a community of practitioners

Have Arrogant / Stubborn LMT's Created the Market for Massage Franchises?

First off let me say that I honestly don't personally care what any other Therapist's charge, nor do I concern myself w/ how well or how much business someone else is generating.

I've been in Healthcare now for over 17yrs, and my view towards things tend to be a little different from the avg professional. I believe that any and all therapy no matter the modality should be available to everyone.

I've seen and heard from other LMT's over time that these Massage Franchises are hurting the profession, either by their reduced rates which arent' actually reduced at all, or by the volume of business they do on a daily basis.

I've often wondered when I travel to more rural areas why their local LMT's charge the National Avg w/ regards to basic rates, aren't things in more run down, poorer regions usually cheaper than lets say in the big cities?!

I relocated to a region a few years ago and got hammered by local LMT's for undercutting the local market, well as I told many of them what I charge is no one elses business, I was constantly referred to as the Massage Envy of my region. So I moved again a few months ago to a larger city and it's littered w/ those Massage Envy's so I took a job based on my curiosity to see what all the hub bub was about, and what their Therapists were like.

Folks there is a place and enough business for all of us to charge what ever it is we feel our time is worth.

These Massage Franchises simply came into being all beacuse IMHO, due to LMT"s not marketing themselves well, and not being available. We are in the "I want it and I want it now " era.

Fact is folks these franchises are no cheaper than the National avg, sure they have gimmicks to lure in the client, but it's the lack of availability and in ability to easily find a therapist that has allowed these franchises to flourish.

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Neal Lyons on July 27, 2014 at 3:46pm

so instead of allowing franchises to come in and dominate because of their marketing/branding capabilities, why don't we all collectively work on a way that would make finding therapists easier? through this medium seekers can find the type of therapist they want - for example, if they want one to come home and give a massage, or if they want to go to an establishment, etc.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Neal Lyons on February 1, 2015 at 3:08pm

absolutely not. can't say i agree with the premise. capitalism has created massage franchises. anytime you have people come together for a common goal (i.e. corporations), the output is generally far more superior to the output of a single practitioner. i am not saying it is better or cheaper, i am simply saying that when you have one person focus on just one task (think departments: marketing, accounting, field research, etc), you will generally have a high powered "machine" that produces superior "business" "financial" results - sort of piggy back' on my earlier response in July

▶ Reply

▶ Reply to Discussion

‹ Previous
1
…
7
8
9
Next ›