The Answer for Massage Therapists

The Answer: Grow Any Business, Achieve Financial Freedom, and Live an Extraordinary Life is the latest book on the topic of the Law of Attraction by John Assaraf one of the authors/presenters in the Book/movie “The Secret”.

At first glance I thought this book wasn’t going to be much different from some of the things I already know and have written about for massage therapists as far as learning to build their massage practice that I have in the massage practice builder section at www.massage-career-guides.com, but as I sat down and read the whole thing in about 2 sessions I came away with some really great insights into the business world.

The first part of the book explains how our brains work and how beliefs are created in our brain that just keep replaying themselves throughout our lives. We look out into the world and make meaning about what we see through these blinders or beliefs. They create our perceptions of the world. The book says:

What we see is not based on what the eye can see but on the neurological patterning in your brain. When your perception is different from somebody else’s, the temptation is to dismiss their version as ‘wrong’. Instead ask them to show you how they see what they see…When you learn how to take somebody else’s perception and add it to yours, you significantly increase your own intelligence.

The book further points out how our we think we are so in charge of our lives with our conscious thoughts but in reality our conscious brains are really very limited in their functioning. We really only have very short term control over anything. They say that a person loses focus every 6-10 seconds. It is your unconscious brain that is much more powerful and directs most of your life. It is your unconscious mind that runs the show in every way - your habits, your accomplishments and achievements and this is where your beliefs are stored and run over and over again.

The book says:

The biggest obstacle to most people’s goals has nothing to do with any external conditions or factors. It is this: They don’t believe that it will happen or that it can be done.

Beliefs trump desires every time.

Setting goals is a function of the conscious mind. Reaching them is a function of the non-conscious mind. Setting goals is a conscious exercise; achieving goals is a spiritual and nonconscious exercise.

The book goes on to explain more about our nonconscious brain and how to change the engrained beliefs that are running the show and create your dream business.

They also say there is a ‘difference between being committed to your success and being interested in your success. If you are interested, you will do what’s convenient. If you are committed, you will do whatever it takes.”

The first thing is to find something that you are passionate about- like massage is for most. Although many are massage therapists and don’t have that driving passion. Massage school and trying to start a business or find a job also has a way of making us forget just why we wanted to become a massage therapist. Taking time to remember or figure out why you are in business and what success means to you will help you in creating your business. It is not only about why you want to be a massage therapist or have your own massage business - it is what feeling do you want to experience as a result of doing so?

When you can figure that basic piece of information out you will have your purpose for being in business which will be the foundation for you to build your business and make successful business decisions. You can set goals for your business that are in tune with your needs. Setting goals such as how much do you want to make and how many clients you want to work with each week/month can help give you the motivation you need to take action to get what you need. What amount of money do you need to make each month? One of the best things that the book mentions is about creating financial goals like this stating that ‘Trying to grow your business without a concrete number as a target is like saying you’ll meet a friend but neglecting to set a time or place for the meeting. How will either of you know where to go or when?”

I think that one of the issues for massage therapists is that many get caught up in the idea of wanting things especially money as being something they don’t want to focus on. They have some idea that money is bad or that wanting to make money for doing something so meaningful as massage somehow cheapens the massage itself. The thing is if you don’t have the money that you need to stay in business and support your self and family what good is it to anyone - your clients or your self or family.

In setting a monetary goal it is also necessary to include a picture of what that money means to you - what will it provide for you, your business and your family?

In setting your vision for your massage business you will come face to face with your beliefs about yourself and success. Whatever you have currently in your life as far as money, relationships, health, lifestyle, what you do everyday is a reflection of your beliefs or else you wouldn’t have it.

To change your beliefs you just need to track your results and be able to analyze your results in a way that you can stop living out the false beliefs. It is a matter of challenging your thoughts so that you can start providing evidence that disproves your beliefs that say that you are not worthy, you are not good enough, you are not deserving. So often when things happen in our lives we just automatically add it to the list of ‘well that proves that we are not good enough’ list rather than seeing things for what they really are.

