Getting massage costs money…Giving massage costs money too!

May 24, 2012 2 Comments

I’ve been tossing around the idea for this post for several months now. I’ve debated about whether I should even write it. Even now, as I type these words, there is a part of me that thinks this may be a bad idea. For better or worse, I am a person who believes that honesty really is the best policy & even if I didn’t, I’m a person who finds it difficult to hide what’s on my mind. So, here goes…

Obviously, getting a massage costs my clients something, and I am very aware of that. You, my dear client, take time out of your very busy schedule, money out of your family’s budget, and you trust me (or the therapists that work for me). That’s a lot. For some of you, those costs amount to less than the price you would pay in missed work, pain medication, or strained relationships that result from the everyday stresses and physical pain of life. For others of you, your massage session is simply a demonstration of the importance you have on self-care and it “resets” you, so to speak. No matter the reason that you continue trusting me and the other therapists at Tranquil Touch, we are grateful and honored to be chosen by you on your wellness journey. I do not want anyone to think that we are not aware of how easy it would be for you to go somewhere else for your massage needs. We are aware and that is why we try so hard to make every one of your visits special and tailored to care for your unique needs.

Now, the reason I finally decided to write this post…

Recently, I had the privilege of joining several other business owners from the community to have coffee and discuss how we can support one another during the upcoming summer months. It didn’t take very long for some of the attendees to begin discussing how their businesses have suffered since the recession began. It has been a sad fact that in our small downtown area we have seen several businesses close over the last few years. We all have had to make adjustments in how we run our businesses so that we can stay profitable, if only just enough to stay alive. This got me thinking about my own business and some of the changes I have had to make. Now, before I get too far, I have to point out that, thanks to you, my massage clients and my clients who have hired me to be your doula (really a 2nd job for me), my business has grown despite the recession. I cannot tell you how grateful I am for that! However, there have been many times that I have had to forgo paying myself for work I’ve done in order to pay the bills.

This is where you might be surprised at how much it costs me to give massage. Obviously, I have a monthly rent to pay for my beautiful office. That amount is equal to a 2nd mortgage. (insert GASP) Then, of course, I would not be able to be open without paying the required ,city fees (this is where the other business owners were shocked). Every business in our city has to pay an annual $40 registration, but, as a “massage facility”, I also have to pay an annual fee of $200 additionally, just to be open! The city claims that this is to cover the “inspection” of my space, which really means that a detective comes in to check that I have enough linens, hot water, and the required design on each treatment room door. It doesn’t matter that I’ve been in this city for 6 years, every year, I pay them $240 just so I can keep working. (Really, I think it’s because of things like that new show on Lifetime that perpetuates the idea that massage and prostitution go hand in hand. But that’s a post for another day!) I also have certifications that need to be kept up. My professional organization (also a requirement of the city) membership costs me $324/year. So in the first 4 months of every year, it costs me around $3,000 just to be open!
Every 3-4 years I have to pay a recertification fee of anywhere between $70-$150, depending on which certification I am renewing, all of which require continuing education hours, which means I am paying for classes several times a year. And don’t even get me started on the double-tax I pay as a sole-proprietor! Additionally, there are the “incidentals” and routine costs of advertising, toilet paper, massage oils & creams, etc that need to be purchased on a regular basis. I also estimated that I take home and wash approximately 28 pounds of laundry or more every day!

The average massage therapist, according to AMTA, had an annual income of $31,980 in 2010 and 57% of therapists work a 2nd job outside of the massage profession. The numbers were bleaker according to another massage organization, ABMP, which stated that in 2009 the average massage therapist had an annual income of $16,790. So , let’s split the difference and say that the average massage therapist makes $24,385 a year. If you subtract just the $3000 I pay each year before I can even unlock my doors, I’m looking at about $22,000 a year. But, remember, there are every day expenses that go into the proper running of a business, including rent for the rest of the year (after those first 4 months), my continuing education, additional certifications, and taxes (can’t forget about those pesky quarterly expenses)…this is all before I can even pay myself to take money home to my own family.

The long and short of it is this, most massage therapists know before we even graduate massage school, that money cannot be our motivation for being in this profession. Most of us are in it because we care about helping others and are blessed with the skill/talent/gift/training to do that well. That being said, we still have families to feed, bills to pay, cars that need repairing, and all of the same struggles any of our clients suffer.

If you get a coupon or a discount, it is because we want you to know how much we appreciate you! We know that you have your own financial struggles and want to reward you for keeping massage therapy a priority in your life. But, it is not without cost.

Speaking for myself, I absolutely love being a massage therapist and birth doula. It is my passion and giving to you actually nurtures me in many ways. I have been blessed with a group of clients who, even if you didn’t know all of this before, really appreciate the work that I do. When a client states how much regular massage has helped her maintain a better level of health, or that massage has been vital to support her when coping with a devastating loss, it reaffirms the reason I decided to become a massage therapist. In the end, I would do this for free if I didn’t have to earn a living. Also, I have the gift of some pretty keen business sense, thanks to my mom, and am very grateful that I have seen my business continue to grow.

