The Holidays, Gift Certificates, Massage, What's Up?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Kelly Sanders, LMT on December 7, 2010 at 7:48pm

My practice has been so slow I'm contemplating leaving the profession and returning to school for yet one more degree. This one is an associates degree as a PTA. I went to the school and had the instructors review my transcripts yesterday. I've even scheduled the ACT for feb 12 and my observation volunteer hours to start this Thursday. Who knows?; I think if our associations/boards would get OFF their money hungry beurecratic butts and promote our profession more, we therapists would have more work and less burnout for all the struggle to get business.
NMHO
Kelly Sanders

Permalink Reply by lee kalpin on December 7, 2010 at 8:14pm

Hard to believe that you are neglecting your facebook account! You must be very busy.

I am about as busy as usual. And as busy as I want to be.
I have sold a small number of gift certificates. Used to sell more when businesses were buying certificates for their employees as holiday gifts. The past few years I find that businesses have cut back. They are not giving gifts, having parties, and some are not giving end-of-year bonuses, so that has definitely cut down the number of GCs that I sell.

Permalink Reply by Angela Lind on December 7, 2010 at 9:13pm

Kelly Sanders, LMT said:

My practice has been so slow I'm contemplating leaving the profession and returning to school for yet one more degree. This one is an associates degree as a PTA. I went to the school and had the instructors review my transcripts yesterday. I've even scheduled the ACT for feb 12 and my observation volunteer hours to start this Thursday. Who knows?; I think if our associations/boards would get OFF their money hungry beurecratic butts and promote our profession more, we therapists would have more work and less burnout for all the struggle to get business.
NMHO
Kelly Sanders

It has been very slow for me too, I have sold in the last 2 months no more than 5 gift cards. Will keep trying to sell more gift cards of course but to be honest, it has been also very slow for me too. Actually I am right now starting with another profession. I'm not giving up completely with massage therapy because I still have my regulars and few new clients that call me once in a while, but massage would be an extra income for me from now on, and not my primary income. I'm tired in dealing with the unlicensed people stealing our clients offering low rates, dealing with clients that wants more than an ethical massage, dealing with the discrimination from the medical field and insurance companies toward massage therapists and the ridiculous salary that chiropractors offer to LMT's.

Permalink Reply by Stephanie Keffer on December 7, 2010 at 9:35pm

I have been hit or miss with business. I make enough to pay my bills with a little on the side but nothing what i thought I'd be. As my former employer is laying off this season I did some creative marketing to get some business in. I teamed up with a friend that does "pamper parties" and having been doing some corporate Christmas parties this season. That has proven to be good. Plus I joined a chamber to get a new stream of people. If you are not creative and thinking outside the box you will fold in this economy. This is my first year in business and I have still stayed in the green, it can be done. As for gift certificates I have been selling them buy one get one half off. Yes I'm loosing some money but it has been getting my clients that I may not be getting normally.

Permalink Reply by Angela Lind on December 7, 2010 at 9:39pm

Stephanie Keffer said:

I have been hit or miss with business. I make enough to pay my bills with a little on the side but nothing what i thought I'd be. As my former employer is laying off this season I did some creative marketing to get some business in. I teamed up with a friend that does "pamper parties" and having been doing some corporate Christmas parties this season. That has proven to be good. Plus I joined a chamber to get a new stream of people. If you are not creative and thinking outside the box you will fold in this economy. This is my first year in business and I have still stayed in the green, it can be done. As for gift certificates I have been selling them buy one get one half off. Yes I'm loosing some money but it has been getting my clients that I may not be getting normally.

That's great Stephanie and you are right, we have to be creative and do different things in order to get clients. In my case, I know has been my fault too, not doing a good marketing but I think its because I'm feeling physically tired too in giving massages, not mentally tired because I love massage, but I realized that I can't give 5 massages in a row like years ago, I give 2 hours massage and I feel I need to rest. Physically I'm not going to be able to make a living with massage therapy. But I will keep doing it as an extra income. You keep the good work and creativity, you will do very good. ;)

Permalink Reply by Michael Wolfes, CLMT, CRP on December 8, 2010 at 12:44am

Unfortunately, this year's Oct - Dec is virtually the opposite of last year for my business. Last year I was very slow in October and very busy in Nov/Dec. This year VERY busy in October and this Nov/December is extremely slow and I am not doing anything differently. The recession has hit us hard in the So. CA desert which is 50% resort communities.

Permalink Reply by Las Vegas Massage In Summerlin on December 8, 2010 at 9:20am

Kelly Sanders, LMT said:

My practice has been so slow I'm contemplating leaving the profession and returning to school for yet one more degree. This one is an associates degree as a PTA. I went to the school and had the instructors review my transcripts yesterday. I've even scheduled the ACT for feb 12 and my observation volunteer hours to start this Thursday. Who knows?; I think if our associations/boards would get OFF their money hungry beurecratic butts and promote our profession more, we therapists would have more work and less burnout for all the struggle to get business.
NMHO
Kelly Sanders

Hi Kelly!

Can I ask you a couple of quick questions?

When you say 'slow,' are you referring to existing clients not coming in anymore? Or, has the flow of new clients slowed? Both?

What do you think is the biggest obstacle to your success?

Thanks!

Kris

Permalink Reply by lee kalpin on December 8, 2010 at 10:11am

I find it sad that enthusiastic therapists seem to be having such a hard time making a living. Kris has lots of excellent suggestions for marketing massage therapy practices.
As for having a long life in the career, I have been practicing for 26 years and I am now 70 years old, and still have a very active practice. I have certainly cut back physically from what I used to do. I used to treat at last 6 hours a day, and up to 27 clients a week.
Now I see 3- 4 clients max per day and average 12 - 16 hours per week. This is all I want to do physically and is plenty for me to earn a good living.
So it's all very possible from a physical point of view.

Permalink Reply by Tsy Schupack on December 9, 2010 at 6:11pm

My practice has been so slow I'm contemplating leaving the profession and returning to school for yet one more degree. This one is an associates degree as a PTA. I went to the school and had the instructors review my transcripts yesterday. I've even scheduled the ACT for feb 12 and my observation volunteer hours to start this Thursday. Who knows?; I think if our associations/boards would get OFF their money hungry beurecratic butts and promote our profession more, we therapists would have more work and less burnout for all the struggle to get business.
NMHO
Kelly Sanders

 

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Our business has been holding steady...and that is a blessing.

This past year 70% of new clients visited our website before making an appointment...so I would suggest taking any spare time to really make sure your website is whipped into shape.

 

Kelly I noticed that the meta tags for your site are a bit confusing....and that can confuse search engines as well.

 

Each of us have uniquely different practices...home-based and out-call businesses have very different markets then ours being located in a business/professional office setting.

 

I would suggest to anyone to look at slow times as an opportunity to plan...get the word out...find new prospects...focus on the future.