Now, for something completely different...

OK, so I know this isn't exactly a professional observation or anything but....look at my nails, look at my nails!! I'm incredibly impressed by how long my nails have grown after about 6 weeks of not having to cut them.

I might even break down and put nail polish on them. Ohhh la la!

When I started massage school back in '98, I had punky nails that chipped and broke all the time. I could never grow them out so I always kept them short.

One of my instructors said that it's ironic that being a massage therapist can give you great strong nails (maybe it's the daily application of oil) and...you'll have to keep them cut short all the time because of your work.

It's true. I now have the strongest nails of my life and....I don't have to cut them! Well, not until I start scratching myself (which could happen soon). They click on the keyboard and I find I am forever tapping them on desktops and other hard surfaces just because I can!

I feel so.....girly. :)

I am a business owner....

If you've ever taken Business Practices from me at PMTI, you've learned to say that phrase: I am a business owner. I'm re-learning what that means here in Australia.

I am on sabbatical from bodywork. I did not bring a table and I am seeing/touching no clients. So....am I still a business?

Yes, I am.

I came with a different business intent: to write a book on the business of massage and to work with Ben Risby-Jones to write a book on a spiritual/metaphysical understanding of "healing".

When I am a bodyworker/massage therapist, it's pretty clear what qualifies as a "business expense" -- rent, mileage, oil, linens, my AMTA membership, office supplies at Staples, subscriptions to massage journals, marketing, etc.

So, what are my business expenses here?

I still have some obvious expenses: office supplies (post-it notes, envelopes, notebooks, pens, to get myself set up here in the apartment); transportation (going to and from Ben's place). But I have to think more broadly about what my business is and what qualifies as a deduction.

If I get a massage at the Dome spa at the Marriott with the intention of experiencing "remedial" massage, Australian-style" to broaden my understanding of massage......that's a business expense.

If I take a taxi to the Queensland State Library with the intention of exploring their writers center to see what support is available to me as a writer while I'm here in Australia....that's a business expense.

If I take the owner of the Lightworkers Cottage out for lunch with the intention of talking about how her business arrangement works with her practitioners (especially if I hope to write about it), that's a business expense.

The new type of business deduction I'm learning about here is the per diem. Margo Bowman, queen of massage therapy taxes, has taught me about this one.

The idea is this: when you are aware from your home/office, you can either:

• take a deduction for specific travel-related expenses (food, for example) or
• take a flat per diem deduction

The sweet part is you can choose to take which ever one is more beneficial for you. The IRS publishes a list of per diem rates based on your location in the US or overseas.

For Brisbane in the 2nd half of 2010, my per diem is $98. Since I'm not spending more than $98 a day on travel-related expenses , I'm generally taking the per diem!

What do I have to do to qualify for the per diem? I have to do something here that:

• is related to my business and
• I couldn't reasonably do in the US.

For example, today I had a good conversation with a woman who owns a cleaning company (she cleans our apartment). We talked about how taxes are viewed differently in both countries, the differences in tipping policies, the pros and cons of having big companies as clients, what it takes as a small business to raise rates, and a few other things. I gained some interesting insights into how being a small business owner is different from and yet very much like it is in the US.

I think of conversations like this is on-the-ground research for my book on the business of massage.

Since it would be hard to have this kind of conversation with this kind of person back in DC and this was a legitimate business conversation and it informed my view of being a small business and I intend to use the material in my book....it's a business deduction!

Ergo, today I'm taking the per diem deduction of $98. It's already entered in my Quiken books (aren't you proud of me Margo!).

I am a business owner.
I am a business owner.
I am a business owner.

Hope Springs Eternal

Today I had a chance to visit a "boutique" spa for a massage at Genesis Bodywork.

As I mentioned before, it seems like most MTs work either in spas/salons/hotels or privately out of their home and the ones that practice privately don't have websites. I found a place in a near-by suburb (think Rosslyn or Bethesda) that had DC-level pricing ($80 / hour) and booked an hour session for today.

I asked the owner over the phone what "boutique spa" meant. He admitted that it simply meant they were smaller than the bigger name spas. They were set up in a house and primarily offered massage and a few bodycare options like waxing.