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2010-My Year in a Nutshell

January 3, 2011 Leave a comment

So, here we are in the very beginning of January 2011.  Of course, everyone is looking back at 2010 and many blog posts will be devoted to “what have we learned”; and, admittedly, I did learn A LOT.  However, I feel that a quick listing of the highlights of my year will allow me the opportunity to sum everything up in a nutshell.  So, here goes…

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I needed to relocate my massage therapy office.  A blessing in disguise, I am now in a fabulous location right downtown in Farmington, having officially moved in October 13, 2010.  My clients and myself have enjoyed the proximity to so many wonderful shops, boutiques and restaurants, the weekly Farmer’s Market, and the local library.  We have also enjoyed the beautiful design of my new office that allows all of us to enter the space and experience immediate stress-reduction, as we are surrounded by peace, quiet, and soothing colors.

My massage therapy business thrived, despite the current Michigan economy.  Most of my clients have recognized the importance of regular massage therapy as part of their preventative care.  With stress levels so high, and the accompanying physical pain that is often a by-product of chronic stress, people are continuing to choose massage therapy as a low-cost, natural alternative to support their health.

I enjoyed the opportunity to mentor a newly graduated massage therapist, and although she has since moved on, it was a pleasure to watch her learn where her niche was in this amazing profession.  I wish Katie the best as she pursues her passion while working in a chiropractor’s office, bringing pain relief to his patients.

As with many things, though, when a door closes, a window opens.  I am thrilled to welcome Kristin Klein to my office.  She has moved here all the way from Alabama in an effort to join me in working with women and providing support during pregnancy, childbirth, and she is also offering postpartum doula services which will allow a new mom to have a second set of hands to assist her during her transition home in the first few weeks of having a new baby.

As a massage doula, I was blessed with the privilege of assisting 8 families during labor and childbirth to meet their babies for the first time!  5 girls and 3 boys took their first breaths this year, and 4 women became mothers for the first time!

On a personal note, my family suffered the loss of 2 wonderful women this year as well.  Within 2 weeks of each other, my husband’s 94-year old grandmother died peacefully in her sleep on July 31 and my sister-in-law’s husband lost his mother unexpectedly when she died in her sleep on August 11, 2010.  It was an incredibly difficult time for us, as anyone who has lost a family member can imagine.  Both women had been wonderful mothers and grandmothers, our Grammy was also a great-grandmother as well.  We will miss them both.  My own grandmother suffered a mild stroke and is thankfully recovering, if slowly.  My husband continues to care weekly for his father whose health is unfortunately deteriorating slowly.  As you can see, even massage therapists are not immune to experiencing times of great stress.  It is for this reason that I am extremely grateful to all of my clients who allowed me the honor of working with them during a very difficult year.  For me, giving massage  is as therapeutic as receiving it!

The year ended on a high note, as I attended the birth of my 8th doula baby of the year.  This was the 3rd baby for my client, all girls, and the first birth I have witnessed where the amniotic sac remained intact until the baby’s head was born.  That amazing birth will be a described in a separate post very soon.  Suffice it to say that in today’s highly-medicalized birthing environment, it is rare for a doula to see and I count myself very privileged to have the experience!

As of today, my own children have returned to school and I am returning to my office after a much needed break.  I am very excited to see what 2011 holds for me, my family, and my business.

Well, those are the highlights of my year.  I would like to thank my family and friends who held me up when I felt myself crumbling beneath the pressures that naturally come with so much happening.  I would also like to thank my clients, without whom, I would not be able to enjoy so much professional success.

I hope that everyone can join me in looking at the new year as one full of hope, promise, and good things to come!!!

Grammy, you will be missed by us all!

2nd Massage Therapy Room

My new Massage Room

Filed under birth, Business, Doula, Gratitude, massage, pregnancy Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Great Things Can Happen!

June 22, 2010 Leave a comment

magenta vote for us 200x50 badge

I can hardly believe how last week went!  One day I went into my office and found a packet from one of our local television stations that was letting me know my business Tranquil Touch Therapeutic Massage For Women had been nominated for their “Vote 4 The Best” contest!  Then, the very next day, I received an email letting me know that my blog (this little blog!) had been awarded as one of Online Nursing’s top 30 Doula blogs for 2010!  What an amazing week!

I have to thank all my readers, clients, friends, and my family for supporting me for the past 6 years.  I also recently hired a new therapist to work with me, thus extending the opportunity to receive great massage therapy to even more women in our community.

