Money, Marketing and Soul for Massagepreneurs
General Business
How to Keep Your Resolutions
Dec 31st
Yesterday, we talked about making New Year’s resolutions that work. We said that in order to make effective resolutions we need to focus on ACTION.
We took our example list of resolutions from:
- Make more money
- Lose weight
- Get more things done
- Be happier
To:
- Add one new client every day of the year.
- Walk at least 10,000 steps a day.
- Outsource the creation or maintenance of my website and blog.
- Maintain a daily gratitude journal.
By now you may have figured out the main reason why people fail at this. When you look at your list you may think, “I can’t possibly do all of that!” You’re right, if you try to do it all at once.
Resolutions fail because people try to make over their entire lives in one day.
Start by creating good habits. Decide what your highest priority is, or what steps should come first. For example, writing in a daily gratitude journal could change your outlook in ways that will give you the energy and confidence to tackle new challenges. Get a journal and make writing in it a habit.
After a week or two, as you’ve gotten used to writing in your journal and it’s a habit, start another task. Perhaps you buy a pedometer and work toward your 10,000 steps daily, or it might be going to one networking event a week in order to get one new client a day.
Put your action steps on a schedule. Let’s say that for your goal of making more money you identified several tasks such as holding one workshop a month, publishing a monthly email newsletter, distributing monthly press releases, introducing a new service every month, adding retail products, etc. Give yourself a schedule of when you do each task, rather than playing it by ear and trying to cram all of the monthly tasks into the last two days of the month. Send a press release the first week of the month, send your email newsletter the second week, hold your workshop the third week and introduce a new service, the fourth. Put these on your calendar, and treat each one as an appointment – an appointment that you will keep.
Get the idea? Don’t make all of the changes at once. Take small steps, build habits, and get yourself on a schedule.
What happens when you get off schedule or break your new habit? It can happen. Don’t let that be the excuse. Start back as soon as you can.
January 1st is not the only day you can make positive changes. Make them all through the year and multiply your success!
New Year’s Resolutions You Can Keep
Dec 30th
As we come to the end of the year, everyone thinks about making New Year’s resolutions. We often make a long list of resolutions, then give up on them by the end of January. There are lots of reasons that New Year’s resolutions fail: too many changes at once, we get frustrated when we don’t see immediate results, we choose the wrong resolutions…and on and on.
Do you want to make resolutions that you’ll keep? Let’s get started!
If you are like most people, your list of New Year’s resolutions may look something like this: (1) Make more money. (2) Lose weight. (3) Get more things done. (4) Be happier.
The problem with these resolutions is that they’re too vague. How much more money do you want to make? What does “be happier” mean anyway? But the biggest problem with them is that they are not action oriented. These are things you want, not things you will DO.
Resolutions are about DOING.
What actions will you take that will cause you to make more money? What new habits will you develop to lose weight? What activities are you going to delegate or dump to use your time more effectively? How will you change your attitude to become happier?
For each of the original resolutions, determine at least one thing you are going to DO. So now your list might be something like this: (1) Add one new client every day of the year. (2) Walk at least 10,000 steps a day. (3) Outsource the creation or maintenance of my website and blog. (4) Maintain a daily gratitude journal.
You may have more than one action for each desired result, but don’t get carried away. You want to be ambitious, but you don’t want to get overwhelmed. Focus on the most important action(s) for each goal. You can always add more later.
Tomorrow, we’ll look at how you are going to keep your new resolutions, even if you’ve never been able to follow through in the past.
Tips for Leaving Phone Messages
Oct 21st
Last week, I talked about how to win clients over the phone. This week, let’s look at how to leave telephone messages that will boost that final opinion to one of an on-going, on brand, positive relationship!
We live in a world of answering machines and “voice mail”. This is especially true in the business world. How many of us find ourselves playing “telephone tag” with each other. By the time you actually speak with the person you were trying to contact you’ve left 2 or 3 messages. In those short message exchanges, the party on the other line has already formed an opinion about you based solely on your speaking voice.
In order that people form a good image about you here are some tips which will can help your spoken image.
