Which Type of MT Are You?

How would you define a "massage therapist"?

That's actually an important question in our profession. The answer governs how:

• professional organizations serve us.
• states write massage regulations.
• schools structure their professional training programs.
• national chains work with us.
• we talk to each other about what our profession needs
• we see the future of our profession.
• continuing ed is (and isn't) developed and offered to us.
• we want the public to see us.
• we identify and work on problems in our profession.

Here's the thing: there isn't one definition of "massage therapist". There are at least 5 valid "sectors" of MTs (based on my experience and observation; there could absolutely be more). As long as we fail to recognize that, we've got problems in all those situations I listed above.

Each type:

• defines its goals differently.
• attracts clients for different reasons.
• has its own priorities when it comes to initial and continuing education.
• has a different vision of the future of our profession.
• has different financial opportunities.
• even has its own language / vocabulary.

And each of them are a valid way of being a "massage therapist".

By the way, these sectors are not exclusive. There is overlap between many of them. Massage therapists can also practice in more than one sector.

Medical / clinical MTs are deep into the physical anatomy. They are drawn to solving problems and helping people improve their physical functioning. You find them in chiropractor offices, working with PTs, sometimes in hospitals. They are drawn to working with athletes, the ill, and anyone else with a condition or problem to solve.

Asian medicine MTs work with clients primarily through the modalities from the Eastern traditions. Ayurvedic. Shiatsu. Acupressure. They can be similar to the medical / clinical crowd but they're using different tools.

Energy healing MTs are drawn to working with the energetic body -- chakras, auras, etc. They are the "woo-woo" community in our midst.  :)  Reiki, Brennan, Donna Eden, chakra clearing are all types of energy work.

Spas are environments that work to provide a specific kind of relaxing, soothing environment for the client. These MTs are also more likely to do skin treatments. They don't exclusively provide relaxation -- the often include offerings from the other sectors -- but they provide a lot of relaxation. This is the "feel good" segment of our world.

I've left health & wellness for last because I think this may actually be the biggest sector. I call them the jacks/jills-of-all-trades. They combine a hodge-podge of modalities in their work and address a broad spectrum of clients. A lot (most?) of our group practices are in the health & wellness because they often try to provide the broadest range of possibilities. The MTs who fit most snugly in this category aren't drawn to specializing in one of the other sectors. They like to mix it all up.

There are also our cousins / neighbors who are developing training and products specifically for us as well as those who are providing all that business development consulting.

A friend of mine is a librarian working in corporate environments. In her industry, there are recognized sectors / sub-specialities of librarians that have their own professional organizations, their own issues and challenges, and their own training. They don't, generally, fight among themselves about who's a "real" librarian and who isn't. They recognize each other as deserving of the title "librarian".

Why don't we do that? Why are we still fighting with each other about what a "real" massage therapist is? How much energy would be freed up if we stopped these arguments for something more productive for our profession?

Based on some of the invective I've seen and heard, the answer is "a lot of energy".

I'm definitely in the "health & wellness" sector with my other foot in training and business development. My clients come for relaxation, to have pain reduced, to live more peacefully with long-term conditions, and often just to cope with living long enough to have age-related issues. I use more clinically-oriented techniques like myofascial release but I'll also do some chakra clearing if that's called for. I'm eyeballing training for next year in lymph drainage, reiki, and acupressure.

What about you? Where do you find yourself, most or all of the time? What excites you and governs how you understand the massage therapy world?

Comparing Apples to Lawn Furniture

You're looking at your options:

Setting 1: your work for yourself out of your home. You charge $80 / hour.

Setting 2: you work in a group practice. They charge $80 / hour. You get 50% of that ($40).

Setting 3: you work for a chain. They charge $65 / hour. You get $20.

It's obvious that working for yourself out of your home is the absolute best way to go and you'll definitely make the most money that way, right? Why would anyone work for someone else??

What you've just done is compare, head to head, apples and lawn furniture and used the results to decide which type of car to buy.

It absolutely matters how much money we make. You know what matters even more? How much money we get to keep and how much work it takes to make that money!

If you want to have a good life as a massage therapist, you have got to look at more than "how much money do I make per massage". That is one small part of the equation. Here's the full equation:

How much money can I make as a massage therapist?
 
minus
 
What will it cost me to run my practice?
 
divided by
 
How much effort will it take me to make that money?

Let's take a look at each of these questions in a little more detail.

How much money can I make as a massage therapist?

This a good place to start. This question has a little equation built in as well:

How much per massage x how many massages + tips

That first part -- how much per massage -- is where too many of us stop. But you're still reading so let's keep going.

