Leadership & Business

Welcome to the Massage Business World

Licensed massage therapists should be the face of our industry. Unfortunately, the people who own and control it are people who have never performed a massage in their life. This needs to change and I am here to help that happen as a community. This book is not designed to scare you away from running your own business, instead it has been written to help you become a successful business owner and employee.

Why is business education important for all licensed massage therapists?

Most will never run their own multi-therapist facility. A majority will either work at a chain, a local wellness facility, or venture out as a self-employed massage therapist. No matter which career path you take an understanding of massage business will be an invaluable asset to you.

Current Massage Business Modules

Many students unplug from the curriculum once the program enters the business module. I don’t blame them, most of these classes are mind numbingly boring, basic, and offer little applicable value.

When I went through massage school the sum of my business education involved creating a logo and a name for a fictional massage business. Thank God I love to learn and sought more knowledge than my instructors were willing to offer.

Rebuilding the Massage Business Module

The business module should start with a basic framework of knowledge. This information would cover the anticipated general questions found on the MBLEX.

After this basic foundation is completed, the students would learn the Five Primary Points of Business relevant to every practitioner. The goal of this section is to provide every therapist with the ability to effectively negotiate wages, interview, lead, communicate, and improve career satisfaction.

The final step would be an elective or advanced course selected by the student. This would be an introduction to business management.

Throughout the business model the 6 assumptions of adult learning by Malcolm S. Knowles would be utilized.

The six assumptions unique to adult learning Adults.

1. Adults need to know why they need to learn something.
2. Adults need to build on their experience.
3. Adults have a need to feel responsible for their learning.
4. Adults are ready to learn if training solves an immediate problem.
5. Adults want their training to be problem focused.
6. Adults learn best when motivation comes intrinsically.

The Five Primary Points of Business relevant to every practitioner.

1. Negotiating wages
2. Building professional equity
3. Marketing
4. Determining potential and survivability of a company
5. Assessing the strengths and weaknesses of leadership

(1) Negotiating Wages

By understanding how a massage business works, it will provide the therapist with the tools to effectively negotiate higher paying wages. Every facility has a pay cap based on the cost of services and the break-even calculation of the company.

A therapist may estimate the breakeven calculation using a template, and some research. This knowledge could result in a significant pay increase per hour of service.

(2) Building Professional Equity

The more a therapist understands how a massage business functions, the greater role they may serve within a company. When an employee offers relevant, quality, and well thought out contributions, it increases the likelihood management will value their employment. This may result in higher morale within the facility, increased workforce performance, and higher wages for the LMT.

(3) Marketing and Self-promotion

If you work for a chain, you will benefit and suffer the consequence of the Silver Spoon Agreement. However, with a greater understanding of marketing and self-promotion, you will increase the rate at which you build your books. In addition, when you offer valuable marketing and promotional ideas it may enhance your professional equity and ability to earn a wage increase.

If you work for a wellness facility or LMT-owned company this knowledge will help, make you an invaluable asset to leadership. Due to these facilities having more wiggle room with pay, the likelihood of receiving a pay raise is significantly greater.

(4) Determining Survivability and Potential of a Company

When investigating various employment opportunities, a solid grasp of business management will provide the data required to assess whether the business has the ability to succeed. This will assist with avoiding catastrophic career decisions while maximizing your earning potential.

(5) Assessing the Strengths and Weaknesses of Leadership

Leadership will determine the spirit of the facility. If management lacks humility, empathy, and is incapable of navigating challenges creatively, the vibe of the work environment will be acidic and draining.

If management is comprised of receptionists and people who have never practiced as an LMT or wellness professional they will most likely not have the experience or heart to encourage, inspire, and motivate their team.

By knowing how to be an effective leader, you will possess the ability to identify those who can lead you. Additionally, those who understand the hardships of leadership and offer empathy, are humble, and use creative solutions often have greater professional equity and additional opportunities for increased wages.

Leadership & Business Table of Contents

Reasonable Expectations

The time has come, you have begun exploring the idea of starting your own massage business.  It sounds so exciting, I bet you are looking forward to being your own boss, living by your own terms and having the life you deserve.  If these assumptions are correct, heartbreak is in your future.  Building a business around the fragile blocks of your ego is a recipe for disaster.

So, you want to be your own boss?  Everyone serves someone.  When you are on top you serve everybody.  A business should be designed to make money, it does not exist to elevate your ego and self-worth.  If your massage therapy business is the instrument you expect to ground you, give you a sense of purpose and launch you into the stratosphere of peace, you need to look elsewhere.  If you want to create and maintain a successful business you must have a healthy mind, body, and spirit.  This is accomplished before starting your business, not during.

Many people believe the boss can kick back with their feet up and just sail smoothly.  Boy wouldn’t that be the life?  If you believe this, a rude awakening is just around the corner.  Be expected to work 80 hours a week for the first few years of running your company.  Say good-bye to days off and be ready to cover everyone’s shifts when they can’t or won’t work.

Common Assumptions

“I can avoid these hardships if I organize my company carefully!” 

Alright, perhaps you are right.  Maybe there is a perfect structure for your team.  Let’s run through some possible arrangements.

“I could be a self-employed sole proprietor.”

CON: Sure, this is the easiest route to avoid all sorts of heartache and stress, but it comes at a cost.  Though you won’t have to lead anyone, cover anyone’s else’s shifts or be subjected to the backlash of the failure of others, you can’t grow.  You will forever run the restaurant from the kitchen.  Retirement is out of the question and having someone available to cover your clientele when you cannot be there will be impossible.

PRO: You will never have to rely on anyone else to show up for their shift. You can run your business with a lot less headache. You will pick your schedule, make every decision, and you can build a place perfect for you. I would strongly suggest any new student or LMT to go out on their own over working for one of the mega chains. It is challenging, but I will help you in whatever way I am able to encourage your success if you choose this route.

“I could hire a team of independent contractors!” 

CON: Yes, you could.  The problem is holding onto this team with any degree of success, and you will never be able to establish true brand recognition.  Your team is a hydra with several heads arguing with each other.  They will hold you to the letter of the contract and never work an ounce harder.  Why should they?  They aren’t invested in your cause, the brand, or the future of your company.

PRO: There are many facilities within our industry who function this way and are quite successful. While you will not be able to create a brand, you might be able to establish a culture. In massage the culture is one of the most important factors to running a successful company. If the back end of the spa is not right, nothing is. If you are a leader, you can unite your team under your banner, you can grant a voice to the professionals on your team and create something with meaning.

“I will build a brand of wellness professionals dedicated to the cause of helping people!” 

CON: This is easier said than done.  Few healthcare professionals want to be led under the banner of a massage therapist.  Simply put most of them do not respect your professional license.  Finding people who can work together is challenging, even more so if the pay isn’t right.  Who is their boss, who runs this coalition, what rules should be followed and what is the pricing scale?  When a business has multiple heads, especially a small business, nothing will get done, the branding will never be set in stone and your company will look unprofessional and disorganized.

PRO: Any deed worth doing is challenging. Creating a multi-disciplinary facility would serve as a valuable resource for the public and help LMTs develop as practitioners.

Common Misperceptions

Now That I am my own boss I will live by my own terms!

You want to live by your own terms?  Yeah, this isn’t going to happen.  Consider your social life dead, kiss days-off goodbye, and say hello to unrelenting anxiety and fear.  Keep some mouthwash or a toothbrush nearby to help with any stress induced nausea you may experience.

Your life will be lived according to the terms of the market, world events, your service providers and unknown-unknowns.  This new lifestyle you are about to embark on will change you.  Within a year you will no longer be the person you are today.  For the most part this is a good thing, but there will be parts of your personality that will be lost.  Make sure you are ready to accept the person you will become before you start your business, otherwise you will bite off more than you can chew, and you will choke on your own sacrifice.

I know this sounds harsh, but business is unforgiving. As massage therapists we need to exist in an environment that is saturated with love. As you embark on your expedition into the world of leadership and business prepare your mind, body, and soul for the challenges you will face as you attempt to accomplish your goals. Surround yourself with caring, empathetic, and humble spirits. Find ways to spend time with your family and live with love. Running a business can easily burn away your best and most admirable characteristics, be good to yourself, and be good to others.

As a business owner I will live the life I deserve!

You want to finally live the life you deserve?  You only deserve the rewards you have earned.  Sometimes the rewards you are supposed to enjoy will be out of reach.  It might feel like someone is stealing from you, taking advantage of your generosity, or treating you like a robot. Being a business owner is not ideal, it isn’t all sunshine and lollipops.  It is not for the faint of heart, the journey is hard, hellacious, and filled with horror.

If you decide to start your own business, you must overcome this misperceptions, and assumptions. Invest in the people around you, your heart and your purpose by becoming a true leader.

Traits of a True Leader

What is the most important trait to be a true leader?

Summing up leadership into one “most important trait” is not possible.  Being an effective leader is a cocktail of traits, one ingredient is not enough to bake the perfect cake.  If you want to be an effective leader you must reach deep into your soul to discover your greatest qualities, your odd quirks, and charisma crushing habits.

​Ask yourself why you want to be a leader.  Why do you want to lead people?  If you break it down and discover ego is the driving force, you are entering a journey you will not enjoy.  Leadership is about humility and doing what must be done to achieve a goal.  It is a challenging road saturated with incredible discomfort, pain, and anguish.  To guide your team you must cut out your ego and focus on the end goal.

Have Empathy, you are Not a Robot​

Most get hung up on this focus and fail to empathize with their team.  They become robotic and try to be a cold, calculating machine.  This is one of the worst pitfalls of any aspiring leader.  A true leader is genuine, compassionate, empathetic, patient and most of all, willing to be vulnerable.  People are not robots, and they don’t want to follow one.  If you sell yourself as perfect, your team will hold you to it.  When you make a mistake, they will burn you for it. 

If you show compassion, understanding and humility they will return it in favor.  However, this doesn’t mean they will give equal amounts.  A good leader knows the limitations of their team and is aware they will always hold the leader to a higher standard.  Great leaders remain aware of the social equity they have built with each team member, so pay attention to what you have built, where the cracks in the foundation are, and who will be a snake in the weeds.

You Must Have Grit​

To be an incredible leader you must have grit.  No matter how challenging your tasks become you must push forward.  We want the people who lead us to be strong, aware, and persistent.  If they see weakness in you, if you appear to be blind, and unwilling to push forward when times get turbulent, they will leave you.  Be strong but remember to hold tightly onto your humanity.

You Must be Creative​

Leaders must be creative.  Don’t let yourself cling to old, outmoded ideas that no longer apply to the current market.  If a square peg can’t fit into the hole, figure out a way to trim it down.  Sometimes you might find yourself short on ideas, this is a great opportunity to build up your team.  If you want to identify who is invested, reach out to them and ask them for help.  They will feel seen when you ask them for help and heard when you build upon their ideas.

Invest in Your Team​

Foster a culture that promotes resourcefulness, investment, and passion.  Give your team an opportunity to spread their wings.  Allow them to influence their environment, and the world around you will begin to take shape.  A good leader knows they must have people to lead, they also know they cannot micromanage everything.  Give your followers a chance to make a significant change and they will start taking ownership of their environment.

​So, if I were forced to sum up the one essential trait of being a good leader, I’d say it was “leadership”

You must be Passionate, Purposeful, and Driven

Great leaders are hard to find.  Most fall into the traditional supervisor/manager mindset instead of capturing the hearts and minds of their team.  They use tactics to dominate or bully their followers, believing they must drive their people forward with a strong arm.  A true leader is a diamond in the rough, most would prefer not to lead (because it’s difficult), but they do it anyways because they want to succeed.  An amazing leader is passionate, purposeful, and driven.  They must have a keen eye for detail, an open heart, and thick skin.  An amazing leader gets things done, even at great personal sacrifice, because they know what they are doing is important. ​

Your team must be loyal to the cause, not you

To lead a team there must be loyalty, but not to the leader.  Many people think loyalty to the leader is paramount, but this is an incredible pitfall.  If they are loyal to you, you can’t trust them to question your poor decision making at critical moments.  It also creates toxic cliques, and unproductive rivalry.  The goal of leadership is to create an effective team that works together to reach a common goal.  When your team is loyal to you, they are invested in building social equity with you (brown nosing) instead of earning it with achievement.

Become a great leader by putting the goal and the project first and your team will follow.

Pain is the Catalyst for Change

When running team feedback is essential.  Your project will not succeed unless a healthy forum exists to criticize decision making.  No one is above evaluation, especially its leaders.

We live in a world that fears pain, hides from discomfort, and covers their eyes when we witness something we don’t like.  If you want to achieve your dreams you must be open to input.  Whether you experience criticism in your personal or business life you must unlock the door and allow others to express themselves.  If you are unaware of how you are failing, you will never fix the problem, and change will never happen.

​Pain is the catalyst for change, without it we believe the world is wonderful.  We have no reason to adjust who we are or what we are doing.  Criticism hurts, and it should, it cuts deep because it is an analysis of who we are, or what we want.  If it didn’t hurt, then our actions would be meaningless.  You have to be passionate about what you are doing, because if you aren’t, no one else will.  A leader must be invested if they expect their team to work hard to achieve the goals of the project.

All of this information is useless in the abstract if you don’t have any skills to implement an openness to criticism.  So, what are some things we can do to take the pain of criticism and transform it into something positive?

Look deep into your soul and ask yourself if you really want to achieve your goals.  How important is this project to you?  Do you love what you are doing?  How much do you want to succeed? 

If you aren’t passionate about your path then you are most likely moving in the wrong direction.  Life is too short to waste on roads leading nowhere.  Most of us believe we will always have time to achieve our dreams.  Why wouldn’t we?  There seems to be no end to our life in sight, so what is the harm?  The harm is there is an end, youth doesn’t last forever, and eventually your health will fade, and your opportunities begin to dwindle.

I was given the beautiful blessing of tasting the barrel of death.  Thank God it did not end me, but it did show me the fragility of existence.  With this hardship, the pain was the catalyst to show me how little life I may have.  This pushed me forward and allowed me to think about my legacy.  I realized what little I had achieved and how much time I wasted on meaningless endeavors that led me to dead ends.  My journey revealed there are no second’s worth squandering and every step I take should be used to achieve my ultimate goals.

