June 7th, 2007 Julie Onofrio
I just watched Suze Orman’s Women and Money show on PBS last night and I was so impressed - what it really did was take everything I have been saying here (and learning myself) and making it even clearer.
She even mentioned massage therapists who are always struggling to make ends meet at the expense of themselves - always bartering, volunteering and putting themselves on sale rather than doing the hard thing of asking to get paid what they are worth.
We think that if you raise your prices, your clients won’t come in. We volunteer and give away our time when we don’t really have any time to give or it cuts into the time we need to make money for ourselves. We bargain our own lives away for others. We take care of everyone else and try to be nice instead of being nice to ourselves. The number one thing we can do for self care or to be nice to ourselves is to be financially stable- have enough in the bank to and be making enough money to take care of our needs and the needs of our families.
While she also said she wasn’t saying don’t volunteer or barter - there is a time for everything. But if you can’t take care of your own needs first you should not be giving up what you need for others. She related it to the story of the airplane rules about putting your own oxygen mask on first. She takes it to the next level saying that undervaluing yourself shows in everything you do. I think that as a profession the world see’s that when we are always giving discounts and working for less than we deserve and it is really teaching people how to treat us as a profession. The ramifications of working and not charging and not valuing ourselves is far reaching.
We need to start talking about money and how we are challenged by always putting ‘ourselves on sale’ as Suze Orman says so no one can take advantage of us again.
Her 8 Qualities of a Wealthy Woman really put together everything I have been saying all along.
Your thoughts, words, actions and feelings all need to be in harmony to create balance in your life. Courage is what is needed to take the steps to be in harmony and balance in your life. You can silence the fear of creating balance and harmony by taking action. When you are in in balance and harmony you are powerful and able to be generous. Generosity that comes from a place that you feel empowered through your giving rather than drained or feeling owed something, you will find happiness. Cleanliness adds to inviting money into your life. When you have cleanliness, happiness, and are generous due to your courage and the balance and harmony you have in your life - you are beautiful from the inside out and have the wisdom to make the right choices with your self and make the right choices about money based on self confidence in yourself.
Posted in Money issues, The Wealthy Massage Therapist | No Comments »
June 5th, 2007 Julie Onofrio
How many minutes is your hour session?
50 minutes? a full 60 minutes?
How much time do you take in between sessions?
15 minutes? half hour? one hour?
While I understand the need to have time for yourself in between clients to rest, do tasks to prepare for the next client, return phone calls, do chart notes and all those extraneous things - Do your prices reflect that time spent?
You may think you are serving the client more by giving them a full hour and then taking time in between and giving them even more of your time. It doesn’t necessarily do what you think it might. What I think it does is tell them that your boundaries are weak and that you don’t take care of yourself (yes I know the extra time is to take care of yourself - but if you aren’t charging for that time is it really taking care of yourself?). It is what sets up co-dependent relationships. Giving up your time thinking it is more important for someone else to have it without them valuing it…
You can try to explain or rationalize it any way you want but I challenge you to really take a look at why you don’t charge for that extra time that you give clients or maybe your prices already do reflect this - then I am not talking about you of course. I would guess for the most part that these extra minutes in between clients are not being charged for.
I really got this ah-ha from watching Oprah a few weeks ago where there were black Americans telling how they had to deal with being black. They were talking about raising kids and that the way kids learn is not by telling them - do this or do that. What kids really do is imitate their parents. If you aren’t taking care of yourself as a parent, your kids won’t learn to take care of themselves.
I think the same applies to building a therapeutic relationship. The clearer your boundaries around your time and service - the more successful your business will be. Co-dependent therapists will end up struggling to be successful and make ends meet.
How much time do you allow for a one hour session? Do your fees reflect that?
(I am not objecting to you taking the time for yourself, but do you charge for it or just give it away?)
Posted in Money issues, Peer Supervision, The Code of the Caretaker, The Wealthy Massage Therapist | No Comments »
May 9th, 2007 Julie Onofrio
Are you getting sick of me talking about websites yet?
I am getting more information from my feedback form that is really quite interesting.
People seem to want a website but do not understand just what it takes to make a website that works. They also do not understand that you have to be able to pay for things to support your practice. The lifetime value of a customer will tell you more about how much you should spend to get one customer. One new client coming in one time would be whatever your hourly rate is ($75.00). How many times will they come in to see you over the year? My ideal client comes in every other week at least - 2 x a month. $75 x2 = $150 per month x 12 = $1800. Should I stop there? You can multiply that by how many number of years you plan on doing massage. I have 2 clients in particular who come 2x a week and one has been coming for about 17 years the other for about 15 years. How much is that worth to you? How much would you spend to get one client like that?
Posted in Money issues, Websites for Massage therapists | No Comments »
April 3rd, 2007 Julie Onofrio
One of the things that I hear quite often for massage therapists is that they don’t want to wait around for clients to just walk in the door. If they don’t have anyone scheduled that day, they make other plans for themselves - run errands, shop, clean the house - anything but doing something to market themselves.
When I started out 18 years ago in a health club where I worked as a subcontractor and later leased the space, I went into the club almost everyday that I was scheduled to work. They didn’t pay me to come in. I didn’t have any clients scheduled. But I went in anyways and sat at the front desk and handed out towels or just worked out and talked to people. I would sometimes go out for a walk or lunch and come back to someone wanting an appointment right then or later that day.
I created what I wanted by showing up even when I didn’t have clients.
What are you willing to do to get clients?
If you are subcontracting for someone, do you expect them to go out and get all of your clients? Are you just waiting for someone else to get clients for you? Do you argue with the owners/employers when they ask you to be more available for clients saying they will have to pay you to do that?
Waiting around for someone else to get you clients will never get you anywhere. It is the stance of the victim - or what I sometimes refer to as ‘waiting to be rescued’. Let’s face it. We all have some aspect of wanting to be rescued. It shows up in our excuses and reasons why we don’t have the clients we need.
Taking responsibility and going out and getting clients yourself will build self confidence and a solid practice. It doesn’t even have to be any thing big. I would sometimes just set my table up on the main floor of the gym and get people to come over and start talking.
What can you do today to get what you want?
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February 10th, 2007 Julie Onofrio
One of the issues that you will be faced with in choosing the massage profession is how will you pay for massage school and how will you have the money to start a massage practice. If you don’t have the money to go to school or you don’t have the money to start your practice there are most likely deeper issues to be dealt with.
It is our thoughts and beliefs that create what we have. So by looking at what you have or don’t have, you can begin to increase your awareness of your thoughts. You can also look at what you are feeling to tell you what you are thinking. Your feelings are what inform you of whether or not you are on target with what you are supposed to be doing.
It is the basic message of the movie “The Secret”
I just wrote about this on my website www.workless-playmore.com.
The Science of Getting Rich Practical Geniuses Course
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