How many massages? When we compare private practice to group practice to a massage chain, there really is a difference between how many massages you're likely to do in a week.

In private practice, some of us have full schedules most of the time. Many of us don't. It takes constant marketing to fill your schedule. That takes time and energy.

In a group practice, having a full schedule depends on how good the owner is at marketing the practice. Read manymessage boards and you'll learn pretty quickly that lots of owners aren't necessarily any better at filling the calendar than we are.

One of the things a massage chain has going for it is that they do marketing really really well. And they've got the budget (and national office support) for it. So you're more likely to have a full schedule at a decently-run massage chain.

Let's look at tips then. Lots of clients have a complicated chart in their head when it comes to tipping. Are you the owner? Are you working out of commercial space (i.e., do you have a lot of overhead)? Are you a health necessity or a luxury? It seems those first two -- owner, commercial space -- affect the tips the most.

I find that in my home office, I get very few tips. Your experience may vary. I figure about 10% of my clients tip me.

When I worked in a group practice, I got more tips. Not 100% of the time but probably 50% of the time.

From the conversations I've had with people working for corporate massage chains, tipping is the norm. Closer to 100% of the time.

What will it cost me to run my practice?

We really don't think this through well enough! Often because we don't want to think about it. It makes us feel nervous, uncertain, incompetent, uneducated, overwhelmed (not to mention frustrated). It can make us feel lots of unpleasant things.

Plus, it involves the not-fun part of math (that is, the subtracting-from-what-we-make kind).

Calculating the costs of running a practice often comes down to the difference between being self-employed, an independent contractor, or an employee.

Working out of my home means I am self-employed. Here's a rule of thumb for being self-employed in virtually any profession: 50% of your income will go to your expenses.

Yep, I said 50%. Ouch. But I can also say that having analyzed years of my own business bookkeeping gives credence to that number.

Again, ouch.

Why? You buy your own massage supplies and office supplies. You pay for all of your own marketing. You pay for the laundry. You pay 100% of your taxes. You pay for all of your licensing and continuing ed. You pay for your scheduling software and credit card charges. You drive to the bank. You suck up the discounts. Etc. Etc. Etc.

It's all you, baby.

If I work for a group practice, the odds are I'm an independent contractor. Some of my costs go away / are covered by "the split":  space rental, massage equipment, some office equipment, some marketing expense, laundry. You've still got your license, continuing ed, taxes, some of your marketing (because you should still be putting at least some effort into marketing yourself).

When I worked for a group practice as an independent contractor, I found my expenses were more like 40% of my income.

Most people working at massage chains are employees. Virtually all of the expenses (beyond your license and about 75% of your taxes) are paid for by the employer. Plus you might (depends on the chain) get paid health insurance and paid time off, something you pay for yourself as a self-employed MT or an IC.

So your expenses drop down to more like 20-30% of your income.

How much effort will it take me to make that money?

You know, none of us have endless energy or endless time (if you do, don't tell me, it'll just depress me). So we really do ourselves a disservice when we don't take the amount of time and energy it takes to run a practice into consideration.

This is an entirely personal calculation -- how much time and energy (and interest) do you have for the business of massage -- but let me give you some numbers, short and sweet, based on my experience and lots of interviews:

Self-employed home-based practice: 40-50% of my time and energy goes to managing the practice. This includes the time I spend randomly worrying about whether I'm doing the right thing or have forgotten something or should be trying something new or....

Independent contractor in a group practice: 20-30% of my time and energy goes to worrying whether the owner is keeping my schedule full, doing my bookkeeping, staying on top of my license and continuing ed, paying my quarterly and annual taxes, helping with laundry, and (if the owner isn't keeping my schedule full) worrying about whether I should jump ship or wait for things to get better...

Employee in a massage chain: 15-25% of my time and energy goes to keeping up with the schedule (every hour on the hour!), worrying about whether I'm being taken advantage of or could be doing better elsewhere, possibly stewing about being expected to do too many massages in a day, and filing my annual taxes.


How much money can I make as a massage therapist?
 
minus
 
What will it cost me to run my practice?
 
divided by
 
How much effort will it take me to make that money?

Sometimes working for yourself is the best way to go. Sometimes working for someone else is. You have to ask yourself deeper questions about what you're good at outside the massage room, what kind of energy and enthusiasm you have for running a business, what the rest of your life needs from you, etc.

Don't start and stop at the "how much money do I make per massage". You deserve a better-thought-through answer than that will  provide.

At the end of the day, all you have is your time, energy, and skills. Spend them wisely.