By attaching this incredible gem to my life, my quest to achieve my dreams became more focused.  It was the magic I needed to endure anything to win.

Criticism is your Ally

Criticism is an incredible tool.  It helps you see holes in your plan.  It isolates problems you may have been blind to and allows you to fix them.  If you are laser focused on building something meaningful every criticism becomes a gift.  Think about it, they have taken time out of their existence to help you succeed.  Acts of kindness like that rarely happen in life, so when they do, accept them as you would any great gift.

Accepting criticism is all about transforming how you interpret the world.  If you explore your inner most philosophies you can begin transforming how you experience each day.  Life is all about filters.  One of the most important components of accepting criticism and advice effectively is changing how you hear others.  Start by hearing the world through a filter of love and good intent.  I am not asking you to fall in love with anyone, instead just assume they mean well, and have good intent.  When you do this, life becomes a lot more peaceful and when people speak, you will listen.

Be Ready to Pivot

Great leaders must possess the ability to pivot, adjust their strategy, and gamble.  In business failure is inevitable.  No idea is perfect, failproof, or without flaw.  If you want to achieve your goals you must be perceptive, alert, and have the ability to look ahead.  Doom is just around the corner, so you need to be fast on your feet or be caught off guard.  When you play the game, just like in poker, be ready to fail.  The goal is to fail just enough so you are not stuck in a trap.

Every piece of advice is empty unless you have the tools to implement these tactics, so what can we do to prevent ourselves from falling into these pits?

First pay attention to what is happening in the world.  Research, research, research.  Write about what you see and explore all the possibilities.  By knowing the past you can influence the future.  Analyze your own industry to see what others have done in the past to mitigate hardship and catastrophe.  Did they do something you could do now to prevent the destruction of your business?

One of the most unfortunate components of small business networking groups is their inability to discuss the failure of the businesses in their ranks.  Running a business is not sunshine, smiles and swirling pools of ever-present fun.  It is a marathon, requires constant training, research, and grit.  What better wisdom is there than learning from someone who has personally lost?  Their invaluable insight could help save countless businesses from falling onto the ever-growing pile of failure.  Yes, it is sad to see one of your friend’s businesses fail, but their story is a goldmine.

Watching the development and decline of other companies will help your project develop.  What changes, pivots, and risks are they taking?  Emulating their choices without careful consideration is unwise.  Instead of making knee jerk reactions, explore why they are taking their actions.  How could you do it better, and of course what is the step you need to take afterward.  If you are lost in the woods, randomly walking around is not the solution, sure you might find your way out, but you may accidently walk into a bear’s den.  Avoid being the lunch of one of your competitors by building a vision, creating a map, and following it.

Even cartographers make mistakes, no map is perfect, nor is your plan.  Be prepared to create detours when you reach roadblocks, potholes, and problems.  Business plans are meant to be flexible, just like the leaders who implement them.  If you must make an alteration to your route, don’t let it derail you.  If the risk is right, going off road is fine, but there is only so much time your company can survive if you are driving the buggy through the dunes of the desert.  Look beyond what is in front of you and search out a road to pull back on.

When your company makes a significant pivot it is extremely important your team knows there is a plan.  They don’t need to know every detail, but they must feel like you are doing your best to protect their investment.  Even the best leaders lose followers when wandering through the desert.  Keep them loyal to the cause.  The cause should be the company, not you.  If your team is loyal to you, they will allow you to make terrible decisions during the pivot.  Many will avoid saying things that will hurt your feelings or result in the loss of social standing.  Encourage them to build social equity through achievement instead of charm and your company will have a greater chance of success.

Running a business is like poker, risk is an inherent part of the game.  In poker there is a saying “scared money can’t win”, it means that if you are afraid of betting everything you have in front of you, you will lose.  If you are unwilling to gamble, your company will become stagnant, stale, and unappealing.  You must look for opportunities, evaluate the potential gain and decide if the hand is worth playing.  Is it a long shot or are you walking into the river with a royal flush?

When you pivot it is essential that the narrative of your company is maintained.  What does this mean?  What is the narrative?  Jennifer Brand is a spa that sells the best wellness products and services in its industry.  We are most known for our amazing massages.  When pivoting, the focus of our business must remain within the wellness & beauty purview.  We can’t suddenly switch to selling cheeseburgers and fries.  If we did, our business would be crushed beneath the weight of the pivot.  The change must match the public’s perceptions.  If it doesn’t you will lose the trust and affection of your loyal fan base.  This can be a game ender.  If you don’t know the narrative of your company you must find it.

Get to know the spirit of your company

At some point in our life, we become introspective and search inwardly to see who we are at the deepest depths of our soul.  Some people do this many times throughout their existence, others dabble their fingers into their inner insight.  Just like a person your business must do the same.  If this is your company it is your baby, give it the love and attention you would your child and your soul.  Ask important questions, think about the life you want it to live, and plan for the future.  When you give your business life, you develop its personality.  Give it form so it may grow beyond its infancy and become a strong, healthy, and productive adult, one that can take care of itself and you.

Though your company will develop its own identity over time you must cultivate it from the beginning.  Your business should be designed like an author writing a book.  Every story has governing rules.  By building the narrative of your company it will establish a framework of natural laws that will never be broken.  These laws build the framework and foundation that will help ensure your pivots are healthy, productive and contribute to the overall wellness of your baby.

Become a Better Leader

How do we become better leaders?  Is it achieved by simply assuming a role as a manager or supervisor and zamo it develops on its own?  No, leadership is a trait that must be actively engaged and developed. Sure, some people have the natural aptitude to do it well, but like any skill we must work hard, practice and have patience to master it.

If we want to exude excellence, we must actively seek it out.  It is not going to manifest out of thin air, no matter how much we wish it would.  Super Bowl champions aren’t born, they are made.  If you want to be the champion of leadership, you must develop a laser focus and slice through every obstacle in your path.

So, how do we become better leaders?  One of the best ways is to find yourself a mentor, someone who is an exemplary leader.  Watch them, pick their brain, and ask for advice.  People love talking about themselves, and this could be a great way for you to unlock secrets of the trade.  However, leaders are busy people so avoid getting in their way.  It is important to remember nothing in life is free, find a way to offset their gift of knowledge with something you can do for them.  This might involve money, but it doesn’t have to, sometimes buying them a cup of coffee or taking them out for lunch is enough.  A true leader looks for ways to make every arrangement mutually beneficial.  They possess the ability to determine what others want and need.  Simply exploring what your potential leader wants is a great exercise in developing your own leadership skills.

Another great way is by becoming more charismatic.  Like leadership, charisma can be a natural trait, but like all legendary skills they must be developed.  One way to learn how to be more charismatic is by watching those who are charming.  Watching the behavior of a charismatic character on your favorite TV show can be valuable.  Listening to professional speakers online or buying a book on charm is another great way to explore your social skills.  These are easy ways of discovering your inner social butterfly.

Personal analysis and introspection are essential when developing your ability to lead.  Search out your flaws with self-criticism.  This will be uncomfortable, but pain is the catalyst for change.  If you want to become an amazing leader you must force yourself to endure discomfort.  This is an exercise of your mind, and just as any workout routine you will experience a little delayed onset soreness.

Pay attention to how you speak, the cadence you use, and the amount of eye contact you give.  If you use fillers in your daily life (like ums, ah, likes, you know what I mean, etc.) actively focus on not saying them. A great leader is an excellent communicator, if your team can’t understand you, they won’t be able to complete the tasks in the manner you want them to.

Dive into a little Neurolinguistics Programing or psychology.  Read books on relationships, even if they aren’t relevant to business, these tools provide insight into the human mind.  You don’t have to attend a college to do this, a little research online will guide you in the right direction.

The biggest piece of advice is to get to know yourself.  How can you lead someone else if you don’t know how to lead yourself?  Find your own weaknesses, flaws and quirks and eliminate them.  Build strategies to cultivate your own success to create a primer to help someone achieve theirs.

Should a Leader Fear Change?

Should a leader fear change?  No.  A leader must be prepared for the fluctuations of life and possess the ability to quickly adapt.  They need to be trailblazers, possess the ability to create new routines and reinvent the wheel.  In business there are a lot of curve balls, so be prepared to swing at a pitch you were not ready for.

How do we develop skills that help us make the most in every transitioning second?  Have an open mind, search for ways to capitalize on every hardship and lean on your team for ideas.

True leaders adapt and are ready for the weather to shift.  Find ways to use the tools you already have to combat the changing seasons.  If you are used to storm clouds and wet weather carry an umbrella.  If the sun blazes above and eats away all the rain, hold onto that umbrella, maybe it could be used to block out the fiery rays of the sun.

Inspire your Team

An essential component to leadership is knowing how to motivate your team.  How is this achieved?  When placed over a group of completely unique people many managers lose sight of the individual and process the team as a hivemind.  This is a terrible mistake.  There can be no team unless you can capitalize on the attributes of each member.   In a business everyone has a role, and it is your job to find who has the ability to fill it.

​Leadership requires the skills of micromanagement and macro-management.  If you fly too high, you will lose sight of the details and your project will fail.  If you zoom in too close, you will lose sight of the bigger picture.  The key is to master both.

​How can we accomplish this?  It starts with team building.  Don’t waste your time learning their favorite color, about their hobbies, or throwing meaningless parties.  Sure, a Christmas Party can be great fun, but it isn’t going to help you build the foundation for your future.

Great leadership requires ​team building.  It starts with getting to know who your team is.  Find out how they learn, what motivates them and what they want from you.  Your team will always demand more of you than they do of themselves.  Most employees will believe you owe them something at the end of the day in addition to being paid.  Very few have supervised a team, designed a project, or started their own business.  This is important to remember because most will lack the knowledge to empathize with your position.  When you lay the foundation of your team YOU MUST know this.  If you don’t it will set you up for failure.

Spectacular employees are rare, especially ones who possess a realistic understanding of teamwork and business operations.  When you find one who does, captivate them, encourage them to grow and provide opportunities for them to flourish.  They will be your rock stars and with their dedicated service they will take you to the next level.  Their performance will be magical, and their drive will encourage the rest of the team to play along.  Once you have captured their heart and mind, they will rally the rest of the employees and a team will begin to build.

​Even though some of your employees may not be beacons of beautiful energy you cannot neglect them.  Some may have never been given the opportunity to succeed, to influence their own environment or see they can choose their own destiny.  Cultivate them by taking the time to get to know their soul, learn how to recharge their spirit and what inspires them to be amazing.  Watch them work, identify their strengths, and contemplate how to minimize their weaknesses.

​One of the best ways to evaluate someone’s strengths and weaknesses is to spend time with them at work.  Most employees will be on their best behavior when authority is nearby.  This exercise is to see what they do not know.  Maybe they are failing because they are not aware of how to succeed.  Take this opportunity to steer them toward the light.  Be kind, understanding and empathetic, take the lead and be their teacher, mentor, and guide.

Their performance may have a lot to do with how they value their day of work.  Many people believe they are entitled to great pay and are satisfied with mediocrity.  They stand around, do some busy work, then clock out.  These employees are the bane of every company, they hurt morale and diminish overall work productivity.  These people are the norm, not the anomaly.  So, how can we encourage them to be a valuable employee?

Grit is an essential leadership skill.  First and foremost, you must know how to push forward.  What have you learned throughout your life that has given you the skills to achieve success?  How hard was it to change, what inspired you, and how did it feel when you transformed into the person you are today?  To lead others, you must know how you lead yourself.

Though these tools and techniques worked for you it does not mean they will work for others.  Take some time to get to know your employees.  You don’t have to know what their favorite color or candy is, instead focus on important personality traits like how they learn, what inspires them and what their goals are.  ​

Once you have a fairly good idea about how they work you need to start facilitating their growth.  When you ask them questions or explain things to them it is essential to frame your questions in ways they will feel and understand.  Roleplay with them in various scenarios.  One exercise could be asking them if they would feel good about paying someone the same amount you just paid them for their last day of labor out of their own checking account.  Of course, we aren’t really asking them to pay the wage, but how would they feel about it?  Would they feel like it was a good investment of their money?  If they hesitate, rationalize their actions, or say no, then this is a great opportunity to explore the value of money and what the employee could do to improve their productivity.

Money doesn’t grow on trees.  Resources don’t simply manifest because you want them to.  Everything comes from somewhere; a true leader knows this and so should their team.  Each hour of labor should either produce capital or lead to it.  This doesn’t mean you should constantly push them to work harder and harder.  Everyone needs a pause throughout their workday.  Some moments of the day will appear to be unproductive; these are important to keep your team members focused when they are working.  The key is to make sure the lulls don’t outweigh minutes of productivity.

Inspire your team to be an inspiration to themselves

Confidence and personal strength are invaluable leadership skills.  An essential tool of leadership is the ability to terminate.  Allowing lazy employees to remain on your team will be a disaster.  Be a strong leader by terminating those who hurt the team.  Do this and your valuable members will respect your decision-making skills.

This leads to an important lesson of leadership.  Do not cultivate loyalty to you.  Foster an environment that encourages each member of your team to have loyalty to the company.  You can make mistakes; you will make mistakes.  Everyone on the team must work together to achieve the goals of the company, not yours.  If you focus on protecting their ability to make money, they will do the same.  You need to open the door for criticism.  If you do not they will allow you to make foolish choices that could potentially destroy the company.

​If you want to cultivate higher performing team members help them feel seen and heard.  Give them the opportunity to influence their own environment, take ownership of their actions and achieve their dreams.

How do we achieve this?  We must lead by example.  We must be proud of our accomplishments without being prideful.  Pride pushes us toward arrogance and hatred, it encourages self-obsession, resentment, and inevitable regret, and the consequences of these feelings ruins our ability to connect with others.  To prevent our fall from grace we must remember that a title is simply a badge of honor.  They are no more than medals on an old suit.  Though they are a symbol of the accomplishments we have consistently achieved, it is not our identity.  A title does not enhance our value, importance, or relevance.

