I'm not sure what to do...

[Pompal 09.]

Hi. I'm really struggling with how to proceed in my situation. I started practicing for the first time a few months ago. (I'm in Baton Rouge, LA)

Here's the issue. (I'll try to be brief.) I was hired at a very small, beautiful spa, where I work with the owner (who is also an LMT) and one other therapist. We each have our own room, and I've been working for 60%. When I was hired, the owner said I might need to do a bit of marketing to get to the level where *I* was happy with the number of clients I was bringing in. No problem there. And that I would need to help with the phones some. No problem there either. NOW, she has begun to pressure me and the other therapist to get out there and market, because the "business is going under". She flipped out and called the other therapist crying and trying to make it sound like we were not doing our job because we were not bringing new clients in. She doesn't have time to market. (Never mind that she cancels her clients on a disturbingly regular basis because she "doesn't feel able" to work right then.)

One or the other of us has been taking the phone calls 24/7 (having them forwarded to our cells), returning emails, emptying trash, restocking,
running errands, and now she wants us to start entering a backlog of clients into the computer and spend tons of time marketing.


Also, even though she has a fairly full schedule of 3-4 clients a day, she wants us to shecdule a third of the new clients with her, even during weeks when we only have maybe 6 or so clients each.

Does this sound unfair at 60%, or is this normal?

She then said that she would prefer us to rent from her, which would be great. But she says the cost of running the place is about $2000/month, and because she put all of the money into it for the past 10 years, she wants her other therapists to be able to split the overhead, meaning we each pay somewhere around $900/month, :shock: while keeping 100% of our earnings.

I love this spa, I love the clients, I love my co-worker. I even like my boss when she is not in one of her panic attacks about money. And I'm doing fairly well, considering that I'm just starting out.

Can someone tell me if none of this is out of the ordinary or if I should run for my life? It feels like she wants us to do all of the work, while she pulls in all of the profit.

Thank you for listening. I appreciate any advice you may have.

 

[sexy_solo2]

Well, first off getting 60% is a good cut for an employee!! Your boss is getting 40%, and having to pay for her share of employment tax on top of that, so her 40% is actually more like 28%, and then she has to pay expences on top of that too. So, her perceneforum.xxxe of profit from your work is actually quite low after you take all of this into concideration. She is giving you a wonderful deal and not profiting very much at all.

A lot of employees make 40 to 45% and some even less than that. So, concider yourself lucky to be bringing in 60%!

Check out other places in your area and find out what they are offering their MTs. You need to decide if your 60% is worth all you have to do. Chances are other places will pay you less, but you will probably also have less work and hassle as well.

 

[Bralon]

First of all, she should not be crying to you and the other therapist. Complaining about money I think is unprofessional, and guilting you about the business going under, is her problem, not yours.

With that said with a split, I have always thought the more you get of the split, the more you are expected to do. That does not mean 100% of the work, the owner should be taking some on as well. If you are an IC you are entitled to, and should be marketing yourself, but the owner I think should be marketing the clinic.

If she is cancelling a good number of her clients, ask her to reschedule them with you or the other therapist, as a way of keeping them in the clinic, and getting revenue from them still. Keeping the clinic clean should be everyone's responsibiltiy, as well as taking phone calls on off hours. Shift the days around, one day you, next the other girl, third the owner.

I have always thought that the owner yes get the biggest rewards, and makes the biggest profits, but should shoulder most of the risks and responsibilities concerning the business as well. Just my thoughts though, and the way things work in my area, is very different.

 

[Edward Carson]

What does your spa charge for an hour session?

 

[Smith]

There should be a contract outlining what your duties are. It doesn't matter what your perceneforum.xxxe is or what the spa history is, or even what the owner wants, pays for, does, or changes - there should be a contract that holds it all together. If you don't like what is on a contract, negotiate change before signing. If she won't negotiate, and you don't like it, you just don't sign.

Working without a contract seems to cause far more problems than anything else. I'd say it is time to have a meeting of the three of you, sit down and discuss what is wanted/needed by all, come to some agreements and put it in writing. It may take a few meetings to get it all done, but request and REQUIRE a contract.

Or find someplace else to work. That might be easier, depending on whether this owner wants to work it all out or if she just prefers to be in a perpetual panic and be a nutcase. Some do.