They're Not Out To Get You

When you opened your doors, what other practice were you hoping to put out of business? Whose clients were you planning to steal? What were your specific plans to have complete control over your area?

What?? Those weren't your goals when you opened your practice, were they? You weren't out to conquer and defeat every other massage practice in a 10-mile radius, were you? You weren't trying to put anyone out of business, you were just trying to take care of yourself I bet. Me too.

So why do we take it so personally when another massage practice opens up in our area (corporate chain or not)? Why do we assume they have it in for us, personally? Why do we assume they live and breathe (and structure their fees) specifically to put us out of business?

We don't think that, you say! Oh, yes we do. Lots of us think that if a practice in the next neighborhood offers deep discounts or a fancier spa experience, it's because they want to drive us out of business. We presume that Massage Envy / Hand & Stone / Massage Heights / etc. looked around with a wicked gleam in their eye and said "you, yes you!, I'm putting YOU out of business by stealing ALL of your clients!" And then they probably rubbed their hands together maniacally while chuckling "bwahahahahaha!"

Most people, even most chains, open their doors because they see an opportunity for themselves to make money. They see a need not entirely being met. They've structured their business (including their rates) to attract the people they think will be most profitable for them.

Just like you did (I hope).

Now, there are businesses that will specifically target their competition with the firm intent of putting them out of  business. I could tell you the story of an outcall business that moved into DC about 15 years ago and very intentionally set out to drive the pre-existing outcall business out of business. And they were nasty and underhanded about it (and they were that way in most of their business dealings, which is why they had a terrible reputation among the local massage community). Those people do exist, unfortunately (and, quick Google search, yep they're still in business in Washington DC though I haven't heard anyone talk about them in years so I suspect they aren't doing a lot of business in DC).

But they really are the exception (which is why I remember them so well). It's rare for a massage practice (yes, including a massage chain) to open with the express purpose of putting you out of business. Oh, if they've done their homework they know you exist and they have an idea of the size and strength of your practice. But they probably think there's enough business still out there for them to thrive as well.

It's not personal.

Does that mean having competitors doesn't affect us? Of course not! And we affect them (didn't think about that, did you?). It's part of being in business.

So what do we do about competition? I'd suggest, first, quit thinking of it as "competition" and start thinking of it as "the marketplace" in which our clients (or potential clients) move and make choices.

You are part of the marketplace. Other MTs are part of the marketplace. Other remedies for their particular woes (gym, personal trainers, talk therapists, physical therapists, acupuncturists, chiropractors, etc.) are also part of the marketplace.

How well are you making yourself visible in that marketplace?

How do your offerings (and hours and rates and scheduling processes and payment options, etc.) stack up against the others in the marketplace?

How well are you getting your message out to the people who are your ideal clients?

How well are you integrated with others in the marketplace?


"Competition"  It's not personal and they aren't (or at least rarely) out to get you. Take it as an invitation to keep yourself sharp. Take it as an invitation to stay focused on keeping your practice alive, relevant, and healthy.

(Because they're not going away.)

How to Make A Beautiful Massage Room Not So Beautiful

I've spent months buying all my supplies and outfitting a beautiful treatment space! I throw open the doors next week! I just need someone to tell me how to get clients....

It's fun to create a beautiful massage rooms. Lighting, colors, furniture, maybe a towel warmer, etc. A lot of fun. Such a personal expression of our passion and personality.

It's not, however, where you start.

First, you need to figure out how you are going to attract clients to that beautiful massage room. Hint: they don't show up just because you've opened for business. Even if you've already spent a lot of time and money on supplies and your work space.

What if you bought your wedding outfit, booked the ceremony space, booked the reception space, chose the caterer, hired the DJ, worked out the invitation list, created your gift registry, planned your honeymoon, and designed the invitation and THEN started looking for a spouse?

Right.

FIRST. Find your clients.

FIRST.

Which means first, figure out your business.

• What is your mission and vision?
• Who are your ideal clients?
• Where do you find them?
• What, specifically, are you offering them (hint: it needs to be more specific and nuanced than "massage therapy").
• What are your policies and procedures?
• How much do you need to make?
• What discounts will you offer (strategically!)?
• And more. So much more.

The odds are you don't really know the answers to these questions. That's OK, a lot of us don't, especially when we're getting started. So you need to do your research, read, and learn. Maybe you need to spend money on a business coach rather than on that towel warmer. If it's builds your practice quickly, you'll be able to afford that towel warmer in no time!

But if you don't know the answers to these questions, you are not ready to spend money / incur debt buying your supplies and getting your beautiful room ready. You just aren't.

