Doesn't Anybody Stay Around Any More?

Got a new client yesterday. He explained that he was in the market for an MT because his old MT had moved out of the area. He said he understood that happens a lot. We're so transient. After all, we have to follow our boyfriends/partners wherever they need to go for their career.

Ahem.

My feminist hackles rose and I was about to say something ... until I remembered that I closed my practice from 2010 - 2011 so my husband and I could live in Australia for a year, compliments of his job.

Ahem.

We are a transient bunch, aren't we? The "mobility" of our profession can be part of the draw. After all, we "can work anywhere".

Another aspect of this is that some MTs panic if a setting (gym, spa, group practice, etc.) isn't keeping their schedule full. We jump to another setting where it looks like we'll have a fuller schedule.

Here's some little factoids about our transient nature, based on my experience in (ahem) a lot of different settings in the last 13 years.

You lose clients every time you move. At least one, if not more. Maybe the new location isn't as convenient. Maybe they don't do change well. Maybe they were weren't all that attached to you and this is a chance to step away or try someone new. A new location has to bring new clients into your practice or you'll have a net loss of work.

You may need to re-apply for a license. Sure, you can "work anywhere" but lots of states do not simply let you transfer in from another state. You may need to go back to school if the new state has different educational requirements. You may need to get a NCBTMB certification again. You may have to take a certification exam again. No two states have the same regs.

You may have to start all over from scratch. If you shut your practice down for more than about 6 months, even if you've been in practice for years and years, clients won't wait forever. Particularly if you've done a really good job of making massage therapy an important part of their lives! (Ironic, isn't it?)

You will have to start all over from scratch. If you move to a completely new city/state/country, you've got to start all over from zero. It takes 2-5 years to build a sustaining private practice.

It can take up to six months to be fully integrated into an existing practice. If a new setting doesn't have a full schedule for you in the first month, don't be surprised.  It takes a while for clients to get a chance to work with you, especially if they were very devoted to someone else who left. Lots of people don't do change well. Patience, grasshopper, patience.

Even as an independent contractor you need to market yourself. If want your schedule to be more full get busy with your own marketing. Got your own business card? How about a website? Listed on "find a therapist" sites like AMTA and ABMP maintain? How about Yelp? Do you volunteer (strategically) in your community? Have you spent time figuring out the kind of client you'd like to attract? The price of your independence (as a contractor) is that you have some of the responsibility for attracting your own clients!

Yes, I get the irony of a website called "Have Hands, Will Travel" warning you about the challenges of pulling up stakes (even locally). In this case, it just means I really know what I'm talking about!