Massage Therapsits, please answer?!
Question: My wife is an LMT and we live in Oklahoma. She is currently having a very hard time finding a stable, full time job. When I graduate college this Dec. we want to move to a state where LMTs are in relatively high demand. We figured places like FL, CA, AZ, or TX would be good. Can anybody what states would be best to consider? Thanks in advance!
Answers: My wife is an LMT and we live in Oklahoma. She is currently having a very hard time finding a stable, full time job. When I graduate college this Dec. we want to move to a state where LMTs are in relatively high demand. We figured places like FL, CA, AZ, or TX would be good. Can anybody what states would be best to consider? Thanks in advance!
Just to give you some figures from the AMTA
50% of new massage therapists are out of the field within 12 months of graduation
70% of massage therapists are out of the field within 36 months of graduation
I've been a massage therapist for 20+ years and if she doesn't treat her profession as a business she won't be sucessful anywhere you move. For every hour I do massage I spend at least 1 hour doing marketing. Is she willing to do 20 hours of marketing a week in order to have 20 clients a week? Is she willing to specialize in a certain client group? Pregnant women, neck problems, hip problems. The more your able to specialize, the more people look at you to help them with that problem and are willing to pay for it. think how much more a specialist gets in any field verses a generalist. People pay more for a specialist. Never compete on price, because someone will always being willing to charge less just starting out.
The most amount of hours of massage a therapist should give is 20 hours per week, and the therapist should be getting 1 hour of massage themselves for every 10 hours of massage they give to clients.
But it comes down to treating her practice like a business, with a business plan, and thinking why would someone come to me and not another client, and trust me from my years of experience, clients will not come back if she doesn't care about them, and can do what she says she can. She has to be passioniate about being a massage therapist and just as passioniate about being a business person. I have seen wonderful massage therapists who are seeing 3-4 clients a week because they don't know how to run a business and I have seen below average therapists seeing
16-20 clients a week because they know how to market their business,but I would never get a 2nd massage from them, because they are no better then a newly graduated therapist in skill level
I have a simple space in my house and I have people travel from around the country to be worked on by me and I charge a good amount for my time.. as I tell people I only charge 10 dollars for what I do, the rest is for what I know and how to do it
Massage Therapists are in demand everywhere. It really depends upon what kind of massage is being performed. The key is finding a niche. I have employed massage therapists (Chiropractor), and it can be a really good working relationship. The important thing is to 'go where the patients (clients) are'. She could rent space from a chiropractor (usually a room/suite), and keep active referrals back and forth. Doing that keeps overhead down and allows the LMT to be visable to people who are already in need of musculoskeletal work.
Long story short: go where the people are, find a niche and don't go to the typical places (CA/FL) because they're typically over-saturated already.
I'm an LMT...I just graduate 3 months ago. I have my own business in Missouri. Massage is on the rise with alternitive health care becomeing more popular. Do go somewhere where there isn't many therapists. I live in a 4000 populated town with one other LMT besides myself. I average 10 clients a week and she does around 16 (I'm still getting the word out about myself). I like being my own employer. I can take appointments for myself and not have to worry about filling someone elses demands. I can stay as busy as I want.
As far as the "full-time" part of it goes....massage therapist don't work "full-time" as in 40 hours a week...that would be pretty near impossible.
Places to try to become contracted:
do chair massage at large businesses
work with a chiropractor
work at a gym or health club
go to a salon (15 minutes of reflexology while hair color is setting in is quick and easy money. )
The American Massage Therapy Association website has good information about business practices.