Yes, it’s International Passion Day. Whoo Hoo!
This is the day when, all over the world, folks are re-igniting their passion and purpose in life.
So why not take time today to think about what really matters to you in regards to your massage career or business, and your life.
Here is a very cool movie that’s aimed to inspire at least five million people to take action to follow their passions and begin living their life purpose. Enjoy!
www.passiondaymovie.com/
Posted in Staying Motivated, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Why should they choose you?
So you know who the ideal clients are for your sports massage practice, and the specific problems they would pay to have solved. But why should they choose you?
If you have done a good job of answering the previous two questions (see past two posts), you are already well on your way, because:
- By focusing on a clearly defined segment of the sports massage market you will be setting yourself up as an expert in that area.
- By addressing a prospective client’s biggest challenges, it shows that you really understand them. Then, naturally, they will want to know if you have a solution that works.
In your marketing materials you can also increase the chance that they will choose you by telling them:
- How you would address their problems.
- The experience you have working with other athletes in that market.
- Specific results some of your clients have achieved.
- The kind of clients you’ve been able to help who have similar problems.
- Any rewards or recognition you’ve received.
- How your services will affect the quality of their sport and their life.
By mastering these things you will be well on your way to creating success in the exciting field of sports massage.
Posted in Getting Massage Clients | 2 Comments
What do they want and will pay for?
What specifically are your ideal sports massage clients looking for? What problems do they have that you could help them with?
Let’s delve a little deeper here. Let’s say you work with runners who want the competitive edge. It may be true, but not too exciting to put on a business card or brochure.
But what if you overheard one of your clients say to another, “I’m so tired of always coming in second… I’d so love to cross the finish line first for once.”
Now, do you think that is something that they want and will pay for? Absolutely! So try to get past the obvious clichés and get inside the head of your ideal prospective massage clients. Find out what they really want.
And if you don’t know, do some research and ask them. Then use this in all your promotional materials to attract more perfect clients.
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Once upon a time focusing your practice on sports massage was sufficient to make you stand out. However that is no longer true, unless you are the only sports therapist in your town or city.
So in this, and in upcoming posts, I’ll be sharing with you three things you need to know to be successful in this growing field.
1. Who do you work with?
You might think this is a bit obvious. But saying that your target market is athletes is not specific enough to help you attract an abundance of your ideal clients.
You need to delve a little deeper and ask yourself what type of sports massage practice you would like to build, and who would be the most rewarding athletes for you to work with.
For example, is there a specific sport that you feel connected to? Are you a runner, a skier, a golfer? Do you love dance or practice yoga? Have you always been fascinated by sculling or rock climbing?
Or have you considered working with a specific segment of the population? As the baby boomers age there’s a growing demand for therapists who really understand the unique challenges that “mature” athletes face. Perhaps your passion is working with athletes with disabilities, or weekend warriors, or with elite athletes?
Is there a particular injury that you have expertise in working with? Maybe you really like working with athletes who have knee injuries, or carpal tunnel, or back problems.
Of course, if you have a big enough population to draw from, you could narrow your market even further, for example, swimmers with shoulder issues, or skiers with ankle injuries.
And don’t worry about getting stuck in a narrowly defined field. When I lived in Kona, Hawaii I focused my practice on working with triathletes training for the Ironman. When the word got out about my massage successes, I began getting calls from NFL football players who were coming to Hawaii in their off season to recover from injuries. So don’t worry about getting bored!
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I know you have probably heard this a million times, but just in case you have not done anything about it yet, may I share this with you in the hope that it will save at least one person from business disaster?
Having a hard drive failure (i.e. you lose ALL your data, music , photos, videos etc) is not a matter of IF but WHEN.
If you read my last post you will see that I recently lost a computer to a severe power surge. Thankfully I had my entire hard drive backed up to an external drive that was not plugged in at the time of the incident.
It used to be a real pain backing everything up. But you can buy an inexpensive external drive that you just plug into your computer and it backs up everything, either as you create it, or on a regular schedule.
Especially if you use your computer for keeping your massage client database, or client notes, or your business financial data, do back up on a regular basis. Otherwise a simple power surge such as I just experienced could be a massage business disaster.
Posted in Tools of the Trade | 2 Comments