Tips when “Leaving” a telephone message
1. Do not speak too fast! – Slow down when you are leaving a message, especially if you have an accent. I receive many messages where I cannot even understand what the person is saying. Even worse, I cannot write fast enough and I find myself replaying the message several times to record the entire message.
2. Pronounce your name clearly – Announce your name slowly and clearly, especially if your name is not a common name. Spell your name slowly if necessary. Allow people to get the correct spelling of your name.
3. Slow down when saying your telephone number – People state their telephone numbers TOO FAST! Say the numbers slowly and place a “pause” somewhere in the sequence of providing your number. People will appreciate this, especially me!
4. Give your company name, your title & why you are calling – Describe in a few short sentences who you are, which company you are with and why you are calling.
5. Let them know when to call you back – Leave a date, time, and preferred telephone number for people. They can’t return your telephone call if you don’t leave your telephone number. Providing them with the preferred time to call back makes it much easier for them.
6. Always sound professional – Remember what I indicated in the beginning of this article. People DO judge you by the tone of your voice and what you say. If you come across sounding unprofessional in your message, they may not return your telephone call. Also, do not leave very long winded messages or they will stop listening. When you answer the phone, be warm and enthusiastic. Your voice at the end of the telephone line is sometimes the only impression of your company a caller will get.
Winning Clients Over the Phone
Oct 14th
They say you can’t judge a book by its cover but how many of us make judgements about people just based on their telephone speaking voice? People form opinions and make judgements about us in the first 60 seconds they see us. People also make judgements about us based on the way we sound on the telephone. There are some interesting statistics that show people develop a perception about you within the first 30 seconds of a phone conversation and their final opinion of you in the last 30 seconds.
Because people cannot “see” us over the telephone they will form these opinions based not only what we say, but also on “how” we say it. In fact the message we communicate over the telephone is based on two qualities; (1) “What” we say (Verbal) and (2) “How” we say it. Several studies have indicated that as much as 87% of the opinions people form about us, when speaking to us on the telephone, are based on the tone of our voice. Only 13% is based on the actual words we use. We all do this. People can “hear”
our personality and mannerisms through the tone of our voice.
Tips “Answering” the Telephone
1. Breathe! Before you pick up the phone, take a deep breath. Most of us are what they call “shallow breathers”. We take small breaths we sound tired when we answer the phone. The goal is to sound like you like your job and you are glad they called.
2. Identify yourself. Since they have taken the time to call you, you may answer the phone this way; “Thank you for calling Alexandria Therapeutic Massage, this is Linda Roisum, how can I make it a great day for you?” Hokey, maybe; memorable, maybe; friendly, you bet. Since I have an unusual last name, this helps me say it first so that the caller doesn’t have to fumble with the pronunciation.
3. Be Sincere. If we are honest with ourselves, we are all “problem solvers” in some way. People call us on the phone to have a problem answered. Whether it is to get driving directions, or hours of operation or questions about our services, they have a question and want it answered quickly, intelligently and politely.
4. Be prepared before you answer the telephone – Have a pad of paper and pencil ready when you answer your telephone. Write down the person’s name who has called so you can use their name during your conversation with them. People “love” to hear their name.
5. Listen attentively. Put everything down when you answer the phone! Easier said than done, isn’t? How many times have you been in your office answering email, talking on the phone, listening to your ipod and sipping on a Starbucks? Me too. Shame on us. Customers don’t like to be ignored and by multitasking, we are not focused on the customer’s wants and needs.
What to do if you are in a session or are gone for the day
If you use an answering machine to answer calls when you can’t, make sure that you have a professional message recorded. You may want to give pertinent information like your hours of operation and maybe your website for more information. Update your message as needed. For instance, if your business is going to be closed for a holiday, update your recorded answering machine message to say so and to say when your business will reopen.
Return telephone calls promptly! – To me, this is the most professional telephone habit people should possess. Be that person who DOES return telephone calls. Many people DO NOT return telephone calls! I have left numerous messages with people and companies who DO NOT return telephone calls. Quite often I have received a call from someone asking to order one of my products and I spend days, even weeks trying to contact them. I always try and return telephone calls within one business day. People who know me know that I am prompt in returning telephone calls.
