plunging in for real

[Bexalicious]

It has finally come to pass. I'm leaving the clinic. (It's my old massage school's clinic, I used to work there 4 days a week to supplement income, but I've been wittling those days down one by one as my private practice grew, and since January I've been there on Saturdays only.)

We made the final decision today, after learning that the price increase the clinic is about to implement, ($7-$11, depending on the type and length of session) is not going to benefit the MTs AT ALL. For Swedish massage we will get $2 more, but for Deep Tissue only $1 more and for ANY other advanced therapies, such as reflexology, Hot Stone, Prenatal, NMT, etc, we will actually LOSE money. (Of course, that's if memory serves, and all I have to go on is my memory since the sheet I had kept in my box at the clinic with all of our net payouts is now mysteriously gone.)

Edit: While these figures seem trivial, keep in mind that this is a school whose pay is not great to begin with, so it does make a difference.

We have also decided not to look for work anywhere else on Saturdays... we're going to go full-time private practice

Woo-hoo! I feel liberated already, even though our last Saturday isn't till July 7th.

I just had to share

Hugs,
~Jyoti

 

[britttaanybaby<3]

Congrats Jyoti, I'm so excited for you! Definitely keep us up to date on how it goes! t038

 

[Michael M]

Congratulations on your plunge! May you find even more success since you can totally focus on your practice. It's a shame that the clinic raised rates - it was to their benefit to keep more seasoned MT's there. But, maybe it was just a way to get you to venture on your own - to take a chance.

Keep us updated! I'm very excited for you!

 

[janet h]

congratulations - you won't regret this at all.

even in slow times, i do not regret the freedom that i have from having my own private practice. and i don't mean hours worked - i mean freedom to work on the clients for their best needs.

way to go!

:band:

 

[EatDaCakeAnnieMay!]

Great news! I am excited for you!

 

[Daisuki]

Thank you so much, y'all!!

I giggled to myself when livingwell said I wouldn't regret this at all. As I mentioned, I'd been dropping days gradually one by one since August of this last year. I did Wed thru Sat. First I dropped Fridays because it was way too little compensation for fighting rush hour traffic. At first, I was a little nervous that I'd lower my income, but my schedule quickly became steady enough that not only did my income not go down, but actually it went up. When I dropped Wed & Thurs, I sort of had to because school had started and studying got to be too intense. Well, they filled just enough also to allow my income to go up AND to still have more study time than I had before. So, I figure this'll be the same.

I'm already looking forward to sleeping in another hour on Saturdays, taking it easy before getting going, and collecting compensation on the same day services are rendered. Woo-hoo

Thanks for the support everybody!! Y'all rock, and I'm sorry that I hadn't said that in a while!

Hugs!
~Jyoti

 

[hobojo]

plunging in for real

Congrats on making the move - very exciting stuff to be creating something that is yours. As you build and grow your practice, please keep a few things in mind

We made the final decision today, after learning that the price increase the clinic is about to implement, ($7-$11, depending on the type and length of session) is not going to benefit the MTs AT ALL.

Don't go through life worrying about what other people make. It will make your very unhappy. Work for what you think you are worth - which in private practice means charge what you think you are worth / comfortable with.

What difference does it make if the clinic makes more money? If you were happy with what they pay you, what they charge does not matter. So either you were unhappy with your previous pay - which is sounds like you were - and you should have quit anyway, or you somehow feel you deserve "a raise" because someone else - the clinic - got a "raise". When your private clients get raises, they won't be paying you more. Will you be resentful towards them? I hope not. Keep this in mind when you grow and add ICs or employees.

For Swedish massage we will get $2 more, but for Deep Tissue only $1 more and for ANY other advanced therapies, such as reflexology, Hot Stone, Prenatal, NMT, etc, we will actually LOSE money.

How is that you LOSE money? You show up for an appointment, give the massage and you go home with less money than had you not gone to work at all? THAT is losing money.

