Contraindications for Business

I've been moving much more slowly for the last month or two because of  my mom's death. I've decided this is not the time for big decisions or significant changes to my practice.

It's not easy, frankly. I don't think I'm unusual in that when I'm in a period of transition, especially one that's best served by moving low-and-slow, I just want to do something. It's also tempting to want to change things as a distraction from all these messy emotions.

So many of us are already not operating from our strongest position when it comes to the business aspect of our practices, especially if it involves money or numbers. If you add the complicating factors of personal loss, change, or pain and that's a recipe for a bad decision.

The recovery community used the acronym HALT to identify the times when you shouldn't make big decisions.

Hungry
Angry
Lonely
Tired

I'd probably add Scared or Loss (SHALLT?).

But sometimes you don't have that luxury. You've already started some change or circumstances force you to make significant decisions. It happens. That's a time to take advantage of trusted colleagues and friends. Bring them into the decision-making process. Have them "check your work", offer feedback. Take advantage of additional brains, eyes, and hearts.

I had coffee yesterday with business coach Jodi Scholes. Last year I had decided that one of my goals in 2014 was to move my practice out of the house. I want to do that even more right now (probably that "I want to do something" urge).

I was able to lay out all my circumstances and get her feedback on both moving my practice and how to be ready for some of the other possible changes later this year. I had so many options and opportunities floating around in my head I was getting a headache! She was able to cut through the confusion and see some things I hadn't seen and help me dream bigger than I would have on my own.

All while encouraging me to do this as slowly as I can. It was great advice and I feel a lot calmer. More importantly, I feel supported. I'm not alone. I have someone I can trust and turn to.

It'll be OK.

Business Education? Where????

If you're like me, you were launched into massage therapy without sufficient business education. I love and respect my alma mater (and they've definitely expanded the biz education since I graduated) but I came out with very little practical knowledge about business.

When I begin one of my business classes I admit I am entirely self-taught, which means all I can give anyone is practical information. Not much on the academic side (find an MBA for that). But where does one get practical, useful business education?

Thankfully, the picture has improved a lot in the last 15 years. Here are some you've probably thought about and a few you might not have.

The Healing Core

OK, this is blatant self-promotion since this is the small training company I co-own and through which I teach Business, Bite-Sized. Right now our courses are only available in Washington DC, though if you'd like to sponsor us, we love a good road trip!

American Massage Therapy Association or Associated Bodywork and Massage Professionals

Both offer online courses. ABMP has more practical information in their magazine. AMTA has an annual convention that offers business courses (taught by MTs to MTs). I especially love the class taught by Margo Bowman (bookkeeping and taxes). She'll be at the convention in Denver in September.

At Peace Media

They are developing quite the library of online videos and webinars, including a growing list about business subjects. I did my first webinar with them in March on how to assess the health of your practice (how are you really doing?). When you have an option to search their listings by modality, enter "business".

Community colleges

If you'd like to get a basic academic understanding of business, look for a 100-level class in their business or business administration listings. Check to see what their policies are for people who want to take a single class rather than pursue and AA degree. Check whether courses are in-classroom or online. You may not have to live near the college to take advantage of what they've got to offer.

Your local college / university

I just discovered that UDC (University of the District of Columbia) has their own continuing ed offerings (though they don't fulfill MT licensing requirements) on very practical business skills. I'm taking a 6-week online course this summer on building a WordPress website. They have several other offerings that look good to me too and they're all online and very affordable.

Colleges and universities may also have special deals for locals who aren't pursuing a degree but want to take a class here and there.


There are more and more places you can get practical business education and a lot of it is online. Dig a little and see what's out there that can help you.

Private Practice Fatigue

In my last post, I shared the challenges I'm facing right now following my mom's death. As part of my "respect your grief" process, I'm only doing those things that absolutely must be done (being ready when a client arrives, for example). I'm also checking in with myself about what I feel able to do at any given time.

Consequently, a lot of things I normally do are not happening. It makes me realize in part that I am often one busy hummingbird of a business owner! My (still) limited energies point out to me how much energy it takes to run a private practice. I'm in the middle of it so often I don't see it.

Many of us come to a point where we say "I'm tired of making money for other people! I'm going to open my own practice!!" It's what launches many of us into private practice.

Then we discover how much work it is and how many things have to be done by guesswork (especially things like marketing; who knows what really works for any given practice??). I find that the ratio of "hours spent running the practice" to "hours spent with clients" is 3:1 or 2:1 in any given week.