You may also be interested in Tips of Leaving Messages
Three Business Lessons Learned Driving Cross Country
Oct 7th
I’m writing this blog post from Montana. We just arrived a few days ago for a two week vacation…and we drove. Yep, 2300 miles from Virginia — in four days.
My husband drives most of the time and his driving makes me a little nervous – o.k. a lot nervous, because he drives way too fast (in my opinion) – so I try to occupy myself so as to not annoy him with my backseat driving. I did a lot of thinking about new classes I want to offer, what direction I want my business to take and about business in general.
Here are three business lessons I picked up driving and driving and driving cross country.
1. Look to where you want to go.
I’m a much better passenger than a driver because I much rather look around at my surroundings. On our third day of driving, my husband was a little tired and asked me to drive so he could take a short nap. We were driving through North Dakota on a very boring stretch of highway with not many cars, so I found myself looking at some of the scenery mostly wheat fields… What do you think happened? The car started to drift off to where I was looking. Not very pleasant for my husband sleeping as I jerked the car back on to the road.
The same thing can be said for our business. When we don’t look to where we want to go — keeping our business goals — we tend to drift off course.
2. Have business and personal goals.
I heard this saying and I can’t remember who said it, but it went something like this “If you don’t know where you are going, you just might end up there.” We had 2300 miles to cover in four days, so I figured that we had to do about 550 miles per day.
Do you have goals for your business (and for your life)? If you do, good for you! You should! If you don’t have specific, measurable goals for your business or personally, you might want to read this article I wrote for Bellaonline about establishing goals (at the beginning of the year).
3. Be flexible
You should expect that your plan can and will change. Life has a funny way of throwing unexpected events and circumstances at us. Our drive was the perfect example of having to be flexible – very flexible.
Day 1, we got a later start than we had anticipated and by 5 p.m. is was very pissy weather. So we made it as far as Ohio – about 150 short of our goal.
At the beginning of day 2, I said “let’s just take the 175 miles and divide it by three and add that to our 550 miles that we have to do each day. So now, we have to do 600 miles each day for the next three days. Driving through Indiana, we hit a major snag. We were driving along and all of a sudden we came to an abrupt halt. After sitting there for about an hour, we heard that there was an accident ahead and they were cleaning up Hazmat materials after the accident. We happened to be it a very opportune spot. There was an exit ramp about 50 feet ahead…all we had to do was get on the other side of the 18-wheeler that was blocking us. So with my best smile, I asked if he could back up a little so we could get through to the exit ramp. Once on the exit ramp, we asked the booth attendant how we could get back on the highway after the accident. After a few turns and a couple miles down, we were back on the highway and moving at a brisk pace. But now we are 90 minutes behind schedule. Needless to say, we didn’t make the 600 miles.
In order to be in Whitefish by early evening on October 1st (our check day), we had to haul a** on day 3. We did it! Between my husband and me driving, we drove almost 800 miles leaving only 565 miles for day 4.
Instead of getting upset about our drive not going according to plan and creating all sorts of stress, we were flexible and created alternate mini goals (daily goals) to reach the ultimate goal (getting to Whitefish by October 1st before 6 p.m.). Flexibility is the key to accomplish anything but the simplest goal.
Next time you have a goal-setting session, “think BIG and get to the NEXT level” and get uber specific. Do you want more revenue? More net income? Exactly how much more? By when? From what services (or products) services? How will this next level impact your lifestyle? The time you spend working vs. playing?
The secret here is to be precise as you can be. You can have anything you want in your business (really!), but until you can articulate exactly what that is, no one can help you get it.
Got thoughts or feedback here? Leave a comment and let me know!
What are YOU Worth?
Sep 15th
Today I wanted to talk to you about some very important points that I see us, as massage therapists, not taking seriously enough. If you’ve been with me for any length of time or are one of my students, you know I constantly preach – charge what you’re worth.
The question is: What are YOU worth?
