I have been doing some research on the average income for massage therapists and doing some thinking about our beliefs create our reality. Put the two together - why don’t more massage therapists believe that they can make $100,000 a year and even more? Everyone seems to equate it with having to work too hard. Most massage therapists only see one client an hour and maybe 4-6 clients a day and usually only see about 20-25 clients a week. Much more than than puts a great physical demand on the therapist. So what is that worth? Do massage therapists take that into consideration when setting their fees for their massage services?
While the amount of money that each person needs varies and not everyone may desire $100,000 a year - but why not at least that?

I was also looking at massage schools and came across this very interesting one- The Acadamy 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?

This entry was posted on Monday, October 8th, 2007 at 12:49 pm and is filed under Building Your Practice, Massage Marketing, Starting Your Practice, The Wealthy Massage Therapist. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.