 

[Reba]

I am also going to add, if the owner is complaining about the business going under, start looking for another job now. You need to proctect yourself. I will agree with the contract part, you need one to protect you.

 

[beholdtheglory]

Thank you for your replies. I'd like to make a few clarifications and answer a couple of questions.

I am defintiely looking around at other possibilities.

I forgot to mention that I am an IC and not an employee.

I don't mind marketing at all, but I don't like being pressured to do it so that I meet her goals for me. I also don't mind doing stuff around the office, but I do mind what amounts to running the place with only the help of the other therapist. Doing a third of the work seems fair to me.

I definitely agree that her freak outs are unprofessional. She has a lot of unprofessional habits that concern me, and have me wondering whether I really want to be associated with her.

The spa charges $70 for one hour, with a $10 fee for deep tissue, which at least half of the clients request.

There is a contract, but it doesn't go into all of these things that we are having issues with. Certainly, if I decide to stay, I will insist on drawing up a more comprehensive agreement. You are absolutely right about the importance of that.

It looks like I have a lot of thinking to do!

 

[NO6664ME]

I also don't mind doing stuff around the office, but I do mind what amounts to running the place with only the help of the other therapist.

I don't mind doing stuff around the spa to help out either.

But I have had some places where I was an IC and ended up being basically an unpaid employee. Unpacking, doing inventory, dusting shelves, answering phones, running the cash register, selling GCs or wrapping gifts...

I am an employee at the spa where I work now, and every staff meeting the owner & spa manager add on responsibilities for the MTs to do.
(On top of taking care of our rooms & maintaining equipment, we're required to help with laundry & other things that are typically the receptionist's responsibility.) Oddly enough I've been told by the spa manager that I'm the only MT (besides herself but her parents own the place) who helps fold laundry. :roll:

I definitely agree that her freak outs are unprofessional. She has a lot of unprofessional habits that concern me, and have me wondering whether I really want to be associated with her.

Yes, her freak outs are unprofessional... but some people enjoy living in a perpetual state of crisis. Only you & your colleague can say for sure if the spa owner is one of them. I agree asking her to refer clients she is unable to see on a particular day to someone else within the spa just seems to be the responsible way to handle things. That way she will look less flaky to the client and she will still be getting some income from the session that day.

If she is the type of person who enjoys living in crisis. I believe it'd be easier to find a new location than to get the spa owner to acknowledge she needs to work on this area of her personality!

There is a contract, but it doesn't go into all of these things that we are having issues with. Certainly, if I decide to stay, I will insist on drawing up a more comprehensive agreement. You are absolutely right about the importance of that. It looks like I have a lot of thinking to do!

Yes, I agree. Write out what works about the old contract. And then see what doesn't work about your old contract. Then speak with your colleague who is in the same position as you are about what she would like to see change in the arrangement. Hopefully the 3 of you can come to an agreement that works well for everyone!

 

[Pompal 09.]

AT $70/$80 per session we'll say she averages about $30 per session. $900 per month is 30 sessions per month, you'd have to have 7 clients per week to cover that, more than 7 clients per week and you'd be clearing more money than you currently do.
If you usually have less than 7 clients per week, she probably assumed you would be making more of an effort so you could live on more than $350 a week, her assumption, rightly or wrongly would be you would be doing everything to have more than 7 clients a week. If you're comfortable with less than 7 clients, maybe it's the wrong place for you, she obviously isn't comfortable with you having less than 7 clients per week. If she doesn't just like to live in crisis, and you want to stay there, maybe you could make it a 50/50 split with a ceiling of $900 per month. That might make her feel a bit more secure. 50/50 is not unfair with a ceiling on it.

It does sound like you are doing a lot of extra duties, answering the phone 24/7!!!!!! something has to be sorted out with that, she should not be relying on you two to do that kind of thing.
With the 24/7 phone answering, does whomever answers the phone schedule the caller with themselves if they don't ask for a specific therapist? It's probably the easiest option, you can't know the scheulde for all 3 of you all the time. The owner realises how many calls are coming in outside of office hours (it would be on the phone bill wouldn't it?) Make it clear to her how many of those calls turn into real appointments (10pm callers about draping don't make appointments) before the forwarding, did the calls go to an answering machine? She probably didn't realise how many people don't leave a message.