A leader must be confident and humble

Having a title will not make others respect you, nor will it encourage them to bow to your authority.  Instead, it will cause the opposite.  People have the tendency to question and judge leaders with a scale they would never weigh against themselves.  This coin has two sides, and each are equally responsible for the ill will and self-obsession found in the workplace.  If an employee is causing trouble for you, you are probably a part of the problem. 

Leaders lead by example; they were chosen to lead because they were leading by example.  Unfortunately, people tend to stop leading once they have been awarded a leadership position.  They believe their accolades should be respected and they lean on the social equity others built before them. 

Many people ask me why I named my company Jennifer Brand.  One of the reasons was to help me lead my team.  My name is not on the door, it is not called Shawn White Spa for a reason, it leaves my ego at the door.  When the time comes when I must rally my team it allows me to say we and us, if my name is on the door it is only about me. 

When speaking to my team I do my best to always use the phrase, “our spa”, or “the spa”.  This gives the team an opportunity to take ownership and feel confident enough to influence their own environment.  I rarely mention to people that I am the owner, sure my employees know I am, but I don’t waste my time of focusing on irrelevant titles that mean nothing.  Instead, I focus my energy on pushing the sails of the ship, inspiring them with powerful words and empowering them to be their best.  I did not become a business owner to inflate my ego, I did it to leave a lasting impact on the world.  My spa, school, and influence on the world is my legacy, I do not need a title to justify my existence, and if you want to lead a team successfully you won’t need it either.

If our leadership style lacks peace and harmony our team will never respect us.  They will fight and question everything we do, because they know we lack the humility to question our own judgements. 

People who lack humility cannot lead.  Without humility we become robots and tyrants.  A true leader must earn relevance in the workplace, before and after becoming a leader.  Respect cannot be borrowed or demanded, we must work for it and prove our judgements are sound, peaceful, and harmonious from surface to center.  A title has no power, and if you think it does, you have no power.

The Currency of Professional Investment

Every leader must have a healthy understanding of social equity in every social circumstance.  Professional equity is a currency, and it is what we use to buffer our errors in judgement and failures.  It determines how many follies we will be forgiven for.  The greater professional equity we have built up the more our followers and leaders will be willing to tolerate, if we do not possess a firm understanding of professional equity, we will become intolerable to those around us.

Professional equity is determined by our current relevance.  It is not what we did yesterday, it is how we are benefiting others today. Our actions of the past build up the sum investment of our existence, but it is not something you can consistently make withdrawals from.  It is something we must liquidate to use, and once we tap into it, it is gone, and must be rebuilt.

Many employees cash out their social equity over trivial matters and lose months or even years of grinding over near-sightedness and self-obsession.  They forget others exist and they over value their importance.  This can be avoided with a daily dose of humility.

Social Contracts

Society is built with social contracts and the business world is no different.  Leaders must be acutely aware of this.  As an entrepreneur with employees, it is essential to remain aware of every social contract in your arsenal.  Failing to abide by the rules of each will weaponize the relationship, and the tools gained from the handshake will be used to bludgeon you without warning.

Transitioning from employee to leader is a difficult transformation.  It comes with unknown-unknowns, and one of the biggest consequences is the creation of a new social equity account.  Every ounce of equity built with equal peers is instantly liquidated to facilitate the transition, and the bank account must be rebuilt.  Old peers are now subordinates, they see you through a new lens and it is challenging to meet their expectations.

A way to reduce the intensity of their harsh eyes is to leave our title in a drawer.  Then, take it out only when absolutely necessary.  Using authority to enforce an outcome liquidates the social equity account, and it must be rebuilt once again.  Leading by example, remaining humble, and serving as a mentor enables us to avoid a transaction at the bank.  There is nothing to lose when we inspire others to fulfill their potential.  The transaction becomes mutually beneficial allowing each party to influence the outcome without an uncomfortable submission. 

Leading this way establishes a social dynamic that encourages others to submit to us on their own accord.  They do so without force because they know we possess knowledge they do not, our soul is strong, and spirit is healthy.

Leading a team requires submission.  They must willingly submit to our will; this can only be achieved if they believe we deserve it.  It cannot be forced.  As leaders we must prove our incorporeal union is harmonious, that we are in control of our adversary, and we can provide them with a safe, nourishing environment that allows them to explore the magic of the moment.  

Leadership Skills and Roadblocks

What leadership skills are needed when we are a part of the crew?  If you run a small business, you will most likely be a member of the team.  The boat won’t move unless you paddle first.  Get yourself ready for a workout because it’s all upstream, and it will be exhausting.  You will pine for the day when someone else will be there to help you push forward.  In this daydream you will think everything will run better, life will get easier, and the boat will sail smoothly. 

​The more ingredients you add, the more complex the cake gets.  Sure, it will increase the likelihood your company survives infancy, but peace and tranquility will float out the window.  Expect greater stress and hardship.  The larger your team is the more rowing you will have to do.

​I’m not suggesting fighting against growth.  If you are developing as a company another arm is essential to feed it.  As a growing small business, you must add others, unless you want to work from the kitchen forever.  Take some time before starting your employment process.  Figure out your recipe for success and use it as a primer to help your new team members reach their goals.  You must have a philosophy and a culture in place if you want to retire one day.  A day will come when you need a workforce capable of steering the ship when you can’t be at sea.  It may take years to cultivate that kind of team, so take your time and be wise with your decisions, determine what you want before you start asking questions and avoid acting out of fear.  Be strong and stalwart, yet compassionate and honest.

How do I lead a team of my peers?  The first major hardship is managing your feelings and professionalism at work.  We all want and need friends, and as adults we rarely meet new people outside of the work setting.  If you are about the same age as your subordinates this will be exceptionally challenging.  As a leader you are not supposed to make friendships with the people you lead.

There are many reasons for this, but conflict of interest is the most important.  No matter what you believe, you will compromise your judgment if you have invested personal feelings into someone who works for you.  You will favor them in a negative or positive way, and this will influence your business decisions.  Running a team is already exceptionally difficult.  Avoid gumming up the gears of your already impossible task with “unbreakable” bonds in the workplace.

A leader must make sacrifices and unfortunately this is one of them.  If you fail to separate personal feelings from your professional responsibilities you will face serious consequences, including but not limited to legal ramifications.

I suggest developing an officer/enlisted man style relationship with your team.  Officers should not be fraternizing with enlisted men outside of the professional setting.  You can have a heart, celebrate their success, and listen to their hardships while at work, but you shouldn’t be out grabbing a beer, visiting them in their home, or having inappropriate conversations with them.

​If you blur the lines of authority, they will not respect you as their leader.  They will manipulate and try to influence your feelings to twist your decision making in their favor.  All decisions should be made in the best interests of the company, so allowing yourself to be manipulated by a member of your team is a cardinal sin in business.

​Sometimes you have to work alongside your team.  As a small business owner or project leader this will occur quite frequently.  It is easy to fall into the employee role during these times, but you cannot let it happen.  This will be stressful, it will tax your energy as you maintain a dual role, but you have to keep your cool.

​This does not mean you should be a robot.  Quite the opposite.  No one wants to be led by a machine.  Focus on self-discipline without acting cold, distant, or alien.  This is achieved by learning to be more charismatic.  With a little charm you will establish peace and harmony and your team will enjoy following your lead.

​Another important tool to use is to simply get away from them.  Their whispers will fill your head and you won’t be able to isolate your thoughts from theirs.  You must have your own professional space where they are not welcome.  If you have an office with a door this is a great way to establish this space.  It should not be a cool place for your team to hang out.  Your office is your safe haven to focus.

Leading others requires introspection, personal analysis, and patience.  They need you to be strong, healthy, and ready to act.  You can work alongside them, but you can never be one of them.  I believe the best way to make this work is by building a business that allows them to thrive, to discover their potential and to feel invested in something that is worth something.  They want to follow a great leader, so be one.  Find your inner strength, harness your wisdom and be the best version of yourself and they will follow.

Give Positivity

When things seem slow avoid bringing attention to the dread of the second.  Teach your team to celebrate the blessings of each moment.  Embracing the bad, encourages people to feel sad, and causes the scales of their soul to become imbalanced.  Massage therapists are sensitive creatures, their heart is easily hurt, and they need our help to feel healthy. I’m sure you have heard this before, but it must be said, treat others how you want to be treated.  Life is a wheel, and it moves in the direction we move it.  If we move it with positivity it will roll in the right direction.  Many massage clinics fall prey to the darkness, and this is a stark contrast to the spirit of our profession.  When we give in to the bitter temptation of negativity, acidity will permeate the workplace.  They will gasp for air and begin searching for a place they can breathe.  When our moments are sour, it feels impossible to shed the skin of our bad mood, but we must resist.  It is our responsibility as leaders to tap into our inner reserve, so our team may experience peace.  We achieve this by showing them the magic of massage, listening to their woes, and doing our best to promote harmony. 

Business Building & Exploring Career Paths

Building a Business Plan

What is a business plan?  It outlines the strategies, goals, form, function, and spirit of your company.  Creating a business plan is a dynamic process designed to help reveal and resolve critical issues before they become a problem.  In the early stages it may be used to simulate an environment to assess the strengths and weaknesses of your vision.

Strategies are medium to long term plans that use a series of tactics (short term plans) to systematically achieved a specific goal.

What are goals?  They are what you want to achieve.  Goals may be broken into three categories: Core Goals, Powerful Goals, and Supporting Goals.

Your core goals are to generate revenue, break even, and make a profit.  Your company must make money and if it is incapable of generating revenue it will fail.  Many who have never ran a business fall into a common trap, they confuse revenue with profit, and gross revenue with net revenue. 

If you want to run your own business, you must have a firm grasp on these fundamental principles; and even if you do not want to start your own business this information will help you become a better employee.

Looking at a business from the outside is often misleading.  Employees tend to believe their employers take too much of the fiscal pie.  This near sightedness prevents them from witnessing the totality of entrepreneurship.  I can’t fault them for this, how could they know if they have never been exposed to it? 

Many massage therapists believe revenue is split between two parties.  They see the price of a service, look at their pay, then conclude they are holding the short end of the stick.  The reality is there are many parties eating from the same pie.  The government takes a slice, operational costs take a slice, the massage therapist takes a slice, and the company takes a slice.   Every relationship in life must be mutually beneficial, so in each transaction each party must be compensated fairly.  Your employees need to eat just like you, but the government and your company’s operational costs will consume most of the revenue pie.

The government’s slice is far too complex to explain, and it is best to discuss those aspects with an accountant.  However, there is one calculation you can use to determine the estimated hourly cost of your employees.  All you need to do is multiply their hour wage by 1.17.  This is the number you will use to estimate labor costs per hour.

There are many operational costs to account for and they include rent, insurance, attorney fees, accounting fees, insurance, permits & licenses, maintenance, upgrades, equipment, administrative expenses, utilities, essential software, marketing, and more. 

These details have been provided to help you understand running a business is incredibly expensive, and every detail must be accounted for as you develop strategies and tactics to achieve the core goals of your business.

Your company must break even every month.  Each bill must be paid.  If your company is unable to break-even it will fail.

You must have powerful goals.  If your business plan has been built with the singular purpose of achieving its core goals, you will fail.

In business there is an intangible force that pushes exceptional people to succeed.  It empowers them to work longer, with greater intensity, and over longer periods of time.  This intangible energy is called grit, and it is the essential essence of excellence.

All great people have powerful goals.  They are committed to a singular idea of such magnitude that it becomes their purpose.  Nothing will stop them, no one will stand in their way, and they will sacrifice everything in the quest of achieving it.

Your business must have one powerful goal that anchors it to reality.  It is an idea that transcends the importance of its core goals and encapsulates a powerful need.  This anchor is the first and most essential structural component of your company.  It is the lifeforce that fuels your grit, and the whisper that convinces you to push forward when you want to quit. 

Every powerful person has a unique and personal relationship with their anchor.  It can be a primal unsatiated need, a complex reward, or any other drive.  The sky is the limit, and it is dependent on the person.  No matter what your anchor is it should be private.  Hide it from prying eyes and judgmental minds by holding it close to your soul.  If you can keep it safe your anchor will always show you the way.

Supporting goals are the things you want to accomplish that will help facilitate the success of your company’s overall goals.

To witness the form of your wonderful idea you must close your eyes and think.  Allow yourself to see anything, embrace your imagination and encourage your concept to take shape.  Any image is great.  Everything comes from somewhere.  Give yourself the time to create something from nothing.  Spawning a form into existence in a vacuum is challenging, and though it is difficult, it is not impossible.  Every great idea was born this way, others have done it, you can too.

What is the function of your company?   If your first answer is to make money, ask yourself again.  Revenue generation is a core goal, it is not a function.  The function is how the public utilizes your services.  Every business is a tool used by the public to accomplish a task, fulfill a need, or receive something they want.

As a massage student this answer may seem obvious “My company will provide massages to those who want them.” This is a given.  Avoid easy answers like this by exploring how you want your clients to feel.  At this stage it isn’t about how you are different; it is specifically what you do.  Who will you cater to and what are your services?  What problems do you solve?  In the first incarnation of your business plan, it is perfectly fine to have flawed and unrealistic goals.  Over time you will chisel your stone block into a masterpiece.

Function is intrinsically tied to your target audience.  If everyone is your target demographic no one is. Find your niche and explore the ways to exceed your client’s expectations.

What is the spirit of your business plan?  It is the character, desires, and personality of your company.  Your business has an identity, and even if you are a sole proprietorship, it most likely has a different personality than yours.  If you do not know who your company is, consider taking it out on a date.  Sit down at a local coffee shop, take out a notepad and explore its hopes and dreams. 

It would be wonderful if it were simply an ATM machine that shoots out endless money, but it is so much more than that, it is your baby, your second spouse, and life partner.  It is one of the most important relationships of your life, so get to know it.  Ask it questions.  How does your company want to be remembered, experienced, and seen?  How do you anticipate it to change throughout its life?  What does it want out of existence?  In the abstract these questions are silly, but it will help you discover who your company is. 

