1) Create a vision for yourself. What exactly do you want to get out of your massage business? Create a vision for how many clients you work on each week, what you make each week after you create a spending plan for yourself. How much do you need to make each month/year? After you get the derails down then you can start asking yourself for what reason do you want those things. While the first answer is usually the obvious – “I need the money” – the underlying reasons are often filled with needs such as the need to be recognized, appreciated and the need to help others so that you feel good about yourself. When you can begin to understand the deeper reasons underneath why you are even doing massage, you can then learn how to get those needs met in your personal life taking the pressure off clients having to fulfill those needs. When that happens massage therapists often find that they become more effective massage therapists and building a business comes more easily.

2) Create a vision of your “Ideal Client”. You can start with any specific demographics like they live or work in the neighborhood. You can also choose a specialty if you have one – pregnancy massage, sports massage, injury massage or whatever it may be or some combination of a few specialties. When you specialize you can then create a marketing plan that is directed towards that specific population. You can also take it a step further and ask ‘What does my ideal client value and understand?”. They value their health and well being and are willing to pay for massage. They understand that they are responsible for their health and well being and are committed to doing whatever it takes to do so.

When you have a vision of your “Ideal Client” you can then create a marketing and networking plan to support your vision for your massage business. Marketing is nothing more than just telling people what it is that you do. It is letting your “Ideal Client” know what you have to offer matches their needs and wants. When you know who your ideal massage client is, marketing becomes less scary and more of just a way to let people know what you do.

3) Have a website that works. A website that works is one that gets you to the top of the search engines for your keywords ‘massage, your city’ or ‘massage, ballard’ or whatever keywords most people would use to find you. When you have a website that can do that, potential clients can find you. They are already looking for a massage therapist so you don’t have to do much selling. What you do have to do is provide enough information that they begin to trust you enough to make the call for an appointment. A website is one of the best ways to educate people as to what exactly massage can do and what you can do for them.
A website that works also provides you with additional income. You can make extra money by selling products through affiliate programs such as amazon.com. That way you don’t have to carry and products or jeopardize the therapeutic relationship by trying to sell products to clients. You can also create a niche website on a topic that you are an expert on that may or may not be related to doing massage.

4) Self Care. Massage is 10% technique and 90% about you. How you care for yourself in every way – financially, physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually will influence the level of success that you will be able to achieve. Your beliefs about success and money are what create your reality. When you find yourself struggling to get by begin to wonder what must a person believe about themselves that would create that reality. Our beliefs are mostly unconscious. What tells you what your beliefs are is your feelings. Whenever you are feeling angry, sad, depressed you can know that you are buying into a false belief or an old belief that is trying to tell you that you are not good enough. Your beliefs about money are reflected in your thoughts you have when you see someone driving down the street in a Bentley or see someone living in a mansion. They are reflected in what you charge for your massage and how you create and enforce your cancellation policies. They are reflected in how you run your business.
When was the last time you had a massage and paid for it (and didn’t have to give one in return)? How you take care of your physical body is another way to show people how to take care of theirs. You can’t expect to have clients that come every week when you don’t get massage every week. Setting an example is the best form of marketing. Engaging in other activities for your physical well being such as Yoga, exercise, mediation or other things also then become emotional, mental and spiritual self care.
Massage therapists come into the massage profession for many reasons. One of the main reasons is to ‘help others’. They find themselves saying that it isn’t about the money but about helping and being rewarded for helping. While that is all well and good, helping doesn’t pay the bills or build a retirement account or put the kids through college. Looking into the deeper reasons that one becomes a massage therapist can free yourself from ‘caretaking’. (“When we caretake, we assume responsibility for our clients’ healing. When we caregive, we support clients in assuming responsibility for their own healing.” -Jack Blackburn of presencingsource.com)

