So what’s the worst case scenario that could happen for us as massage therapists?
The massage industry shuts down forever. There’s a run on TheraCanes. Athletes are rolling on tennis balls (unless you’re a Cross-fitter; then you’re rolling on a lax ball). Chronic pain people are popping pills. And stressed out people are petting puppies and kitties.
Seems a little implausible, doesn’t it?
People want to be rubbed—as in you are the rub-er; they are the rub-ee. Your hands, their backs. Forever, amen. Getting rubbed is in our DNA. Period.
And the reality is that when the dust settles after this first pandemic, people are going to climb back on your table simply because they can’t rub themselves.
So, can we agree that the worst-case scenario is not the massage industry completely folding?
Good.
Let’s try this scenario: The massage industry is severely impacted by the pandemic and it takes 2 years to recover.
Realistic Reality
Okay, that has some plausibility legs, right?
Let’s run with that for a minute.
Let’s say that the pre-Covid massage world had 60 million customers and the phase-in period starts with 30 million—1/2 of the customers are not there. Okay, that’s a little frightening especially if you apply the ½ loss scenario to your business.
Let’s say that you saw 14 clients a week pre-Covid-19 and when you start back to work during the phase-in you only have ½ the normal amount—7 clients—walking through your door.
That’s a 50% drop in income.
Damn, that’s like starting over.
Or is it?
No.
Yeah, that was pretty blunt. I was going to throw some more words in to soften it a bit and say something like: I’m going to say no.
But the correct answer is unequivocally no—and admittedly that “no” is a punch, not just directed at you, but at me, too, because at this moment in time, we’re susceptible to giving up.
Granted, giving up on massage and pivoting may ultimately be the right decision for you, but you need the best and most realistic information available to make that decision—which brings me back to starting over.
The Starting Over Myth
Starting over from scratch means you’ve lost all of your clients.
You won’t.
Starting over from scratch means that you’ve lost every single one of your referral sources.
Not going to happen.
Starting over from scratch means that all the business connections you’ve made in your massage world are gone.
Again, not going to be the case.
In fact, “starting over” doesn’t accurately describe our position in the post-Covid-19 massage world.
What does?
Starting-back-in-a new-but-not-entirely-different-massage world-with-less-money-coming-in.
It’s a fancy term, I know (haha). But we don’t need fancy now. We need realistic information to work with so that we can make good decisions.
Here’s how we’re going to make good decisions.
Starting Back During the Phase-In
First, let’s frame what’s really happening when work starts: We are not “starting over”, we’re “starting back”.
Second, we need to acknowledge the new realities of going back to work during the Covid-19 phase-in.
They are: We’re starting back to work with less money coming in, less clients and less opportunity to ramp up to normal (and beyond) until there is a Covid-19 vaccine, herd immunity, or a pharmaceutical treatment.
Third, when we go back we still will have clients, referral sources and business connections, just less of them.
Fourth, if we can adapt to the Covid-19 phase-in, we’ll be in a position to be tremendously successful in the post-Covid-19 solution world.
Adapting to the New Massage World
Adaptation sounds scary. Quite frankly it is scary. But so is everything else, like getting a new job as an employee where you don’t call any of the shots.
Adaptation as a self-employed massage therapist is less scary when you’ve been through some serious times where you’ve had to make some serious changes.
If you haven’t, don’t worry—I have and though not as good as first-hand experience, I think my experiences can help you see that moving forward is possible even in the worst of times.
The Jerky Chiropractor
Years ago I had an office in a gym. The owner, Larry, was a bodybuilder and he opened this muscle-head gym so that he could work out. Needless to say, he was bankrupt in less than 3 years. But that’s not the story.
I had a deal with Larry and it was this: I rented out a room for $500 a month, which was not chump change 20 years ago. In return, my room was mine, I could prowl the floor for customers without the gym taking a cut and I had massage exclusivity, which meant that I was the only massage therapist in the gym.
Well, about a year later, Larry rented out another office to a chiropractor. The chiropractor and I acted professionally towards each other, but we don’t love each other, actually we sort of hated each other. The chiro assured me that he’s wasn’t going to offer massage and 6 months later he had two massage therapists working for him.
I was furious because now overnight I had major competition literally next door. I went to Larry; he did nothing, and now I had a choice—leave or adapt.
With a lot of coaching from my wife, Lisa, I adapted.
How?
I doubled-down with the personal trainers in the gym who were good referral resources, and I made them great referral sources by offering them massage for themselves at a discount. I coordinated care with them when sharing clients. And I referred clients to them.
I also offered discounted massage to the front desk people and I gave them a hand whenever I could, like if the phone was ringing and all the front desk people were busy, I’d answer it.
I also differentiated myself from the chiro’s massage therapists by focusing on pain-relief massage and using massage tools.
At the end of the day, my massage business grew and was better than it was before the chiro rocked my massage world.
Yay for me! Lol. Not exactly the same type of catastrophe as Covid-19. Here’s something closer.
Half My Clients Gone
Remember when I had said that Larry was a bodybuilder, not a business person? Well, he ended up selling the gym to a member of the gym.
Then about 3 years later that new gym owner decided to move the gym to an area that was out of my core clients radius. I decided not to move with the new owner and suddenly ½ of my clients were gone. Poof!
Not only were half my clients gone, but my advertising, word of mouth in the gym, was gone, too. It’s worse: Most of my referral sources, the trainers, went bye-byes too because they stayed with the gym.
I scrambled for a year, working out of Lisa’s office with the “½ of my clients that had stayed with me” group while trying to grow my business in another office, a room I rented from a chiropractor. This chiropractor, Heather, I liked:-)
You get where I’m going with these two stories. In both cases I was able to build my business back up because I adjusted to the realities of the situation.
Covid-19 Phase-In
We don’t know all of the realities of Covid-19 phase-in yet. But we do know this: You will still have some clients. You will still have some referral sources. You will still have some business connections.
You can build on them. In fact, you can build on referral sources and business connections now while you’re stuck at home. Click here for help with that.
Also, though there will be be less clients to win over during Phase-In, they’ll be less competition for those clients. That’s good.
Covid-19 Solution Days
When you boil it all down, going back to massage comes down to this: Do you want to go through the learning curve (adaptation phase)?
The phase-in period is when the learning curve happens. It’s where you harden yourself. You can’t skip the phase-in and jump to the Covid-19 solution world and have a thriving massage business.
It doesn’t work that way.
You have to cut your teeth (again).
You have to grind it out (again).
You have to get up (again).
Or as Rocky says: “It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.”
See what happens when I get all worked up.
One more thing, if you’re just starting out or have never really got your business off the ground and still want to have a massage business, you’re absolutely NOT out of the game.
If You’re Just Starting Out
Don’t get hung up on your lack of experience because if you sit out this pandemic, then you might never make it back in before the next one hits.
Work your advantages.
And yes, you have some.
One is that you haven’t been in the business so long that you have biases and are unwilling to try something.
In addition, you’ve got something to prove to yourself and/or you need the money and/or you can’t stand the thought of working for someone else. Direct that passion and energy towards the things that matter. Here’s what I think matters: How to Build a Massage Business Crash Course.
And lastly, I’m here if you need me:-)
Sign up for my free, email group below, and I’ll send you my latest info weekly.