The spirit of your company is a comprehensive reflection of your goals, it is your ethereal guide, and the wheels of your ride.  When you explore the spirit of its design it will keep you on the road, grant insight in critical seconds, and keep your eyes on the prize.  On dark and stormy days, it will glow like a bright light, it will deliver your baby to safety and remind you to take a moment to breathe. 

Exploring the spirit of your plan will redirect your eyes from the sterile sentences written inside “how to guides.”  It will reveal opportunities to explore unknown-unknowns and peacefully embark on the expedition of entrepreneurship. 

Breakeven Analysis and Careers Paths

As massage therapists, if we want to create meaningful change, we need to look at the big picture. We must become more educated, involved, and invested. We need to spread awareness about our industry. We need to build a community, share our knowledge, and cultivate one another. It is time to let go of our lone wolf mentality. We can embrace a life of abundance, foster meaningful relationships with our peers, and realize there is enough business for everyone. We can become allies, teach each other techniques, and uplift our community.

Though many of us may be hurting we cannot attack when we act. We need to put away our pitchforks and douse our torches’ flame. If we want to improve our community, we need to guide with a loving light. We must raise our lamps of wisdom to illuminate the way, guide others toward good days, and encourage a better life without causing more strife.

As therapists we are helpers and guides. The way we perform massage must match how we address the aches and pains of our industry. To be an amazing massage therapist we must espouse the virtues of empathy, creativity, and humility, while leading our professional peers the same way. If we want meaningful change our actions must be fueled with love, hope, and careful consideration. Many of us are massage therapists because we want to live in the service of others. If we act as disruptors, lash out, and demand more than we have earned we will become the same enemy we are attempting to root out. 

Our industry needs leaders who create change with calculated and purposeful intent. We must never change for the sake of change, because if we do, all we will ever know is chaos. To avoid this fate we must be honest, empathetic, and loving from surface to center. The way we achieve our goals is equally important as our intent and the energy we infuse into our actions.

We can offer empathy to each other and our employers. We can live with humility and navigate life with a creative mind. Together we can transform our industry, resurrect its spirit, and feed its soul. We can work together as individuals to help each other feel full and whole, and ally as a community to achieve our goals.

The Silver Spoon Agreement

Though I would rather direct recent graduates toward LMT owned facilities, some people need the Silver Spoon agreement provided by the chains.

What is the Silver Spoon Agreement? This is an arrangement where a massage facility agrees to provide a therapist with a steady flow of bookings. In exchange the therapist will receive lower pay, no influence over their environment, and limited professional growth. This agreement makes it so that you do not have to pay the overhead of running your own business. If you rented your own room and paid for all of the overhead you would have to perform 9.21 massage hours, plus about 20-hours of unpaid marketing and administrative work per week to equal the value of the Silver Spoon Agreement. Is 39.21 hours of labor worth it? That is up for you to decide.

If you work for a chain there is an unspoken understanding that your role at the company is a job, not a career. You are a factory employee working on a conveyor belt, nothing more, and nothing less. Other than flipping your room, folding some sheets and towels you are expected to clock in, do your massages and clock out. This reduces your negotiating power as an employee, but it allows you to avoid the responsibilities and hardships associated with running your own business or working at a smaller LMT owned facility.

If you are a recent graduate considering employment at a chain, take some time to evaluate what you want out of your career. Then determine if your school has provided you with the entry level skills necessary to enjoy practicing massage while avoiding injury and burnout. The first place you work has a huge influence on your path as a massage therapist. Select one that is a perfect fit for you, rather than what is alright for now.

Empathy, Knowledge, and Wages

Today we are going to talk about wages and the backend of a massage business. We will explore the importance of empathy, and the intricate aspects of running a business. You will learn about the break-even analysis, its importance, and how to use it to negotiate higher wages, run a business, and serve as an invaluable asset to your employers.

To have a firm grasp of what a reasonable wage is we must understand how a massage company makes profit. We must possess the ability to empathize with others, and research.

When I went to massage school my education was a joke. Our instructor lied to us about wage expectations, insulted us, and often refused to answer the simplest questions. The school advised us to avoid working for LMT owned facilities and ourselves. Other than designing a logo, and creating a name for our dream spa, our business education was abysmal. In many respects they ruined the career of my peers before theirs even began.

My journey has been a baptism by fire, but yours doesn’t have to be. Read my words, allow my knowledge to guide you, and discover your perfect professional life. With this information you will have a better understanding of business, have the tools to determine if your employers can pay you more, and hopefully have empathy for everyone within our industry.

What is a break-even analysis?

The break-even analysis is the point at which cost, and income are equal and there is neither profit nor loss.

The goal of running a business is to generate profit, but before that goal is reached a company must first break-even.

In this calculation we are going to use $87.50 to represent the hourly service rate of an imaginary massage facility. This will be used to help calculate its breakeven point.

The price for an hour of massage varies based on a company’s business model, geographic location, and demand. Typically, an hour of massage ranges from $75 to $100. To keep this calculation clean and simple we will use $87.50 (the average of the two) to represent the revenue generated per service hour.

$75 + $100 = $175
$175 ÷ 2 = $87.50 average per service hour

Now it is time to determine the service cost of the LMT performing the massages.

Most massage therapists, especially recent graduates will earn between $19.17 to $24.97 per service hour. To simplify our math, we will use the average of $21.57 per service hour.

$19.178 + $23.97 = $43.1505
$43.1505 ÷ 2 = $21.57 per hour

We will roughly estimate payroll taxes per hour by multiplying the average pay by 1.17. This number comes to $25.23.

$21.57 × 1.17 = $25.23 per service hour.

At this point in the calculation the facilities have a gross profit of $50.02 per service hour.

$75.25 – $25.23 = $50.02

Now we will include an estimated $6 cost from linen cleaning and resource consumption. This brings that number down to $44.02.

$50.02 – $6.00 = $44.02

As you can see nearly half of the revenue generated is instantly eaten up when performing the service.

The $44.02 is an essential number when determining the facility’s break-even point. The break-even point is an important factor that illustrates whether a business is making nothing, or losing money.

Determining Monthly Expenses

Our imaginary spa will have 10 to 14 rooms and have a lease of $5,000.

Now let’s add in $500 for CAM/NNN, $1,000 for local marketing, $1,000 for phone, utilities, internet, software, insurance, and miscellaneous expenses.

$5,000 + $500 + $1,000 + $1,000 = $7,500

Next we will add in CPA costs. Taxes are paid quarterly, and a good estimate of this fee is about $1,500. This will add an additional $500 to the total.

$1,500 x 4 quarters = $6,000
$6,000 ÷ 12 months = $500

Now we are up to $8,000 a month.

$7,500 + $500 = $8,000

A facility of this size would most likely cost over $500,000, but we are going to assume half of the buildout cost used liquid capital. Thereby requiring an additional $250,000 loan to cover the remaining cost.

We are going to give them a conservative APR of 6.195% APR, paid over 10 years. This total roughly comes to $6,651 a month.

$6,651 + $8,000 = $14,651

Now let’s add in payroll processing, booking software, cleaning supplies and toiletries, miscellaneous software, website design & maintenance, facility repairs & upgrades, physical marketing & office supplies. This will increase the total by an additional $1,450 per month.

$14,651 + $1,450 = $16,101

Now let’s look at administrative costs and fixed payroll.

This imaginary facility will be open from 9 am to 9 pm, Monday through Sunday. It will have at least two receptionists working at all times, and they will be paid $12.00 an hour.

12 x 7 = 84 hours
84 hours x 2 receptionists = 168 hours per week.
168 hours x $12 = $2,016 per week
$2,016 × 52.143 weeks = $105,120.28 a year
$105,120.28 ÷ 12 months = $8,760.02 a month

Now we need to add in estimated taxes which brings the total to $10,249.22.

$8,760.02 x 1.17 = $10,249.22 a month

As we calculate the costs thus far it brings us to $26,350.22 a month.

$16,101+ $10,249.22 = $26,350.22 a month

Now let’s add a single manager. For their pay we will set it at $38,000 a year.

$38,000 ÷ 12 = $3,166.66 a month
$3,166.66 x 1.17 estimated taxes = $3,704.99

Now we add that to the cost which becomes $30,058.21

$3,704.99 + $26,350.22 = $30,055.21 per month.

Finally let’s pay the owner. The owner of this imaginary spa is going to pay themselves $20 an hour for 40 hours even if they work more.

Their payroll comes to a total of $4,067.15 a month.

$20 × 40 = $800
$800 × 52.143 weeks = $41,714.40
$41,714.14 ÷ 12 = $3,476.20
$3,476.20 × 1.17 = $4,067.15

Finally we have the spa’s estimated breakeven amount of $34,122.36.

$30,055.21 + $4,067.15 = $34,122.36.

How many massages will this imaginary facility have to sell to break-even?

This part requires a few steps to calculate. We will start by dividing $34,122.36 by $44.02. The $44.02 is how much the company makes from each service performed.

$34,122.36 ÷ $44.02 = 775.15 hours per month.

Now we need to calculate the cost for each credit card transaction. Each credit card company has their own rates, and this typically varies from 1.5% to 3.5%. We will use the average of these two numbers of 2.5%.

According to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 74.25% of all transactions used a credit card in 2020. We will use this percentage to calculate this cost.

To calculate this cost we will need to apply the 2.5% to the cost of 74.25% of the services purchased, then add that total amount to the break-even calculation. The additional amount is $1,258.99.

775.15 x .7425 = 575.54 service hours
575.54 x $87.50 = $50,359.75
$50,359.75 x.025 = $1,258.99 in credit card fees

To pay for the service fees it will require an additional 28.6 hours of massage. To keep this calculation simple, we will ignore the service fee for these transactions. The total number of massage-hours required to break-even becomes 803.75.

775.15 + 28.6 = 803.75 massage hours per month.

Let’s give that a moment to sink in. In order for the company to break-even our imaginary facility would have to sell 803.75 massage-hours a month.

If the company had 10 LMTs, each service provider would need to perform 18.49 massage-hours a week to break-even.

803.75 service hours ÷ 10 LMTs = 80.375
80.375 hours ÷ 4.345 weeks = 18.49 massages

Imagine how frustrating it would feel to generate $70,328.12 in one month without generating a single penny of profit.

803.75 × $87.50 = $70,328.12 a month

Imagine taking out a loan for $250,000, building a business from nothing, and then collecting a $20 an hour pay check.

Take a moment to actually see this from someone else’s eyes. Empathize with them and filter your feelings through love. Once you have done this you can begin your search to see where you can wedge in a raise and substantiate the increased cost for your employer.

You must offer something more than those around you. How do you make your employer’s life easier? What do you bring to the table (other than massage) that indicates you should be paid more? It is a delicate dance of showing your value, energy, and significance, while being empathetic, humble, and creative.

When working for an LMT owned facility there will be more wiggle room. The primary reason is because their break-even point is typically lower than a franchise.

Franchises often have a massive overhead. Many massage therapists do not realize the chains pay a considerable share of their gross revenue to the corporate office. This gross franchise fee can be as high as 16% but are typically no lower than 12%. We will use the average of 14% when analyzing their business model.

Once again take a moment to empathize with the owners of these franchise facilities. Many of the owners are less-than stellar leaders, but there are some who are loving and caring. They want to make things right but are being crushed under the weight of the monolithic entities they are contractually bound to. Sure, they chose their situation, but so did you. Just because we make a mistake doesn’t mean we should be burned at the stake.

Negotiating your wage should be a fair and mutually equitable arrangement. Be honest with yourself about what you need and be firm, humanize your employer and empathize with their professional plight.

A 14% gross franchising fee is an incredible burden, especially in our era of limited LMTs. This equals an additional 112.52 massage hours, to a total of 916.27 hours that must be performed in one month to break-even.

803.75 x .14 = 112.52 massages
112.53 + 803.75 = 916.27 massages per month
916.27 ÷ 10 LMTs = 91.62 massages per LMT
91.62 ÷ 4.345 = 21.08 a week.

Some facilities have resorted to raising their service rates to remain in operation. Many of these businesses did not increase employee pay in the process. Though I believe this was a mistake on their part, it was enacted to save the company. They most likely had to make a choice, go out of business, or reduce morale.

If they increased their service rate by $10, how much of an impact does that make on the break-even calculation? Remember most of these numbers are estimates for an imaginary company. This calculation is a tool, not an absolute.

The gross revenue using the 916.27 massage-hour model equals $9,162.70 per month.

$10.00 × 916.27 massages = $9,162.70

Now we need to calculate credit card fees. This brings the gross profit down to $8,992.62.

$916.27 × .7425 = 680.33 services w credit card fees.
680.33 × $10 = $6,803.30
$6,803.30 × .025 credit card fees = $170.08

Now let’s calculate the imaginary company’s franchise fee.

$9,162.70 × .14 = $1,282.77
$8,992.62 – $1,282.77 = $7,709.85 estimated net profit.

Keeping with the imaginary franchise model lets pause, reflect, and empathize with them. The owners have invested their life savings into their facility, they work 60+ hours a week (even if you don’t see them), they probably have their personal assets tied to the business loan and pay themselves $20 an hour for only 40-hours of income.

After investing so much and having no traction for years how eager would they be to split that new revenue with their team? If you invested everything into something, wouldn’t you hope to be rewarded for your hard work?

$7,709.85 is a lot of money, but imagine having a company generate $89,336.32 a month in revenue and only profit $7,709.85. We haven’t even calculated the taxes they will pay on this revenue.

Is there any room to give you a raise? I think there is, but I operate with the belief that LMTs should be paid more than $21.57 per service hour. Truly any W2 massage therapist making less than $27 per service hour is making too little.

If the imaginary massage company increases every employee’s wage by a single dollar this reduces their net profit by $1,072.03 (after payroll taxes) per month. When you are negotiating a pay raise consider this. Think about how your request may impact the survivability of your company.

When your employer tells you they cannot afford to give you a raise they are probably telling you the truth, especially if they only have 10 LMTs.