You are not ready to open your business until you know (1) who your customers are, (2) how to reach them, and (3) what they want. And you have to be very very specific in how you answer these questions. The more vague your answers, the more vague your growth will be.

If you don't have at least a marketing plan -- and have already started to implement it -- you aren't ready to open your doors. Because you haven't laid the groundwork to get clients.

You can plan your massage room while you are building your marketing plans but you can't put the room before the clients (cart before horse, etc.)

We don't want to think about that. We'd rather think about lighting and color schemes and what we'll put on the walls. But a beautiful room that is empty becomes a not-so-beautiful room quickly.

p.s. yes, it would be wonderful if we learned this in school. But most of us didn't because, frankly, our instructors didn't necessarily know this either. Which is why people like me (and Allissa Haines and Jodi Scholes and all the rest of us massage-business-warriors) exist and keep banging our drums.

Death To Tips!

I worked so hard and they only tipped me xxx! I will never book them again!

I did such great work and they only tipped me xxx! What does that mean?

They didn't tip! What did I do wrong??

I only got a 10% tip! How cheap are they??

I work in a chiropractor's office and I hardly ever get tips! What can I do to get people to tip me??

Is it OK to put up a sign telling people they should tip? Is there a way to do that tastefully? [hint: no and no]

These are the kind of comments that come up all the time on massage therapy boards on the internet.

We need to quit obsessing about tips. In fact, we need to quit thinking about them altogether if we can. Being part of the "tipping culture" isn't doing us any favors.

I lived in Australia for a year. They don't tip. The price you see on a menu is what you actually pay (it already includes the tax as well).

You know what that means? No one sucking up to you for a better tip. No phony smiles for better tips. No false flattery. No one not-so-subtly trying to get you to finish up your dinner and leave so they can get another customer because they really make their money on tips.

I loved it.

We think of tips as "free money". We also think of them as validation. And we often think of them as mandatory. They are none of these things.

I've had so many clients ask me to explain how tipping "works" for massage therapists. They "know" they don't tip the owner but since I'm working out of my home, am I the owner? When I work in someone else's organization, they want to know if I'm a contractor or employee because they think that factors into tips. Should it be more like a hairdresser or more like a restaurant??

They genuinely care and are genuinely deeply concerned that they'll do it "wrong".

Why should they have to know any of this? I don't want to have these conversations!

Tips, sadly, have become a way for employers to throw the responsibility for part of your salary on the customer. It's not enough that customers pay for the service, they have to pay part of your salary on top of that! This has polluted a simple economic exchange -- I give you an hour of professional massage, you give me money -- and made it complicated.

If you must have tips to make ends meet, I have some thoughts:

*  You aren't charging enough.
*  You're not being paid enough.
*  You are charging enough but you can't support yourself on a massage therapist's income

You know what happens in a culture where tipping is not the norm? Service providers and customers can approach each other as equals. There's no "bowing and scraping" (or painfully inauthentic grinning) to make sure you get a tip.

Do I accept tips? Yes, but I don't expect them. In fact, here's how I explain tipping in my newsletter:

I accept tips but I don't expect them. For therapists who also accept tips, there are times when tipping is well-received.

In salons and spas.  In these settings, tips are common. Your massage therapist is only getting a portion of the fee you pay for the massage - sometimes as little as 25-40% -- and your tip is enormously appreciated.

When the massage therapist has gone out of his/her way for you. Did someone work hard to squeeze you into a tight schedule?  Did they open early or stay open late? Did they climb four flights of steps -- with a massage table -- to get to your apartment? Did they go longer than the scheduled time to help you with a particular area? A tip is a good way to acknowledge their extra effort.

When your massage therapist has done stellar work. Did he/she help you get a muscle un-knotted that no one else could get un-knotted? Did their work get you to relax deeper than you've ever relaxed before? When the massage you received is just so much better than you had reason to expect, a tip is not necessary but it is an option.

How much should you tip? There's a lot of disagreement to this but I would suggest using restaurants as a guideline. Tip 10-15% for good service, 20% or more for really amazing service.

I don't expect tips.I don't turn them down either. In the end, the best "tip" you can give a massage therapist is repeat business and a good recommendation to your friends and family.

My advice to you is this: quit thinking about tips. They usually mean nothing beyond "I've been trained to give a tip". You can't really know what they "mean". You are wise not to count on them.

And, oh yeah, the IRS knows that tipping is common enough in our profession that they'll be looking for them on your tax return so you better be declaring them as income! (Yet another reason to say Death To Tipping!)

 

RIP John

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.

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?