So long, farewell, auf wiedersehn, good night

I've had probably 6-10 corporate massage clients over the course of the last 12 years. The most recent was a govenment agency that I started at in January.

Last week I ended it. There just wasn't enough life in the contract to make it worth showing up every day. I've made a whopping $510 in 5 months of work. I was averaging 1-3 clients a month (and they were 30-minute sessions).

I was at the client every Tuesday for 6 hours. I had 6 massage slots available every Tuesday. I had the capacity for 25 clients a month.

I showed up even when no one was on the schedule and stayed all the way through the end of my shift (it's where most of these blog posts have been written in the last 5 months because I had to do something with my time!).

Why didn't it work? Based on my experience with other corporate contracts, there were two key reasons:

It was in a very low-traffic area. It was in the health unit, which was in a little side hallway. I put signs up outside the office but no one was going to see them unless they were coming to the health unit. And on any given Tuesday, no more than 3-4 people came into the health unit while I was there.

There was no one on the inside who "owned" the contract. This government agency has had massage therapy onsite for years. Each time an MT had to leave, they found their own replacement. Over time, it meant that whoever (in the agency) had been motivated to make massage happen there had either left or lost that feeling of responsibility for the massage work.

That second piece -- ownership on the inside -- is the thing that I've seen kill corporate contracts most often. If there isn't someone on the inside who feels a sense of ownership and personally wants to see it succeed, it won't succeed. I don't care how much of your heart, soul, and time you, the MT, pour into the work. If there's not someone carrying the flame when you aren't there, it won't last.

Your inside person doesn't have to be prowling the halls every day drumming up business for you. They do, however, have to have massage in their consciousness -- even if it's off to the side -- to notice opportunities to tell people that massage is available onsite.

Your inside person can be the receptionist (and that's always a great person to have on your side!), someone in HR, or just someone who wants massage for themselves. If there isn't some energy around massage even when you're not there, you may have a tough time keeping your schedule full.

The other thing I've seen is places where someone in management is worried about "pushing" massage on people. They're OK with you coming in but they don't want to remind people weekly that you're coming (too pushy) or they don't want to send messages out about massage except to people who've explicitly expressed an interest in massage (too pushy) or they don't want to let you put signs up that "the MT is IN" on the days you're there (too pushy).

Those contracts struggle as well.

It made me sad to say good-bye to this contract. I was excited about it in January. I was motivated to help it grow. I brought in things to make the massage room (yes, I had a dedicated massage room!) more attractive and friendly. I did special things to reach out to the employees of the agency.

None of it worked. When I gave my notice, no one blinked. They could barely rouse themselves to say good-bye when I walked out the door for the last time. That contract was dead.

I was tempted to try just a little harder....just one more thing....maybe offer a summer discount.....but the numbers told the story. It was dead.

It's tough to let these kind of relationships go. We want to believe that by dint of our own efforts or force of our personality we can Make. It. Work!  That's a trap you don't want to fall into. It's like dating -- if the other person isn't interested enough in you to show up, why are you still in the relationship?

So I left. It was time.