I know that in a few years when my re-built practice is fully up to speed, it might get down to 1:1. Experience, however, suggests that the "practice management" tasks will always take up at least half of my time in a week.

I'm seriously contemplating whether it isn't time to close the doors on my private practice, find a group practice I respect, and let someone else do the bulk of the practice management tasks (for which I will happily share a percentage of the income!). I've realized that the energy that would be freed up could go to my writing and my teaching, which are getting the scraps of time and energy these days.

Private practice isn't inherently better or worse than working for someone else. There are a lot of satisfactions that come with it and a lot of freedom. What is important is to get a brutally honest picture of what it takes and what it gives, be painfully honest with yourself about your strengths and weaknesses, and make a decision fully informed.

My pondering continues.

To Strive. Or Not. An Existential Dilemma

I haven't posted much since the end of February. This has been an emotionally grueling year and I find myself questioning some fundamental attitudes towards work, business, and self.

In January, my mother's accelerating dementia led her assisted living facility to suggest we bring in hospice for a consultation. We did and they agreed Mom was a candidate.

Dementia has a perverse "gift": you get lots of time to anticipate decline and departure. I'd been anticipating her death for many months before that but the decision to join with hospice still swept my legs out from under me emotionally. I was a mess for a while.

I had a long-planned month-long trip to Australia set for mid-March. My sisters and I agreed that I should go. We had no idea how Mom's decline was going to actually progress (hint: it's never as linear as you discover you've secretly expected).

When I arrived in Australia in mid-March I found myself unwilling to stay connected to my professional life. I checked in with my sisters regularly and otherwise simply enjoyed myself. I visited friends and places I had loved while I lived there. Periodically I would stop and say to myself "I feel...happy. Just....happy." I realized I hadn't felt that for a long time.

On April 17, 2 days before I returned to DC, my mother died. Thanks be to God that she was finally liberated from a body that had ceased to be able to truly support her. I wish she'd been liberated sooner.

Again, long-anticipated but it still knocked me for a loop. I briefly considered seeing clients the next week but everyone told me that was a crazy idea so I closed my practice for a week. My primary experience of that week and her funeral was of fatigue and a marked mental slowness/fogginess.

I'm not so much missing my mom right now as finally raising my head from 20 years of increasing responsibility, with my sisters, for my parents' life and health. I find myself only just now realizing how much of myself that took and wondering what I do now.

But, of course, I re-opened my practice this week. Gotta work! Blessedly, the schedule was light because I'm still plagued by fatigue and mental swiss-cheese-y-ness.

Today I had what I consider an optimal schedule -- 4 hours of appointments, reasonably spaced. And yet, by the end of the day, I was drained and had a thumb that throbbed with pain (as in "can't hold a glass or grip a toothbrush" pain). That's extremely rare for me.

On top of all of this, I learned (one week before my mom died) that my husband's job may present me with an opportunity at the end of the year to make dramatic changes in my professional life.

Here's what I find myself pondering in the middle of the night (husband snores, might as well blog!).

Conventional wisdom is that running your own business is hard work and takes a lot of energy, focus, and commitment. There's always something more you could be doing. You are, in effect, always striving. That is the path to success / financial stability. That's certainly the way I've been running my practice for 14 years!

However, the path to emotional / spiritual / psychological health for me is the opposite. Ease, gentle application of energy, non-attachment. Not striving. Deciding what to do today, tomorrow, this month, this year by listening to my body, heart, and soul. Trusting that my life will be abundant and right by trusting the voices of my body, heart, and soul.

Which usually means doing less than conventional wisdom suggests is necessary to run a stable, full, healthy business.

I really really want to be financially stable. I want a robust practice and a beefy client base. My family and heritage believe that hard work (grunt!) is the only way to get what you want out of life. Push, struggle, head down, strive!

I also really really want to be emotionally, spiritually, and psychologically healthy. Sane. With a nervous system that isn't taut enough to be plucked like a banjo string.

On the one hand....on the other hand....

My experience is that decisions rarely come down to either / or. There is virtually always a third choice, though it may take some time to figure out what that is. I'm sure there's a third choice here. I can't see it from where I stand (OK, sit) tonight.

What does it mean to be a massage therapist? A business owner? A 53-year-old woman with no more parents? A human being?

What -- in 5, 10, 20 years -- will I be pleased that I invested my energy in?