Asking for Increased Wages

At this point we need to dive a little deeper into the mind of the owner, and the trends of the massage industry. The first factor we need to consider is the expected washout rate for all first year LMTs based solely on the projected MBLEX pass rate of 67%. This means the employer will expect to lose 33% of every first year LMT on their team in 12-months. This danger may be bypassed if the employer invests in the academic ability of new LMTs, but this will require additional time and resources.

Additionally new LMTs will wash out within the first 4-12 months due to injury and burnout. An LMT owned, or caring leadership team can mitigate this by properly investing in each new massage therapist, but this too requires time and resources.

In my observation I find that LMTs wash out of the industry at a rate of 50% at one year, 70% at three years, and 90% at seven years. Every effective business owner is aware of the washout rate of our industry, and they take that into account when planning for the future.

When you approach your company for a raise this too should be calculated in your proposal. What is your long-term viability? Are you someone they can invest in? Do you enjoy working for the company?

I reduce burnout and injury within my facility by running weekly classes, encouraging my staff, offering them massages when they are tired, and guiding them toward their professional passions. I am different than most, but I am not the only one offering my arm to those who are hurt, tired, and are about to break. If you know anyone else who wants to help our professional peers thrive, send them my way.

How much influence do we have over the owners?

When a large LMT owned massage facility, or a medium to large franchise owned facility has ten or fewer LMTs the company enters the danger zone. This may have a profound impact on how leadership interacts with service providers and willingness to negotiate with new and established LMTs.

When a service provider approaches them for a raise, they will typically ask themselves the following two questions:

“Can I afford to pay them more?”

“Can I afford to lose this LMT if I do not give them a raise?”

When a massage facility has fewer massage therapists it increases the influence and power each practitioner has. This is valuable information to know because it may allow you greater leverage when negotiating with management. However, it comes with a cost. In the eyes of management their employees have a certain degree of professional equity. The more this is tapped into the less valuable you become in their eyes. This is just human nature. People tend to prefer being around those who enrich their life and avoid those who irritate them.

What Significant Contributions do you make?

• Other than massage, what do you actively contribute to the spa’s success?
• Are you liking, sharing, and commenting on your employer’s social media posts?
• Do you find your own clientele to bring into the spa?
• How many new ideas have you offered, and how many have you created and implemented?
• Do you raise the spirits of those around you?
• How often to you offer and run training classes for other LMTs?
• Do you foster a harmonious relationship between the receptionists and the service providers?
• Are you a team player?
• Do you refrain from gossip?
• Do you come to work on time with a clean uniform and a presentable appearance?

These are just a handful of questions you should be asking yourself. Search inwardly, critically assess your value and create a mutually equitable arrangement. If you are empathetic, humble, and creatively navigate the negotiation you may receive everything you asked for and more.

Maximizing Your Pay Potential

When attempting to increase your wage per service hour there are various factors that influence whether your request will be approved by management. In this section we will explore how to receive your maximum earning potential.

There are four focus area you will want to explore: Management Appreciation Style, Negotiating with the Virtues of Massage, The Company’s Estimated Break-even Calculation, and the Workplace Power Differential.

1. Assessing the Appreciation Management Style

The first and most important step when attempting to maximize your pay potential is to determine the appreciation style of management. This will involve determining your professional equity based on the social contracts you have established, your perceived value as an employee, and how to navigate the way management appreciates the work of their team.

Professional equity is a currency that can purchase opportunities for you. Take a moment to analyze your personal life and assess the various relationships you have with others. Your social equity is going to be higher with those who love you than with an acquaintance or someone you just met.

You are going to have a greater chance of borrowing a car from someone who loves you than a complete stranger. Your words will hold more weight with those who trust and respect you.

Every relationship in life is built with different equity rules. The way you build social equity with your parents is different than how you would with a significant other, or a friend. Your professional ties also follow their own rules.

Every leader, manager, and supervisor have their own professional equity system. Unfortunately, most are unaware of their bias or leadership style. If you want to thrive in the massage business world you must know what they value.

• Do they utilize permanent professional equity (favoritism)?
• Do they use a seniority-based equity (hands-off approach)?
• Do they utilize performance-based equity?

What appreciation language do they use?

• Words of Affirmation
• Acts of Service
• Contributions to Morale
• Social Engagement
• Time

 Appreciation Style

(A) Permanent Professional Equity (favoritism)

Have you ever worked someplace where no matter what you do management never rewards you for your significant contributions? Yet there are others who seemingly do nothing, or often function as a determent to the team and fail-up the ladder. These employees appear to avoid consequence no matter how many times they call off work, show up late, or perform poorly. They are eternally forgiven for their behavior because in the past they did something significant for the company, or management.

I call this management style Permanent Professional Equity Banking. It creates an unfair workspace that limits advancement, personal responsibility, and lowers morale. Often with this management style there are two unspoken employee levels, the chosen, and everyone else. Once you are a member of the chosen you can do no wrong, if you are everyone else you have to fight to prove you are right.

While the chosen’s professional equity account appears limitless, everyone else’s seems impossible to build.

Navigating this style of management is frustrating and challenging. I believe most companies fall prey to this leadership style. In the massage world few members of management have training or experience as leaders. This is especially true at the chains who often recruit managers from their front desk personnel.

Due to this you will probably have to navigate a seemingly impossible social system. If you want to become one of the chosen it may require a tremendous degree of flattery in addition to going above and beyond your role’s responsibilities.

Ultimately there is no guarantee you will become one of the chosen. If management dislikes something about you, they might never appreciate the significant contributions you have made.

(B) Seniority-based equity

Time equals value in this system. The longer you work for a company the more perks you will enjoy. This is one of the easiest ways to manage, but incredibly frustrating as an employee. If you are a star player, you will play second fiddle to anyone who has been employed at the company longer than you. Raises in these workspaces often provide wage increases based on time rather than performance.

(C) Performance-based equity?

A true leader sees beyond their personal opinions of an employee and rewards them for the significant contributions they make. In a performance-based equity system a leader sees the value of each employee and compartmentalizes their contributions individually. Those who are the most valuable are provided priority in advancement other others. A performance-based environment can still fall prey to favoritism, but not to the extent that a permanent professional equity company would.

Performance-based equity uses a system that focuses on continued relevance rather than the banked up professional equity of an employee. This system asks “What contributions did you make today? What contributions have you made this week? How relevant are your contributions now?” This system allows for new employees to become rising stars and achieve incredible growth.

Those who have consistently served as a valuable role within a company will have a bank of professional equity to draw from, but it is not unlimited. Employees within this system know they should use this bank for rainy days, because they know it may be difficult to replenish once trust and reliability have been diminished. Those who regularly contribute to the success of the team are prioritized over those who once did something great.

Driven and passionate employees often thrive within this appreciation styles because they are able to be seen, and they have an influence over their work environment.

Appreciation languages

(D) Words of Affirmation

“A favor unsaid is a favor undone.”

You will gain more professional equity by acknowledging the specific accomplishments and contributions made by leadership. However. Using generic and repeating statements like. I appreciate you will come off as manipulative and have the opposite result. If you want professional equity from these communications, your compliments must be genuine. Honest, empathetic, humble and creative. False compliments can be felt or worse, steer leadership in a direction that is not in the best interest of the team.

(E) Acts of Service

“Actions speak louder than words.”

Performing tasks outside of massage and serving as an invaluable asset to the entire team or the leader will elevate your position.

(F)Contributions to Morale

“Thinking about someone in the absence and helping them fosters an environment for others to do the same.”

Bringing in treats for the team. Or even creating an occasional thank you card for leadership will increase your professional equity. Being fun, energetic. And raising the spirits of the team will also raise your Professional equity.

(G) Social Engagement

“It feels good to be humanized.”

Members of management are often dehumanized. They often do this to themselves by acting like robots. Spending time with them and having a conversation can be a great way. To get to know them, offer ideas and build professional equity.

(H) Time

This style of appreciation sees the time an employee has worked for the company as one of the most important factors. They often equate time spent with the company as loyalty. In most circumstances time is a multiplier to all other contributions the employee has made, but this is not always the case.  Sometimes there is nothing an employee can do   to improve their professional equity with an employer when they prioritize time spent with the company as the most important factor.

There are four focus area you will want to explore: Management Appreciation Style, Negotiating with the Virtues of Massage, The Company’s Estimated Break-even Calculation, and the Workplace Power Differential.

2. Negotiating using the Virtues of Massage

When negotiating we must operate from the core virtues of massage: Empathy, Humility, and Creativity. If you are a reader from another industry these ideas will seem alien and foreign to you. This is because a majority of people believe someone owes you something. When you enter negotiations in this way it creates an air of hostility that inhibits effective communication. When fail to empathize with someone else they will do the same. When you act without humility, they will tend to return the favor, and when you are unwilling to navigate a problem creatively, they will most likely avoid using their imagination to find a mutually beneficial arrangement.

• A great massage therapist must feed their creativity.
• A great therapist must slice away their bias, open their soul and witness the world through someone else’s eyes.
• A great massage therapist knows they are not a messiah, a prophet, or God’s gift to humanity.

For more information, please consult these entries:

• Communicating Creatively: Creativity, Empathy, and Humility – Jennifer Brand Academy
• Exploring Empathy: Creativity, Empathy, and Humility – Jennifer Brand Academy
• Humility: Creativity, Empathy, and Humility – Jennifer Brand Academy
• Objectively assess your value in the eyes of management: Leadership & Business – Jennifer Brand Academy

3. The Company’s Break-even Calculation

Perform an estimated break-even analysis for the company you work for to determine if your wage request is possible. What is the break-even analysis? It is the point at which cost, and income are equal and there is neither profit nor loss. To determine if you employer can afford to provide you with a wage you must know if they can afford to do so. Consult this section to create a template to perform a break-even analysis of the company you work for.

• Chain: Leadership & Business – Jennifer Brand Academy
• Small LMT-owned Facility: Leadership & Business – Jennifer Brand Academy

If you work for a chain, you must understand that you enjoy the benefits and suffer the consequences of the Silver Spoon Agreement. This may heavily impact your ability to receive a wage increase. For more information, please read the Silver Spoon Agreement. Leadership & Business – Jennifer Brand Academy

4. Workplace Power Differential

It is important for you to take some time to assess the real and perceived power differential between massage therapists and their employers. Massage therapists have a lot more influence than they give themselves credit for, especially in our current market. If one or two massage therapists left some facilities, they would go out of business. This is an important factor to take into consideration when negotiating for higher wages. There has been no other time in modern massage history when massage therapists have had this much influence over the industry. If you can capitalize on this power differential with humility, and empathy you will find ways to creatively negotiate higher wage s.

I strongly suggest reading the section “Asking for increased Wages” Leadership & Business – Jennifer Brand Academy In this section you will gain insight into the mind of an employer to help you understand the power differential between massage therapists and owners.

Small LMT owned massage facility break-even analysis

We will use the same basic calculation from the prior two models to ensure we are comparing apples-to-apples for a small LMT owned massage facility. $87.50 massage price, $21.57 pay per service hour ($25.23 owner’s cost), and $6 for linen cleaning and resource consumption. These calculations with represent a gross profit of $44.02 per massage hour.

Now we will determine monthly expenses. Our imaginary LMT owned multi-therapist facility will have 4 treatment rooms with an estimated lease of $1,500. We will include $250 for CAM/NNN. $1000 for local marketing. $600 for phone, utilities, internet, software, insurance, and miscellaneous expenses. CPA expenses $500.

$1,500 + $250 + $1,000 + $600 + $500 = $3,850

Many facilities of this size rarely have a build-out cost due to the availability of awkwardly shaped office spaces, but equipment will still need to be purchased. Most facilities of this size will use portable massage tables and minimal equipment. The total cost for this could be from $5,000 – $10,000. For the sake of this calculation, we will assume the LMT saved up to purchase these items without a business loan. At this point the monthly total will come to $3,850.

Even a small business like this needs to have someone answer the phones. However, the hours of operation will be fewer than the larger models. This facility will be open for 10-hours, from 10 am to 8 pm. This will cost the spa $4,270.51 in fixed labor costs per month.

10 hours x 7 days = 70 hours per week
70 hours x $12 = $840.00 per week
$2,016 × 52.143 weeks = $43,800.12 a year
$43,800.12 ÷ 12 months = $3,650.01 a month

$3,650.01 a month x 1.17 = $4,270.51 labor costs per month.

Adding these two fixed costs bring the total to $8,120.51 per month.

$4,270.51 + $3,850 = $8,120.51 per month.

The owner in this model is a massage therapist, so they will pay themselves based on the number of massage services hours they work per month.

To determine the break-even mark for this company model we will divide $8,120.51 by $44.02. The total will come to 184.47 massages per month. However, we will still need to add credit card transaction fees to the total.

To calculate this cost, we will need to apply the 2.5% to the cost of 74.25% of the services purchased with credit cards, then add that total amount to the break-even calculation. The additional amount is $299.60 in credit card fees.

184.47 x .7425 = 136.96 service hours
136.96 x $87.50 = $11,984.00
$11,984.00 x.025 = $299.60 in credit card fees

$299.60 ÷ $44.02 = 6.8 service hours.

To pay for the service fees it will require an additional 6.8 hours of massage. To keep this calculation simple, we will ignore the service fee for these transactions. The total number of massage-hours required to break-even becomes 143.76.

136.96 + 6.8 = 143.76 massage hours per month.

Single LMT Operated Business Breakeven Analysis

We will change the monthly expenses by reducing the lease to $400. Reduce local marketing to $400, and $400 for phone, utilities, internet, software, insurance, and miscellaneous expenses. The estimated break-even calculation comes to $1,700 per month.

$400 + $400 + $400 + $500 = $1,700 per month.

$1,700 break-even ÷ $44.02 per massage hour = 38.61 massage hours per month.

After calculating credit card fees, the total becomes $62.69 in fees or an additional 1.42 massage hours per month.  This brings the monthly break-even cost to 40.03 massages per month.

38.61 x .7425 = 28.66 service hours
28.66 x $87.50 = $2,507.75
$2,507.75 x.025 = $62.69 in credit card fees

$62.69 ÷ $44.02 = 1.42 service hours.

