Renting A Room

[dantexvergil]

If I am renting a room from a bussiness do I still create a business name?  How does that work?  A place that I found will do 10/hr, 70/day, and 400/month.  With my small clientell that I am starting with I only want to rent by the hour/day not by the month...yet.  And after what happend with my Aunt I am very leary about working in ANYONES office.  So do I still create a business name or just put my name on  the card and call it good.  At this new place I will be incharg of my own book and finances that is why I am wondering.  Thanks!

 

[Pompal 09.]

Renting A Room

Tell us a little more about this office. Will others be renting the office space per hour or day along with you? If you rent the entire month, you should be the only one able to enter the office. I personally would go this route. Let's take my business for example.I charge $40/hr for relaxation massage, $55 for deep tissue.If I have to rent office space for only one hour, and my client only wants 1 hour relaxation, I will have to rent the room for 2 hours. 30 minutes to set up the room to prepare for the treatment, 1 hour for the session, then another 30 minutes to tear everything down to ensure the next person gets the room on time. I would also have to receive the call from the client, ask them what time they would like the appt, call the office manager, see if the room is available at that time, then call the client back to confirm or deny the service at that time. This is risky in itself. But let's say the room is available, and the client comes in for the massage. I've just made $20 for the massage, while $20 goes to the office manager for room rental. That's a 50% commission split.If you charge per day, after paying for 6 days, you've already paid more than you would have for renting the room for the month. You are planning on working more than 6 days, aren't you?And now we have the monthly rent. For $400/month, it all depends on what type of business you are renting from. If it is a salon or other massage-complimentary business, and they are doing advertising for you, I'd say go for it. I rent office space from a chiropractor and pay $300/month, I supply everything, and he does no advertising. NONE. Everything else is on me. The only reason I'm staying there is because the place is so cheap for the size of office I have, it's a 15'x10' room....As for creating your own business name... you aren't going to be at this place forever, are you? If you're planning on getting your own building somewhere eventually, I say go for it and develop your business name, put it on your cards, and get the business name out there. I personally have not thought of a creative business name or theme yet, so I just put "Massage Therapy by Jeff Seforum.xxxg" on my business cards, and under that I put in smaller letters "Located in Family Chiropractic" bla bla bla on them.I think what the best bet for you to do is to sit down and write a business plan. Write how you want your business to be, and how you plan on getting there. This has helped me a lot, and along with a couple of friends on this board, helped get me motivated in marketing myself and getting my name out.Hope this helps!

 

[edwardlova101]

Yes the room that is rented by the month is your own private room, and you have a key to it.  However the room that is rented by the hour, day, week is a first come first serve room.     I dont plan to be there forever at the most maybe a year.  Right now I only have the 4 clients.  So Im at the most be spending 50$ on the room rental/week.  As I start to grow I do want to increase it to a monthly rent agreement.  And I did recieve an email this morrning saying that when I have a 90min client they only charge for 90min not for 2 hours so thats not bad.If I could increase my clientell to a point where it would support me having a room like that then yes I would do it.  But I want to look and test the waters before I leap.  My plan is to put an ad in the paper and to contact clients that I had at the salon that I used to work at.  Since the salon owner stole a majority of the intake forms I have little to go on there.The email that I got from them this morrning said that they are going to be doing educational classes We're also talking about doing some things to help everyone earn someclients.  Would probably involve some education and free mini masages.  

 

[Hjgfkjf]

Renting A Room

 Since the salon owner stole a majority of the intake forms I have little to go on there.

Seriously? Whoa! Serious deja vu! I kid you not! That's why I quit where I worked!  Remember I told your that your situation with the old salon was triggering some issues with me?

Little did I know our experiences would be so similiar. Though they stole the ones I had printed - before they were written on and then gave them to the massage therapists they hired to replace me.  (Yes, I was asked to Give them to the other MTs but oddly enough, I chose not to Supply other MTs with what I considered to be "standard" things each Independent Contractor should have Known to bring for work that day.)

The reason the salon didn't get to keep my files is because I didn't keep mine there, as the location in no way was "secure" or "private."

You might need to get a locked file cabinet to keep your files in - or you may choose to not allow same day appointments so that you can bring the files in for the clients which you are seeing that day.

If you can... why don't you add a line for the client's e-mail address so that you can contact them in the future if you happen to move on?