Part of a good self care package also includes creating a set of policies and procedures that support your massage business. This includes setting your fees and how you follow up when you don’t get paid. It includes your cancellation and no show policies and how you enforce them. It includes how you create a therapeutic relationship with clients and create a healing container for them to support their process.
Setting and keeping your boundaries around money is just also just good self care. It is OK to charge for what you do. It is OK to raise your rates every year too. Taking the stance of “Noble Poverty” – the idea that you don’t need any money or much money when you sacrifice your time for others will leave you burned out before long. Mikelann Valterra author of “Why Women Earn Less” (could be called Why Massage Therapists Earn less !) explains noble poverty as part of the unconscious beliefs that people have about money. “They often assume that anyone who has made a lot of money must be unscrupulous, or the way in which the wealthy made their money must be unethical, or rich people in general cannot be “nice” people.”

5) Get the support that you need in the form of individual and/or group supervision, peer supervision or find a mentor that you can work with. Supervision is a fairly new concept for the massage profession. When you first hear the word supervision, your first thought is probably “I don’t want someone telling me what to do”. Supervision is actually just the opposite. It isn’t anyone telling you what to do. It is about getting the support and appreciation that you long for in your practice. It is about finding out that you are not the only one who has feelings that come up around dealing with clients who are late or don’t show up. It is finding out that others also struggle with raising their rates and running a successful massage business. It is about getting whatever support that YOU specifically need to run a successful business or be successful in a job.
When I first made the commitment to engage in regular supervision, I felt a sense of relief that I no longer had to struggle and go it alone. This sense of relief has carried over into all areas of my life.
Supervision can be helpful for whatever stage of a massage career you are in – whether you are just starting out and struggling to get clients or you are a seasoned massage therapist wanting to take your massage practice deeper or to find higher levels of success. Some reasons that massage therapists seek out supervision are:
• Feeling stressed out, burned out or frustrated with the struggles of building a practice.
• Feeling like you are always giving and giving – of your time, energy and skills- and not being fairly rewarded for doing so.
• Feeling resentful of clients or employers.
• Always struggling to make ends meet and wondering where your next client will come from and when.
• Feeling like you are the only one who can help your massage client?
• You find yourself working longer on clients thinking that will make them want to come back or tip more?
• Feeling that your work is meaningless or invaluable or ineffective.
• Not having a cancellation policy or having one but it is difficult for you to enforce.
• Find it hard to charge people who are older, really injured or in the lower income bracket your usual rates. Is it hard to charge anyone for something like massage that is so wonderful and caring?
• Do you set your rates by figuring out what you need to make each month or by what you think people would pay you?
• Just thinking that you need to take every client who calls rather than working towards having a practice full of your ideal massage client – one who values your time and efforts and respects and values their bodies enough to take care of it by getting regular massage.
• Finding you are behind in bookkeeping, billing and other important paperwork that is needed
• Do you find it exhausting to keep saying yes and feel guilty when you say no?
When you have the support that you need, you will be able to take the steps you need to get the clients and income that you need to also survive the uncertain times that are coming towards us. You will feel better about charging what you need to make to make a Great Living and upholding your policies and procedures that support a successful practice.
The more support you have, the more you are able to reach out and do what marketing and networking you need to do to run a sustainable business or one that can even flourish in a challenging economy. Professional support groups can provide the nurturing that you are looking for in your massage practice. Because we work with people who are in a vulnerable state and the current economic challenges are creating more stress and vulnerability, we owe it to our clients to get the support we need to be able to support them in their process. These stressful times seem like they were created just for the massage profession to show them our stuff!
For those massage therapists who are looking for jobs or are in massage jobs the same steps can be applied. When looking for a job it is important to create a vision of your ideal massage job and go out and find an employer that you want to work for and show them what you will do for them rather than having your job hunt be focused on what a job can do for you. So whatever your stage in starting or building a business or finding/creating a job these 5 things can help you to stay on track to creating a successful and rewarding career.
Julie Onofrio has been a massage therapist for over 20 years and is the author/creator of two websites for the massage profession: www.thebodyworker.com and www.massage-career-guides.com. She also leads supervision groups in the Seattle area, provides business consultations and is an expert at creating websites. Her massage office website is www.massageseattle.net.