1.42 + 38.61 = 40.03 service hours per month.

40.03 massages ÷ 4.345 weeks = 9.21 massages a week.

Remember, this calculation is to simply break-even. This is not enough to generate even a single penny of profit.

Silver Spoon Agreement Conclusion

The Silver Spoon Agreement waves the costs and quality of life reduction of running your own business, but it comes with a cost. They will feed you a steady flow of clients to massage, but you may have to give up your hopes and dreams as an LMT.

What is the cost? You will effectively work 9.21 massage hours per week to pay for this agreement.

Another way of thinking about this is you are roughly paying your employers $2,507.75 a month to enjoy clocking in, performing your massages and leaving without hunting for a single client. This calculation includes the time it takes to perform the unpaid administrative duties, pay for the facility, overhead, and attract clientele.

Consider these factors when negotiating a higher rate of pay, selecting your place of employment, or opening your own facility.

*Disclaimer: These estimates do not represent any specific businesses. They are estimate and an instructional tool designed to help students and licensed massage therapists navigate their massage career.

Understanding the Massage Chain Membership Model

The massage membership model is built from a sunk cost bias

To understand this in greater detail we have to take a deep dive into the massage industry. In this section we will discuss the diminishing employee workforce of the chains, how this has negatively impacted them, how the massage memberships keep the chains in business even though their overall massage quality is unsatisfactory, even if the public are unaware of it. How their diminishing workforce is leading to the Membership Domino, what the Membership Domino is, explain why the sunk cost fallacy is causing it, while at the same time keeping the massage chains alive, and how when the massage chains go out of business how this will affect the massage industry. I believe the cataclysmic effect will be due to the loss aversion they will experience after losing so much invested money in the chains when they go out of business.

The Massage Chain’s Failure is my Gain

We need to talk about how the idea that “the massage chains failure is my gain” is a fallacy and describe how it will specifically impact the massage industry. Then we will need to evaluate how this damage can be mitigated or avoided.

I believe LMTs can cause the collapse of the chain industry and preserve our industry through community.

Some LMT-centric professional organizations fight to introduce unions into the chain workforce or attempt to create better chain work environments. This approach is a nothing burger, because ultimately this lengthens the time the public are harmed by the unethical practices of the chains in regard to their manipulative membership retention model, which is actually an overcomplicated sunk cost fallacy trap.

This trap is the Meat Grinder of Massage. Both the public and the workforce pays the price, while the upper echelons of the industry reap the rewards.   

How many LMTs would it take perform a single massage for each member once a month at the top three massage chains?

Membership Estimates

• Massage Envy: 1.65 million memberships
• Hand and Stone: 441,462 massage memberships
• Massage Elements: 117,110 massage memberships

Total Percentage of workforce required to meet this demand: 9.007%

Total Massage Therapists required to meet this demand: 31,690

• 23,676 massage therapists (ME) 6.73% of total massage workforce
• 6,334 massage therapists (H&S) 1.80% of total massage workforce
• 1,680 massage therapists (EM) .477% of total massage workforce

Explanation

(This information only accounts for three franchise chains. There are numerous other chains in the United States.)

Massage Envy: 1.65 million massage memberships

According to the AMTA 2022 Massage Profession Research Report states that the average number of hours LMTs spent working was 22.6 hours per week, but only 71% is hands-on massage time. This reveals the average number of massage hours performed each week is 16.04.

Using the 16.04-hour average we can estimate the number of LMTs required to perform 1.65 million massages a month.

We will multiply 16.04 hours x 4.345 weeks = 68.7379 total average massage hours per LMT per month.

Now we will divide 1.65 million memberships by 69.69 to determine the number of massage therapists required to perform these services. The total comes to 23,676 massage therapists.

In this report it states there are 351,558 LMTs currently in the industry. What percent is 23,676? According to this calculation Massage Envy would have to employ 6.73% of all licensed massage therapists to meet the demand.

In an article published by Franchise Chatter they report there were 1,109 Massage Envy locations at the end of 2021. Massage Envy Franchise Costs, Fees, Revenues, Profits

How many memberships on average is that per location? 1.65 million memberships ÷ 1,109 locations = 1,487.82 massage hours per month per location.

How many LMTs would it require to meet that demand? 1,487.82 members ÷ 69.69 Massage hours per month per therapist = 21.34 massage therapists per facility.

Hand and Stone: 441,462 massage memberships

483 locations at the end of 2020

Average number of memberships as of 2020: 1,190 per facility (open 24+ months)

An estimated 23.23% of their memberships are for facials. This leads us to believe each facility roughly has 276 Facial Memberships and 914 massage memberships per facility.

914 memberships per facility x 483 locations = 441,462 estimated massage memberships

Total Membership Estimate: 441,462 / 69.69 average massages perform per LMT a month = 6,334.65 massage therapists needed to meet this demand per month

6,334.65 / 483 Facilities = 13.11 massage therapists per location.

To meet the demand of their estimated memberships they would need to employ 1.80% of the massage industry.

*Massage Elements: 117,110 massage memberships

According to Franchise Chatter Massage Elements has 239 massage facilities as of the end of 2020.

Their Average number of memberships per location is 490

239 Facilities x 490 locations = 117,110

Total Membership Estimate: 117,110 / 69.69 average massages perform per LMT a month = 1,680.44 massage therapists needed to meet this demand per month

1,680.44 / 239 Facilities = 7.02 massage therapists per location.

While this does not reveal the total number of massage therapists working for the company, it does reveal to us how many they would need to provide one massage a month for every member.

To meet the demand of their memberships this chain would need to employ .477% of the massage industry.

The Sunk Cost Fallacy and Chain Massage Memberships

The sunk cost fallacy manifests in a myriad of ways. We often experience it in relationships, boring books, and even massage memberships. What then is the sunk cost fallacy?

“The Sunk Cost Fallacy describes our tendency to follow through on an endeavor if we have already invested time, effort, or money into it, whether or not the current costs outweigh the benefits.”

Decision Lab

Sometimes this fallacy can serve as a benefit to our lives. Perhaps the money we invest into a gym membership convinces us to exercise, maybe we socialize more to wear the expensive clothes we purchased or use our massage memberships to improve our quality of life.

What happens when a consumer is actively attempting to use the services they have paid for, but are unable to due to labor shortages? Many would assume these consumers would simply cancel their membership and cut their losses. The reality is most will fall prey to the sunk cost fallacy.

When a customer has a massage membership, they typically accrue one massage a month, if they are unused, each credit will roll over to the next month. These credits will remain available as long as the customer’s membership remains current. If they choose to cancel their membership all of their banked massages will be lost. The fear of losing the money they have invested in the membership prevents them from canceling, leading them to pay more money to protect the money they have already invested.

I believe the sunk cost fallacy is the customer retention model of the chains. The massage chains are not in the business of selling massages, they are a company that sells memberships.

When consumers purchase a massage membership, they have the reasonable expectation of being able to use it once a month.  Due to the labor shortage of the massage industry this is not possible. Of course, it is easy to blame 2020 for this problem, but the labor shortage has been an issue for a considerable period of time.

Does the Membership Domino affect the chains in a negative way?

Memberships are the life blood of a massage franchise. They create a consistent flow of revenue even when a franchise location does not have enough service providers to meet the demand of their membership base. This allows them to operate even when their workforce is almost completely depleted.

What is the Membership Domino?

The Membership Domino is when a chain’s client base is actively attempting to cancel their membership by using as many of their accrued massage credits as quickly as possible. This limits the number of hours available for other members, resulting in limited or no access to their prepaid services. This encourages a snowball effect that causes other members to become frustrated when they are unable to use their membership credits and repeat the process.

After recent reflection I no longer believe the Membership Domino has a meaningful impact on the revenue generated by the chains. I came to this conclusion due to further industry research and my understanding of the sunk cost fallacy. I now theorize a majority of the chain’s revenue is generated from memberships rather than services performed. Ultimately, no matter how angry a chain’s client base becomes they will be too invested to forfeit the massage credits they have accumulated.

As long as the chain location can sell memberships, they will break-even.

How do they increase their revenue? I theorize the chain will need to leave a certain percentage of their schedule open for new clientele. These open spaces will probably be assigned to the LMTs who generate the highest membership sales, and rebooking statistics. The service staff may even prioritize these new members to make sure they can get in at least one or two more times, so they can foster trust with their new customer. Afterwards they will be placed back into the scheduling pool with all the other existing members.

I believe the Membership Domino is an expected outcome of the franchise membership model. By design the goal of the chain membership model is not to provide services, it is to sell the sunk cost fallacy.

If lost revenue is not the consequence of the Membership Domino, what is?

I believe it will result in the collapse the public’s trust for the massage industry. Whether you like it or not the mega chains are the face of massage. Negative exposure travels faster and with greater intensity than positive statements. What happens when hundreds of thousands if not millions of people lose every dollar, they have invested in their massage membership?

Lets say they do try and get another massage, what happens when the first place they visit is a BDAMB and they are treated inappropriately? How can the public even discern the difference between a BDAMB and an actual licensed massage facility?

BDAMBs

Brothels disguised as massage businesses, also known as BDAMBs are a serious threat to licensed massage therapists, the public, and the future of our industry. This sensitive subject hurts my heart every time I think about it, but when evil stands before us we must stand and fight for what we believe is right. We can defeat this threat, unwind the knots of its hurt, and foster a future that is golden, pure, and ethical from surface to center.

How do BDAMBs hurt the massage therapists, the public and our industry?

They reduce the perceived value of legitimate massage services, reinforce negative stereotypes held by the public in relation to sex services and massage, and harbor dens of despair for those have been enslaved into sex trafficking. When BDAMBs are shut down, they increase the likelihood licensed massage therapists will be solicited or assaulted. When we look at the problem with an eagle eye view it reveals a much larger problem. As more BDAMBs pop up around the country our legislators will confuse them with licensed massage facilities. Stronger legislation will be levied against the professionals following the rules and who already provide safe, ethical, and effective treatments to the public.

How do we address these issues?

It is such a huge issue, approaching it seems impossible, daunting, and overwhelming. The very thought of this threat is heart breaking. The problem is so vast and overreaching the challenge can stop us before we even begin. Rather than approaching it with a full-on attack, we must cut it into slices and resolve it compartmentally.

We need to stop isolating ourselves into our micro compartments with our head in the sand. The problem can be addressed on a micro level individually and in small groups, but if we continue to remain oblivious our hopes and dreams will mysteriously fade away before our eyes.

Change starts with the individual

We must elevate the ability of each massage therapist. This is achieved through community, culture, and the formation of unofficial and official coalitions who support and enrich each other’s lives. Often, we run through the world like lone wolves. A pack of wolves can defeat even the largest predators when they are fighting together. We must join forces, build support groups, and invest in each other’s success.

Our perceived skill is the sum of our industry’s collective quality. When the public experiences a lackluster massage it lowers the public’s perception of all massages to follow. Low quality, overpriced services motivate the public to pursue cheap, unprofessional, and unlicensed facilities for relief. This increases the likelihood the public will be exposed to brothels disguised as massage businesses. As a consequence, this funnels more resources to sex traffickers, and contributes the pain and misery of those caught in its web of horror.

Elevating the collective skill of our industry enhances the public’s perception of legitimate massage business. It improves our ability as professionals to introduce new people to massage; creates a further divide between our facilities and the BDAMBs by increasing the public’s perception of massage.

Local massage communities must band together to create a culture with abundance. Experienced therapists need mentor less experienced professionals. Our industry needs Lantern Bearers if we expect to resurrect the excellence of our industry.

The Discovering Hope Initiative is a support group for massage therapists who are dedicated to the enrichment of our industry and the spectacular souls who practice massage. We offer a variety of community driven activities including classes, group events, and support groups to help you through your massage career. To learn more about what Jennifer Brand is doing to elevate our industry please click here.

We must know what the problem is, how it affects us, and who BDAMBs are. Of course, there are limitations to what we as professionals can to do help address this problem. Legislation and law enforcement is well outside of our scope, but we can explore the lore of who and what they are. This will grant us the ability to educate the public, our licensed practitioners, schools, and legitimate business on how to identify, avoid, and properly report them.

We must teach massage therapists and legitimate facilities how to handle sexual solicitation. The more BDAMBs that exist the bolder creeps become, we need to teach the professionals of our community how to navigate these situations and develop strategies to prevent them from happening again. This means management must take appropriate action when sexual solicitation occurs within the treatment room. The current hands-off approach must come to an end. Many facilities simply move inappropriate clients to other therapists with hopes the problem will resolve itself without addressing it. This practice is destroying careers and ruining our industry.

Legitimate massage facilities need to be educated on how to navigate the closures of BDAMBs. When these brothels close, they create a tidal wave of inappropriate behavior, our community must possess the skills necessary to navigate these hardships.

Identifying markers of Brothels Disguised as Massage Businesses (BDAMBs)

BDAMBs often have signs indicating the type of services they offer. It is important to teach licensed massage therapists and businesses to avoid using these indicators. A few examples include using the word MASSAGE without a business name connected to its signage, covering the windows with curtains or obscuring visibility of a facility’s interior, and using marketing images sexualizing practitioners.

We need to compile a list of these markers, so we may help the public avoid these places of business and prevent wayward licensed massage therapist from accidently working at one of these horrible facilities.

Lingo used by individuals seeking services of BDAMBs

Individuals seeking the services of BDAMBs use specific phrases and terms to determine whether your facility offers sexual services. It is important to learn these terms to help protect your practitioners before they visit your facility. Some questions are easy to detect, examples of include asking if the licensed massage therapist is attractive, asking what they are wearing, or if draping is required. Others are a bit more obscure like asking whether your facility has a shower. Some sound like red flags but are hard to determine, these include clients who want to schedule an appointment after hours, refuse to put a credit card on file, or seem incapable of defining the service they are searching for.

We need to compile a list of the lingo used by searching for BDAMBs. This information will help teach licensed massage therapists, massage facilities, and receptionists the skills necessary to protect against predators.