At a meeting the other day, a marketing consultant opened her talk by asking the group, “What are you worth?” She went on to discuss all the different ways we minimize our worth or discount our value in desperate attempts to close the sale. After all the pitfalls of pricing and selling were laid out, she closed the talk by asking again, “What are you worth?” The responses around the room were very entertaining as people began to realize or give themselves permission to adjust their prices to make a profit!
As a wakeup call for your own massage business, I want to give you some options to consider ensuring your pricing delivers the profitability you deserve.
1. Educate your customers. When prospects approach you or call/email you for your prices, this is a buying signal. They are telling you they are ready to buy and willing to spend money to purchase your expertise. – Provide superior service and they won’t look elsewhere and won’t blink at your price. Excellence is priceless.
2. Many prospects perceive value and price as equal. A lower price can actually hurt your credibility and sales because they associate the best quality products and services with premium pricing. Listen to your clients. Do some competitive research and be sure you are not shorting yourself.
3. Periodically calculate your profit margin to be sure what you charge, after expenses and overhead, pays you a good living. Covering expenses, overhead and payroll is not enough.
4. Periodically do the numbers to be sure that the actual cost/hour and price/hour give you the necessary profit margin.
5. There are ways to keep your prices fixed to maintain value and yet be flexible. Add the flexibility by designing different packages.
6. Set your fees just a bit above what you feel comfortable asking for. Then, bump them up incrementally until clients complain or you stop getting repreats.
7. When asked, be upfront about your prices, and then zip it. Do not apologize for your prices, defend your prices, or justify how you derived the price.
8. Yes, there are strategic times when negotiating/discounting a price is in your best interest. For example: a unique packaging of services for a new type of client (i.e. corporate seated massage), or the introduction of a new service (or product).
You have to appreciate what you are worth before your clients will. Decide what you are worth in the marketplace. Be sure your fee or rate has a profitability factor built in. You are worth it.
Your services and skills are worth more than you believe. Notice I did not say “think”? I want you to believe in yourself and your work. Until you believe in what you stand for, you’ll always limit yourself to the true freedom and wealth that comes as a result of offering your unique talents.
Just for a moment, no matter how uncomfortable it makes you feel, write down what you believe you are worth. Put a number that represents what you are worth for each one of your services. No matter how crazy a number, if you feel it’s $10,000, write it down. Don’t rationalize it. Just do it.
Post it where you will frequently see it and sit with it for the next 48 hours.
Part of getting what you want to be is learning to ask the right questions. Instead of asking “why?”, start asking “why not?”
Your Massage Practice: 9 Essentials for Success
Sep 8th
As a massage therapist in private practice, it is quite likely that you did not chose your profession because you wanted to be a business person. As a result, it can be challenging to go into business for yourself and be successful. Taking time to prepare and plan as you build your private practice will help you avoid costly and time-consuming mistakes. Below are ten areas to address to help ensure your success.
1. Get Your Life in Excellent Shape
Massage therapists and healing professionals know that our personal lives affect our professional lives, yet many who are struggling to market a private practice fail to take this into account. Look at all aspects of your life and determine what seems to be working for you and what needs to change. Determine any activities you need to reduce or eliminate in order to have the time and energy to market your practice. Examine your lifestyle and personal work habits and see where improvement needs to be made. The more your life is on order, the more time and energy you will have for marketing and building a practice.
2. Develop a Financial Plan
Before you start marketing your practice, assess your financial situation and make a financial plan. Make sure you have funds from other sources until your practice becomes established. Do not put your self in a position where you are desperate to secure clients in order to pay your bills. Potential clients may sense your desperation and may not be eager to hire you. Feeling secure financially will allow you to market and build your practice with greater confidence and ease.
3. Know that You Are a Business Owner
It is essential that you start seeing yourself as a business owner if you haven’t made this mind-shift already. You must pay careful attention to all aspects of your business–your revenue and expenses, how you spend your time, methods of attracting clients, and developing operating systems that allow your business to run smoothly.
