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Thinking about Starting Your Own Massage Therapy Business? Here’s How!

If you’re considering starting your own business and you are interested in massage therapy, you can definitely be your own boss. But just like any other field, you need to take preparatory steps to build the company from the ground up. You need to think about things like whether you’ll simply go freelance and offer home service massage, or if you would like to put up a physical location for the business. Are you flying solo or building the business with a partner? Here, we will take a look at the steps that you can take if you are getting into the massage therapy business.

How to Start Your Own Massage Therapy Business

The prospect of starting your own business may sound intimidating at first, but you will never know what you are truly capable of unless you actually give it a try. To jump start a career in the massage therapy industry, here are a few steps that you can take:

  1. Get the proper certification.

Naturally, you need to get the proper certification as a licensed massage therapist if you don’t already have it. Those who are not yet certified can enrol in massage therapy courses offered by an educational establishment or a technical school in your local state. After completing the required classes, you need to log in actual hours of massage work to develop your skills. Once certified and licensed to operate in your state, you can proceed to the next step.

  1. Get the proper accreditation.

Clients will only start trusting you once you gain the proper accreditation, if you were referred to them by a trusted friend, or once you show to them that you actually know what you’re doing. To remove any doubts about your skills, join a professional organization like the American Massage Therapy Association. Not only will you get the proper accreditation from the org, but you can also expand your business network and connect with like-minded individuals.

  1. Choose which type of massage therapy business you would like to establish.

Next, decide if you would like to simply work as a freelance massage therapist who goes from one house to another – or if you’d like to put up a physical massage therapy establishment. For the latter, you need to file the proper paperwork and register your business name. It could be a sole proprietorship, a partnership, a corporation or an LLC. If you’re not familiar with the process, get a legal expert to help you out.

  1. Decide on the major and minor details of your day-to-day operations.

Where would you like to set up shop? Which type of massage technique are you specializing in? Will you be hiring additional massage therapists or are you working on your own until you have established a solid clientele? These are some of the major and minor details of your daily operations that you need to outline.

  1. Know how to market your wares.

Thanks to social media, you can now advertise your business without having to spend a lot of money on flyers, radio or TV ads. You can set up a Facebook, Twitter and Instagram account and get in touch with your target market from there.  You can also use print and word-of-mouth advertising.

  1. Have a solid business financial plan.

When setting up any kind of business, you need to have a plan which includes your short-term and long-term goals; a timeline of what you’d like to achieve; the steps that you should take in achieving those goals; and a solid financial plan. By setting up these things in advance, you can build a massage therapy business from the ground up, and make it flourish in the future.

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