Another part of the book goes on to develop the concept of ‘your ideal customer’ which I use and have written about in the process of building websites and a massage business. It is not only important to figure out your ideal client demographically - location, age, sex, income level, marital status, education level, status but you also need to figure out what your clients want and what you want.

Many massage therapists also make the mistake of thinking that they need to take every client that calls and every make every potential client into a client. The truth is that you can not and do not need to serve them all. In the book they say this: ” if you try to be everything to everybody, you end up being nothing to anybody.”

It is more important to serve the right customers. They will become your best way of building your massage practice. You will find that the right customers value massage and your service and more importantly your time. They will be more respectful of that and show it by showing up on time for their appointments and paying you whatever you charge. They will be the first ones to always refer new clients to you.

The rest of the book goes on to talk more about finding out the difference between what your clients needs vs what they want. People’s wants drive them to make decisions more than what they need. They may need to get regular massage to help deal with stress but what they want may be quite different.

What you charge for your massage services doesn’t matter as long as you have the value to match.  Value is all relative to what people want and need.  People are willing to pay for something that they want and/or need no matter what state the economy is in.  The best section of the book is on this topic.

When your marketing looks like everyone else’s and when people can’t really determine the true value you provide your service becomes just another massage done by another massage therapist.

In the absence of information about value, potential clients will default to the lowest price as a differentiator.  If you don’t find a way to differentiate yourself, then the only way left is to compete is price.  And if your business has gotten to a place where it can compete only on price, it is time for you to get out of business.  It has become a no-win situation for you, because there will always be someone willing to undercut your price.

OK and as I just typed that quote from the book “The Answer”, it suddenly dawned on me that this is why places like Massage Envy and other massage franchises are doing so well - because most massage therapists don’t differentiate their practice or inform clients as to how their massage practice is different from a Massage Envy massage.

Of course my favorite way and now even more important way is to write articles for your website doing just that - making you the expert massage therapist and informing people that you have the experience to deal with whatever condition or problem that they are looking to solve.

Could this be the demise of low paying and cheap massage place?

Posted in Building Your Practice, Changing Your Beliefs, Massage Marketing, Starting Your Practice, The Wealthy Massage Therapist | 3 Comments »

Targeted marketing for massage therapists

One of the weak spots for most massage therapists is writing flyers, brochures or website content with the purpose of selling their services.  Selling often conjures up this bad image.  ‘I don’t want to be pushy’.  I don’t want to do sales.   I don’t want to market my practice.  I just want to do massage. ‘Summer is always slow’.

The thing is that even people who have jobs in massage need to be sales people whether you like it or not.  Sales is just really getting your message out to those who need your services and need to know about you.

One of the first things to do is to start thinking about who your massage client is?  Why do people come to you in the first place.  Ask some of them.  You might be pleasantly surprised.  Is it because they are right down the block from you?  Is it because they love your massage?  Is it because they love the aromatherapy or hot stones that you use?

Once you find out that information start writing from that perspective and start with the words “You”.

Learning everything you can about marketing your practice and building your practice is about taking responsibility for your business.  It takes a commitment to doing whatever it takes to get the results that you want.  The first thing is knowing what you want.  If you don’t know what you want exactly you are leaving it in the hands of others, the economy and whoever else you may want to blame your lack of success on.  Wanting is not bad as you may have been taught.  It is wanting that leads you to take the actions that you need to be successful.  Actually, I could take that a step farther and say it is having desire.  Desire is a step up from wanting.  Wanting implies that you are lacking in something.  Having desire comes from your heart.  When you desire something you are also taking control of your own experiences.  You have a better chance of receiving what you desire than what you want.

Asking for what you want from people who are most likely to use your massage services is really just targeted marketing.  It is the way out of making excuses for your lack of business.