Tonight (I think it's actually become "this morning") I don't have the answers. Given that I'm grieving, I'm not going to make any drastic changes to my life or my work. But I will ponder.

Answering those thorny $$ questions

Do you ever ask yourself these kind of questions:

I know how much money I'm making but am I actually making a profit?

Isn't there an easier way to do my quarterly / annual taxes?

Wonder how much my practice is worth.....could I sell it?

Is my client list worth any money?

Am I going to make enough money to pay my taxes / take continuing ed / buy a new table / etc.? 

How many massages do I need to do just to break even this week / month / quarter / year?

Did that new marketing campaign / online scheduling / groupon / etc. actually make me any money?


There are pretty simple ways to answer these questions and to assess the health of your practice in general (always a good idea; think of it as a wellness visit for your practice). Just last week I recorded my first webinar, with At Peace Media, to show you how.

The webinar (Taking the Temperature of Your Practice) will be available next week (March 18) as part of a package of great and useful webinars. Most are 1-3 hours, so they're easy to digest and all are eligible for CEs.

Check it out (see what I really look like!) and become just a wee bit wiser next week.

The Death of the Non-Compete Clause

Have you been an independent contractor? Did your contract include a non-compete clause (which says who you can and can't work for while you're working with them or after you leave)? It was a waste of paper.

Non-compete clauses are not enforceable in independent contracts. They're barely enforceable for standard employment contracts.

I learned this last week in a fascinating conversation with an HR professional, Angelique Andrea of HR Awakening. I'd seen them and heard of them forever. They have caused a lot of consternation, anxiety, and frustration.

And they're not enforceable.

Why? Very simply, one company cannot tell another company where, how, and when they do business. When you are brought on as an independent contractor, you are brought on as a business, not an employee. In fact, part of being a "real" independent contractor is that you are continuing to look for work, market your services, etc.

But....but....but.....you keep reading contracts with a non-compete clause in it! And they assure you the contract has been reviewed by a lawyer! Still not enforceable (not illegal, just not enforceable).

A contract can include a non-solicitation clause. This clause defines the "rules" that govern whether you can actively recruit the company's clients or employees, both while you're there and after you leave. Those are enforceable (of course, within reason).

But that pesky non-compete clause? Waste of good paper.

What do you do if faced with one? Continue to negotiate (you are negotiating, yes??) and point out that the non-compete clause isn't enforceable and you'll need it dropped from the contract before you can sign it.

Still not sure? Talk to a human resources professional, an employment lawyer, or a contract lawyer (I am none of these). Contact Angelique at HR Awakening. She's researched this specifically for the massage therapy profession, at my request.

It continues to be very important that we take ourselves seriously as businesses. A good business owner understands what is reasonable in a contract and what isn't. It's just part of being a smart business person.

No One Knows What They're Doing

My alma mater, Potomac Massage Training Institute, has a Job Fair twice a year for alumnae. They invite local companies to have a table and meet the MTs. My biz partner, Kitty Southworth, and I have had a table there the last few job fairs to promote our continuing ed offerings.

Each time we offer a drawing and often a give-away. We offer things that can be used early on in beginning a practice. It's been different every time but one thing has been common: lackluster response.

I'm going again this week but I've been thinking a lot about when and how to connect with people.

The first thing I've learned is that people have to be in the right frame of mind for what you are offering. If they're busy thinking about buying a car, comparing make and model, or looking at different financing, for example, they aren't going to respond to material about massage. Sure, they're stressed. Sure, a massage would be great. But they aren't in a massage-buying frame of mind.

I'm wondering if the participants are in the wrong frame of mind at the job fair. They are all focused on where they want to work, who they can get an interview with, is their resume in order, etc. They aren't thinking about continuing education (even though we offer classes on business, including independent contracting!). They are laser focused on getting a job.

It's difficult to understand just when someone will be in the right frame of mind to hear and respond to your message. It just is. It's a lot of guesswork. I could get down about that but then I remember that Ford and Dell and Target and every other company all have the same challenge; while they've got the money to get much more sophisticated advice, they're still guessing at some level.

It's why I think one of the first things you've got to do when building a private practice is figure out who you want your client to be. Who's not just a fit but a great fit for you.

Once you know who you're trying to attract, you can begin to try to see their world as they experience it. It improves the odds of creating marketing that will work (as opposed to a scatter-shot approach where you try to appeal to everyone).

We've all only got so much time, energy, and money. Let's not waste it. And here's hoping I make a good connection with at least a few people Friday night.