Related posts:

1. Proof of Harm
2. Creating Your Vision
3. Business Plans – Writing Your Mission/Purpose Statement

The web is the one place where you can get away with not having a specialty in massage. Most massage therapists just want to do massage and work with a variety of clients – pregnancy massage, sports massage, deep tissue massage, injury massage or whatever is in your tool box of techniques. When you do other types of marketing it is best to have a target market or a specific technique or population that you want to market to otherwise it is like looking for a needle in a haystack. With a website you can target everyone who is looking for massage in your city/town because that is the way that most people search for a massage therapist in your area. When you get your site to the top of the search engines you already have willing and able clients who are looking for massage. They aren’t necessarily looking for you but when they find your site easily by searching for ‘massage, your city’ they will already have more trust in you because they did not find you in an ad which sometimes leaves people feeling like they are being given a sales pitch.

So there are many services that offer websites for massage therapists. You can find free hosting or low cost hosting such as using officelive.com or use a blog format such as www.webnode.com. You can also set up a simple site using ez-web-hosting.com which comes with a simple template system and easy to use page creators. I use them for this site and blog. I have written some information on how to set up a blog with their severs on one of my sites www.workless-playmore.com (which I use Site Build it! to build that site). Setting up a blog is really simple but you also need to know what plugins and accessories to use to get the site found. My site also covers just about everything you need to know about getting your site found by search engines. Most of everything I know, I just learned from Site Build it!

The hosting and business development system that I recommend is Site Build it! For no other reason than it just works to get a site to the top of the search engines. It is also more than just a hosting system. It teaches you everything you need to know about creating a business online or offline.
But it really isn’t for everyone. I started out 10 years ago with free hosting and learned as I went along. SBI! does take some time to learn and understand but the results are well worth it.

And this month only I am offering my services to get your site up and running. I will build 8 pages for you to start with and plan our your site and teach you how to build the pages yourself when you buy an SBI! package – but heres the thing- Don’t buy it now! Yes that’s right! Wait until a few weeks before Christmas when SBI! has their annual sale that is worth waiting for. (I have been waiting all year to start a few new sites!) You will be able to buy one SBI! for the usual ($299 a year – and the price hasn’t changed in 5 years!) and get the second one for absolutely FREE! It is an incredible offer that they only offer once a year. You can use one site for your massage business and one to brainstorm and develop a site that will make you additional income or like my sites half of your income and even more if you put more time into it!

What would you create a second site on? Whatever you are passionate about and know alot about. SBI! comes with a piece of software that helps you brainstorm a niche or concept for your site and helps you research it’s profitability potential. Know alot about chair massage- how to do it, create a chair massage company, promote chair massage, do chair massage? That would be a great topic.
Know about growing herbs, eating gluten free, your area or city that you live? Create a site on it!

Not sure how you will make money? Most of my online income comes from Google Adsense. It is a program that Google has that allows you to put their ads on your site and when someone clicks on an ad – you get paid. There is even a tool that will give you and idea of how much clicks are getting. Massage schools is one of the highest with them paying about $15-$20 per click but you don’t get that amount. You get a small percentage (that no one really knows how much) so the way you can make money is by having lots of pages with content on them about massage schools (or your topic) and getting lots of traffic. My site that I just sold massagetherapycareers.com was getting about 300-500 people a day. This site gets about 2500 -3000 people a day – so you get the idea. Lots of pages of content + lots of traffic = $$$$$. The more pages and traffic the more the money. The more sites you have that have a lot of pages and content the more money you get!

Having an additional source of income is just basic self care. The more you have coming in and in savings the more you can begin to create your ideal massage practice and not be a slave to low paying jobs like Massage Envy or other places. The more you have in the way of financial support, the more you can choose who you want to work on leaving the draining clients who show up late or miss their appointments and don’t want to pay for their sessions for someone else. It will allow you to raise your rates more comfortably and make what you are worth knowing that when you raise your rates you may lose a few clients. Charging more and doing more massages on the people that you want to work with the most is just again basic self care.

