August 17th, 2006 Julie Onofrio
I recently re-read this interesting Ebook called the “Science of Getting Rich”.
It is a book written in 1910 that has been slightly rewritten to make it more understandable, but to think this guy was really thinking about things like this way back when and basically it confirms everything that I have been saying about how our beliefs are what create our lives.
You can download the free Ebook at www.scienceofgettingrich.net and come back and talk about it here! I will actually be exploring it more here.
Posted in The Wealthy Massage Therapist | 2 Comments »
August 14th, 2006 Julie Onofrio
There is alot of controversy around selling products such as essential oils, lotions and other massage or health related goods to people who have just gotten a massage.
While you may feel a need to supplement your income by selling these products, there also is another side to what is really happening in the therapeutic relationship (read more on the therapeutic relationship) that happens with a client. Clients often are in a state of transference- meaning they are projecting feelings they may be having toward us - they may feel indebted to us when they think that we have been able to relieve their pain and make them feel better.
In other words if you ask them to buy something in addition to their massage, they may be wanting to make the purchase only to please you as they see you as someone who cares and has helped them.
Is selling products to someone who is in this state ethically responsible?
Is even asking them if they want to schedule another massage ethically responsible?
The thing is that transference happens in every relationship. It is not that it is wrong, it is in how you deal with such situations.
Selling products also create a dual relationship with the client. You then become the retailer and not their therapist in that moment. Dual relationships alway require extra care in handling them.
What if the client buys something and gets an allergic reaction or something?
What if they get home and realize that they don’t really want to be using that product or taking that supplement so they avoid making another appointment so they don’t have to deal with their feelings around it.
While there is no right or wrong, it is important to be aware of what is really going on in a therapeutic relationship. And even if there isn’t any transference going on at the moment, the fact that people can be so relaxed and have their guard down that they buy things without really wanting them.
What products do you sell?
What situations have arisen because of your selling products to clients?
Posted in Building Your Practice, Peer Supervision, Recommended Reading, The Code of the Caretaker, The Wealthy Massage Therapist | No Comments »
August 12th, 2006 Julie Onofrio
There are so many different hosting options online today that choosing one can be an overwhelming process. What you want is to find one that will really work for you in building your massage practice or other webbusiness.
I started my first website in 1999 -www.thebodyworker.com which is now one of the most popular sites on the internet for massage therapists. Through the years I have tried various hosting companies and different approaches and have worked with the best and the worst.  With that experience, I can hopefully help point you in the right direction for finding a webhosting company that meets your needs.
Some things to look for:
- What kind of results are others getting using the same service? Â Most reputable places will give you some examples of users websites so that you can see what others are doing with their product. Email some of them and ask them about their experience and see what they think of all aspects. What business support do they get? What help do you get optimizing your pages and getting found by the search engines? How successful is their business as a result of using this system?
- Newsletter capability to build a email list of potential clients/contacts for your business so that you can contact them regularly.
- You also need the ability to build as many pages as you want. My theory (that I learned from Sitebuildit! is that it is content that you need to build trust and attract the search engines.) I think every massage website should be 200 pages or more.
- Help with writing content since it is so important.
- Help in finding other ways to make income and build traffic
- Help in choosing the best domain name that will attract clients and traffic.
- Tools to track your results such as how many clicks each link gets, traffic results, search engine results (where you are listed in the engines and what can you do to improve your rankings)
- Does it automatically submit your pages to the search engines?
- Does it have an easy to use template building system that you can control the look and feel easily and understand even though you don’t know any html or are good with a computer?
- Does if offer outstanding tech support and forum support (others using the system helping others)
The only one I have found that offers all of this is the Sitebuildit! System. It is more than just hosting. It provides you everything you need to know about creating a website that works - whether it is for your massage practice or for another business idea, Sitebuildit! will help you do it all. They go above and beyond any hosting company and can’t really be compared with regular hosting companies. They are a hosting and total business development system all in one!
You can take a look at the results that their users get and get some more ideas from the case studies.
And to top it off they are guaranteed!  You can get your full purchase price back within a month of purchase and then a pro -rated refund after that up to a full year!
Who else does that????
Posted in Websites for Massage therapists | No Comments »
August 12th, 2006 Julie Onofrio
I just finished reading a book called “Success Beyond Work” by Colleen Halloway and was really disappointed. Her main focus is on how to sell a business not anything that really has to do with the title first of all.
She said she sold her business for over 6 figures. My first thought was that poor soul who paid that much when they could have really started a business for much less or even bought a massage envy franchise or other franchise. I wonder how they are doing. But then I am glad that she got something out of her business.
The thing about a massage business in which you personally work doing all of the massages is that it isn’t sellable.
Hiring subcontractors, employees or finding people to sublease your office space is about managing people and is a big job in itself. I know in my process to sublease my office space, finding good, reliable massage therapists who are self starters are hard to come by. You wouldn’t believe the number of people I get applying for jobs not even knowing if there were any jobs. I get resumes with no cover letters stating their intent. I get calls asking if there are any job openings but not any mention of what they are willing to do - well this is a whole other topic - finding a job.
Deciding if buying a massage business is more about figuring out if it will be worth it. There are so many other options available, I say if you have the kind of money to buy a business, you should be able to start and build a business for half of that or even less.
Posted in Building Your Practice, The Wealthy Massage Therapist | 1 Comment »
August 7th, 2006 Julie Onofrio
Is this too much or is it reasonable…
A Massage therapist who married a client is prosecuted because
Minnesota bans massage therapists from having sexual relations with former clients for two years.
Minnesota Star Tribune Article
I don’t think it is too much to ask…
The therapeutic relationship makes people really vulnerable.
But this case in particular is being filed because of the ex-wife’s complaint about the husband marrying someone else…
I think it is something we all should be more aware of - how we affect clients.
For more on transference and countertransference…
www.thebodyworker.com Psychology Section
Posted in News, Peer Supervision, The Code of the Caretaker | No Comments »
