Oct 07
14
Massage Therapy Market Saturation?
There are approximately 300,000 licensed massage therapists in the US. (ABMP says there are about 241,000. AMTA says that there are between 250,00 and 300,000.) Most massage therapists work part time in the profession either in their own practice or for someone else. The average number of clients that a massage therapist sees is about 15 according to ABMP and a further breakdown from AMTA reveals ” 21% work 10-16 hours per week* -20% work 5-9 hours per week -18% work 1-4 hours per week”
Many of those 300,000 licensed massage therapists may not even be practicing.
The US population clock currently shows 303,123,295 in the US.
303,123,295/300,000=1010
Each massage therapist has to work on 1,010 people a week to make sure everyone in the US is getting a massage once a week and then when everyone is getting one massage a week, they goal would to be to increase that amount to 2-3 a week or how about everyday – like Bob Hope used to get. While these numbers may seem unrealistic and we don’t actually know how many massage therapists there are out there nor do we really know the number of people already getting massage regularly, the point I am trying to make is that it is really about your perspective – what you think about how many massage therapists there are out there.
Theoretically everyone of those people are potential massage clients. Every person in prison? Hospitals, nursing homes, foster care, homeless person… you name it.
Does that show that the market for massage is over-saturated?
ABMP reports in their recent consumer survey that 16% of the population gets massage regularly and 38% have received a massage at sometime in their lifetime.
What about the other 84% of the population who are not getting regular massage or the 62% of the population that has never had a massage?
I think part of the problem is that when massage therapists start to look at how many massage therapists are in their neighborhood it has a way of bringing up all their fears of being a good massage therapist and their fears of success.
Steve Capellini explains it the best in his book “Massage Therapy Career Guide for Hands-On Success” (Google online reader)
Some people I’ve talked with have complained about saturation in the massage market in certain parts of the country. They say that there are too many massage therapists and not enough customers. They are afraid that with all of the new people choosing to go to massage school will take away customers from an already dwindling supply. These people are practicing a self defeating philosophy known as scarcity mentality, and they are literally talking themselves out of success.
In my opinion, we have only begun to tap the most superficial layers of a customer base that includes almost half of the people in this country. Those therapists who spend time worrying about shrinking supplies of customers would benefit by spending an equal amount of time instructing the public about the benefits of massage, thus constantly increasing their marketplace.”
The idea that the massage market is supersaturated -whether it is true or not- really only serves to increase creativity, enhance or create new techniques and create new opportunities. Have you noticed the number of different kinds of massage increasing consistently with new methods being developed left and right?
Each person getting a massage could also theoretically be getting a different kind of massage everyday for different needs.
Another interesting fact from ABMP is:
As might be expected, the most populous state in the United States, California, also has the most massage therapists, with 33,658. Wyoming, the least populous state, also claims the fewest massage therapists at 459. Hawaii reports the greatest concentration of massage therapists, with one therapist for every 250 residents. The state with least concentration is Alabama, with one massage therapist for every 3,876 residents.
Resources: ABMP metrics section
States Ranked by Population from ABMP metrics section
OR massage board (pdf) report on demographics 2004
Is your massage market saturated? How do you feel about it? Does it discourage you or encourage you?
Share on Facebook
Related posts:
