Elderly - independent living facility

[Cass]

Hi all,

I am interested in providing massage to the elderly. I currently work part time for hospice and really enjoy the work. I'd like to get into an upscale independent living facility but dont know who to contact. I have tried nursing homes, home visits and a hospital office with no success, mostly because of money.

Is there a market for this and if so, how do I market this? Do I contact someone at the facility or direct mail the residents? I am not sure of the rules. Do I just send out a flier/brochure or do I call and set up a meeting? I have no idea how to get this started. Thanks and be well!

 

[Gizmo13]

I do this in a few senior apartment complexes. There is definitely a market for it! The hard part *is* getting in, and mostly it takes persistence. They tend to not believe we'll really stick around, so they don't want to depend on us.

Marketing to them seems to be different at each place. The most successful I've found is to approach the manager - repeatedly :roll: , because some of them will decide without thinking or asking any residents that old people don't do massage :roll: - and setting up an informational meeting/demo for the residents. Then I make flyers with the date and some key info (don't forget to put FREE information meeting on it : ) to send to all of the residents. Some managers will be very helpful, asking for just one and they'll photocopy it and put it under each door. Some will want you to just leave a stack on the table, and some will have in-house mailboxes they'll put them in for you. Others will be very unhelpful. I've chosen to make friends of managers whether they like it or not, and asking them to help with the demo by being my massage recipient seems to work well. In the meeting, I mostly talk for 10 minutes, give about a 10 minute demo with them having full permission to interupt with questions, and then just answer questions. I have brochures, articles, etc. to pass out and give them some options for how we could work it out.

It is a great population to work with. Good luck!

 

[blueeyed girl]

I quite agree with Rose of Sharon that it is hard to get into them. I have two seniors' places - one is an upscale retirement home - I knew the administrator and she had never let anyone in before. Now I just deal directly with the residents, unless they can't handle money any more.

In the other place, the second phase of the seniors' condominium building was nearing completion as I started my business. An elderly friend from church was moving in and she told them she knew the perfect person and they needed me. So. I got in there through a contact too.

When I was cold calling, most administrators would decide that either the people could not afford it or they would not be interested in massage. (Including the upscale retirement home mentioned above.) Of course the older people love to be touched, and the cross between massage and myofascial release really seems to help them.

Keep on trying - even try for smaller places at first, and I always offered a free trial massage at the beginning. Many elderly people think that massage is not for them or it is too much of a luxury. Once they try it, they are hooked.