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?
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