Massage therapy was once thought of as a luxury that only the rich could afford.  However, recent studies have shown that as the stress levels of average Americans increases, their awareness that regular massage therapy is actually going to support their health and well-being is also increasing.  Low-back pain, chronic pain, and frequent headaches are some of the most common reasons for people to visit their doctors.  However, with healthcare costs rising and more people losing their health insurance, massage therapy is actually a very affordable option for pain relief.  It also helps improve your sleep and lower stress hormones.

Likewise, having a Doula at your birth is becoming more recognized as an essential part of a woman’s preventative healthcare.  Studies have shown that Doula-attended births have lower frequencies of high-cost interventions such as episiotomies, epidurals, and cesarean sections.  Having a Doula at your birth can lower the overall cost and increase your sense of empowerment, satisfaction, and speed your recovery.

It is my honor to be recognized as an expert in both aspects of a profession that I love.  Being a busy woman, helping to support other busy women, is a privilege that I will always be grateful for.  Life is full of ups and downs, trials and joys, and through it all, I will try to remember this week and that “Great Things Can Happen”, and do!

Filed under birth, Business, childbirth, Doula, Gratitude, massage, pregnancy Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Change Can Be Good

June 10, 2010 2 Comments

Well, if you’ve been following me on Twitter, you know that I’ve been alluding to a “Big Change” and a “Big Project” for the past few months.  I am happy to say that I am finally able to announce that at the end of summer, I will be moving my business to a new location!

For the past 3 1/2 years, I have enjoyed working in a beautiful space inside Ginger’s Mind Body Spirit Center on Orchard Lake Road in Farmington.  My clients and I have benefited from the natural surroundings and soothing space.  However, as so often is the case, things happen and changes occur.  Earlier this year, Ginger notified all of her tenants that she made the decision to put the building up for sale.  Admittedly, when I first got the news, I was deeply concerned.  When would the sale take place?  Who will be buying it?  How will it affect my business?  How will it affect my clients?  What should I do?

With the economy in Michigan still struggling to rebound and 2 kids to provide for, I’ve had some decidedly difficult, okay, let’s be perfectly honest, I’ve had some really bad days with all of this.  But, I’ve come to the conclusion that my reaction to the news of the sale of the building and my attempt to fight change was more of an issue than the change itself.  Some days I embraced the news, and had great things opened up to me.  Other days, I fought the idea of moving and all that it would entail, and my days went badly.  Today, I think I am at peace with it.

When the year began, I was planning on applying for a grant to pay for training to become a Registered Aromatherapist.  I was working with massage clients, meeting with prospective Doula clients and just going about my business as usual.  Within several weeks time, things had changed and my plans had to be placed on the back-burner.  I began looking at surrounding cities to learn their massage laws and for a new space and wondering how I could make it all work.  In the meantime, I still needed to take care of my business, clients, children & family responsibilities, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera…

Fast forward to today.  I have found a wonderful space right downtown in Farmington.  I signed the new lease a while ago and, in an effort to offset the rental costs, invited a colleague to lease 1 of the 3 available rooms in the space for her own business.  We spent most of April getting the space prepared, including having the waiting room and halls painted and furnished so she could move in when her lease at Ginger’s ended at the beginning of May.   Last month I hired a wonderful new therapist named Katie who shares my commitment to women’s health and is currently working around my schedule in my space at Ginger’s, but who will be moving with me and using Treatment Room 2 at my new location. I have a wonderful, talented interior designer who is going to work on converting my 2 Treatment Rooms and bathroom into amazing spaces where my clients will be able to escape the hustle and bustle and stress of their everyday lives.  We already have the waiting room set up, and although my designer will be adding some final touches, I can say that I even feel relaxed just walking in.  Take a look:

View from Hallway to Treatment Rooms

View from inside entrance, looking to left

View from inside entrance, looking to right

While my clients and I have enjoyed walking through a beautiful courtyard, surrounded by nature at Ginger’s; moving to a Downtown location will have enormous benefits.  For me & my business, I will have increased visibility, a space professionally designed around my tastes, and expanded hours.  My clients will continue to receive customized care, a convenient location (only a few miles west of my current location), consistently competitive prices, and more flexible scheduling by having the opportunity to receive massage from Katie as well as myself.

Grand River view of Building Housing New Location

Main Entrance on South Side of Building

Focal Point Studio on Left, New Location on Right

Most of us like constancy and are creatures of habit.  We eat at the same restaurants, watch the same TV shows, vacation in the same spots.  We fight, avoid, and complain about change.  But, sometimes change is thrust upon us.  Sometimes we are forced to make decisions to change because those around us have.

I have been forced to make a change.  This will cause my clients to make a change with me.  I am choosing to embrace the change.  In fact, I am excited by the possibilities that this change will bring.  I have decided that in this case, Change Can Be Good.  Actually, Change WILL Be Good!!!

I can’t wait to see how everything comes together and look forward to welcoming all of my clients to my New, Improved, Massage Clinic!