4. Develop a Vision for Your Massage Practice
It’s difficult to get somewhere if you don’t know where you are going. Develop a detailed vision of what you want your massage practice to look like in 6 months, 1 year and 5 years and write it down. How many clients do you want to have? What days and hours do you want to work? How much income do you need/want? The more clarity and specificity you have, the more likely you will turn your vision into reality.
5. Develop at Least One Specialization
Massage Therapists and healing professionals new to private practice often fear that if they are too narrow in the type of services they offer, they will rule out many other potential clients. The opposite is actually more often true as people tend to want to hire specialists. The more targeted you are in marketing your practice, the more you will stand out from others and become known for your expertise. In addition, it’s easier to market your practice to a particular group if you know where to find them.
6. Determine Any Negative Attitudes and Fears You Have About Marketing
Many massage therapists, and healing professionals are uncomfortable with the marketing aspect of being in private practice. They see their role as to be there for others and not to promote themselves. Our repeated exposure to negative and manipulative types of marketing further contributes to the belief that marketing ourselves is somehow inappropriate. Any negative attitudes and fears you have about marketing a practice need to be eliminated. You can and should find ways to market with integrity and authenticity. Be proud of your services and have confidence that you have something to offer people that they need and want.
7. Develop a Marketing Plan
In order to market your massage practice successfully you must have an integrated marketing plan. One of the most common mistakes helping and healing professionals make is trying a few methods of marketing your practice haphazardly, and when the results are not immediate, they erroneously assume the techniques don’t work. Flourishing massage practices are frequently built upon a number of marketing strategies that work together over time. To market effectively you must make yourself repeatedly visible to potential clients and referral sources so that they get to know and trust you.
8. Choose Marketing Methods That Excite You
Take some time to explore and develop marketing methods that suit your unique talents and interests. There are numerous ways to promote your practice. To get ideas, read books, take courses, ask other professionals how they built their practices, or hire a marketing consultant or coach. Marketing can be an enjoyable and creative process that provides a balance to the work you do with your clients. Find a way to take pleasure in this aspect of your business and you will be more motivated to do it.
9. Make a Commitment To Build Your Practice
Typically it can take anywhere from 1-3+ years to build a full practice. Exactly how long will depend on several factors including the size of your current network, how effectively you market, the demand for your area of expertise, and how much time you spend developing your practice. Make a commitment to take action steps on a regular basis. It’s best if you set aside a specific amount of time on a weekly basis for marketing your practice, and try to stick to this schedule even when you become discouraged or become tempted to allow other things to take priority.
If you want to learn low- and no-cost methods to develop your massage practice, check out the second edition of my book Creating a Prosperous Practice, Spending Little or No Money Marketing.
See Your Massage Practice Through Your Client’s Eyes
Aug 10th
What do your clients experience when they interact with your massage practice? Is the office clean? Comfortable? Too often we are too busy doing projects and forget about what the client sees with papers all over the desk.
If you have office staff, are they polite and helpful? How is the quality of the service? Are you giving your best massage (or other service) possible? Did you thank your client? Did you remember to ask if the client wanted to reschedule?
In your business, what you don’t know about your clients’ perceptions of your quality and service can hurt you. Put yourself in your clients’ shoes and pretend you are a client entering your practice for the first time, what do you see?
One of my consulting clients was having problems getting clients to rebook after their first massage. She didn’t have any problems with existing clients. So I asked her to pretend she was a new client coming to her office for the very first time. When she opened the front door, what was the first thing that she saw. My client told me that she saw her desk. When I asked her to describe her desk to me, she said that it has about 5 stacks of files, papers, etc. all waiting to be taken care of. I asked her if she thought the clients were seeing tasks that were being taken care of and thought maybe if she can’t take care of this paperwork, how can she take care of me? I told her how clutter affects people, so she agreed to clear the clutter with the aid of her staff. Almost immediately, she noticed that new clients were rebooking.
You may conduct the evaluation of your business yourself, enlist the help of a few friends, or hire a mystery shopping company to implement a formal, ongoing program. You might be surprised (pleasantly or not) by what you learn.
When you see yourself as your customers do, you can identify problems that may be costing you clients. Make it easy to do business with you and watch your profits increase!
