www.thebodyworker.com

I have a few people email me about making money online. It is really hard to convince people that all they really need is a Site Build it! Website - no matter what kind of business they want to start or already have. I have been telling people for years and the problem is that there is just too much information to read and understand and when that happens it has a way of bringing up so much fear in people.  The internet such an amazing medium to be taken advantage of.  I am always so surprised to hear that  people still don’t have websites for their massage business or to make money just sharing what they know that is of value to others.

Now there isn’t anything to be afraid of. You don’t have any more excuses that you don’t have enough time or don’t know what to do a site on. Site Build it! has just released their new Sitesell Services team of advanced website builders who will take you step by step through the whole process at any level of support that you need. They help you research and plan and design a basic starter 10 page website for $1599 plus a $45 monthly fee. That is quite a bit more than just the $299 a year but if you get easily overwhelmed just reading my blog about websites or really don’t have the time but want to start creating additional streams of income or even to make a living online, and just want more personalized attention Sitesell Services is a great place to start.

If you want to try it alone and don’t need to get rich overnight and understand that SBI! is a process and long term investment ordering through the spring sale which is buy one SBI ! for $299 and get the second one for $100 which will give you two sites -one for your massage practice or school and one to create a new online business.

There are so many ways to make a living online:

• Selling an Ebook that you write on a specific topic
• Selling other people’s Ebook through affiliate programs like clickbank.com
• Selling hard goods of your own
• Selling hard goods of others (find companies to fill your orders)
• Become an infopreneur just making money with ad programs like Google Adsense and other pay per click programs that pay you when people click on their ads on your sites. (This is my main source of online income which is more than half my total income.)

So how much can you make? It depends on your keywords, motivation and persistence but as much as you want really.

How soon will you be making money? When I started my site www.massagetherapycareers.com back in about 2002, I wrote an ebook and was planning on selling it online. I started selling ebooks within a few months of buying the site.

What are you waiting for? What excuse do you have? Your excuses really are a great way to look at your thoughts and beliefs and as Oprah and Eckhart Tolle are teaching - your ego. but if you aren’t reading “A New Earth” and/or taking the online class you might not understand my mention of the ego. The ego is just basically the unconscious part of ourselves. That’s a whole other post.

So if you are ready to start engaging and creating your life, it is probably time for SBI!

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I read somewhere that only 25% of massage therapists have a website. So many people are missing out on one of the easiest ways to build a massage practice. The key to taking a massage business online is having Site Build it! to show you the way and and help you attract clients. Having an online presence will set you apart from the crowd and make you stand out.

I just last week had a client say that they would not have called me if I hadn’t had a website that they could look at and find out more about me.

I have been talking about SBI! for years and using it for years. I not only get new clients every week from my website, I am also making more than half of my income from writing about massage on my two sites.

My site www.massagetherapycareers.com is now on the first page of Google for the keywords “massage therapy” and massage therapist. I have another site www.massagepracticebuilder.com that I have had about the same amount of time and is actually getting the same amount of traffic. The thing is it isn’t making me any money even though I did everything I could to set it up in a similar fashion to what SBI ! recommends. There is such a difference that I am even in the process of moving everything over to www.massagetherapycareers.com.

While I love doing massage, I love having the backup up making money with writing on my websites. If I stopped writing today, my websites would still continue to make me money as long as Google and the internet keep in business and I don’t see them going anywhere.

But creating a website isn’t for everyone. It is for those who like to challenge themselves and learn new things and learn about themselves. Creating sites has been one of the best personal growth experiences. Whenever you step outside your comfort zone, things happen to help you grow.

So if you are ready to make a difference and take your practice online or start an online business just writing about some topic that you love talking about there isn’t any better time to start. It is also more than just writing about what you love it is about figuring out a way to ’serve’ others and provide value to their lives by what you do online.

When you purchase through this link, I am offering to help you personally for the first month with brainstorming your site concept whether it is for your massage practice or some other topic that you are wanting to investigate.

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As a massage therapist, creating a solid framework for you business is like creating a solid foundation for a building. The clearer and deeper you go, the taller and larger the building you can build.

So many massage therapists avoid creating policies like cancellation policies, late fees, no show policies and when they do they have a difficult time enforcing them.

