Four Hour Work week for massage therapists
Everyone has been raving about this new book called the “Four Hour Work Week” by Tim Ferris. I finally got it and read most of it and while there were a few good things in it, it really isn’t anything new.
The thing that struck me though is that it still sounds like he thinks of his work as work where I for one have never felt like doing massage or now writing ever felt like work. Some of the tricks he talks about to get out of doing something seem just that- like tricks - not quite deceitful but almost. Like he said he won the championship for kickboxing by finding two loopholes in the rules which allowed him to use dehydrating techniques to weigh in at a lower weight class and then rehydrate before the match and weigh almost 30 pounds more than his opponents. He also pushed his opponents off of the platform because there was a rule that said if someone went off 3x the other person would win. The bulk of the book is about tactics like that to get ahead in business.
Some of the things that he did point out that were quite interesting is the idea that who ever created the 8 hour day and how is it that ALL jobs - no matter what the type - require 8 hours a day to complete????
His idea that we all should be striving for happiness or ‘following your bliss’ or as he says excitement is what Site Build It! is all about but I would take it even a step farther and say -follow what makes you feel the most alive!
We get stuck in dead end jobs and just put up with it thinking that is the way it is all supposed to be. We keep trying to rationalize staying in abusive jobs that add to the feeling of deadness and boredom in our lives.
I already knew about not watching the news as he suggests and stop checking email 20x an hour and using automated responses to email to take care of some or most of your business details. That is what SBI! is all about.
The one big question he suggests that you ask yourself often during the day is “Am I being productive or just active?”
He also suggests focusing on the 20% of your clients who make you the most money and also weed out any problem clients who take up most of your time.
All of his suggestions are coming from a big corporation perspective- whether you work for one or run a business yourself. Applying them to a massage business may seem like you are causing more problems by turning clients away but I have found that the clearer I get about the kind of client that I want to work with, the busier my practice gets and the more I make which allows me to help others more.
He does make mention of a service business (of which massage therapy is included in that) and says that you should think about “converting your expertise into a shippable hard good to escape the limits of a per hour based model”. I would take that even farther and add that it doesn’t even have to be a hard good. Google Adsense is here which will allow you to write about a topic that you love and are an expert in and just get paid regularly for that.
He does have a few other good ideas for streamlining a business and taking a look at your dreams - but Site Build It! takes it way above and beyond some of his ideas and helps you brainstorm a business concept and takes you step by step -building an online empire that you can operate from anywhere in the world!
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