Oct 07
31
Massage Employee or Massage Business?
As a massage therapist you have the choice of going to work for someplace like a day spa, chiropractic clinic or other facility or starting your own massage business.
Both have their pluses and minuses. What is right for you depends on your own needs and abilities and belief in yourself.
Massage therapists are being hired by so many different massage employers – dentists, hospitals, chiropractors, physical therapists, doctors, chair or corporate massage centers, franchises like Massage Envy and the 13,757 spas in the United States (as reported by ABMP).
Jobs in the massage therapy profession tend to be entry level positions that require long hours, low pay, poor or no benefits. Massage employees may be required to do other things like cleaning, inventory or other things and often have an even lower rate of pay when doing these tasks. Massage employees may be required to work evenings and weekends. They are also required to do back to back massages without a break in between sessions.
The benefit of being an employee is that you do not have the risk of being in business or the overhead expenses of running a massage business.
Starting a massage business does have some risks and challenges like having to pay the monthly rent and other office expenses along with just the expenses of setting up a massage office. Massage businesses can actually be set up with a very limited budget and office space is usually reasonably priced. You also have other options like sharing an office with other massage therapists to reduce share your expenses.
The ongoing concern is of a massage business owner is that of getting clients and keeping clients which also would be a concern of a good massage employee working for someone.
There are some basic costs of getting clients such as having a website, business cards and business support materials. From what I have seen advertising is really a waste of money as it really requires that you constantly advertise. Just putting one in ad in a local newspaper once really does little. What is required to build a massage business is the ability to communicate what it is that you do. The idea that is takes a long time to build a massage practice is really just a belief that seems to be handed down by the profession itself. If you think that is true, than it will take a long time to build a practice.
Starting out as an employee is also a good way to learn the business aspects of the profession and also get lots of hands on experience. It is possible to find good ($35-$50 an hour) massage jobs. The problem is the as I said before there are many low paying ones too and many people are flocking to these places and accepting jobs at lower rates. This really is teaching the massage employers how to treat us. They will continue to pay low hourly wages as long as there are massage therapists out there who will take those jobs. When people who take those jobs find out that they are not being paid what they are worth or being recognized for what they do, some massage therapists will start thinking that the massage profession needs a union to speak up for them. Unions have been talked about at various times in many online discussion groups but no one really seems to do anything about it. What I think needs to be done it to just teach massage therapists how to stand up for themselves more and help them develop the self-confidence they need to create their own higher paying jobs – in other words start taking responsibility for yourself. This is can be done through the process of peer supervision and mentoring.
So is it better to work for someone else or start your own business? It depends on what you currently need, what you are willing to put up with, your perspective on working for others and your commitment to whatever choice you make.
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