So if you do want to still start a free site or a low cost site, I suggest that you read and follow the SBI! action guide that comes in written or manual form which is available for anyone to read for free at any time.

or take the SBI! Video tour to get a better idea of what it is all about.

Related posts:

1. Building Website Traffic
2. Making Your Website Work
3. 10 Easy things to do to make a Website that works

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.

Related posts:

1. Employee/Subcontractor – Are we being taken advatage of?
2. Working as an employee
3. Independent Contractor vs Employee

I was also looking at massage schools and came across this very interesting one- The Academy of Natural Healing in NYC that says:

Your most important consideration each day will become, “Am I making a difference?” It’s a funny thing though and you may not think that it is a very holistic way of looking at things but…When you complete your education in some area of alternative medicine and natural healing if you have not learned how to reach thousands of people annually and bring in at least $100,000 to a half-million dollars a year in your health and healing business – you won’t really be making an impact. And that’s the honest, hard truth. Now if you’re offended – and you may be – let me explain why I’m using the number of clients you will have and the amount of money you make as a measuring stick. Because that’s exactly what it is. Really. Here’s why…

If you see fifteen clients a week for 52 weeks but you’re doing it for a fee of $50 or less – you will not be in a position of great influence. You’ll probably be hanging lot’s of flyers on health food store bulletin boards, making lot’s of follow-up calls to potential clients and sometimes sitting around waiting for occasional clients who just don’t show up and don’t bother to call..

If you see forty clients a week for 52 weeks but you’re doing it for a fee of $75 or less – you will not be in a position of great influence – you’re still not making the impact you should. You’re briefly in someone’s
life, then you move on to the next client, and they go on with their life.

If you’re really making an impact, you are:
Speaking regularly to large groups
Selling educational and motivational products
Consulting with the influential health food and natural product
companies and organizations in your area of expertise; and
Touching thousands or millions of people on a daily basis, through the media, your web site, books, tapes and videos.

That’s the way the universe works… When you give value – you are rewarded in multiples of that. You do the arithmetic. If you are really making a difference in natural healing and alternative medicine – that translates into at least a $100,000 to a half-million dollars a year in revenues and maybe even more. (end of page)

In some ways the massage schools themselves (not the one above of course!) are teaching massage therapists to think in only small ways of achievement and sharing of massage. They also say things like “don’t quit your day job” which to me says they don’t think enough of massage as being a viable profession. They also influence the fees that massage therapists set for their service by telling them they have to start at a low rate because they are unexperienced and that is the only way they will get enough clients.

I was also reading the latest edition of Massage and Bodywork Magazine and they were sharing some of the latest statistics on massage from their recent survey. They reported:

62% of survey respondents who have never received a massage, 36% said they didn’t perceive a value to massage or feel that it was necessary; 30% cited cost as a deterrent; and 37% said they just didn’t have time for a massage.

In other words – massage is not valued by the public. Value is a subjective thing, but it is also based on having enough information to place a value on something. If someone really understood the value of a massage and were flat broke they would find a way to get a massage. The same for the people driving Lexus’s or other fancy cars saying that they can’t afford a massage. It doesn’t really have anything to do with money – it has to do with what they value.

Suze Orman in her book ‘Women and Money” says:

…that if you undervalue what you do, the world undervalues who you are. And when you undervalue who you are, the world undervalues what you do.

So is the massage profession itself creating how people value massage?
-what does it say to people when you offer your services at a really low rate?
- what does it say when you don’t charge people for not showing up or when you work for the full hour even though a client was late?
- what does it say when you don’t get a massage yourself regularly?
- what does it say about massage when you tell people you aren’t doing this for the money?
-Is it the way massage therapists look and dress – usually in more comfortable clothes?

What perception of massage is being created by the way you run your massage practice?