They seem to still feel that they have to make you think "fancy". But the house was a simple house and the decor was lovely and not overdone. In fact, they used a similar color scheme to that used at Eye Street Massage in downtown DC -- tans, browns, greens, etc. Asian-ish.

Rather than covering with sheets, they use towels here. Couple problems with that.

• They aren't extra-big towels. So, if you've seen me, you know I kinda stick out on the two sides. Not horribly but it makes me feel a little exposed.


• It's really tough to secure the draping when working high on the leg. I'd asked for hip flexor work, which made for a challenge for my MT.


• A towel won't cover you shoulders-to-feet so I ended up with a second towel over my feet/lower legs but there was still a bit of gap.


• Since you need multiple towels (and they are nice thick towels) for a session, you aren't saving anything on laundry with towels. One or two under you. One or two on top of you. A smaller one as a facerest cover. Per session. It's gotta add up.

So.....not a fan of the towel approach.

After the session, I had a chat with the owner about one aspect of the local massage scene I've been curious about. Prostitution is legal in Queensland. I explained about how DC legislators (and others) often try to get "at" the prostitution trade through the massage therapy regulations and asked if, with legal prostitution, they had any problems with "happy ending" kinda clients.

He said he rarely gets those kind of calls. When he does, it's usually someone with a foreign accent asking for something like "body to body" massage. He wondered why men still do that.

I gave him my standard answer: hope springs eternal! :)

He also said they encounter what he called a "Mr. Creepy" from time to time, but again pretty rare. I guess they are, truly, unavoidable.

I feel like I'm beginning to get a clearer picture of the massage therapy world here in Queensland Australia. The more I learn, the more I'll write.

You need a website. You really do.

I have told new massage therapists and MT students that there are two things you should do right away when getting started to market your practice -- business cards and a website.

Business cards are super easy to get. A basic website is not a whole lot more difficult.

In both cases, I've found that the #1 reason MTs don't have them is that they get stuck on the design. It is less important that it be "perfect" and more important that it "exist".

I'm so frustrated here in Brisbane that I can only find spas on the web when searching for massage therapy. I've found one whose prices are similar to DC but the rest are "spa-priced".

It's not that I don't think spas should exist. However, they put sooooo much effort into creating a certain kind of space and ambience that they have to have higher prices to maintain the that. I care less about the ambience than I do about what happens on the table. So paying extra for the space is pointless for me.

Just give me a good massage in a private room with a non-wobbly table. I'll deal with the rest of it.

But if individual MTs don't advertise their existence, how can a person who is new to town (or new to massage) find you???

What does a business card need to contain, at a minimum?

- Your name
- Your profession (so they know why they have your card when they pull it out of their wallet in 3 months)
- At least one way to contact you

If you've got that on your business card, you're good to go.

What does a website need to contain, at a minimum?

- Your name
- Your profession
- How to contact you
- Where you're located
- Your price(s)

You can, of course, get much more involved than that. At some point, I would encourage you to get more fancy than that. But to get started, at least get that up. You can easily change / modify / expand your website (and your business cards) down the road but at least give me, the poor clue-less would-be client, something to start with!

(grumble)(grumble)(grumble)

Off to continue my search for an (affordable) MT in Brisbane.

Don't underestimate "intuition"

I finally got a massage today. I ended up at the Marriott spa, so I paid way too much -- $135 -- but it was a fantastic massage, so I'm not as annoyed at the price as I might be.

I even tipped $20, which shocked the heck out of the receptionist and the therapist. I finally got them to accept the tip by saying "I'm a massage therapist and I know good work when I receive it.". (Tipping is not common in Australia.)

The MT has only been in practice a year but she's got very well-honed palpation skills. She found all my tender spots, even ones I wasn't aware of. She also did a great job of listening to me and getting feedback at the appropriate time.

We talked a bit about how she works and she admitted she goes on "intuition" a lot. She sounded a little embarassed about that and said she wasn't always sure it wasn't just her imagination.

