You are trying to do it all yourself.

At a certain point in your massage business you realize that you just can’t do it all yourself and you need help. If you are busy as can be, and are still folding sheets, answering the phone to schedule appointments, doing your own billing and bookkeeping etc, then I mean YOU.

Why are you doing work that you could hire out for $10 – $15 an hour (less in some states) when you could be building your business and even creating additional streams of income? And working towards true financial freedom? But instead you are filing forms!

And I don’t necessarily mean employees. There are inexpensive phone answering and appointment scheduling services. There are independent bookkeepers and laundry services, and even virtual assistants who can do billing and make calls for you from their own home or office (which can even be across the country).

I had a virtual assistant who lived in New Zealand. We communicated primarily by email and instant message, and never actually met in person.

You have chosen a market that really cannot afford your services

So what do you do if they really CAN’T afford your services? Most massage therapists get into the field, not to make money, but to help people. But if you have chosen a market that simply cannot pay you what you need to make to run a viable business you need to rethink your strategy.

I hate to sound cold, but if you can’t make enough money to stay in business, who will you help then?

So if you are in this situation, you may want to seriously consider choosing a target market that CAN pay you want you are worth, and then DONATE a certain amount of your time and services to the market you feel passionate about serving.

That way you all win!

You are not charging enough?

Way too many massage therapists simply don’t charge enough for their services. It may be because they lack confidence in their skills, or are concerned about losing clients to the competition if they raise rates, or think their clients couldn’t (or wouldn’t) pay more, or don’t value their work and the difference they make in the lives of their clients.

But if you don’t charge what you are worth, how can you hope to build a sustainable massage business?

Are you charging enough for your massage services?

You don’t have the necessary business and marketing skills.

A lot of massage therapists are really good at massage, but don’t know how to run a business and are lousy at marketing or promoting themselves.

It takes a very different set of skills to run a successful business or practice than it does to give a massage and many therapists underestimate this.

If you need help in this area, there are many classes at local colleagues and as well as online to help you develop the entrepreneurial, business and marketing skills you need. You can also get help (often free) from organizations such as SCORE.

OK, so you ARE putting in the hours, but you are not doing the right things.

Maybe you are spending hours working on that perfect brochure that is just going to sit on your shelf. Or you are planning your website, but not planning how folks are going to find it. Or you are cleaning your office or organizing your papers or rearranging your linens……..

You get the picture?

So you might find it useful not only to track your working hours, but also how you spend those hours. Are you focused directly on the actions that will bring you more of what you want, be it more clients, more free time, additional income streams and so on?

You feel that you are putting a lot of hours into your business, but you are not working as many hours as you might think.

Often during the work day it is easy to get distracted with family matters and other personal issues, like phone calls,
answering personal emails, taking the kids to gymnastics etc. Try tracking your actual working hours for one week and see if it is as much are you imagined.

Reason #1: You are letting your fear of rejection get in the way of getting yourself out there.

This is a big one. Nobody likes to be rejected. Yet it happens to all of us at some time or another. But let’s face it, not everyone is going to be an ideal client for you. And people saying “no” to your services is a natural part of doing business. It’s part of the sorting process. The more you can get comfortable with this, the easier it will be to promote yourself with confidence.