Posted in Building Your Practice, Massage Marketing, Starting Your Practice, The Code of the Caretaker, The Wealthy Massage Therapist | No Comments »

Setting Your Fees for Massage

One of the common questions I get is ‘How much should I charge for a massage”? The question really should be ‘How much do I need to make each week/each session to run a profitable business.

I was talking to a friend of mine who asked me if I knew any cheap massage therapists. She had been going to someone who was charging about $40-$50 an hour. That person apparently went out of business and had to go back into the corporate world to make a living. So was charging less than the national average of $60 a wise thing to do?

Many think that charging less will get them more clients. They start out charging less for their services because they think that they are right out of massage school and not very good so they need to charge less and attract more clients. While they may not be as experienced the value of massage is really relative to each clients perspective and may not have anything to do with how good of a massage therapist you are.

Charging less in the beginning may be a good incentive for people to come in. I recommend that as soon as your schedule is full to start charging more. Yes you may loose clients but the bottom line is that you need to be making enough to support yourself and your family. As you get busier you can be choosier about who you work on taking clients who pay you more.

Paul Ingram of www.vancouvermassage.ca has done just that. Now that he can’t take any more clients he even started charging people double to get in immediately. The interesting thing he discovered with that is that people then began to expect more from their sessions and became too difficult to work with. I would guess these are people who are looking to fix 20 years of back pain in one session.

Some areas of the country where the cost of living is less may have lower fees for massage therapy services.

I have outlined some things to consider when setting your fees at www.thebodyworker.com and am adding a few other things to think about.

• You will only be able to do a certain number of massages a day/week physically, mentally and emotionally. Most massage therapists do about 20 hours of massage a week. Some are able to do more. Since you are only able to do so many massages, you need to charge more to make a decent living.
• What is the value of a massage? What does it mean to people to be able to come in and get relief for their pain or problem? What is the value of providing regular weekly massage to someone and helping them heal their attachment, security and self-esteem issues?
• What amount do you need to charge so that you do not feel resentful of the massage client? I have heard many stories of massage therapists feeling resentful and yes even to the extent that the person wanted to apply more pressure to the massage client than they could stand. While this is not a usual thing for a massage therapist it may arise when you feel resentful.
• Charge enough so that you are not expecting a tip. Some people will tip, some won’t. Depending on tips for income is not very helpful financially. If someone does tip think of it as a bonus not an essential part of your income.

Nina McIntosh in her book The The Educated Heart: Professional Boundaries for Massage Therapists, Bodyworkers, and Movement Teachers (LWW In Touch Series) says this about setting fees:

Your rates affect what both clients and colleges will think of you. If you charge more than the norm, some clients may be put off, while others may think you must be offering something special for the extra charge. If you charge less than the going rate, some clients will be attracted to the bargain but may not value the work as much….

The amount you charge also affects how you feel about your work. Make sure that your fees are fair to you and that they take into account all of your expenses. Charge enough so that you won’t resent your clients. Also, make sure you don’t feel as if you are overcharging. If you are not comfortable with your fees, clients will sense it and feel uncomfortable too.

Setting your fees for when you bill an insurance company is a whole other ballgame. Many massage therapists charge more when they bill an insurance company saying things like -they have to wait longer to get paid and they have to do more work to get paid. There is a big discrepancy over this issue that I have only just recently found a legal answer for. When I went to a workshop last year put on by two local Seattle area attorneys they made it really clear that those extra things that go into insurance billing are just a part of doing business and they can not be charged extra for. You can charge the extra amount that you pay or would pay a billing person to submit each bill and for the work you/they have to do to get paid. Otherwise charging more to an insurance company than you do your cash clients for the same service is considered insurance fraud and that can be punishable by a $5000 fine and 5 years in prison. What about the fact that you are doing medical massage? I for one do not do anything different when someone comes in for a regular massage and pay cash for it compared to someone who I am able to bill their insurance company for the services. If you could prove in a court of law that you do treat the client differently and that you use different skills and knowledge than you may be OK.