I hear that a lot from MTs. It's a shame. The more I've learned to trust my intuition in these last few years, the better my work has gotten.

Intuition doesn't get the respect it deserves. "Intuition" is just the name we assign to data we gather by other-than-overt-obvious means. It's still valid data, it's just coming in on some subtle channels.

I found myself reflecting on how much better the massage was because she was using her intuition. It made for a different kind of partnership between she and I. She wasn't just following a set protocol but actively responding to the tissue and to the clues that were coming in on those subtle channels.

And she was talking to me about it. It made me reflect on / connect to my body at a different level. It asked me to pay attention to more subtle things and anything that gets a client to really hone in on their body and connect with it runs a good chance of improving your session.

In the end, despite the price, I felt like I'd really lucked out by getting assigned to this therapist. PLUS she gave me a lead on some "woo-woo" practices in a nearby suburb. :)

All in all, a good day for intuition.

Maybe those first aid classes are a good idea.

Jeff just saved my life. Literally.

I was eating a meatball. It was large. I started swallowing before I'd really gotten in chewed up in little bits and it jammed half-way down. Just got jammed and all of a sudden I was choking.

In the heat of the moment, will you remember your first aid classes? Jeff did.

I stood up. Jeff asked if I was OK. I shook my head "no" and made the 'hands at the throat' sign for choking. He quickly came behind me, puts his arms around me, and started the quick squeezes to dislodge the stuck food.

It took two tries but he he got it out. Everyone sitting around us was very very impressed. So was I.

He said afterwards that one of his challenges is that I'm not built like the dummies they use in first aid classes. I'm taller than him and...ah....rounder than the test dummies. Finding my xiphoid process from behind? Good luck with that!

Please award that man 10,000 Husband Points. And sign us both up for the First Aid Course at PMTI next time we're in town.

How do we find us?

I had a chat with a housing / relocation guy today who is a big fan of massage therapists. In fact, he says he has 3 or 4 that he goes to, since he tends to be a "last minute" kind of client and needs a couple he can call to get last minute availability.

I mentioned that I'd been looking around for MTs and was only finding them in spas, hotels, and salons. I asked if there were group practices or if most MTs that he knew were working on their own, by themselves out of their homes or in rented space.

He confirmed my observations that it's either salon/spa/hotel or solo practitioner.

That's a definite "step" in the evolution of our profession. If it's like the US, they haven't quite gotten to the group practice / consortium level. That comes when we have enough MTs who've been in practice long enough to discover some of the disadvantages of working alone and, therefore, wanting to work with other MTs.

I'm not suggesting there's anything inherently wrong with working alone or in isolation. However, what I'm finding is that those MTs working alone aren't necessarily advertising through that most common of search tools -- the internet.

So how does a consumer like me find them? If they're relying on word of mouth, I'm kind of out of luck. I don't know anyone here to share word-of-mouth with! I'm counting on the internet to hook me up with a good MT, darn it.

I'll keep looking but I'd really like to connect with some MTs not working in (in my opinion over-priced) salons/spas/hotels. My back could use a little love.....

What am I doing here?

Wait, wasn't I just in DC? Just at PMTI? And now I'm in Brisbane Australia. How did that happen?

Short answer: my husband was offered a 6-month assignment in Brisbane and we decided:

(1) we like Australia,
(2) we've been talking about living overseas for more than 10 years, and
(3) we could afford to live on just one income for a little while, so
(4) what the heck, he accepted the assignment.

So I am living in Brisbane, the capitol of the state of Queensland, where massage is un-regulated, prostitution is legal, and everyone drives on the left.

But what am I doing?

For the next 6 months, I will be returning to my previous profession and will be writing professionally. That is, I will be working on several books, my usual columns, this blog, and the usual Facebook posts and letters-home-to-Mom.

Specifically, I intend to take my experience teaching business practices and my business columns for the DC AMTA newsletter and turn them into a book. I will also explore what it's like to be a massage therapist in this culture, in this business climate, in this country, on this side of the planet.

And along the way, I'll be posting my findings, musings, and observations on this blog for anyone who's interested. Check in from time to time and see what I've discovered lately!