 

[MZ. KRAZY]

Hi,I have been providing massage services (by appointment only - the owner calls when a session is scheduled) at a local Day Spa.  At that location, the room is about 8'x12' and is truly far too small for me to work in.  However, the space is beautiful, and the clients love it.  I don't rent the room, but I do give the owner 35% of whatever I bring in.  The owner supplies the table, linens (and laundry services), does the scheduling, and even supplies candles occasionally.  Plus, she's a really lovely person to be associated with.  My clientele - although originating as spa customers - do become my clients if I give them a massage (I use my own intake forms, keep my own records, etc.).  All-in-all a good arrangement... except for the small room. I typically do 3-5 massages there per week.  In order to be able to "quit my day job", I need to do at least 10 sessions per week.  In that small space, I my body couldn't take it over the long term (slouching, crouching, squatting, etc., instead of lunging due to lack of space), so I really haven't done much in the way of marketing my services, because I intuitively know that if I were to become busier, my body would likely become damaged due to poor body mechanics.  So... I've been adding the need for a new space to my meditations recently...And... *voila!*... A new opportunity has come my way!  A business in a local mall (note: I live in North Pole, Alaska... our "mall" consists of a whopping 4 stores/offices... LOL!).  Anyway, a really neat store - Inner Peace Imports & Gifts - has just expanded there, and is now taking up two spaces rather than one.  In the second side, the space consists of two large rooms plus a "coat rack" area and a large restroom.  The front room will be used for yoga/pilates/etc. classes, meditation, whatever; the back room has been offered to me, for massage therapy!  The room is about 14'x16', PLENTY of room for lunges, a shelving unit for supplies, crystals, etc..... I'm SOOOOOO pleased with the space!She asked me what I wanted our arrangement to be, and I'm working on our contract today... My practice is small right this second, I offered her 30% of what I bring in and she seemed fine with that.  ( I will supply everything for my practice at this location, though she may include advertising)  Anyway... I just "christened" the room last night, providing the first session there, and it was AWESOME to have such a large space.  I got to thinking then, that my practice could really begin to grow there, and that if it did, 30% per session to the owner could end out to be quite alot of money each month, and maybe simply renting the space would be better... yet because my practice is small right this second, I can't *afford* to simply rent the space...  So, I'm thinking of phrasing that part of the contract something like this:____(me)_____ to pay ____(her)____ 30% of revenue received from Massage & Bodywork sessions, up to a maximum of $300.00 per month.Sorry for the long, rambling post... What do you think?!Oh... The room does have a key, but it is the same key that unlocks the "learning room" too, so I'm thinking about asking if I can have the massage room re-keyed... I don't want to have to worry about folks going in and messing with my stuff, taking or using my essential oils, crystals, etc.  Thank you,Monica

 

[BlowBubblesNotBombs]

Monica, I'm So happy for you! That's awesome!I definitely think you should place a cap on the amount you have to pay for the space... after all, you can probably renegotiate it later if needed.I definitely like the idea of having your room rekeyed.  Even if it means you have to pay for the lock and to have someone install it. I can even understand the owner of the place having a copy of the key if needed for safety reasons, but this would cut down on the number of people actively able to walk in and take things, be they other staff or clients of the establishment.

 

[Jourdan]

Thank you, Maestra!I'm looking through these boards right now, trying to find information about contracts.  If anybody happens to have any clues as to what kinds of things should definitely be in one, or what their "dream" contract would look like, I'd be very interested in knowing.  At my current location (the tiny room), we haven't got a contract.  Thankfully, it has been working out very well (although, since my practice is beginning to grow, the 35% cut I'm giving her has begun to add up.... which is what got me thinking about putting a cap on the amount for the new space).Anyway, the owner of the new space mentioned she was having someone write up ccntracts, and I (internally) kinda freaked, and said, "Oh, well, I'd already been working on one; do you mind?"  (This is basically true, as I'd been mulling over terms in my head; just hadn't written anything down yet)... And she said that it was fine for me to write one up, and then we'd go over it and see how it feels to both of us.Sooooo.... I want to be fair to her, but also don't want to "cut off my nose to spite my face", and I really, really want that space...  (In truth, I want that whole side... massage room, classroom, and restroom... but that's a dream for a future time... LOL).Anyway... Contract tips anybody? Thank you,Monica

 

[PigletLikesPancakes]

Great! Thank you!  In looking at the contract, I think I'll need to edit certain aspects of it to suit my needs and those of the owner of the space.  If anybody would like to read what we come up with, I'll be happy to post it.Thanks again,Monica

 

[Desi Chef]

Renting A Room

I just rented a room in a Salon to do Massage and Bodywork for a flat fee as an independent contractor. They supply nothing. Seems like you all have had some experiance with this kind of arrangement. If they book an appointment for me , collect $$ etc. what is a fair % to give the house? What about a kick back for a referal? I was told i could run cards through their machine and pay them the applicable fees and taxes. Any advice or links to other posts would be very appreciated.

 

[leila]

Renting A Room

Are they providing receptionist services to you as part of your rent?  If so, then booking, collecting $$ etc should be included.  If reception is not part of your rent, then they shouldn't be answering your phone or handling your money.

Thanks Pete! i feel more clear now, there is no receptionist service with the rent. My card will be up front and i will book my own appts. ;D