How to make 35K as year as a therapist and take the summers off!

Do what you love, love what you do.

Wow! Can you imagine a life where every day you get up bursting with enthusiasm to go to work; a life where you can make your own hours; have time to go to that yoga class in the middle of the day; pay yourself a decent salary and most importantly pack your bags every summer and take off for a month! Who would say no to that! Yet the issue that most therapists come up against time and time again is an inability to make a living out of the profession they love. The website www.payscale.com puts the average massage therapist earnings in the UK at £11,400- £14,983 for 1-4 years experience. – That’s less than the average wage of the 17 year old at your local fast food outlet!   Not to mention the terrible working conditions we usually award ourselves as the self employed – crazy hours, no holidays, scarce money for further training. Yet it is more than possible to earn a great living as a therapist – and to have time to enjoy your life into the bargain. So to paraphrase the great philosopher Bob the Builder – Can we make a great living as a therapist- the unequivocal answer is “YES WE CAN!”

The 3 cardinal errors of therapists

The economics of being self employed are actually resoundingly simple – the only way to pay yourself more is either to bring in further money or to cut your costs. I find that therapists’ costs are usually minimal so this is not an option. However most therapists are making one of 3 basic errors:

1.    Not charging enough
2.    Not enough clients  coming through the door
3.    Not rebooking clients so only seeing them once

So how is it possible to reach our dream goal of 35K profit per year?

First of all it is important to work out actually how much you need to charge per client to make your target salary.

1.    Work out your costs: Lets assume your costs are £11000 per annum – this would include for example clinic room rental, your own further training, website costs etc. So you would need to bring in a total of £46K per year to pay yourself a salary of 35K. With me so far? Good!

2.    Decide how many weeks per year you are going to work. Right so you want to take 6 weeks holiday over the year- a nice month in the summer and a couple of weeks at Christmas. With 52 weeks in the year taking 6 weeks off leaves us with 46 weeks working time

3.    Calculate how much you need to earn per week to bring in your target amount: So handily in our example we would need to earn £1000 per week (£46000 divided by 46 weeks)

4.    Calculate how many clients at what price you need to see to make your target income. This is your crunch figure and a great surprise to most therapists who are usually undercharging for their time. A full time workload for most therapists whether you are doing massage, aromatherapy, beauty treatments, homeopathy or counseling is 20 client hours per week. The rest of your workweek should be devoted to marketing and administration of your business. In our example you would need to charge £50 per client hour to bring in the required £1000 per week (20 clients x £50). I need to stress that this a reasonable average amount to pay in ALL areas of the UK for an hour of a therapist’s time! Some areas will be able to charge more but I know therapists working in the most deprived areas of the country who are able to charge £50/hour.

Getting the clients; keeping the clients! The golden secret to building your business
OK so that’s all very well I hear you cry – but how do we get these 20 clients a week to support our dream lifestyle! There will be plenty of top tips on this in future articles coming up in this great magazine, but here are some of my tried and tested top tips”

1.    The power of setting a vision

“ The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams” –Eleanor Roosevelt

Never underestimate the power of dreams -A tried and tested technique that has been pioneered by those as diverse as shamans to successful business people is visualisation.  Visualisation is literally about believing in the power of your dreams – although this may sound fanciful, both ancient wisdom and modern psychology are united in their agreement that this approach can enable you to achieve your life goals. Most self help, productivity and business books talk about the importance of setting your vision – this is really a form of mental rehearsal where we imagine a certain situation and how it will look and feel.

So start by creating a vision of how you want your practice to be. Really imagine those 20 clients a week walking through your door. What do they look like, how do you feel? Imagine how your life feels, the joy of doing the work you love and being able to make your own living. The stronger you can create this image the more your subconscious mind will work toward achieving these goals and making them a reality.
Other strong visualization techniques include writing down your vision, telling someone else, or creating collages with images collected from magazines.

2.    The wonder of Word of mouth: TTP and TTMP!

Top tip for getting more business _ TTP! Then TTMP! (Talk to people! Talk to more people!). Start with people you know – at every social occasion, meeting, workplace gathering, stranger on the bus, ride in a taxi let the people you are talking to know what you do. Tell them with passion and enthusiasm. Let them know what aromatherapy massage can do for their bad back, arthritic hip, RSI, headaches. Get the word out! It’s your duty! Back it up with a well -produced leaflet. If you get the opportunity book them in there and then on your phone or take their details if they are interested and give them a follow up call.

3. Social Media- “word of mouth on steroids”!

If you are in fear of Facebook or terrified of twitter then just get a grip as you are missing out on one of the biggest free marketing opportunities of all time. Social media is the biggest way to get your message out to hundreds of people within seconds. Best advice – find a teenager- get them to explain twitter or facebook to you and set up an account. Do it now!

4.The golden secret – Rebook your clients

It’s a well-known fact in marketing that it is far easier to KEEP a client than attract a new one. The mistake I see therapists making time and time again is not rebooking their clients – you need to do it there and then at the time of payment. So the top tip for today is the next time you see a client, take a deep breath, visualize that holiday in the sun, get your diary out and re-book them! Well done- that great summer holiday is one step nearer!

HAPPY PACKING!

About Rachel Fairweather and Jing

Rachel Fairweather is co-founder and director of The Jing  Institute of Advanced Massage Training – an organisation dedicated to excellence in all aspects of postgraduate massage training. We are dedicated to helping massage therapists have the lifestyle and business you deserve. Based in Brighton, we offer courses around the country including London and Edinburgh. Our courses include longer qualifications in advanced massage including our revolutionary BTEC Level 6 (degree level) in Advanced Clinical and Sports massage and 1-2 day CPD courses in Marketing, Hot Stone Fusion, trigger point, myofascial release, stretching, pregnancy, on site, living anatomy and many others. You can also check out our DVD in advanced clinical massage techniques, downloadable from the website and our new online course in low back pain.  Please call or check our website for further information and course dates. 
www.jingmassage.com
info@jingmassage.com
Tel: 01273 628942

You can also follow us on Facebook: Jing Institute of Advanced Massage Training
or Twitter! @JingInstitute

Published in the International Federation of Aromatherapists Magazine