There is also something called the Usual and customary fee schedule for insurance companies that set rates for insurance companies. I think the last time I checked for Seattle area it was about $132 a hour. The thing is that we don’t really know how they are getting that number. If you bill for auto accidents, those insurance companies will usually pay whatever you charge so if massage therapists (or others) are charging more than their regular cash clients to insurance companies and that is the number being used to determine the UCR - is that really factual, ethical and legal?

This actually is one of the things that I think our massage associations should be doing more work on for us -figuring out for each state what are the legal implications of setting different fees for massage therapy sessions.

The other thing to know is that professionally you can ask others what they make but if you ‘collude with others in setting your fees’ it could be seen as price fixing.  ( I am not of course a lawyer but that is what I was told by the workshop I mentioned above.)

Setting fees that support you and your business is just good self care and it is just business.  It does not mean you care less about others who can not afford your services.  When you are making what you need to make, you are able to give more money or use your money to set up services for disadvantaged people to get affordable massage or even free massages.

So what do you need to charge so that you will be a successful massage therapist?

Posted in Building Your Practice, Money issues, The Code of the Caretaker, The Wealthy Massage Therapist | 3 Comments »

Marketing Your Massage Business

Marketing your massage business is an ongoing process. In order to have the clients that you need to be successful, you need to continually be learning about marketing and doing something every week if not every day to create your ideal massage practice.

Massage School offers very little in this way so it is necessary to read and study all that you can and to participate in as many online groups as you can as well as creating your own support group if necessary.

There are a good many of online massage marketing programs and I actually recommend that you get them all and work through them at your own pace. I recommend just doing one at a time so that you can really immerse yourself in each program and do all of the exercises and projects that they recommend.

Here are a few of my favorites. I only write about those I have purchased and used myself.

• The Passionate Training - offered by Alexandar Kohl of Australia has created an ebook and workbook to help you get clear about what you want from your practice and how to create it. Using some theories from the law of attraction, he has created this marketing program to get you started on the path to creating a successful massage business.
• Bodyworkbiz.com created by Eric Brown of Canada, offers a 101 day training taking you step by step through many various ways to build your practice. He focuses on overcoming the psycho blocks as he calls them and getting out of your own way to create a successful practice.
• Massage Therapy Success by Amy Roberts of Australia offers a series of ebooks to cover different aspects of building a practice. Includes ebooks on these topics:

  Ignite Your Massage Therapy Business

  Business Check-up

  Marketing Secrets For Massage Therapists

  Planning to Succeed in Your Massage Therapy Business

  How To Write Advertising for Your Massage Therapy Business

  Marketing Diary for Massage Therapists

  Advertising your Massage Therapy Business Workbook

  Understanding Your Client

  Target Market Workbook

  Target market Excel program

There are also some good free resources for marketing and building your massage practice.

www.thebodyworker.com- Marketing section, business section

www.massage-career-guides.com

Join my Yahoo! Massage Practice Builder Discussion Group - where you can communicate with massage therapists all over the world who are doing the same thing as you.

Posted in Building Your Practice, Changing Your Beliefs, Massage Marketing, Starting Your Practice | 1 Comment »

Massage Office Phone Etiquette

The massage office phone is often the first client interaction (besides the website or referral from a client/doctor/other) and is of vital importance to building a solid massage business. No matter if it is in a mulit-practitioner clinic or spa or a self-employed massage business, knowing how to answer the phone and engage the potential client in a conversation can help the potential client feel more at ease about their decision for calling.

I haven’t written about things like this much because I just take it for granted people know how to answer the phone. I was in customer service for 12 years before I became a massage therapist. It is the curse of knowledge that Chip Heath talks about in his book “Made to Stick”. We often forget how it was before we knew something.

