Earning, and Working for Two...Rooms

In my last post, I mentioned that when you are self-employed you need to earn enough to support two:  you and your business. Roughly speaking, half your earnings go to you and half go to your business.

Continuing the "2" theme: if you think of your business as a house, it's a house with two rooms -- the first room is your practice room. The second room is your office. You need to spend time, energy, and money in both rooms.

 

In the practice room, you spend your time, energy, and money on being the best massage therapist you can be. In your office, you spend time, energy, and money being the best business owner you can be.

 

How are your energies currently being divided between these two rooms? If I were to guess, a lot of MTs probably split their time 95 / 5:  95% of their time, energy, and money are devoted to being a good massage therapist; 5% are spent on being a good business owner.

 

In my experience, a more useful split would be 80 / 20. If you're just starting out, it might be more like 60 / 40, maybe even 50 / 50.  You may be able get away with 90 / 10 if you have a mature practice full of repeat clients who never leave you. But it's never going to be 100 / 0 (or even 95 / 5) if you want to be truly proficient in both sides of the house.

 

What does it mean to devote 20% of your time, energy, and money to your business?

 

In a 40-hour week, spend about 8 hours on your business. That includes doing your bookkeeping, updating a website, writing a newsletter, doing the laundry (sigh), buying supplies, reading trade pubs, etc.

 

If you spend, say, $1,000 a year on continuing education, set aside at least $200 for business-related workshops.

 

When you dream about your ideal practice, remember to imagine what the business side looks like too!

 

If you go to a conference offering workshops, take at least one business-related workshop (if they're offered). If you organize those conferences, make sure you offer business courses.

 

Spend at least one weekend a year on a business retreat. What would you do there? Close out your books for the year and get them ready for filing taxes. Update your business plan for the coming year. Begin writing a business plan! Evaluate how you did meeting your goals for last year. Decide what continuing ed you'll take in the coming year. Catch up on your massage magazines. Finish reading that massage book you bought at your last conference. Get a massage. That sort of thing.

 

See how I'm thinking about this? Running your business happens every day. Making time, energy, and money available to become a better business person needs to be part of your regular schedule as well.

Now on to a more self-serving note....

If you find taxes, bookkeeping, or marketing (important business-owner kind of activities) baffling, The Healing Core is offering two workshops to help you:

Taxes & Bookkeeping for The Healing Arts Professional (early bird discount ends in a week)

One Year To A Successful Massage Therapy Practice (which is all about marketing)

Both are taught for massage therapists by massage therapists. Signing up for either can be a first step in getting your 80 / 20 lined up properly.