A Drop In The Bucket

You want to attract new students? Tell them you will teach them how to have a robust and sustainable income, the kind of income that gives them time off, insurance, and retirement. You’ll never have to beg for applicants again!

A question for those of you in charge of curriculum at a massage school: what percentage of your program’s hours are devoted to preparing your students for the business portion of their professional life?

I recently figured out that at two schools I’ve taught at (and generally respect) it’s a whopping 3%. At one of them the class on mindfulness gets more hours than business does.

Not to dis mindfulness (a grounded presence during a session is valuable) but when was the last time you heard about someone leaving the profession because they couldn’t manage to be mindful?

Here’s the next question: how many financially successful and stable massage therapists do you know who only spend 3% of their time tending to the business side of the house? (If you’re curious that would be just slightly more than one hour in a 40-hour week.)

The answer is: none.

If you are or have been a successful massage therapist, what percentage of your week when you first graduated did you spend taking care of business? [Why “when your first graduated? Because that’s the most important thing you can get them through.] By that I mean all the things we do when we don’t have a client on the table / in the chair.

Laundry. Bookkeeping. Processing payments. Creating and maintaining a website. Laundry. Creating and maintaining a social media presence. Developing a referral network. Filing taxes quarterly and annually. Scheduling. Laundry. Buying supplies. Continuing our education. Getting licenses. Renewing licenses. Laundry. Networking. Reading trade publications. Engaging with the massage community live or online. Cleaning. Laundry. Responding to emails, phone calls, and texts. Creating client communication (newsletters, etc.). Dealing with technology that isn’t working. Driving to events, clients homes, and seated gigs. Laundry. Finding work. Creating marketing plans. Running financial reports. Business planning.

And everything else we spend our time on when we don’t have a client on the table.

(Did I mention laundry?)

If we don’t take business education seriously we cannot grow as an industry. Until massage therapists can create robust and sustainable income streams we cannot move forward.

I advise students to expect to spend about 50% of their time after graduation on the business side of life. Once things are set up and going well it takes less time but it never gets down to one hour a week.

Despite my favorite daydreams, it’s unrealistic to expect a professional training program to devote 50% of the curriculum to business. sigh. But 3% is just not good enough. Not when (1) it will consume a huge chunk of time for new MTs, (2) it always needs at least 1/2 day each week, (3) it’s one of the topics that most massage therapists are anxious about, and this is the biggie (4) when so many therapists leave the field because they can’t make enough money. “Making money” is the most fundamental definition of business there is.

As a point of reference, 3% is

• 15 hours in a 500-hour program
• 19 hours in a 625-hour program
• 22 hours in a 750-hour program
• 30 hours in a 1000-hour program

If you’ve been patting yourself on the back for setting aside 15 / 19 / 22 / 30 hours for business, please stop (your rotator cuff will thank you). It’s time to up your game.

I agree that 50% is unrealistic. But how about 5-10% since it occupies such a huge part of the actual life of an actual massage therapist?

• 25-50 hours in a 500-hour program
• 31-62 hours in a 625-hour program
• 37-75 hours in a 750-hour program
• 50-100 hours in a 1000-hour program

Again for reference, Most college and university courses are 3 semester credit hours or 45 – 48 contact hours.

If we don’t take business education seriously we cannot grow as an industry. Until massage therapists can create robust and sustainable income streams we cannot move forward.

By “robust” I mean enough income to afford time off, insurance, and retirement. Enough money to grow or sustain your practice at the level you desire. To actually be a successful business. 

You want to attract new students? Tell them you will teach them how to create a practice that generates a robust and sustainable income, the kind of income that gives them time off, insurance, and retirement. You’ll never have to beg for applicants again.

But you can’t do that at 3% of your curriculum hours.