So how did you do? What did you see/discover about your massage practice? What changes do you need to make? Share your experiences below. I would love to hear what you learned.
You did do the exercise, didn’t you? If you didn’t, go do it now.
Radio Interview with Warren Buffet
Nov 12th
I thought you’d enjoy this fabulous interview with Warren Buffett that recently aired on the BBC in the UK.
Listen and learn from Warren Buffet here. There are lots of little gems in there that you can apply to your own business and indeed your personal investment strategies too.
Blog Action Day '09, Climate Change & How You Can Make a Difference
Oct 15th
Today is Blog Action Day which is “an annual event that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day on their own blogs with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance”. Blog Action Day 2009 is centered around Climate Change.
There is some debate about whether we really need to do anything about Climate Change. As I was doing research about what angle to take with this blog post, I watched a fantastic video on YouTube about the Most Terrifying Video You’ll Ever See. You might want to watch it here.
There definitely is an uncertainty about our future. I see it locally (some of our local county park wetlands are disappearing) as well as when we travel both domestically and internationally. I bet you are asking “How can I help? I’m just one person and I only have a small massage practice.” I thought I would blog about actions we can take to go green in our massage practices.
Well here we go…..
1. Use organic products. Here are a few companies that offer organic oils, lotions, spa treatments are Lypossage esthetique International, Massage Warehouse and Universal Companies. I’m sure that there are others, but these will get your started. If you know of other companies that offer organic products share them in the comments section.
2. Water conservation. This can mean anything from developing ways to reuse water (i.e. using gray water to water plants) to “unbottling” water (i.e. using reusable containers for water instead of giving your clients a bottle of water.)
3. Energy conservation. Try to use natural lighting as much as possible. Open those curtains/blinds when you can. Or look into solar or wind power options.
4. Create a more healthful environment: (1) use eco-friendly decor (i.e. bamboo or sustainable wood flooring, carpeting made from organic and sustainable resources bamboo curtains/blinds, sheets, blankets); (2) green lighting (i.e. use lighting fixtures that use CFLs and LED lighting to reduce energy consumption).
5. Incorporate natural and organic retail products in your business.
6. Eco Clothing. Wear green clothing – bamboo and organic cotton clothing during your work day (or at home too). On your feet, try shoes using natural rubber or plants such as bamboo, cotton or even hemp.
7. Go green in your marketing efforts. Use social media marketing, cooperative marketing and internet marketing (i.e. instead of printing out a coupon, tell you clients to use CODE XYZ when booking to receive the discount). If you have to mail something out or have a promotional marketing materials, use green products.
8. Green on Clean. Use all natural cleaners for both your office and residence. Check out the natural products from Young Living Essential Oils. I love the Thieves Spray. (P.S. If you want to buy products but don’t have a distributor number yet, sign up under mine 306809 – I get a little commission every time you buy something :0).
9. Recycle. Don’t have a need for something any more in your business (or home)? Can it be recycled or reused? I do this on a regular basis. If you aren’t using it, it is considered clutter. (If you missed my blog post on clutter and how it affects us, you can read it here.)
10. Green Promotional Ideas (1) Shopping Bags – Seems like every store you visit these days offers (for sale or free with purchase) a reusable cloth or heavy duty recycled plastic bags. (2) Put your logo on a reusable water bottle and retail or give them away. (Hint: these are great marketing tools — you will have all those shopping bags and Water bottles out there on a day to day basis doing their duty to tell the world about your business.)
11. Virtual Continuing Education Trainings. With the advances in technology these days, instead of going to take a CE class somewhere, check out who is offering classes on-line. (P.S. This is on my goals for 2010…so stay tuned.)
12. Business Equipment Sharing. Equipment (i.e massage chair, body cushion) that may seldom get used but may be beneficial in your practice can be expensive. Start a cooperative with other MTs (or alternative health professionals) in your area and share the costs.
These 12 ideas will get your started in how you can make a difference in climate change. Do you have any more comments about climate change and what we can do or ideas about going green that you didn’t see here? Please share them in the comments.
