building a massage practice

alintanurse · Jun 14, 2005

You might try leaving a flyer at local gyms and martial arts classes.

nurseyperson · Jun 14, 2005

Congrats on starting yoiur own business! When I started my own business 4 1/2 years ago, it was slow. The best advertising is word of mouth, but that takes a while. I continued to work as an RN part time for a few Years until I got too busy doing massage. I ended up working about 5 or 6 days a week, two to three 12 hour shifts as a nurse, and then the other days at my office, and sometimes only see a few people a day or week.

A few questions. How big is your town? If it is small, flyers in other businesses will help. You can also type up newsletters, brochures, etc. to the medical personnel around town. Unfortunately, advertising is still the biggest expense I have. I prefer to be in the yellow pages of all the phone books of the area. Phone books stay around for years, and I spend a little bit more to let them know that I am different than the regular massage, always putting that I am an RN, Nationally Certified and it is for Pain Relief.

Of course there are ads in the newspapers, radio and TV. I don't do Radio or TV, it is expensive and people hear it a few times (maybe) and then it is gone.

One thing I do is to give free treatment time to my clients who refer others. I have a space on my history form for them to put how they heard about me. If they write someones name, I send them a postcard for 15 free minutes. Also, you can give your people certificates to sign and to hand out to their friends, and when the new patients bring it in, the referring patient gets free time. Word of mouth is the best Positive advertising.

Also, when I started out, I had a booth at Health Fairs and Home Shows, County Fairs. You can have hundreds of people walking by and taking your business cards and brochures. I gave free Samples of Biofreeze, and the first year gave free 5 to 10 minutes massages. That about killed me!!! I learned after that. I charged about $5 for 10 minutes. And I was still swamped. You get a lot of exposure from places like that. The cost of a booth can be anyting from free to $500 or more, but if it is exposure to thousands, it is worth it.

One more thing..depending on whre your place of business is, a LARGE sign outside is like an ad every day. People drive by and see it who won't see ads at other places.

If you belong to the AMTA American Massage Therapy Association, they have manuals call the Massage Therapy Careeer Guide. 5 manuals

1) Planning your career

2)Establishing your practice

3) Managing your practice

4) marketing your practice

& 5) Growing our practice.

You can also contact your Small BusinessAdministration in your State for a Resource guide and information on Business development, Loans, Women's Assistance, and different programs.

take a small business/ Tax workshop.

Keep every receipt for everything. You can decut SO MUCH for your business.

get certification from the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork

It all takes money, and it may take 6 months to 2 years to get it going.

Good luck. If I can give any additional info (this is just from my own personal experience) let me know.