What is lacking in the massage profession that teaches people how valuable massage is? Is it the need for more research to prove massage works? Is it more great websites that really connect with the potential clients need for information and building trust? Is it more licensing and legislation with clearly defined standards of practice (which we do not have at all in the US.)? Is it a clearer definition of the massage profession and what we do?

What is it that will increase the value of massage and help change the perceived value into real value?

No related posts.

Whatever the excuse or reason you give for giving away your time is usually an emotionally based decision which is different from a business decision. Your actions are a way to discover the root cause of issues that you are faced with by helping you to uncover your unconscious beliefs. Your thoughts and beliefs create your actions.

Giving away your time shows how much you value your own time. It doesn’t necessarily win people over or make them want to come back more than when you don’t give away your time. People want to give back when they receive your massage – they do this in the form of payment ($$$). When you try to give them more than they are paying for it sets up a power imbalance. People will feel indebted to you or feel like they have to come back because you gave them more than they wanted.

Wanting to work on people who are underprivileged and really can’t afford massage while may seem noble, it may not be really helping anyone. If you really wanted to help these people you could do something with all the money you do make and open up a free clinic or teach classes to them on how to do massage themselves – teach them to take care of themselves.

When you want to be so giving of your time, it is usually an indicator of how much you value yourself and that it is you who are in need. If you don’t value yourself clients will feel it and not value you either.

Mikelann Valterra in her book “Why women earn less: How to make what you are really worth” says this:

” Our time is one of our most precious assets. Yet many people feel compelled to give it away to others, excessively in some cases, and at the expense of not using it to enrich their own lives and reach their goals…
Chances are that if you regularly put other people before yourself, you probably give away your time inappropriately or excessively. It can feel uncomfortable to put your own needs and wishes first. But learning not to give your time away is essential. It ultimately comes down to the fact
that valuing your time is the same thing as valuing yourself.”

The roots of underearning are usually from early childhood. Our people pleasing behaviors come from not getting early needs for mirroring, connection, acceptance, appreciation and love. Early in life children are taught that they can’t get their needs met so they try to survive by finding out the rules and following them – giving up what they really want and setting aside their feelings. The purpose in life then becomes learning to please others rather and attune to their needs to others or we think we risk losing the connection. We lose ourselves trying to please others. We learn to be caretakers – taking care of others in the way we need/wish to be taken care of ourselves.

I first learned of the idea that caretaking is really different from ‘caregiving’ after reading a series of articles by Jack Blackburn – a local Seattle Trager practitioner and teacher. He defines it in this way:

“When we caretake we assume responsibility for our clients’ healing. When we
caregive we support clients in assuming responsibility for their own healing.”

When we are giving away our precious time in ways that ‘caretake’ others, it usually leads to less than fulfilling practices and not having enough money to take care of yourself (and family.)

Related posts:

1. The Answer for Massage Therapists
2. Tipping Massage Therapists
3. Understanding Beliefs for Massage Therapists

Having to make sales or sell your clients on your service is not what creating a massage practice is about. All sales or marketing really means is that you tell people what you do and you go out and find people who need what you do. Simple- right?

Well even though it is simple – it does take time. What makes the difference in being successful in sales/marketking is really having the confidence in yourself. It requires being able to handle and deal with rejection by not taking it personally and learn to communicate what it is you do.

The best way to do this is to use the Sitebuildit! business building system and webdesign/hosting company. You can actually read all of their material for free – that’s how confident they are in their product. Once you take the time to really study what they are saying, I think you will understand what it is that they are teaching you to do through a website. All they are doing is helping you get clear about what it is that you do and helping you to find people who need your service. It’s simple marketing.

The best place to start is with their Service Sellers page or the complete Service Sellers Manual

For a limited time I am offering my website design services for reader of this blog and websites at a really reduced rate. I am offering to start a 8 page website for you for $300 (hosting and software are an additional $300 for a year of hosting.) An 8 page website is a great place to start. It gives you a website to start putting information for your potential clients. You will still have to market your practice and put your website address on everything. (If you are doing any kind of marketing or even have business cards printed – it is a waste of time to give them out without having your website address on them.)

