Starting Practice right out of School

[never_say_never]

What would be your suggestions, advice, etc for someone just getting out of school?

Go work for someone for awhile to build up clientele? If you go work at spa or doctor's office, do you still need to do marketing?

And if you live at home with parents or roomate, how would a practice work out in this scenario? Would you only offer outcalls and chair massage?

 

[Rebecca1023]

Starting Practice right out of School

It really depends on what direction you want to go in. It took me a few months during school to realize exactly what my desired direction was. I once thought I would love the freedom of working out of my home and being here to do 'stuff' on downtime but the reality is, my house is not set up for clients to come in for massage. Plus, with the kids' school vacations, pets, etc - not conducive. I did start out with doing outcalls, advertised as such but around here, that was harder to get steady clients than being in a bricks-and-mortar building. (That may not be the case in other areas). A lot of the calls I got were 11pm at night....no, not doing those kind!

I like my alone time very much but I realized that if I were home alone all day, every day I would probably get very bored and lonely. I like the interaction of working with people, I have always had coworkers that I became very close to and so working in the shop where I have since shortly after graduating has been ideal. I'm an IC so I set when I wanted to work, I got some clients right after I started there, I love the people of the shop and the owner in particular (who is an old high school friend of mine). It really depends on where you want to go - and it's ok if that changes over time! Are you looking more at therapeutic or clinical setups, or do you lean more towards spa work or solo practice? If you open your own shop, do you have the money to pay the rent, utilities, advertising etc until you build up a clientele? (that's a biggie). If you have to live on what you earn, maybe working for someone else for awhile might work.

EDA, I work at a spa, she handles all the paid adverts like phone book, brochures and newspaper ads. But we still have to get our own clients, work at self-promotion etc. It probably is different at every spa or chiro office, as far as advertising.

 

[shadow95340]

Starting Practice right out of School

Realistically, it will take 1-4 months to get all your business paperwork in order unless you were doing all that while still in school. Based on your questions, it doesn't sound as if you are aware of all the steps that need to be taken in order to legally operate a massage business in your area. Further, you have no facilities conducive to having clients come in, no particular marketing plans, and uncertain goals.

Based on these facts and certain assumptions I made regarding your post, it seems that your best course of action would be to get a job as an employee massage therapist. This will allow you to just do the work, hone your massage skills, begin learning how to build a clientele, interact with (and learn from) other MTs and a massage business owner, observe how they handle reception, marketing, scheduling, etc., and earn some money while you make more concrete plans and prepare a solid foundation for launching your own business.

My partner Kelly did a TON of preparation over 5 months in order to be ready to launch her own practice immediately out of school. Even with some business and marketing help/guidance, the first 6 months were a serious struggle. Eventually the trickle of clients started resembling a stream, but the extra time required to promote her business and do the administrative paperwork for her one-woman business was a serious commitment. She also had some significant expenses getting everything set up, what with application and license fees, business and professional insurance, equipment and furnishings for a home massage room, telephone service, web site, business networking, business cards and assorted marketing materials, etc. She definitely took the hard way, but she went about it intelligently and learned a great deal that now serves us well in our combined practice.

I was more like you - eager, wanting to work for myself, but not really prepared to do so. I played around with some ideas, but quickly realized that I wasn't ready. So I went and got a job at the busiest place (with the best reputation) in my preferred area. I went to work, did massage, wrote my SOAP notes, went home, and got paid every 2 weeks. No particular worries or complications. It gave me time to really focus on just doing the work and figuring out how to use everything I had learned in school. I also learned how a large, successful business operates, and took advaneforum.xxxe of opportunities for continuing ed, community exposure, marketing events, etc. Along the way, I also learned how to quickly convert new clients into repeat clients. These skills taught me a great deal that now serves us well in our combined practice.

Both paths (and many others) are great learning opportunities that will help shape you into the therapist (or whatever) that you will eventually become. Wanting to be self-employed is an admirable goal, but take the time to do it right, or you may regret it later.

 

[CuRiouS oNe]

Starting Practice right out of School

I started on my own and it took 4 months from graduation to be legal and another 6 months to build. I am a pretty heavy marketer too and it took that long. If I hadn't had my husbands income to fall back on I could not have done it the first 6 months at least. But determination has a lot to do with success and if I didn't have a family to care for at home I could have worked more hours and made it. Is easier on a person to gain confidence and clients at a slower pace though.

 

[Stuart D]

Starting Practice right out of School

If I'd had the resources I would've started my own practice right out of massage school--but that's just how my personality is. I'm extremely independent and have done a lot of things previous to massage school that really prepared me for it (without me realizing it at the time!)

After school, I moved to another state and worked at one place and another until about the second year when I found two part time jobs at great places. I worked at a wellness/yoga center on Mon-Wed and out of a hair salon Thurs-Sat. The interesting thing was that the owner of the wellness place told me specifically that whenever I left, I was free to copy client forms and contact the clients who'd been seeing me (don't see much of that type of selflessness these days). I was actually happy doing that until after exactly one year, both places shut down (one due to bad business practices and the other the owner moved out of town), so I took all my clientele (or most of them anyway) and worked out of the back room of a bookstore until I found a great office space with a fantastic location.

If you don't have the resources, I definitely recommend working for other places until you build up the clientele and if you can't find work that will allow you to contact the clients when you leave, at least you'll get experience with the business.