By creating these policies it will let your client become more informed about who you are and what you do. They can then decide if you are a good match for them to work with. It also gives you the opportunity to choose who you want to work with and create your ideal massage practice. I struggled with these things too for years as a massage therapist thinking it was what I needed to do to get and keep clients. I thought that by not charging for missed appointments or working longer on people when they are late for an appointment that I was making an extra effort for them to like me and keep coming as a client. I thought I needed to take everyone as a client regardless of whether or not they fit in with my ideal client. In doing that for more than 15 years, I can now see that it was part of the causes for my burnout in the mid 90’s. Giving away your time, money and energy is just downright draining. Period. You may think it is doing the client a favor and helping them more.

I wrote about this previously and mentioned a readers poll done by Massage Magazine last year about their cancellation policies and the ways they enforce their cancellation policies. There is of course such a wide variety of ways and answers.

The thing is to find out what works best for you in supporting you as a business owner and as a person. On one hand you need to make money to pay the bills. Since the number of clients that you can see in one day is limited and having just one client not show up or cancel at the last minute can effect your income significantly. Enforcing the policy sometimes and not on others can be confusing to the clients. As Dr Phil says - “We teach people how to treat us.

While things do happen to people - getting stuck in traffic, sick kids, sick themselves, issues at work - who is responsible for the clients actions? Them or you?

Setting strict cancellation policies may end the relationship. The question is do you really want someone as a client who does not respect you or your time?

Creating well thought out policies can help you create a stronger massage practice.

-What is your policy for when someone cancels with less than 24 or even 48 hours?

- What is your policy for working on someone who arrives late to their appointment? Do you work longer if you have the time? Or do you stay to the alloted time frame?

-What do you do when someone just does not show up period. They just forgot for whatever reason. Then when you call them, they are not apologetic but blame you for not calling to remind them or say they don’t want to pay for something that they aren’t receiving?

- Do you have a cancellation policy that is clearly written and placed on your website and intake form? Do you verbally state your cancellation policy?

There are a variety of ways to handle these situations:

• Charge a minimum fee like $35 or half your session fee for a no show.
• Charge your whole session fee for a missed appointment.
• Choose to work on someone who is late for the full appointment time if you have the time.
• Give people one session to forget and then remind them of the policy and charge them for any further missed appointments.
• Don’t charge anything or say anything and you just eat the cost for the lost time and energy.  (How does that one feel?!)
• Allow for extra-ordinary circumstances such as sickness, deaths in the family, real emergencies.

I also just did a quick search for ‘massage cancellation policies and found a variety of ways that people are communicating their policies some of which are very interesting with one person even apologizing for having to enforce the policy.

Here are some examples that I just copied off some websites ( I know- don’t get upset.)

Everyone’s time is valuable, that’s why we have to follow a few simple rules.

In today’s hectic world unplanned issues come up for all of us. We recognize this fact, but we respectfully request that you cancel your scheduled appointment by phone or e-mail a minimum of 24 hours in advance. That way the open slot can be filled with someone needing an appointment.

Failing two scheduled appointments in a row or three appointments within six months will result in a scheduling hold for Massage Appointments being placed on your account. This means you will not be able to schedule appointments with the Massage Therapy department.

You can also just do a search yourself and use some of the examples you find to create your own policy.  The most important thing to think about is what you need to create a solid massage business.
I guess I am always amazed when people think they won’t have to pay for a missed appointment or have any obligation what so ever for their commitment (which just happened to me only for the second time in 20 years which is why I am writing about this again!) I think that people do feel bad for missing appointments but it may just be too hard to admit that they do. The feeling will overwhelm them and move them into a defense mode - blaming you, blaming traffic, blaming their boss rather than accepting responsibility. Most doctors have cancellation policies. If you book a flight and miss the flight you have to pay a large fee usually. If you get tickets to a symphony and miss it or are late, you don’t get reimbursed.

While creating these polices will be a very personal thing and enforcing them another just keep in mind that what you do is also affecting the massage profession as a whole.  Letting people get away with no shows, late cancellations and late arrivals is teaching people how to treat us (massage therapists) as a whole.  What policy do you need in place to create a successful and rewarding massage practice and profession?

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