Impact BDMBs have on the massage community

In the article written by Deborah Kimmet, M.S., LMT, CETMB, BCTMB titled Untangling Massage, Human Trafficking, and Prostitution she presents this problem as further reaching than most licensed massage therapists consider. As a former chair of the Montana Board of Massage Therapy, former Federation State Massage Therapy delegate, and a co-author of legislation and rules, her knowledge base far exceeds most. In summary she states that the BDAMBs will hurt our industry by influencing how elected officials change and create laws related to licensed massage therapists.  

Lawmakers will continue to erect regulatory and financial barriers to practice and institute laws with demeaning and derogatory language.

School enrollments will continue to decline as potential enrollees will note the financial burdens and the connection to the sex trade.

Practitioners will leave the field due to these barriers, safety issues, and loss of prestige of the profession. Continuing to work in a business linked to the sex trade is not what they had in mind. Group practice will become the only viable opportunity for employment. Long time practitioners, not wanting to work as an employee will leave the field, as setting up a solo practice will become untenable (For those thinking that a solo practitioner exemption will address the issue, over time regulators will see solo practitioner exemptions as a loophole and close the loophole).

Memberships in national associations will decline as there are fewer practitioners

Deborah Kimmet, M.S., LMT, CETMB, BCTMB titled Untangling Massage, Human Trafficking, and Prostitution

• School enrollments will continue to decline as potential enrollees will note the financial burdens and the connection to the sex trade.

• Practitioners will become more endangered: Since the profession is linked to the sex trade, when a sex parlor closes down, sex buyers go looking for another one, inadvertently approaching legally practicing therapists, thus creating potential safety issues.

• Practitioners will leave the field due to these barriers, safety issues, and loss of prestige of the profession. Continuing to work in a business linked to the sex trade is not what they had in mind. Group practice will become the only viable opportunity for employment. Long time practitioners, not wanting to work as an employee will leave the field, as setting up a solo practice will become untenable (For those thinking that a solo practitioner exemption will address the issue, over time regulators will see solo practitioner exemptions as a loophole and close the loophole).

• Memberships in national associations will decline as there are fewer practitioners

Consequences of shutting down BDAMBs

This topic is rarely discussed in the massage community. I have found when a BDAMB is shut down your facility will feel it for about three months. This is identified when a wave of potential-clientele outside of your primary demographic begin asking sexual charged questions, or even request them directly via text or phone. It is our policy to document each conversation, notify the individual their request will be reported to the police, and they are no longer welcome at our establishment. We take a zero-tolerance policy to sexual solicitation of any kind.

In the article written by Deborah Kimmet, M.S., LMT, CETMB, BCTMB titled Untangling Massage, Human Trafficking, and Prostitution she draws attention to this phenomenon.

“…when a sex parlor closes down, sex buyers go looking for another one, inadvertently approaching legally practicing therapists, thus creating potential safety issues.”

A cause can have catastrophic consequences. We must creatively navigate each task with empathy, and humility to help ensure the public, our therapists, and the industry is enriched by our investment. Failing to do so may result in unforeseen and untenable problems.  If we want BDAMBs to be shut down, we must plan for the displacement of their customers. Their customers are like roaches, they will find a new home. We must have a plan in place to help local licensed massage therapists avoid the inevitable hardship following a BDAMBs closure.     

Additional Resources

Look Before You Book

Human Trafficking in Illicit Massage Business

Published by Missouri Attorney General

Overview

Across the United States, traffickers use the legitimate massage therapy industry as a front for human trafficking. Polaris (2018) estimates there are approximately 9,000 illicit massage businesses (IMB’s) operating in the U.S..  Missouri is no exception.

The façade of a legitimate business allows traffickers to operate in plain sight, usually in strip malls and small shops found in our major metropolitan cities as well as small towns around the state. It’s important for the citizens of Missouri to be aware of illicit massage businesses in their communities and also be educated about the reality of what is going on behind closed doors and how women and men come to be exploited in these businesses. 

How Victims Get Trapped in IMBs 

• Victims, typically from Asian countries like China, South Korea, Thailand, and Japan, are approached by recruiters who offer supposedly well-paying employment or schooling in the United States, and offer to arrange travel, documentation, and housing. Most victims are from backgrounds of poverty or abuse. 
• Upon arrival, the situation typically changes, and the victim is told her debt is higher than originally promised. The victim may then receive threats to herself or to family members, be coerced, tricked or forced into providing sex for paying customers as a means by which she can pay off her contrived debt.
• The traffickers often then use another control tactic, telling her that she is now a “prostitute”; a label with deep implications for shame and stigma. Many women know that if the knowledge of this were to be shared with her family, she could never return and that no one will want her, creating even deeper feelings of helplessness. 
• The victim has likely been told to fear law enforcement, and is moved frequently across the country from one business to another keeping her disoriented and unable to form connections with those who may be able to offer help. Additionally, most victims don’t speak english, don’t know their rights, and have no idea on who to ask for help.

Common Misconceptions                          

Unfortunately, there are misconceptions around human trafficking and IMBs. For instance, just because victim workers aren’t being held in chains or at gun point, doesn’t mean that force, fraud and coercion isn’t present. Traffickers create conditions under which victims are so deeply controlled, that they may appear as willing participants. When the reality of these stories is understood, the popular “happy ending” jokes are revealed for what they are; a symptom of apathy and ignorance.

What Are Indicators of IMBs?

• Some indicators that may suggest a business is operating as an IMB are:
• Prices below market – which incentivizes the masseuse to earn tips 
• Male only clientele
• Customers entering and exiting through rear or side entrances
• Business is open late at night
• Windows are blocked off so that you can’t see inside
• Doors are locked requiring customers to be “buzzed in”
• Website contains sexual innuendo or references to the appearance of the masseuse
• Online reviews describing sex acts – The masseuse(s) appear to live on site

What Can You Do?

Do not intervene yourself or attempt to take vigilante action

If you see indicators that a business is illicit, you can report that information to your local non-emergency police department phone number and the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888

Share your concerns with your city and state leaders

Speak up. Help spread awareness and combat apathy. Next time someone shares a “happy ending” joke in your presence, you can explain that there is no happy ending for the people who work in these places. 

Professional Appearance

Facing these situations in the treatment room is unnerving and scary; and is impossible to escape unscathed.  Every time it happens it sears our soul with a terrible burn and leaves a scar behind that will always remind us of what happened.  We need to prevent these situations from ever happening by setting the professional stage and shaping reality to meet our needs.

Once we allow a serpent into our home it is hard to find where they snuck off to.  Instead of allowing them to slide on in and get comfortable we need to close the door so the pests cannot enter.  Creeps are like cockroaches, where one is, others will soon be found.  Likeminded people congregate and share, we don’t want to be their topic of discussion at the water cooler.  To prevent this, we must safely guard our professional palace by presenting our place in a way that makes them feel unwelcome.

Six Ways to Ward off Creeps

There are six areas we can focus on to ward off creeps and protect our professionals: the school administration, our education system, branding, marketing, clinic appearance, and therapist appearance.

The school’s administration:  Our potential is limited by the institution that trains us.  If their values are murky their instructors will be blind and the time, we serve under their tutelage will be saturated with disharmony and hardship.  The school should reflect our best possible workplace.  Students need to see how the system functions so they may emulate it in the professional world.

If an administration is detached and uncaring it encourages the student to believe their workplace will be the same.  They will learn to accept belligerent and disparaging atmospheres, and when they face hard times, they will not have the personal power to overcome them.  We need to cultivate our educational facilities by placing true leaders into positions of authority.  Massage therapists need role models, mentors, and a safe place to open their heart.  If they do not learn and experience this in school, they probably won’t have it in the future.

Our education system:  Teachers must inspire and cultivate their students in the classroom.  They need to be mentors who have been gnawed on by the meat grinder of massage and want to use their hurt to help others.  We need interactive discussions, roleplaying, and creative expression in our classrooms.  Students must be encouraged to find their inner light and burn as bright as the sun above.  When they graduate, they should radiate a personal power that allows them to overcome any obstacle.

Branding:  The branding of a business sets the tone for how it operates and is experienced by the public.  It is the spirit and personality of the company.  The branding is the narrative that guides clients through the story of their spa experience.

When designing the branding of a company we must avoid sexualizing its spirit.  This means refraining from various colors, shapes, and words that may suggest undesirable connotations.  It must be clean, welcoming, and wellness focused.

Marketing: The images we use in our marketing paints the personality of our company.  Every image and word must be painstakingly selected to ensure it sends the correct message.  Avoid images that inappropriately accentuate or sexualize the body.  This includes photographs that are sexually charged, are rife with innuendo, or teases the viewers a glimpse of the breast and buttock.

Clinic Appearance: Creeps search for specific signals when they are searching for a new lair to slither into.  Design your facility to ward off the serpents who seek to slip passed your guard.

• Place your clinic on a main road, facing the street.  Do not place it in an alleyway, inside a boring office building, within an industrial park, or on the back of a building.
• Use easily discoverable, and readable signage.  Avoid simply using the word massage as your company’s identifying marker.
• Have a spacious lobby that is viewable from the outside and sell products that are professionally arranged.
• Pick a place that has a well maintained and lit parking lot.
• Avoid putting up curtains in your windows and never decorate with lace.
• Build a clean, easily navigable website that clearly describes your prices and services.
• Avoid late evening appointments, require a credit card to book a session, have a strict cancelation policy, and refrain from asking about the client’s gender preferences.
• Have a surveillance system installed in the common area and employ a receptionist.

Therapist Appearance: We cannot control the actions of others but can influence how they react to our appearance.  A massage therapist sets the client’s expectation for every session.  If we look messy and unprepared our client will expect the same from our massage.  First impressions are important.  They set the tone for how others decide to treat us.  Take control of the perceptions of others by presenting yourself in a way that controls the narrative. 

A massage therapist should be in uniform when performing a service.  Their attire should match the team, this shows unity and cohesion.  They need to be clean, wrinkle free and desexualized.  A uniform should be worn to minimize the wandering gaze of a client’s eyes.

If we combine these six areas of focus, we can help protect our licensed professionals from the slithering snakes.  Hopefully it will be enough for them to avoid our facility and if we have effectively addressed the issue of the BDAMBs, they will have nowhere to go.  

Determining Service Rates

There are many factors we have to use to determine our service costs, there are so many we could write a book about it.  Instead, we are going to break it down to it simplest building blocks to help you build a foundation for how you want to charge for services. I am not an accountant; this is to serve as a guide. I strongly suggest seeking the guidance of a CPA or a trained professional when making business decisions.

Employee Pay

When calculating payroll, we are often drawn to the two most talked about deductions: Social security at 6.2% and Medicare at 1.45%.  This doesn’t account for every payroll expenditure an employer is responsible for.  A good rule of thumb when calculating our company’s cost per service hour is to multiply the total service hours by 1.17, or by adding an additional 17%.

If you pay your employees $30 per service hour your total cost would be around $35.10.

Costs of doing business

Each service uses products and resources, and this comes with a cost.  This should be calculated into your breakeven calculation when determining employee wages.  A good estimate for these costs is $2 per set of linens, $1 for lubricants, and $1 for miscellaneous costs.

Total Liability estimate

The total estimated liability per hour of service rendered for any employee you pay $30 an hour, is $39.10.  This does not account for other costs you will incur in your practice such as taxes, utilities, rent, insurance, etc.

Keystone your costs

The best point to start when deciding your service prices is to keystone your costs.  This means doubling the amount you are paying to have the services rendered, or the purchase price of the product.  If your total wage cost is $39.10 your price needs to be around $78.20.

Marketing

Being good to others is the best form of marketing.  In the digital era your business must possess a captivating online presence.  A strong presentation isn’t enough.  You must create compelling content that encourages people to look closer.  Your business needs to be the social butterfly at the party, and the person everyone wants to talk to.  Every article, image, and offer you showcase must be appetizing. Having the best this or that isn’t enough to draw people in, you must pour your heart and soul into every shred of content you publish.  

If you were trying to impress someone with a home cooked meal, you would probably work hard to make it appetizing and delicious.  The same applies to the marketing material you create for your business.  Encourage them to want it by addressing the peripherals.  In the cosmetics industry consumers first buy a product for its presentation, they purchase it again because of its quality.  Marketing your business works the same way.

The branding of your company must match the marketing you use.  The gift wrapping is especially important.  If you want to impress someone with a marvelous gift, its wrapping has to be perfect.  Most of the gift experience is the adventure of setting eyes on it, unwrapping it, and finally revealing what it is.  When you show your products to the world make sure it feels like an adventure to your audience.   Looking pretty isn’t enough, the gift wrapping must match the present.  If it doesn’t your audience may find it off putting at best and insulting at worst.  Make sure the marketing you use, and where you put it matches your brand and the product you are offering.  If you don’t, you may find yourself marketing to people who misunderstand the products and services you sell.  You may even convince them to buy from someone else altogether.    

Marketing is more than a colorful spray of random images and fun articles; it is an orchestra.  Every member of the band must play their part.  A few musicians may miss their mark, and the performance will still sound fine, but with too many errors the melody becomes a cacophony of incessant noise.  Take your time, practice a few strategies, and avoid trying to take on tasks too complex for your experience level.  Have a plan, but don’t let it cripple you.  Many begin and end every project in the planning phase.  They spend so much time thinking about what they should do they never actually do anything.  Don’t allow perfection to inhibit progress.  Instead start your marketing project by testing the water with your toes.  Feel around for the little fish that nibble your feet.  Once you have a feel for how you want to present yourself you may begin thinking about what you want to do and how you want to do it.

Some marketing strategies last only a few days, while others may stretch many years.  Think about what you want out of your marketing campaign.  Many people strategize ways to bring in more business.  They want to have a direct return on every dollar they spend.  This is a great desired outcome, but it is not possible with every tactic employed.  Sometimes you need to just let people know you exist, other times it is to remind your audience of the amazing memories they made with you.  Often times people spend too much time selling to their target demographic.  Your audience will become fatigued by your marketing presence if they feel like you are constantly selling to them.  Change things up from time to time, but always stay within your company’s branding rules. 

