Last Tuesday found me in an ICU in central Louisiana, sitting next to a friend as he breathed his last. In 3-1/2 weeks he had gone from "what do you mean I'm riddled with cancer?" to the end of this earthly existence.
As you can imagine, it took everyone in his life by shock and was a whirlwind of grief, panic, and confusion. I am grateful I was able to be by his side when he died.
John was more than a friend -- and he was a great friend of almost 30 years -- he was also a key member of my informal "board of directors". I can't possibly know everything I need to know to run my business but when I look around at my friends and colleagues, I realize I have access to a great depth of professional experience.
John for business and financial advice
Adriana for marketing advice
Margo for taxes, taxes, taxes!
My husband Jeff for a reality-check
Kitty for imagination (and also reality check)
Rich and Lizzie for editorial help
Clare for building quality adult education
There are more.
John, a retired accountant and investment manager 14 years my senior, was particularly important for helping me develop my business, bite-sized courses. A primary focus of those is "translating" business concepts to language that makes them more accessible (and useful) to massage therapists. I often ran things past John just to make sure that in the process of "translation" I hadn't left solid business truths behind.
When I first talked to him about my very different approach to business plans, he huffed and puffed a bit ("that's not the way one talks about business plans!") (he was also English so saying "the way one talks" just sounded so much cuter coming from him).
But then he stopped, really thought about what I was saying, critically examined whether I was saying anything wrong and, God bless him, asked me good questions about massage therapists so he could understand why I felt the need to re-cast the traditional business plan.
And then gave me invaluable feedback on what worked, where I could get more info, and where I was perfectly right to present things in a non-traditional way. And a lot of encouragement to keep doing what I do.
We all need people to advise us on the things we aren't so knowledgeable about. It's OK (possibly even wise) to admit -- out loud -- what you don't know and ask for help. Sometimes, you need to pay a professional. Sometimes you can find support among your existing circle of friends and family (as long as you don't abuse it!).
I will miss John keenly for a long time as a great friend and fellow trouble-maker in the 4th pew on Sunday morning. I will also miss the wise advisor who encouraged me and supported me in ways I needed.
RIP John. I hope the angels sang you home.
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
Did We Bring This On Ourselves?
I was working with a new massage therapist recently. She wants to work for someone else while she gets her legs under her and can build a private practice. Gyms, spas, and chiropractors would not be great fits for her but a group practice would be.
When I started to list group practices that were geographically convenient and well-run, it ended up being a surprisingly short list. That's depressing.
Here's a hard but true fact: franchises like Massage Envy are successful in part because they fulfill a need we have and we aren't filling for ourselves as well as we could. In short, they give MTs a place to work who just need a place to work. They give those MTs a full schedule and an organized environment.
Yes, it comes with some significant disadvantages and they aren't always run in our best interest but I could say that about gyms, chiropractors, spas, cruise ships, and every other place we work as well. As long as most of the places we can work are run by non-massage-therapists, we will always be at a disadvantage.
Yes, there are MT-led group practices but (1) there's not enough of them and (2) some of them are run as poorly as places that aren't massage-centric. Too many of these businesses are being run haphazardly and by the seat of the owner's yoga pants.
I will be the first to say that many of us are not cut out to manage a multi-therapist practice and it would be a mistake to try. But there are those who could and who aren't. Why not?
Probably because they recognize how much work it is and they don't have the training or support to set such a practice up well. Or they have done it and they're doing it poorly because (again) they don't have the training or support to run it well.
Where is that knowledge, training, and experience in our profession?
There are coaches who can walk you through that one on one if you're willing to spend the time and money (and it would be time and money well-spent with the right coach). I don't think there are enough of them either, though.
What about the people already running successful well-respected group practices? Are they sharing their wisdom? What would happen if each person running a successful multi-therapist practice set up an apprenticeship or internship with the conscious intent to teach another MT how to run their own multi-therapist practice? How powerful a transformation would that create?
I would love, love, LOVE to see us leading us. I would love to see us employing us. I would love to see us owning franchises (and, believe it or not, there are massage therapists who own Massage Envy franchises!). I would love to see us grabbing the reins of our own profession and riding it boldly into the future.
Do you have the temperament, interest, and/or ability to run a multi-therapist practice? If the answer is yes and ...
... you're not doing it, why not?
... you are doing it, where did you learn how to do it?
When I started to list group practices that were geographically convenient and well-run, it ended up being a surprisingly short list. That's depressing.
Here's a hard but true fact: franchises like Massage Envy are successful in part because they fulfill a need we have and we aren't filling for ourselves as well as we could. In short, they give MTs a place to work who just need a place to work. They give those MTs a full schedule and an organized environment.
Yes, it comes with some significant disadvantages and they aren't always run in our best interest but I could say that about gyms, chiropractors, spas, cruise ships, and every other place we work as well. As long as most of the places we can work are run by non-massage-therapists, we will always be at a disadvantage.
Yes, there are MT-led group practices but (1) there's not enough of them and (2) some of them are run as poorly as places that aren't massage-centric. Too many of these businesses are being run haphazardly and by the seat of the owner's yoga pants.
I will be the first to say that many of us are not cut out to manage a multi-therapist practice and it would be a mistake to try. But there are those who could and who aren't. Why not?
Probably because they recognize how much work it is and they don't have the training or support to set such a practice up well. Or they have done it and they're doing it poorly because (again) they don't have the training or support to run it well.
Where is that knowledge, training, and experience in our profession?
There are coaches who can walk you through that one on one if you're willing to spend the time and money (and it would be time and money well-spent with the right coach). I don't think there are enough of them either, though.
What about the people already running successful well-respected group practices? Are they sharing their wisdom? What would happen if each person running a successful multi-therapist practice set up an apprenticeship or internship with the conscious intent to teach another MT how to run their own multi-therapist practice? How powerful a transformation would that create?
I would love, love, LOVE to see us leading us. I would love to see us employing us. I would love to see us owning franchises (and, believe it or not, there are massage therapists who own Massage Envy franchises!). I would love to see us grabbing the reins of our own profession and riding it boldly into the future.
Do you have the temperament, interest, and/or ability to run a multi-therapist practice? If the answer is yes and ...
... you're not doing it, why not?
... you are doing it, where did you learn how to do it?
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