Another article on Sales from Massage Today.
The Difference Between Sales and Marketing

Related posts:

1. Sales process vs caring for massage therapists
2. Writing Sales Copy for your Massage Business
3. Be Impeccable With Your Word

I have two websites for my clinic. One my Sitebuilit! Site -www.massageseattle.net and the other my test site for massagelaunch.com – www.citycentermassage.com. I started getting a few calls from my citycentermassage.com site a few months ago but they never turned into appointments for some reason or another. I think I had 2 clients from that and one was someone traveling through Seattle and one was a person who only gets a massage 1x a year or so – still not my ideal clients. Part of the problem was that I was still taking the insurance clients because I was fearful of not being able to make a living and pay the bills. I finally just couldn’t take the insurance stuff anymore and I just went cold turkey – well almost. I talked to all of my insurance clients and basically sent them away for various reasons. I now am only taking insurance from one company who pays the most – almost $100 per hour.
I cleared my schedule up and made room for new clients and what do you think happens? My website finally started working for me. I have gotten 2 new cash clients from both of the sites in the last 2 weeks.
I didn’t do anything different and I haven’t even really been adding any content (which is the Sitebuildit ! way.) or doing any advertising or anything.
It is really all about creating the intention and walking the talk- following through with your intentions.
I also had some really amazing coincidental things happen this week. One of them being I was thinking of this exercise/weight lifting book that I used to have a very long time ago- probably 12-15 years ago. I hadn’t thought about it in ages and didn’t think I even had it anymore. I did a quick check of all my shelves and couldn’t find it. Today I go into the office and it is sitting on my desk with a note from one of my office mates telling me that so and so (her client) returned the book! I don’t even remember even loaning it out or anything let alone to this other persons client. Anyways – amazing things do happen when you start to get in sync – when your thoughts and actions are in alignment which is what the law of attraction is all about. I just started a site on that a few months ago and while it is still in it’s very early stages here it is www.learn-the-law-of-attraction-secret.com

Related posts:

1. Building Your Ideal Massage Practice 2007
2. Truth Marketing for Massage Therapists
3. Fear of building a successful massage practice

A rewarding practice is one that brings you joy and comes to you easily because you know that you are responsible for everything you have created in your life.

My basic forumla for creating that is to build a website, practice the law of attraction or learning to become self aware, start or join a peer supervision group and find a peer supervisor and then when you have what you want, share it with others through the process of mentoring, becoming a peer supervisor and through starting/teaching in an apprenticeship program.

I recommend that people start with building a website using Sitebuildit! because it is way more than just building a website. It is about starting to really think about what it is that you do and learning to talk about it and write about it in a way that attracts your ideal client to you. Working on your ideal client you will feel nourished and they will respect you enough to pay you what you ask for because they value what you do. As you build a website, you will also get information about what type of clients are finding you and what they are looking for so that you can optimize on those things if you desire or you can rewrite to start attracting those you do want to work with. This is all done using the statistics that SBI! provides on keywords.
So starting a website for your massage practice is just not about the website. It is about really taking a look at what you want and learning to ask for just that. In that way you can become more ‘attractive’ to your ideal client.

Understanding and using the law of attraction is just about learning to focus on what you do want and stop focusing on what you don’t want. It is about becoming aware of all of those little unconscious thoughts that creep up when you say what you desire. These thoughts are coming from your unconscious false core beliefs that you have about yourself. They aren’t true even though at times it really does seem like they are. It is coming to an understanding that you are good enough and don’t have to work to please everyone. It is about accepting yourself where you are at right now. It is about learning to change your unconscious beliefs by becoming more aware of what you are feeling. Your feelings are what tell you if what you are thinking is in alignment with your true self.

Starting or joining a peer supervision group or finding a peer supervisor for one on one work will help you with the first two things and also help you learn to set boundaries. You boundaries are what set up the healing container for the client and allow you to be present with the process of healing and stop focus on fixing clients.

