October 1st, 2006 Julie Onofrio
- Choosing the best domain name can increase your chances of being found online. Choose a name that tells your location and what you do… www.massageseattle.net. It doesn’ t have to be the same as your business name although your business name should do the same. It should tell people what you do so as to not leave them guessing.
- Put your name and address on every page. Don’t make people hunt around to find where you are located. Location is most likely the most important thing. People want to go somewhere that is close to their home or office. Put it at the very top of the home page too. So often I come upon websites and I don’t even know what city they are in or state!
- Don’t put google ads on sales pages or pages that you are talking about your services.
- Sell other products through companies such as amazon.com and make extra money for yourself. When people buy through a link on your website, you get a percentage of the sale - and that is on the total order - even if they order other items.
- Have your contact information - phone number and email address on every page.
- Create content. Search engines love content and people love content. They need to know about you before they will make the call. 50+ pages!! Yes and more is better. Write about what you do, all of the things you tell people every day….how to stretch, how to take care of themselves after a massage, is that a bone or a muscle…what is a knot?
- Have an opt in newsletter where you can keep people informed of specials, send a weekly newsletter and even let people know when you have openings each week
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October 1st, 2006 Julie Onofrio
Starting a practice of your own can at times be very overwhelming with the many pressures to pay the bills and make ends meet.
When you are just starting out it is hard to figure out where to start. The only place you can start is where you are at. Just keep yourself focused on the next step. The next step is what is whatever is in front of you today.
Basically everything you need to know about starting and running a business can be found somewhere on one of my websites. ( www.thebodyworker.com, or www.massagetherapycareers.com )
The tricky part is figuring out what fits for you. Most people I know who are successful in this business rarely do any marketing.  They just do what they love to do - massage. Who can you massage today whether it is for free or a paying client?
When I got out of massage school where I had been practicing on all of my friends, they became clients and their friends became clients.  I was going to a chiropractor for some neck and upper back pain and started talking to him about what I do, the next thing he is referring me all of his clients.  I started in a health club where there were potential clients walking by all day. If I didn’t have clients I sat at the front desk and handed out towels. I got involved even though it wasn’t my job or no one asked me to help. I talked to people. I wore a little name tag.  I did some free chair massages but I don’t think they ever really did anything but keep me busy. I did the best massages I knew how. The rest is history.
To take the fear out of the process, take one step at a time. What are three things you need to do today to get you an appointment?
What are 5 things that you are grateful for?
Then once you get going, what are 5 things you succeeded in or moved forward on.
When you start taking notice of the things that you do achieve, it builds self-confidence. One step leads to the next and before you know it you have climbed the hill.
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October 1st, 2006 Julie Onofrio
Massage Therapy is one of the oldest forms of healing. It is talked about by many as dating back to 2000 BC and the early writings of the Chinese.
When I started back in 1987, there were some technical things like anatomy and physiology, but the main focus was the development of your own unique style. Today massage schools are focused on teaching more and more anatomy and different medical massage techniques.
We are creating more and more legal restrictions and requiring more hours of education. I wonder what the massage therapists in the first Olympics would think if they had to go to school for 2 years before working on the master athletes?
What happens to the art of massage as we get caught up in politics and education (which in this country is forcing facts into people’s head - not “drawing them forth” as the word education was first defined as.)
What if you have a natural instinct for massage without even knowing the name of any muscles? You probably would not succeed in today’s massage profession with the number of tests and hoops one has to jump through to become a licensed professional.
Is more education really needed? There are no studies that indicate that it is. I personally started with 250 hours of training and I have friends who have even less and they are still doing massage today professionally.
What is the art of massage?
- the ability to connect deeply with the client
- the ability to stay present with yourself as the client processes their feelings
- the ability to hold space for the client while whatever needs to happen with their session happens
- the ability to listen to the client with your ears, eyes, and hands and then tap into your intuition and follow the clients body to see where it leads
In his article “The Art of Massage Therapy is the Heart of Massage Therapy“, H. Gordon Ainsleigh says
In pursuit of the art of massage therapy, we need to ask the fundamental question: Who are massage therapists, and why do they do what they do?
He goes on to share his experiences of 22 years in admissions to say”
“For the students I have personally interviewed and admitted into our program of study, the decision to enter the field of massage therapy is prompted by a strong desire and perhaps even need to care for others, to serve their health and well-being, and possibly benefit them literally and figuratively by “touching” their lives. “
This is of course what drives our profession. The need to help others and to have a richer life as a result of that. But with that comes the shadow of helping which I explore more in the “Code of the Caretaker”
How can we preserve the Art of Massage while furthering the profession? What will help our profession grow and be accepted? More training? More laws? Being able to bill PPO’s and HMO insurance plans?
I think there is something more…
Posted in Building Your Practice, Peer Supervision, The Code of the Caretaker | 2 Comments »
