I cancelled clients so I could take a nap

On Mondays I work at a gym. This week when I walked in there were three people on my schedule and they were nicely spaced. I was pretty content. I was tired from a long series of events but I figured I could power through three and sleep in on Tuesday.

At the end of the first massage I went out to the front desk and told them to cancel the other two appointments. I was done for the day. I was going home to sleep.

Am I crazy?? How do you turn away scheduled (guaranteed income) clients? Especially one who made a point of booking with you that day because she was leaving on a trip the next day? Was I being indolent, lazy, unprofessional?

When I began the first appointment I realized as soon as I touched her that my fatigue was deeper than I'd realized. I was exhausted. I had trouble "reading" my hands. I had to stop (just for a moment) in the middle of the massage to remember what I was doing and why I was doing it. Shoot, I had trouble remembering what body part I was touching!

The massage went OK (believe it or not) but I knew three things:

1.  I could not give quality work to the next two clients.
2.  If I didn't go home and sleep -- a lot -- I was going to get sick.
3.  If I got sick, there was zero money coming into my practice for at least a week, if not longer.

#3 is the big one. The odds are you, like me, don't get sick leave. We don't get paid when we're home sick. If we're the only source of income our business has, that's critical.

I had to choose between cancelling two appointments or possible cancelling a week's worth of appointments (a good head/chest cold can take 3-7 days to clear enough to do massage responsibly). I'm the only real asset my practice has. Everything else -- everything else -- can be replaced. I can't.

Self-care is a critical business decision. Not just a high-sounding "we should all take care of ourselves" principle. It's how you have a profitable business. It's a business "best practices". It's the difference between short-term success and long-term failure.

You.Are.All.Your.Business.Has

The table? Replacable.
The linens? Replacable.
Your website? Replacable.

You?

When you are faced with taking care of yourself vs. seeing 1, 2, or 3 more clients, remember this: you are the only asset that can not be replaced.

p.s. I slept 11 hours Monday night and was able to resume a normal work schedule the next day.

So you're having a slow day / week / month / quarter....

I've spoken honestly here about the challenges in the last 2 years of re-starting my practice after being closed for a year. And I want to take this moment to say it looks like -- after almost 2 solid years of work -- my practice is hitting its stride again.

I'm meeting or exceeding my minimum financial goals most weeks. I'm attracting new clients every month. I have enough work in my home office to start to scale back my time at the gym across town. I can honestly see myself reaching my ultimate goal -- a private practice near (not in) my home in a space that I share with other practitioners -- in 2 years.

Yes, it's a relief.

But, remember, it took me two years of really working every avenue I had and could imagine to get here. Which meant I had plenty of slow days, weeks, months, and quarters. I've had days/weeks/etc. when I was very discouraged and anxious.

This week is going to be a slow/quiet week. With Independence Day in the middle of the week, people's schedules are out-of-whack. People are travelling. Thursdays are usually a busy day for me but I'm closed this Thursday.

Plus, I live in Washington DC. This is a city that takes Independence Day very seriously and formally. Folklife Festival down on The Mall. Big concert by the National Symphony Orchestra at the Capitol. Special bell-ringing at the National Cathedral. All the Smithsonian museums are open, including American History. The National Archives -- which houses the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights -- is open.

And let's not forget the fireworks!

Lots of distractions and lots of traffic. I'm closed on Independence Day because I'm 1.5 miles east of the Capitol. It's not worth it to try to get to my house after mid-day. In fact, I plan to be over on the Chesapeake Bay on Thursday, doing a little kayaking and watching the fireworks over the West River.

In short, it's not going to be a big money week.

When we have a low-money day/week/month/etc., what do we do (besides panic and/or get depressed)?

1. Gird yourself with facts to put the day/week/month in perspective.

How much money do you need to make per week / month / quarter to meet your basic needs (food, shelter, etc.)? If you don't know, you are vulnerable. If you do know, will this day / week / month put you in the hole? If not, quit panicking. If it will, decide what you're going to do about that.