When you have a solid practice set up using these paramters it is also important to start sharing what you know and have learned with others by becoming a peer supervisor yourself or teaching massage in an apprenticeship program or other type of mentoring program. When we can begin to share what we know and have experienced it is another way of learning even more about yourself and helping others to see themselves more clearly is necessary for promoting the massage profession and making it into the profession that we dream about.

Everything that is on my other site www.thebodyworker.com was meant to start an apprenticeship program and help pass on the art of massage to others as well as supporting other massage therapists through the process of becoming a massage therapist.

Related posts:

1. Building Your Ideal Massage Practice 2007
2. Massage Practice Builder
3. Peer Supervision – What the heck is it?

The big struggle with charging for last minute cancellations has to do with our fear of losing that client. The real question is do we even really want that client at all as it appears that they don’t respect our work or time enough to be responsible for their actions.

When we say things like we will let that one go because they are a good client or tell them we won’t charge them if they rebook we in a sense are trying to “caretake” them and take responsibility for their life. We don’t want them to not like us because we ask them for money.

But when you took the time and energy to be there for the appointment and you locked them into your schedule so that no one else could take that time – what you are saying when you just let that slide is “I don’t value myself enough so why should you”.

Afterall it is a business we are running. A business is built on a strong framework of policies and procedures and compassion. But is letting people slide and not pay for a last minute cancellation really compassionate or is it “caretaking” ( when we try to take responsiblity for others. You can read more about caretaking at www.thebodyworker.com and the highly recommended reading section and at Jack Blackburns website -see “Caretaking” )

Now if you are reading this and saying what about a death in the family can’t you excuse that? While that is a serious situation I still believe that anyone who respects your time will still want to pay you for it.

Now don’t get me wrong. I have struggled with this for the last 17 years and there is no easy answer. But the more I learn about myself, the more I see how everytime I make excuses for the client not to pay me for my time, I give up a little piece of myself.

Now I try to be more up front with people and inform new clients of my cancellation policy right in the first phone call and then have them sign a statement on their first visit at the end of the intake form. What this does is establish the ground rules.

There are many ways to handle cancellations – charge the whole amount or charge a $25-$35 fee or even charge depending on how much notice they have given you.

Do you want to allow for people being sick, for family emergencies, for them getting stuck at work? What about those who just plain forgot?

What you do with each client does reflect on the profession.

Ethically Speaking

How To Handle “No Shows”

These suggestions can help you be more effective in ethically managing clients who push your scheduling and time management limits. BY DIANNE POLSENO

Increase Your Income by Reducing “No Shows”

By Colleen (Steigerwald) Holloway, LMT

Related posts:

1. Massage Business -Creating Policies and Procedures
2. Cancellation Policies for massage therapists
3. Dealing with erections on the massage table

The reason why SOAP charting is so important is because it is the only way to communicate with the medical profession. They will understand massage better when they can see the improvement that massage brings each session.

Diana Thompson is the “Queen” of SOAP charting with her book “Hands Heal” and her classes on soap charting.

I have some basic information on my website:

SOAP charting for Massage Therapists

What should SOAP charts say?

Functional reporting.

One of the things that Diana said in her class on charting is that we need to be charting for every client even if they are not going through their insurance. She said that since we are considered “health care providers” here in WA state that it makes it be required for our profession.

SOAP charting can also be helpful in your learning process and understanding the process that each client goes through. As a profession we also need to be writing up more case studies about our work so that everyone – medical professionals and general population can also see what massage can do. Charting is at the center of case studies.

I hope to be having a section on the website soon that will allow people to start posting their case studies. If anyone has any to post now, please send them to me!

Other resources:

WinCity Soap charting software – also has some articles and lists Diana Thompsons classes. I haven’t tried the software. Has anyone?

Some simple samples

Related posts:

1. Should you get into taking insurance?
2. From Massagenerd.com – RE: NCBTMB
3. Website survey