 

[avaaaa]

Starting Practice right out of School

I finished school last year and have just now began executing my plans for a private practice. Advertising that you do outcalls for chair events is definetly a good thing for you. I've done quite a bit of that and I've found it to be a great experience at practicing on different bodies and it gives them a sort of taste of your style so its good for marketing. However, you would be best suited if you had your own chair or at least a place that had one you could use. And if you using it for marketing to get a full body massage your going to need to be set up someplace where you can offer that.

If I had the capital to launch my own office right out of school I probably would have as well. But I'm glad now that I didn't. I think when you launch your own practice you need to be established in some style that sets you apart from the other local therapists and thats just not something you've got right out of school no matter how diverse your training is. It takes some time and clients to learn what your 'good at' and what your not so good at.Also, where you see your practice going before finish school is an incomplete picture. Looking back a year ago I have much different goals in mind than when I was just finishing school. I never thought I'd be anywhere near the spa industry, but I find that applying some spa techniques to a medical massage makes for a much happier client and they're rather fun as well.

Even good massage schools miss the mark on preparing you for life after school. Theres just so many different directions you can go and the regulations vary from state to state so much. The best advice I can give is to pay attention to the spaces that you work in after school, and where you recieve massage as well. What do you like/dislike about them? It would really suck for you to sign a year lease on a space and then find that the space is not as suitable as you'd imagined. Make a list of things that are essential for your practice and a list of things that would just be nice to have.

Also know that you can be an independent contractor and build your own practice so long as you don't have to sign a non-compete to work there. I think new therapists should always try to work on comission before paying rent, because then at least your guarenteed to be paid for all the work you do. If you rent a room (booth rent) and your rent is $100 a week and you only get one client a week your loosing money. Comission takes the pressure off of that, but on the downside when your business picks up your paying more in rent.

Good luck to you, keep us posted on your progress!

 

[G Love]

Starting Practice right out of School

I started on my own and it took 4 months from graduation to be legal and another 6 months to build. I am a pretty heavy marketer too and it took that long. If I hadn't had my husbands income to fall back on I could not have done it the first 6 months at least. But determination has a lot to do with success and if I didn't have a family to care for at home I could have worked more hours and made it. Is easier on a person to gain confidence and clients at a slower pace though.

me too. the 6 months mark was mainly, in my case, making do, not losing money... I have the same experience as well, a husband with an income which made the decision easier and young children to care for to make starting a business challenging and slow going in terms of less time spent on the business!

Making the decision? I didn't want to work for someone else at this point in my life. as simple as that for me. As an older person I feel I have lots of life experiences to help me deal with having my own business, lots of experiences dealing with people in general and I feel confident with my people skills and decision making skills. I also opened my practice in an area where I know many people and feel a part of the community. I think if I were in my 20's or 30's I would have worked for someone else first.

Edited to fix my run on sentence...

 

[Milli]

Starting Practice right out of School

I was 20 when I got out of massage school and thinking back I was not at all mature enough to have my own office I really needed the cushion of being under someone elese wing.

I need to work on the work ethic and build the clients before I went on my own. Granted I did a lot of pissing and moaning at the time about working for other people. I really needed to learn those life lessons. I personally really work better when I am on my own. Working with other people is too much of a distraction for me

 

[Pompal 09.]

Starting Practice right out of School

My wife's business grew leaps and bounds very fast BECAUSE of the school. They would get calls all the time for referrals and she was high on their list because she had cultivated a good relationship with the gent who answered the school's phone and kept that friendship going even once out of school. Definitely worth keeping in touch with the alma matter.

 

[Click ?]

Starting Practice right out of School

I started practice out of school. I also maintained a job somewhere else to help pay the bills.

If you're mobile or you work from home, you don't really need much by way of business paperwork. I had to file an assumed name (aka a DBA) and get my massage license (state regulated) and that was it. That's going to vary depending on your state, though.

I also had no business plan. We did one for business class in MT school, but I hardly ever referred back to it. It held little relevance to me in real life. Maybe that was a reckless way to go, but I did it and was successful. Now, if you're going to seek funding from another source like a loan from a bank, you'll need a solid business plan.

I also never paid for any advertising, nor did I join any networking groups. While this kept my overhead very low, it also slowed my practice growth a bit. I could've had a bigger practice faster if I had.

We did build our own website (great money- and time-saver and then you also retain all the control, which is helpful) and optimized it ourselves, and submitted it to the search engine indices ourselves, and played the waiting game. It worked very well. All of our clients came either from the web searches (Google, mostly) or word-of-mouth referral.

Opening your own practice right out of school CAN be done. It's not easy, and you'll want to either be living with someone who can cover the living expenses for both of you while you focus on building your business (ideally), or you'll want to have a full or (relatively lucrative) part-time job (waiting tables, giving massage at another facility, a decent corporate job, etc) (less ideal, because that takes time away from building your business). But either way, if you have financial support from your job or someone else's, you won't feel the survival pressure and it won't seep into your massage business.

It'll take time for your practice to take off. Patience is key here. In the meantime, make sure you have your framework set up. Do you have a website? Your own intake paperwork and SOAP notes? Do you have policies and operating procedures in place? Do you have a way to record and track expenses come tax time? Have you made major decisions like outcalls, days and hours of availability, methods of payment you'll accept, etc? The best time to think these things completely through is BEFORE you get faced with situations and put on the spot. Hehe take it from someone who learned the hard-ish way a couple times LOL.

Best of luck to you, and if I can help further, please lemme know!
Hugs,
~J