It may sound like semantics, but that kind of perspective is what leads to irrational business decisions, usually about pricing. You are now a small business owner - if you think that scenario is LOSING money you will have trouble making sound decisions that are critical to your success.

 

[Paper Roses]

Congrats Jyoti- I am so happy you are cutting the strings of progress and going full-time private practice....I know you will be fine!!!

Namaste,
Johnny

 

[Pompal 09.]

plunging in for real

Again, Thank all of you so much! R&R, you make good points, and I'd like to respond, and clarify myself a bit

Don't go through life worrying about what other people make. It will make your very unhappy. Work for what you think you are worth - which in private practice means charge what you think you are worth / comfortable with.

You are totally correct, R&R, and I agree with you. When people focus on how much others make, (or at least how much these people THINK others make), it has ALWAYS been a pet peeve of mine. Please know that I personally think that as long as the method through which one makes money is ethical, I wish everyone all the financial success in the world!

What difference does it make if the clinic makes more money?

It doesn't. In fact, I'm glad they are. I think that if schools charge a more market-like price for licensed massage and not a cheap price, then it will help LMTs all around the area. As long as the school offered full 60-min hours for very cheap like it used to back when I started, it sort of kept all the MTs in the area down. It's refreshing to see these sessions cost more.

The one sticking point I have is this: the school did a price increase about a year and a half ago, and we had an IC meeting to discuss by how much. In the end, we all agreed to a small price increase for now (as prices hadn't gone up in a while and we didn't want to "sticker-shock" our clients), but this smaller increase was made ON THE CONDITION that we would do another small increase a few months later. Of that, we would all get a raise, because the compensation WAS a bit low.

Well, the second price increase that we all agreed to never happened. I brought it up a year later, and the owner reniged (sp?) on the original agreement, saying it was "too early". So now, I was looking forward to this price increase, as my gas has gone up 50% in 2 months and my food and utilities have increased about 20% a year for the past few years. When I learned that not only were we not going to see ANYTHING from this increase, but that we were going to now earn LESS for advanced (!) treatments that we had made large financial investments to learn how to practice.

To clarify about the "losing money" part... the new compensation schedule (going into effect July 1) actually has us being paid less for advanced therapies than we are currently paid--for real. For Prenatal massage, Hot Stone, Neuromuscular, Reflexology, etc, (which we spent a lot of money at this same school to learn), we will be getting less than we currently do. I suppose it's different than the perspective you mentioned, and I do see what you're saying. (I still think, though, that when inflation is a constant reality, and all other things being equal, nobody's pay should have to go DOWN during a time of prosperity in the industry in question.)

So, I'm not too awful happy about the situation. But, I'm not complaining to the owner. I'm simply leaving, and I'm encouraging others who are also worth more to leave, too, though in the end they are in control of themselves. I'm a former Economics major (loved it! But chose to become a doctor instead), and one of the main principles we learned about was Opportunity Cost, which for those who aren't aware, is the fact that when you choose to spend your time taking part in a certain activity (such as studying, or working a job), you give up doing anything else you could be doing with that time, since you can only do 1 thing at once. Well, my opportunity cost wasn't all that high to start with. We were in debt and I didn't have many private clients and while $25/hr sure as h3ll wasn't $60, it sure beat $0, too. So, I signed on.

Well, having started an intense program at school in January, and built up more private clients (who pay more than the $60/hr price I started out with), the opportunity cost to work at the school is no longer worth it. So, the time has come. I never meant to be there all that long anyway; it was always a temporary thing. I built a loyal following there, but it was never meant to be permanent. With our last day a little under a month away, I have just enough time to inform my clients of this and let them make a decision.

Thanks again! Your comments (R&R and the rest of you) are very appreciated.

Hugs,
~Jyoti

 

[JGV]

Congrats!!! You will do well! The key is to NEVER stop marketing yourself, and you will have consistant work!!!