I seem to be getting a lot of questions from people wondering if they should go to massage school and change careers in this economy. What the economy is doing is their business. You economy is not the worlds economy. I am not saying it will be easy. Nothing will be easy in this economy. It will definitely challenge you to become more aware of your beliefs about money and making a successful living doing whatever you want to be doing.
The stress and fear that is being spread across the country is even more reason to start learning massage and working as a massage therapist in any capacity. I saw a PBS Documentary last fall from National Geographic: Stress – Portrait of a Killer
Massage Therapy Jobs while they are becoming more common, it is difficult to find a job that pays $35 or more an hour. Realistically it is difficult to make a living on that wage and support a family. In a massage job you usually only are able to work 25-30 hours tops. You also only get paid that amount when you have a client. If you don’t have a client you get paid minimum wage. Most massage jobs don’t have any benefits such as vaction or sick pay or holiday pay nor do they offer retirement plans. Out of that $35 an hour you have to be able to save for vacations, for slow periods and for retirement. With the way the economy is and the way jobs are you still have to engage in the job enough to get and keep clients. You will still be doing sales of products to clients to increase the income of the business and yours. Most massage jobs you still really have to do most of what a self-employed massage therapist will be doing.
It is much more profitable to open your own massage office and has much more potential for making a great living and even making $100,000 a year as a massage therapist. It does require that you learn about setting up a business and learn how to get clients. There are also other ways to make money as a self-employed massage therapist. You can use your website to make money while you work by referring people to affiliate programs and writing articles and using Google Adsense on your site.
Your success will depend largely on your underlying beliefs about money and being successful. Being self employed will bring up those issues so that you can clearly see them and begin to change them. Your underlying beliefs are mostly unconscious meaning you aren’t aware of them. The way to get in touch with them is by paying attention to what you are feeling. Your feelings will tell you what your beliefs are. If you are writing a massage business plan and you are planning on working on 20 clients a week for $100 a session notice what feelings come up. Most likely it is something like “I can’t charge $100 a session. No one will pay that or I am not worth that.” These little thoughts are the key to your beliefs. Is it true that no one will pay that? You don’t know really. Is it true that you are not worth that? You don’t know that really.
Working to uncover your unconscious beliefs about money and success will allow you to become conscious of them and make different choices. It is a process. It isn’t easy. You will have to do it no matter what career you choose. The econonmy doesn’t really matter. If you think that changing careers in this economy will make it more difficult to be successful than it will be more difficult. If you know you want to do it more than anything else in the world right now you will be motivated to do whatever it takes to be successful. Will you eat macaroni and cheese until you get enough clients? Will you put in long hours learning and creating marketing programs? Will you keep at it even though you will have ups and downs? Will you have the persistence and patience to make it happen? These are some of the things to think about when you are considering opening your own massage business in the face of a challenging economy.
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This is a tough one, I live in San Diego and the therapists I’ve talked to are reporting a decrease in business from 40-60%. Spas, clinics, and chiropractors are having problems and cutting back hours or laying off workers. Sure massage is something that many, many people want, unfortunately it’s one of the first things they cut during hard times.
I firmly agree that a person should pursue the career that makes them happy, but right now they may want to take classes in their free time and get part-time work experience while maintaining their current job.
I am glad that this subject is being addressed as I have been struggling with this for amonth now. I lost my job working for a chiropractor who originally promised me full time.THAT lasted 2 weeks and the hours kept going down over 3 monts to 12 hours a week. He was not getting any new patients in, did no advertising and none of his patients sent in referrals. He was paying me a straight $15.oo/hr, but the jobs were scarce and I had bills to pay. As was mentioned, he combined the worst aspects of being an employee with the worst aspects of being an IC, and shorted me EVERY payday (every 3 weeks) and then told me on Friday not to come back on Monday. From what I understand from other MT’s in the area, chiros are taking full advantage of the worsening economy to exploit workers, even more than before.To be fair, tho, they are not alone. I can’t rent a place..they are, on average $600 – 800/mo, more than my mortgage,so I’m doing on site, but it’s slow going. I called a number of medical offices, which is the arena I have worked in mostly, and they are all cutting back or closing near me..not what they are saying in the news, Occupational Oulook handbook and internet sites! If I can’t get something soon, I will be out on the street. But, as you said, Julie, if you’re dedicated and determined you can find a way..even going to church every day and asking God for a miracle (but remember that God helps those who help themselves!) I am finding that there is no shortage of people who need massage, and while I’m not sure I agree with charging what the market will bear or what you feel that you are worth, we DO need to make a decent living and should be able to. What I think we need is to band together and come up with some ideas to collectively present to the new administration mandating PREVENTIVE healthcare. The more we educate others as to the massage health benefits, the more we help ourselves, each other and gradually change the perception still held by many people when they hear the word “massage”. I would like to live to see the day when a massage therapist enjoys the same prestige, respect and perhaps even compensation as other educated and licensed healthcae specialists. This will have a chance of happening when the majority of us practice ethicly, legally and use sound business practices. I would like to see all skilled and dedicated professionals succeed, so let’s do what we need to to achieve this goal.