Does this slow time signal a downturn in your business or is it a normal seasonal slump? If you've been in practice for more than 2 years, look at your schedule for the last two years and see if this is a pattern. Is the week of July 4th always slow? Is July always slow? Does it usually rebound next week or next month?

Is this happening just to you or to most MTs in your area? Talk to them. If it's just you then it's not the market. If it's not just you, then it's not your fault. In either case, talk among yourselves and see what the community's wisdom is around this slow time.

Many massage therapists place a lot of value in their intuition -- what does this situation feel like? -- but quite honestly our intuition around money and business can be clouded by fears, insecurities, lack of knowledge, etc. Undergird any instincts with facts.

2. Take the time to take care of your business.

Are there business activities / projects / initiatives you wanted to do but haven't had time for? Now's the time!

Does your website need to be updated? Or created????

Do you need to add online scheduling? Now's a good time to do the research and get that set up. How about accepting credit cards?

Is your filing a teetering tower on your desk? Time to reduce that fire hazard!

Is your bookkeeping up to date? Reeeeeallllly? (And I don't mean all your receipts are in a shoebox.)

Read the trade pubs lately? Massage Today? AMTA Massage Journal? Massage Magazine?

Have you been meaning to contact select PTs / chiropractors / orthopedists / dentists / etc. in your town? Time to draft a letter and schedule a visit / cup of coffee with them.

Got any books you've been meaning to get to? Business, anatomy, modalities, etc.?

Have you been wanting to come up to speed on the latest massage research (and, really, it would be a huge benefit to you and your clients if you did)?

How about self-study? Want to understand trigger points better? Need to review that stretching class you took last year? How about that marketing textbook you picked up at the last convention?

Is there a training class you've taken that you're still not quite comfortable with? Invite your clients, other MTs, and friends over for (low-cost) practice sessions. If you can get 4-6 sessions under your hands, you'll be a lot more comfortable (and it's a very subtle way to market the fact that you do this particular kind of work).

3.  Take the time to take care of yourself.

Self-care is an on-going challenge for all of us. All of us.

Gone for a long walk lately? Or bike ride? Or swim? Gotten your kayak in the water lately? Been camping recently?

How's your stretching regimen going? We're more credible when our clients learn that we practice what we preach. Same with massage. When was the last time you got a massage?

Has it been a long time since you've been to see your parents / grandparents / siblings / best friend? Is a road trip an option? Sometimes the best response to a panic attack about your business is to get the hell away from your business.

Are there good museums / theaters / artsy-fartsy offerings in your town? Are any of them free or low-cost?

Slept in recently? Tried any new recipes? Spent the whole day reading a good (non-massage-related) book? Caught up with the latest season of [fill in the blank]? What do you fantasize about doing when you're swamped by your schedule?


So, which of these three things should you do? ALL of them! Always start with #1. Too many of us are vague about the facts of our business. Don't assume, though, that you have to do #2 before you do #3. Sometimes, you should go straight from #1 to #3. We all know that we can't take care of anyone else (including our businesses) if we aren't taking care of ourselves.

A slow day / week / month / quarter is not the Kiss of Death. It's not The End of The World. It's just.....slow. What can you do with that (besides panic and depression)?

The Dreaded Elevator Speech

I first heard the phrase "elevator speech" in the early 80s. The idea is that you should be able describe your business / idea / work in 10-20 seconds (the amount of time you might be in an elevator with someone). But not just describe it but describe in such a compelling way (find just the right "gotcha" wording) to have your elevator-mate wow'd over by the time they got to their floor, begging you for more information.

Even as a word junkie, with a pretty decent vocabulary at hand, I found it an impossible task.

I've been coaching a therapist re-opening her practice after 6 years off. One of the first things she was anxious to do was write her "elevator speech". She was excited, thinking I would give her the exact right words to ensnare potential clients with the brilliance of her words. She'd just memorize it and shoot it out every time she got near a potential client.

She wasn't exactly right and she wasn't exactly wrong.

You may not call it an "elevator speech" but a lot of us have become aware that we only have a short amount of time (generally no more than 1-2 sentences) to describe our work in a way that engages the listener or piques their interest. When they are engaged / piqued they are open to hearing more. That's when you have the time to create a connection.