New Location: 33425 Grand River Ave Suite 102  Farmington, MI 48335

See you there!

Filed under Business, Gratitude, massage, Misc. Interesting Stuff Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Me vs. Math

March 25, 2010 Leave a comment

I have a client who is 39 weeks pregnant with her first full-term pregnancy.  It is a very exciting time for her and I am honored to be her Doula.  While we have been spending the last several days texting and talking about the progress her body is making, I have also been serving my massage therapy clients in my office.

As you may have read in my last blog post, I really love my job.  I love giving massage and helping women find comfort to cope with stress and the physical pains caused by it.  I also really love working with women as they enter the homestretch of pregnancy in preparation for their baby’s birth.

What I don’t like is math!  I’m in the process of preparing to write a grant to hopefully get some money to expand my business and relieve some of the financial stress on my family (teenagers are so expensive!)  As I began this process, I have realized that the business plan I prepared 6 years ago in massage therapy school is no longer adequate.  I am so very thankful that I have reached all the goals I set up for my business back then, but I would much rather have my hands on someone’s body, helping  her muscles release, than having my hands on a calculator and my laptop!  Some people enjoy the exactness of math, the way that there is always a formula that ends with an answer that tells you that you are exactly right.  I, however, enjoy the idea of possibilities, that there may be outcomes we don’t expect and surprises that we don’t plan.  That’s why massage therapy is so exciting to me and being a Doula is so amazing.  A client may walk in with a complaint that she thinks is the result of one thing, then as I work to loosen the muscle, she may remember a childhood injury that has actually been aggravated by a recent event.  A woman may plan on using pain medications to manage her labor, only to discover that she indeed has the strength and power to manage it herself and to birth her baby.

However, I realize that everything in life has a price.  If I want the privilege, opportunity and joy of owning my own business and doing things my way, then every now and again, I am going to have to do things I don’t like.  For me, for now, that is math.  Fortunately, when my husband was working on his marketing degree, he used my business as the source to create the business plan that he needed for one of his classes.  Thank goodness he saved it all and I at least have it to reference as a rough draft for the one I will be sending in with my grant request.

So, while I keep reminding myself that this will all be for the best, especially if I succeed in getting some funding, I will continue fighting with numbers, charts, percentages, graphs, and other math-related issues.  It’s a wonder I made it through pre-calc in high school!  At any rate, this is the price I must pay to keep doing what I love so much.

I love my job, I love my husband, but I still hate math!!

Filed under Business, Gratitude, Misc. Interesting Stuff Tagged with , , ,

Gratitude Post

February 22, 2010 Leave a comment

So, here I am, at home with my kids on a snow day.  The last snow day that we had, I was scheduled to work at my office with 4 massage clients.  My last appointment had contacted me the day before to cancel due to illness.  I chose to cancel my first client of the day, believing that the roads would be clear by the mid-morning when my next one was scheduled.  As it turned out, the roads were a mess until late that afternoon and the parking lot of my office complex was never plowed.  I almost turned around at one point, but couldn’t reach my client by phone, so I trudged on, slipping and sliding.  When I arrived at my office and noticed all the snow in the lot, I had to park in a lot across the street and walk.  My 2 remaining clients were able to get there and we had great sessions.  This caused me to pause and think about how grateful I should be to have clients who are so committed to their health and so loyal to me.

So, when I found out today was going to be a snow day, I decided to think about all the things I am grateful for, the first being that I didn’t have to drive in it today!

But I digress.  Here are the things I am grateful for today:

  • My family & I are healthy and happy.
  • I have 2 of the best sons anyone could have!
  • We are blessed to have what we need, despite having to simplify our lives due to the economy.
  • My husband has a job (actually 2 part-time ones) that pays most of our bills, he recently got his Associate’s Degree in Marketing and Applied Management & is hoping to break into that field soon. (hint,hint ;-) )
  • I have an amazing job that allows me to meet amazing women in my community who recognize the value of massage therapy.
  • I also have the awesome privilege of being chosen to be the Doula for women who are taking charge of their births and value educating themselves about all of their options & recognize the need for labor support.
  • My job(s) allow me to arrange my schedule to be present and active in my children’s lives.
  • I have allowed myself, and been supported by my family & friends, to grow both professionally and personally.
  • The wonderful birth professionals and bodyworkers that I have met through various social networks who have helped me become more knowledgeable and confident in my work and have encouraged me to explore my “writing voice”.
  • Everyone who has chosen to take some time out to read my blog.

Of course there are many, many other things that I am grateful for, but these are the things I felt like sharing today.  I hope that everyone who reads this can take a moment and think about what you are grateful for and even share those things with me in your comments.

With Gratitude,

Exie

Filed under Doula, Gratitude, massage, Misc. Interesting Stuff Tagged with , , , , , ,

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