Encouragement
If you sometimes feel totally discouraged and full of despair that not enough clients are
coming to you, you are not alone.
Michelle has voiced her despair and received a host of great encouragement and suggestions
how to overcome it. I wanted to share that with you here:
Despair from Michelle
I am in need of some serious encouragement from those of you who have been
there, done that!!!
Let me explain, I graduated from school in September and
passed the national exam in November, state exam in December, and got approval
to do massage in my office in January.
Since that time I have done two massages.
I have sent out almost 400 mailings and got one response. I have put ads online, have a
website, put an ad in a local magazine and still no one calls.
I am really getting frustrated and now my husband has started to complain which is making it
worse for me. Before I went to school for massage I was doing daycare from my
home making $1000 a week, so now making nothing is
starting to put a drain on the family.
Encouragement by Michael Jamison (backtobasics.mjamison@gmail.com)
I have been trying to build a clientele for four years in two different towns, in
separate states. The only reason I keep trying is
because I love to do massage. The folks who have come
to me cannot understand why I am not busy 24/7, but I
have figured out it was because of me. I was blocking
my positive energy and in turn keeping people at bay.
Two points to consider:
- Do you love massage?
- Are you positive about how you present yourself in terms of doing massage?
I was always afraid of what others might think of me
doing massage, so I was unconsciously putting out negative
feelings and getting negative outcomes.
Thought is energy and energy is thought. Unconscious thought patterns become unspoken
conversations that your potential clients will listen
to. You can learn to let go of the negative thought
processes and then you will be a magnet for success.
Encouragement by Christine Hullinger (worftrec@yahoo.com)
Step away from the ugly...do not spend your time in someone else’s
negativity session, unless they are paying you for a massage. You are too
busy. After 5 years I have figured out it takes about 2 hours for me to do
one massage: the laundry, the marketing, the time on the phone
listening to the persons needs, the rebooking (always remember to ask
them to rebook).
I personally did some volunteering at the women’s groups at my
church that did wonders; and when I have down time I make flyers and
put them up locally to my place.
At the beginning I had to work a part time job. But that worked out well
because people from work got to know me and it was easier for them to come to me for a massage.
It is a wonderful and rewarding career. I feel so blessed to do
massage. Good luck and hang in there.
Encouragement by Roxanne Hollenbeck (northcountrymassage@yahoo.com)
I found that in the beginning I had to give a way a little bit of
my time in order to gain new clients. I no longer need to do that,
but it was of great value to my practice.
I too once thought I'd never want to work in a Spa, but I recently
went to a very high end resort and I am making great money and
learning many new services that will benefit my home office. I have
just added two independent contractors in my home office and I am
there three days a week and I have only been practicing for 18 months
in a town with a population under 2,000.
Be visible in your community. Chair events at health fairs,
corporate events, hair salons are a good place to start with chair as
the stylists always have neck and shoulder issues.
Find a community center or a church willing to let you provide an educational session
and give a scaled down table session demo. If you are in a church, it
is a neutral territory and people will feel more likely to come there
than say in a "massage facility.
Target people that have never had massage, by providing a demo they
are able to see how well draped a person is, and they have an overview of the procedure. Get other
therapists to join you.
Good Luck!
Encouragement by Annie (Anukki@aol.com)
One thing I was told that has helped me is to remember that massage is a very
personal service. And for a person to be interested in that sort of personal
service, they need to see your face and/or hear your voice.
If you go with print media, be sure to put in your picture. Radio and TV work far better than
print for that reason. But since radio and TV can be pricey, try speaking.
As an educator, you must know how to address a bunch of people. Then it is a
matter of finding venues. Local library, women's business networks, etc.
Let people see you and hear you and shake hands with you and they will be way
way more likely to come to you, take off all their clothes, get horizontal,
and let you touch them all over.
Encouragement by Ross Vondrak, BS, MBA, LMT, NCTMB, AMTA. Illinois, USA.
Long-term success will likely be produced most reliably via word-of-
mouth. Find a few key people in your area- maybe a banker,
realtor, local Jazzercise instructor, insurance agent, etc. Sell/give a
massage to them, and be sure it's a great massage.
Then, ask them about the quality of your work. That's redundant, of course, since
it will be great :o) Then, ask if you could quote their kind
comments. Now, you've established two avenues of growth from one
client/patient.
- 1. They will refer others to you. You get
referrals-they get a comp every so often.
- 2. Use the quote in your flyer that
you send to select small and medium size companies in your area.
Offer to do seated MT at a discount at those companies. Then, you
will have a "captive" audience to offer a special "corporate
promotion"- maybe sell a card of 4 or 5 sessions at a discount.
A critical part in this plan is to find those first few key people.
They should be "well-connected" in your area- they should deal with a
lot of people, since you will be leveraging your clientele off of the
people they recommend.
If they deal with more people, they will
have more people to recommend. Be sure to keep these key people very
happy. As they recommend people, see how each of these people can
bring you other recommendations.
During the warmer months, you might want to do some comp massage at
charity events. I've worked in Relay for Life (cancer research
walkathons) for several years. Most have raffles of some sort, so
I'll kick in a couple of certs to the raffles and so some comp work
for the participants. Have a sign-up sheet for those you work on-
follow up with an offer--- a pitch could go like this-----
"Thank you for helping THIS CHARITY. Sign up for a massage in the next month
and we will donate an extra $XX to THIS CHARITY and give you $5
discount to boot".
At least you will be getting some exposure. Be
sure to work on the event chairperson and DJ first--- they are the
one who control the microphones and can get you some plugs on the
P.A. system.
Hope this motivates you to hang in there. It takes time to build a
clientele. If you find those key people, you can reduce that time
quite a bit.
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