I teach a seminar on business plans (in July in DC, at the national AMTA convention in September). In discussions with a friend who's also a retired CFO (Chief Financial Officer) about executive summaries and mission statements, he said something that helped me get clear on this:

The Executive Summary is truly the "hook" or "pitch". Clearly it has importance if someone is looking for external funds but it's also the pitch that's used to "sell" to friends; it's intended to pull all the aspects [of the business] into a cohesive narrative. The mission statement is almost one level higher and where the individual (or management) is permitted to dream -- within the scope of resources identified in the plan.

So this is where the small business person / massage therapist usually freaks out but they need to see that they "speak" their Executive Summary every time they talk about their "business" to someone else.

While I can't wrap my brain around an elevator speech, I can craft a good mission statement (it helps to have good guidance; Jim Horan's One Page Business Plan in my case). A good mission statement says something creative, imaginative, and Big about how your practice will make a difference in the world. Mine is:

Help people live more peacefully in and with their bodies, while extending a spirit of acceptance, compassion, and hospitality.

I have this statement (or some version of it) everywhere in  my marketing material. My website, my FB page, my "new client" card, everywhere. It gives me a consistent "image". When it's a thing I speak, it's something like this: "I help people live in their bodies and I help people live with their bodies."

So, what do you do.......?



p.s. That's my mission statement. You'll have to draft your own!  :)

Biz Plans, Demystified

We've all heard of business plans. We've all heard they're "important". And most of us are more than a little nervous about them. The thing is, they can be an amazing tool - and friend - to help you take your practice where you want to go. And they can be relatively short and simple. Quite possibly even one page!

 

Are you going to be in / near Washington DC on July 10? Come join me for two hours on what a business plan is and how to make it work for you. We'll cover: 

 

 

• The basics of a "standard" business plan.
• What kind of questions you are trying to answer for yourself in a business plan.
• How to customize a business plan for your specific needs.

Not everyone needs a business plan but everyone can learn something important about themselves and their practice by working through the questions that are commonly found in business plans.

 

Business, Bite-Sized: Biz Plans, Demystified

Wednesday, July 10

6:30 - 8:30 pm

$40 ($45 at the door)

2 CEs for massage therapists

 

More Than "Just Enough"

Let's say you start up a practice that includes other practitioners. They all pay you rent or a split. As the owner, you take care of the "infrastructure" -- paying the rent, hiring and paying receptionists, marketing, furnishings, finding new practitioners when someone leaves, etc. Those "infrastructure" expenses are covered by the rent/split paid by the other practitioners. You also see your own clients.

Should you be making any money from your "owners" duties? Should you only be making enough from the other practitioner's rent/split to make ends meet for the infrastructure/business expenses, your own income coming from your own client sessions?

I'm surprised when I meet people who say yes, that somehow it would be unethical to draw a profit from the work of other practitioners, from the business you started, that you spend time and energy managing. That making money off other practitioners is somehow......greedy, not nice, ooky.

I learned recently of a local practice that has come up hard against this reality. Started many years ago and with a very good reputation, one of the owners wants to retire and would like to sell their share of the business.

Fair enough. The problem is, there's no profit to be derived from buying a share of this business. The owners charge the other practitioners juuuuuuust enough to pay for the "infrastructure" expenses but there's no extra. Consequently, there's no way you'll ever make your money back if you buy into that practice, much less make a profit from it.

A practice has to support itself and its owner. If there's only you, then all the money you  make has to pay your bills and the practice's bills. If you've got other practitioners working for you, the money they make has to pay the practice bills and it has to pay your bills. If you also see clients in a multi-therapist practice, then that money just rolls back into the business.

What does it mean for a practice to "support" you? In addition to paying its own bills, it should generate enough profit to:

• pay your living expenses
• fund your retirement
• create an "emergency" fund for you and for itself
• pay you when you're out sick or on vacation
• cover the "slow" times

That's the kind of basic calculations that go into figuring out how much money a practice should generate. There has to be more than "just enough".