We often focus too strongly on persuading people to visit our business.  Our singular drive strips away our beautiful energy, rendering it into a cold, lifeless lump of coal.  Hold on tight to your cosmic inner light, remain vigilant and remember to dream.  If you want to draw people in you must light the flame of your furnace, feel the heat of your own heart, and glow with purpose.  This profound energy is attractive, and others want to feel it.  They hunger for something real, and if you can give it to them, they will love you for it.  Marketing is all too often artificial and forced.  When you tap into the power that pushes you forward others will feel it and they will be drawn to you.  Creating in a vacuum can feel impossible, because it nearly is, but if you can lower a bucket into the well of your soul others will desire to taste what you have to give. 

Social Marketing

Do you want to be a social marketing machine?  I think most small businesses want to get the word out, unfortunately few are willing to invest the time and energy to make it work.  What do you need to know to get noticed?

You must be patient, getting the internet spiders to crawl your site requires time.  It may take years to write the perfect eye-catching article, this means you have to write a lot of content.  This is where persistence comes in.  If at first you do not succeed, try, and try again.  A big part of running a business is failure.  You must have grit to push forward.  If you keep your head to the grindstone success becomes a greater possibility.  Finally, we have to radiate passion; what do you have to say?  Are your ideas fun and interesting?  Will each article encourage your reader to explore the rest of your articles?  If your passion is enough, you will break through the ice and feel the warm sunny glow of success.

Creating content in a vacuum feels impossible.  These feelings are real, for most the task you are about to undertake is impossible.  To get your social media wheel to move you must be a whirlwind.  The energy you put into this must be a gale force wind, anything less is too little, and you will not have the desired outcome.

What matters most is you must begin your journey.  You would be amazed by how many people never take the first step at the starting line.  You cannot the win the race you never start.  You will miss every opportunity you don’t try.  This is going to be a marathon, not a sprint.  If you expect overnight results, you will only know heart break.

How do you get the ball rolling?  Think about something you like and is relevant to what your company has to say and write about it.  In the beginning it does not matter if you are good at writing, the more content you write the better you will become.  Some “how to” books will tell you to READ-READ-READ, this is a minor part of building up your writing skill.  I suggest following Shia LaBeouf’s or NIKE’s advice and just do it.  Take some time and explore how others write, but don’t drag yourself down with too much research.  Give yourself the opportunity to fail and you will get better.

Most people let perfection get in the way of progress.  The best way to start is by writing something and publishing it.  You will always be able to return to old work to improve it.  Updating content on your website is an important Search Engine Optimization (SEO) technique.  The web spiders want to see a fresh site, with new and interesting content, so revising old work will make your site look better and the search engines will fall in love with what you have to say.

Get to know the narrative of your company.  Start by discovering the voice of your business and make its philosophy the guiding light that illuminates the world.  You are the lantern bearer, your message is its golden glow, make the most of it by putting on a beautiful show.

Take some time to get to know your business, perhaps over a cup of coffee or a stroll in the park.  Choose a place that makes you feel comfortable, creative, and open.  Building your marketing strategy is akin to a courtship, it requires honesty and self-reflection.  If honesty doesn’t exist within your company the public will feel it.

Your company is your baby, she has a name and as you design your social marketing strategy, she will develop a voice.  Once she has a voice it will be easier to tie your content together.  Every piece of marketing material you create follows a storyline; this is your narrative.  If you want your potential customers to trust you it must make sense.

People subconsciously look for incongruities.  This is how we spot scams, snake oil and other Tom Foolery.  The more your audience can feel her voice the more willing they will be to trust your company.  If it is honest from surface to center this becomes much easier.

We live in a world of illusions and trickery; people thirst for vulnerability and truth.  If your brand matches this description creating content will be easier because you will be speaking from your heart.  When you create amazing content people will desire to consume your ideas and wait with anticipation to see the next wonderful thing.  Become a creator they love, and the thought of your company will fill them with glee.

Social Marketing Character

What is the character of your business?  Who is she?  What does she want?  What motivates her?  What are her goals?  When designing your social marketing strategy, it is essential to develop who your company is.  If her character is genuine others will feel it.

Your company doesn’t have to be you.  It is easier if it isn’t.  If you can write her in a way that others can understand your team will be able to exemplify her traits.

Some people describe the inner working of a company as a circle.  If you want the circle to be perfect, every line, turn and bend must be harmonious.  The only way to achieve this is by presenting her in a manner that everyone can grasp and get behind.  If your team cannot espouse the company’s virtues people will see it.  This will create an incongruency between your marketing campaign and the services you offer.  If this happens you will tarnish every ounce of energy you’ve put into your marketing.

In the beauty product world, a customer first purchases a product because of its packaging.  The second purchase is determined by the quality of that product.  If the services, you offer do not match its presentation they will not buy your product again.

Design your presentation with honesty and you will steadily retain customers who want to buy your wonderful wares.

Networking

You want to network? I want to make friends. When I introduce myself to others my goal is to give something good. The world can be dark and dreary, to help lighten the load I help people slice through the cumulonimbus clouds to see the radiant rays of the sun. All it takes is a few wonderful words and we can inspire some incredible heart feels. 

Every relationship we have had has been planted, cultivated, and killed with intent. If you want to make the most of your moments, be your own life coach by living with good intent.  

Social Anxiety

How does shyness feel?  It sucks.  That’s how I would describe it in two words.  People are often surprised when I tell them I used to be very shy.

In my mid-twenties, just after my mother passed, I was at a local dinner sitting with a couple friends waiting for our food.  A few booths over were a group of ladies, one caught my eye, I was entranced by her beauty, and I wanted to meet her.  Unfortunately, I was frozen in fear and glued to my seat.  “What is going on?” I thought to myself.  I couldn’t muster a reason why I felt this, why I was so afraid?  If she was so intimidating, why would I be attracted to her?

After several moments of being teased by my friends for not approaching her, I rose from my seat and walked to her table.  My hands were shaking, and my heart was pounding in my chest.  When I opened my mouth to speak, all my charm fled, and I found myself completely unable to articulate my words.  I stood there at the end of the table for several moments, I could feel their judgement piercing my soul.  In a burst of what little confidence I had, I tried to introduce myself, a moment passed, and they were all quiet, so I walked back to my seat.

I could hear them talking about me, describing how my hands were shaking, and how weird I seemed.  As I sat there eating my meal, I reflected over the moment, concluded I must have appeared completely insane.

At first, I saw this as a failure, but then I realized it was a success.   I was unable to bridge my introduction into a conversation, but I was able to overcome the fear of talking to her.  I set out to do something, and I did it.  It was from this I was able to build my confidence.  I spent some time thinking about how I could eliminate my social anxiety, and over several years of pushing myself I was able to become the social butterfly I am today.

Overcoming hardship requires force of will, it is something that cannot be achieved in one fell swoop.  We must dedicate ourselves to a purpose and stick to it.  My social anxiety didn’t disappear in this moment.  I had to work on it daily.  One of the first methods I used to fight my shyness was to smile and say hello to every person I saw.  When they didn’t smile back or say hello, I copped by saying to myself they were the ones missing out.

If you are a person like me who loves people and wants to have as many great friendships as you can, then challenge yourself, talk to others.  Eventually you will realize there is nothing to fear.  Most likely the person you want to talk to is already trying to find a way to talk to you.

IKAGG

If you want to improve the likelihood of your company’s success, I suggest joining a networking group.  There are all sorts of organizations in your community, but I suggest checking out the IKAGG directory.  Why do I like IKAGG? 

They believe in giving first and give often.  What does that have to do with a networking group?  How in the world could this possibly benefit my company?  Running a business is more than simply selling stuff and depositing the money.  It is about people and relationships.  Most products and services can be purchased anywhere, they come to you because you offer an experience they need.  We could reduce its value to customer service, but it is so much more.  Your company is extraordinary, it radiates an energy, a remarkable genuineness that captivates and invigorates them.  

By giving first and often you will discover how to capture this magical energy and broadcast it.  As more people witness your magic, your magnificence will spread, and you will enchant the world with your excellence.    

This is where the root philosophy of IKAGG comes in.  Giving doesn’t have to be stuff.  Good energy is enough.  You have lived an amazing life, explored avenues hidden to other people’s eyes.  With a single talk your worldly experiences could transform how someone sees their situation.  Perhaps a single nugget of truth you share could shed light on an answer they couldn’t see, or maybe your words illuminate their life.     

Knowledge is captivating.  Have you ever found yourself enthralled by someone else’s story?  In that moment nothing else existed.  You could feel their tale like you were actually there, it was real, genuine and the power of the storyteller’s vulnerability was inspiring.  Listening to their words was more than a strong presentation, it compelled you to listen closer, to be around them, and converse with them more.  When people know you have something meaningful to give, they want to listen to you.

There is an important caveat to mention.  You have to leave your ego at the door.  Confidence is attractive, an inflated ego isn’t.  We can go anywhere to witnessed embellishments and exaggerations.  If you want the world to see your value, you must reveal it to them.  Being the best at this or that isn’t enough, they need know you pour your heart and soul into everything you do.  If you are making a delicious meal for them it has to be for them, because you want them to feel wonderful.  

Give first and give often, be a whirlwind of benevolence, from surface to center showcase your love for life and your desire to see others succeed.  People are drawn to goodness; they want to see the light and if you can give it to them, you will be the life of party.  

How do I make the most of my IKAGG Directory

Your website is your calling card.  If you don’t have one you do not exist.  When marketing on IKAGG or any other social media platform you will want to link back to your website as often as possible.

Are you ready to spruce up your IKAGG directory page?  Adding content to your page is more than filling in blank spots with boring, meaningless text.  To attract the beautiful hearts and minds of the world you must reveal your heart, mind, and soul.  Deep inside your spirit is a beautiful brilliance, a warming energy that inspires, captivates, and creates marvelous things.  I want to help you showcase your dreams.  What do you need to accomplish this task?  Fortunately, you don’t have to be a computer whiz, a graphic designer, or a masterful storyteller, all you need is grit, passion, and patience.

When I first set eyes on the IKAGG Directory I knew its tremendous potential.  Since then, I have used it to stretch my branding across the web.  I want to see the same with your brand.  You have a spectacular mind and I want to help you share it with the world.

What do you need to do first?  Look around the IKAGG directory and decide what you want to get out of your experience.  We all run different kinds of businesses with unique needs. Take some time before you set out on this adventure to determine the destination you have in mind.  Without it you will amble around endlessly, you may become frustrated and end up lost.  In the world of creative exploration this is normal.  Feeling lost for words or stuck in a rut are common experiences, don’t let these roadblocks stop your travels. Instead, find ways for them to motivate you.  Every failure brings you closer to success, it sharpens your mind, and makes you stronger.

Creating your profile description can feel a lot like making an online dating profile.  How do you sum up the entirety of your existence in a handful of words?  It’s tricky but creating your business profile is a lot easier.  Once you get into the groove you will see why.

First start by getting into character.  Your business has an identity, and even if you run a sole proprietorship, it most likely has a different personality than your own.  If you don’t know the personality of your company, consider taking it out on a date, sit down at your local coffee house, open up your note pad and explore its hopes, wants, and dreams.  It would be wonderful if it were simply an ATM machine that shoots out endless money, but it is so much more than that, it is your baby, your second spouse, and life partner.  It is one of the most important relationships of your life, so get to know it.

How does your company want to be remembered, experienced, and seen?  How has it changed throughout its life?  What does it want out of existence?  In the abstract these questions are silly, but it will help you show off your business.

When speaking to your audience you must write above the fold.  What do I mean by this?  Have you ever picked up a newspaper and noticed all the content that appears above the fold on the front page?  This is where you put your most profound creative energy. Your profile page is the most important area on the directory.  Like the first page of a novel this is your opportunity to draw your audience in.  You must catch their attention if you intend for them to stay for any length of time.  Engage your reader’s senses, draw in their mind, and inspire their spirit.  The goal is to encourage them to want to know more, to explore your words, and desire your services.

The Above the Fold Goals:

• Engage your visitors, draw them in with sights that catch their eyes and mind.
• Be patient, showcase who your company is before trying to sell to them.

Your online presence is meant to showcase who your company is.  If your words are pushy and overbearing, they will expect the same from your services.  Confidence is gentle, patient, and considerate.  It is knowing your strength but choosing to hold back.  Showcasing these traits is a sign of strength, people love to be around those who are strong, disciplined, and wise.

Create a fun online presence.  Many companies create content to sell, sell, sell.  People get tired of being sold to.  If you want to catch people’s attention you have to deliver content, they look forward to seeing.  Find a way within your branding to encourage smiles, laughter, and feel-good emotions.  Other times write about stuff that is interesting and relevant to your brand.  If you start posting content that is off-brand people will notice and be put off by it.  If you are a spa, posting articles about the food you had for dinner might be considered a little off point at best.  At worst the public will stop trusting your services.  When people see incongruencies it makes them uncomfortable, this is because it is a warning sign of a con.  Avoid this unfortunate circumstance by keeping your marketing material brand appropriate.

Post great content and often.  This is one of the most challenging parts of maintaining your online presence.  It requires a lot of time and energy, but it pays off.  Sometimes all you need is a compelling picture paired with some original content.  Make sure your branding is on everything you post.  This helps with brand recognition.  The more people see your logo, the greater chance they will trust your product.  Maybe your brand recognition will be the tie breaker on a decision between you and another business.

Share your articles to other sites.  If you want to be noticed, you have to make sure others can see you.  Why waste your precious time and energy by limiting it to one place?  The internet robots love to read, so make sure they can see what you write.

Set up an interview with IKAGG.  IKAGG is more than just a directory.  It is comprised of compassionate and compelling souls who want to see you succeed.  Talk to the leadership of the IKAGG community to set up a recording interview or podcast you can post to your profile.  People want to hear what you have to say, they love a great tale, share your journey with them.

Add your products to the directory.  It may seem strange, but it will help the internet notice you.  By posting your products to the directory the search engines will see them and show your fantastic merchandise to the world.  Use pretty pictures and remember to include your branding in every image.