In the massage business we are often faced with the challenge of allocating our time and being accessible to our clients and potential clients verses taking care of ourselves.

People call at the last minute because they don’t plan well and just get to the point where they can’t take it anymore so that they become desperate to find a massage therapist who can get them right in.

Sometimes last minute callers are also those less than desirable clients who are seeking “other” services.

If you aren’t accessible and flexible you may lose clients but at the same time if you are bending over backwards trying to get all of these people in, you may be giving up a piece of yourself which in the long run may lead to burnout.

While it may get you the income you need in the moment, will it be beneficial to take a client who doesn’t respect your time and always try to make last minute appointments. As Dr. Phil often says : “We teach people how to treat us”.

What is it saying about us when we take last minute clients and give up our other plans we may have had? What does it say when we work late in the evenings and weekends rather than being with our families?

Setting boundaries around our time limits is the key to building a successful and rewarding business. It is a careful balancing act to be able to accommodate those last minute or hard to schedule clients and taking care of yourself.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007 at 10:03 pm and is filed under Peer Supervision, The Code of the Caretaker, The Wealthy Massage Therapist. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.