she had two major surgeries. It was all-hands-on-deck and the sporadic massages went to no massages.

    I was 100% aware that this was happening, but as weak as this sounds to me now that I’m not in the throes of the helping to care for my mom, I had nothing left in the tank.

    I was going to work, then driving to my mom’s at night to help with bed duties, sleeping over and doing it again. Eventually, my wife, Lisa, and I moved in with my mom.

    Interestingly, even though massaging my mom had stopped during this time period, massage still played a huge part in our relationship in this way: Because I was a massage therapist who worked for myself, I could make even more time for my mom.

    And believe me I tweaked, twisted and turned my client schedule upside down. Through it all I was still able to hit my weekly numbers because my referral sources were solid and I had a steady stream of clients from them.

    If I had to cancel a regular one week because I needed to take my mom to the doctor’s, I knew I could make that money up somewhere down the line in my schedule because of new clients constantly coming in.

    Schedule flexibility became relationship gold.

    And guess what?

    Some of the extra time I made for Mom was now used for massaging her again.

    As the pancreatic cancer was advancing, I gently massaged her fatigued legs and post-polio knees. At this point, I’m not sure the massage helped with her pain even though she said it did.

    But I do know this: Massage was our routine for 30 years.

    It’s what we did together.

    We’d laugh a lot. Often we’d sing. Sometimes we’d even cry.

    Towards the end our communication was non-verbal.

    My hands would circle her arthritic knees. They’d say, It’s okay. Mom.

    Her tired eyes would look down at me and say, It’s okay, Son.

    It was moving to me that we both were trying to comfort each other. I’d keep massaging her knees. She’d close her eyes for a minute, then open them and look at me.

    And that’s how our conversations would go until a few days later when the morphine was upped.

    So, technically, I didn’t massage mom until the day she died because too much stimulation distressed her.

    But as you’ve guessed by now, the title was meant to be taken figuratively, as in I’m committed to taking care of my mom.

    I’m grateful that massage was a conduit in my relationship with my mom.

    And I’m grateful that when silence became the norm I still could do something to show my mom that I loved her and cared about her and was there for her.

    Rest in peace, Mom.