Alternative Pricing Structures: Tabula Rasa Effect

Every now and then I meet a massage therapist who has organized their practice in a unique way. I recently met Charles Randall Monk in Woodworth LA and got a wonderful massage from him. He's doing things a little differently.

To cut to the chase, in each session he works as long as it takes to reach the client's goals, usually at least 90 minutes and it can be more than two hours. He charges a flat fee per session.

Why does he do that and how in the world does he make that work?

Charles was a nurse for more than 27 years, including 7 years as a flight nurse for the military, before he felt strongly called to become a massage therapist. Charles is a deeply spiritual man and most of his business and practice decisions are governed by what he believes serves God most.

"I could lock the doors tomorrow and the Spirit would lead me somewhere else. It's about being obedient to your soul." His prayer, he says, is "God give the discipline to meet my soul's desire."

While he was in school he was attracted to doing longer bodywork sessions. "You just knew that not every client had the same needs. The regular timeframe just didn't seem to work." Still, when he opened his practice he started with 60-minute sessions and 90-minute sessions. In his experience, a good session takes anywhere from 90 minutes to three hours.

He asks clients to clear a 3-hour window of time when they book an appointment to create a more relaxed, non-rushed atmosphere. My session was 2 hours and would have gone longer if I hadn't had to catch a plane. He stops at three hours; he finds that going more than three hours overloads the body.

Based on my session, the chief advantage of this approach (at least to the client) is that Charles can work as slowly and creatively as he wants. He is passionate about studying new modalities to incorporate into what he calls Integrative Body Therapy. My hip flexors are chronically shortened. He spent, I suspect, 30 minutes or more working just on my psoas, moving gently and slowly to ensure I wasn't in pain.

According to his website, "Tabula Rasa was born of a possibility to deliver a unique act of love to the Universe in an unconditional way." Tabula Rasa is Latin for "clean slate".

"I want to create a safe space for people to be themselves, to rest and be empowered to be present 'in the now' It is so powerful to sift out the things of this world that just aren't working for you."

Tabula Rasa is open from 10 am to 10 pm 5 days a week. Charles sees no more than 3 clients a day and gives himself 1-2 hours between them. This schedule gives him flexibility that he appreciates. "It allows me time to structure my day. It's about creating your own world, creating what you want, not what society tells you. There's something out there for everybody."

With a maximum of 15 clients he says "My schedule is as full as I need it to be." He advertises primarily by word of mouth.

He charges $100 for every session. "I'm blessed financially already" he says so he is not financially dependent on massage for his sole support.

"You do the right thing for the right reason. My attitude is 'it is enough'. That space allows an opening. I chose not to focus on 'what if's' because if you focus on those, that's what you get. I focus on the power of 'enough', not on fear and anxiety."

"I didn't have a business background so I had to feel around for what I was comfortable with charging. Because it is a gift of the hands it was hard at first for me to accept money."

He says he can't imagine any reason he would change this way of working. "I know what I wanted for my life. I never had a doubt it would work. I chose to live in a space of balance for myself and for my clients."

I can tell you I will be booking another session with him when I return to Louisiana and I will leave a 3-hour block of time open for it.

"It's Quick & Easy!"

There are so many things you can do for your business, so many services, so many social media options, so many ways to have a presence "out there" where all those potential clients are.

I've spent about 8 hours, so far, getting online scheduling set up for my clients. I'm pretty sure there's more to do but I think I've got it (mostly) set up now.

Eight hours.

That's one whole work day. It's not that I chose bad scheduling software. It's just that it takes time to work everything out, learn my way around the website, test it, etc.

An entire work day.

There are a lot of voices insisting we just have to do this, that, and the other thing. Right now! Preferably yesterday! It gives me jitters sometimes.

In business, everything seems to take longer than I expect it to. I used to beat myself up for being "behind" on my Grand Plans. I have to remember that there's only one person in this business and I have to do everything, including actually massaging people! And get some sleep and spend time with my husband and be involved in the community and stay in touch with my family and ... and ... and... well, you get the picture.

Is this you too? If so, be easy on yourself. You probably are really and truly doing the best you can. Perfection is not an option (and nothing is ever as quick and easy as they tell you it's going to be!).