 

[natesando]

thank you both. very thoughtful replies that give me much to consider.

melb:

In regards to the phone thing...we have an online scheduling system, so we always have access to it whether we are at work or at home. The other therapist and I have been doing a good job of spliting the clients, but now the owner wants us to give her every third new client, even though she's full and we are so not. It's her place, so if she want's them, fine, but I think in that case, she should take the phone every third day, but she "just doesn't have time to deal with the phone". If she can't deal with the phone, how can she handle more clients?

Before I came along, the answering machine was picking up and the other therapist was expected to check the message every day, all day from the office or remotely. We all know a lot of people don't leave messages, so we decided we needed to try to have it answered more, which somehow turned into the 24/7 thing.

I'm okay with the 6-7 clients I get a week, though I would certainly not mind upping it to 10-12. I just have no experience marketing and I am feeling very pressured by her to do it, which means I am just more reluctant to get out there. Geez, that sounds childish, but I just don't work well with someone breathing down my neck.

I'm going to give your idea of the split with a ceiling some thought. That may be the very solution if I decide to stay.

maestra: that is exactly what I feel like. An unpaid employee! (I feel your pain with the ever increasing load of responsibilities. I had several bosses like that at an assissted living facility I worked in. It's so frustrating! Does you boss at least tell you how much she appreciates it? With us, it was never about how great we were doing, only that we were not doing enough. UGH! But I digress. )

We are each responsible for our own laundry, which seems normal for an IC (is it?).

Yes, I'm afraid she does thrive in perpetual chaos, which stinks, because she has an otherwise great personality, and I really like her a lot, but her panic gets all over me sometimes.

As far as having one of us take her clients for the day, she always says "they won't go for it". I know many of them won't, since a lot of them have been with her for 10 years or more, but I have a hard time believing that none of them would - especially the ones she perpetually cancels on. She is very good at what she does. (Otherwise her clients would never have continued seeing her in spite of the fact that they have actually come to expect her to be 15-20 minutes late and then come in to get her room set up. I used to appologize profusely, because it really embarrasses me, but they all just say, "oh...that's just (x)" :shock: ) But surely at least some of them would rather go to someone else than to not have their massage.

***

I'm so torn. Half the time, I think we'll get it worked out and things will be good, the other half, I think I should abandon ship before it goes down with me in it. I really appreciate the encouragement and the suggestions. It helps tremendously.

 

[johnny fettcakes]

I'm so torn. Half the time, I think we'll get it worked out and things will be good, the other half, I think I should abandon ship before it goes down with me in it.

Here's the thing - I don't think either scenario is what will happen.

If she is so much like this that her clients actually expect her to be 20 MINUTES late - no, it will not get worked out. She likes things this way and has no incentive to change.

But if she has been running her practice this way for 10 years, the ship isn't going down, either. It will continue to lurch and float along, despite business practices that are to the detriment of growth.

I think you really just have to decide if this is the kind of boat you want to ride. It's not going to sink, and the captain isn't going to change. And I don't think she wants you to change things, either. She just needs some supporting players in her drama. If you want to be that, OK, but I wouldn't waste time thinking you are going to change her. Just acknowledging this may make staying there easier. (Or, make it easier to leave with no hard feelings.)

 

[Laptop Jesus 2.0]

BJB - I have no illusions about trying to change her behavior. That's the way she is and nothing is going to change that. Yes, it's annoying, but ultimately, I suppose it doesn't really affect my business as she is doing this to people who have been her clients forever, not to new clients that would, with reason, probably refuse to ever come back.

I am personally adamant about being ready for my clients when they come in, and can't imagine being any other way, but if her clients keep coming back anyway, it's really between them. :roll:

I've proposed melb's idea of the 50/50 split with a cap, and the other therapist is down for it. I'm waiting to hear back from the owner once she has a chance to read it. This would essentially mean that we will be renting from her and will be independent entities operating under the same roof, which would be ideal, because her behavior would not reflect on me as much as I feel it does right now. And I know clients won't necessarily know that there is anything different, but it will make a difference to me. I'm weird that way. lol.

And you're right, I think, that things will probably never be ideal, nor will everything collapse. I think that it's just going to come down to whether we can create an environment and an agreement where the good outweighs the bad. (i.e. Do I get enough out of working there that I can stand her periodic panic attacks and unprofessional behavior?) It's actually usually not so bad. It's just that this week has been a bad one, and brought some things that have been bubbling to the surface.

Thanks for your input!