In the past few years I have been going to various spas and clinics and the degree of service varies from non-existent -Oh is there a client on the phone wanting to give me their money for a massage but I’ll just continue to do my scheduling updates and be distracted - to mediocre - does the job, gets the appointment but there is no connection. I guess I have yet to find a place or massage therapist who knows how to engage a client right from the beginning.

The first phone call is important as it sets up the basis for the relationship and can influence whether it is going to be one appointment, a series of appointments over a month or two or a client for life coming 2x a week for 18 years. Cherie Sohnen Moe in her book “Business Mastery” says:

Every time you answer the telephone, you create an impression. The question remains what that impression will be. Within the first few seconds of a conversation you convey how you feel about yourself, your practice and the caller.

Some of my pet peeves are:

• I ask for deep tissue massage and ask for the person most versed in deep tissue. The response is all of our therapists do deep tissue. A better response would be a question like what do you mean by deep tissue? or what types of massage have you had before? I went to a clinic last year that said everyone did deep tissue and I went through 3 different therapists and none really did deep tissue by my standards. The thing they don’t realize is that my deep tissue experience comes from Zentherapy an offshoot of Rolfing. It is deep.
• While calling for an appointment the person on the phone continues to talk to someone who is standing in front of them without putting the phone on hold. This is a privacy violation in addition to just being unprofessional.
• While calling for an appointment, I get the person who is distracted making copies of the schedule for the massage therapists there and the appointment book is all taken apart. I know this because she tells me. She also continues to try to make an appointment for me rustling through papers looking for an opening. A more appropriate response might be to ask if she could call me back in a minute or put me on hold for a minute

These are just a few things that have happened in the past month with me. The people answering the phone were receptionists and not massage therapists. Maybe I am too critical, but I just keep thinking about what if it was a new client who never had a massage - what would their impression be of making an appointment?

If the person who is answering the phone is not a skilled massage therapist it is important to educate them thoroughly about massage and answering the phone. The receptionist should get regular massages from all of the massage therapists so that they can describe and know each massage therapists style and type of work. They should also be trained in asking clients questions that show that they know what they are talking about. It reflects on your business when they don’t.

Design a questionnaire for your receptionist and have them practice taking calls and sit with them while taking calls for the first week or so. Improving client communication begins with the first phone call.

• know how to describe all of the services and techniques in detail
• know each massage therapist and their skills personally
• be prepared for each call with necessary materials for making appointments, referrals
• know what the office policies and procedures are and know how to execute them appropriately
• answer the phone promptly with one ring
• don’t be eating or doing other distracting things when answering the phone
• follow through with everything you say you are going to do on the call in the time frame you agreed on
• if you need to put someone on hold ask if it ok and let them know how long you think you will be on hold if you can.  If it is too long ask to call them back.

If you are answering your phone it is important that you take the time needed to talk to each caller and ease their hesitations. Ask questions like “What do you need a massage for today?” Some sort of pain or stress? Then you can respond with something like “yes I work with that all the time”. What most people want to know is are you able to handle the problem that they are having.

Knowing what a client needs is important as it will help you make appropriate decisions regarding their care.

In a good phone call you will also be able to screen clients for inappropriate requests or conditions that are out of your scope of practice. You can also find out if that client is appropriate for your business. You don’t have to take everyone who calls. That was a big revelation to a massage therapist on my discussion group.

Every phone call deserves your complete attention.

I use a voice mail service to answer incoming calls. While this is less personal, working alone I never found a need for a receptionist. I do answer the phone if I am sitting at my desk but I always make sure I am not going to be distracted with a client coming in a minute or whatever. I always leave time in my schedule every few hours to return phone calls promptly the same day.

Resources:
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

Business Mastery : A Guide for Creating a Fulfilling, Thriving Business and Keeping It Successful

Posted in Building Your Practice, Recommended Reading, Starting Your Practice | No Comments »