10.19.09
Decisions You Make
I graduated from massage school back in 2006. All through school I knew I wanted to own my own massage practice. My first thought was to have a place at my house. I figured it would be convenent and easy having it at my house. My kids are older and it would be easy to let them be at home while I had a client in a separate office space attached to the house. I wouldn’t need a babysitter and I could work around my family’s needs.
My plans were to finish school and build and office on to our house. I soon found out though that building additions are very expensive and it is not so easy to get a loan and keep a payment within our budget. My next idea was to use my dinning room as my massage space. This meant that I would have to move my dinning room table into my living room and put up a privacy curtain between between the living room, dinning room and dinning room and kitchen. That was ok enough, but I also had to make sure that the husband and kids were gone and that the 2 dogs and 4 cats would stay quietly in the upstairs bedroom for the duration of the massage. I was happy enough with this plan and even successfully had four massage sessions this way, but none of those clients returned. I quickly realized that the nice, but unprofessional appearance of the curtains and massage area were less than ideal for people to feel comfortable.
Plan II: I would travel around to peoples houses with my massage table and do In Home Massages. I thought this to be a novel idea and won that would really be successful. Who wouldn’t want a massage in the convience of their home. It was going along pretty good, not to busy I was maybe doing 2 massages a month. I advertised on the Dollar Savor and thought I would get a lot of business. Well a year later and I still was not doing more than 2 massages a month. I really did not like the idea of working in a spa or for someone else. I really, really wanted my own business and was not about to give up on that idea. But you know that table is really heavy, 33 lbs and when you have to bring it upstairs it is really awkward.
Plan III: This plan just happened to come out of the blue actually. I put together a networking site for the graduates and alumni of my massage school and I would rutinely get notices from the school when massage spaces or job opportunities came about. Well well such notice was for a massage space that was right down the road from my house, like 4 miles. It was a hair salon owner who recently decided to build a massage room in her salon. I never really looked at massages spaces before because I still had this idea that maybe some how I would find the money to add on to my house and have my massage practice. Like maybe I would find a washed up treasure chest on the beach or something 
yeah right! Anyway this particular massage space notice appealed to me and I decided to look into it. And I am really glad I did. The owner and the other girls are so great and we get along really well. We have our own little family and I love going to work everyday.
My advice to anyone looking to have a practice in their own home is: Do it if you can build a separate rooom and bathroom and can insure a queit atmosphere. If not search around and find a place to rent. If your as lucky as I am you will find a place that matches your style and personality and if your even more lucky, like me, you will find a new extended family and find so much joy in your job and clients. I have noticed that my clients are the best most loyal clients. The atmosphere I work in and the people that come into the salon are the best and I don’t have to work super hard to book people. I still spend several hours a week marketing, but just being in the salon has gotten me many, many wonderful clients. Do I still want a massage practice in my home? Sometimes, but the joy I have where I am, I don’t think I would get through a home practice. One thing you have to think about it if you are working from your home it can get kind of lonely. You have your clients, but the social interactions you get from being outside of the home can be so rewarding.
I love my job and I love my clients. My clients are the best people in the world and I always look forward to my time with them. I feel very blessed to have them in my life.
Love and Light
Shellie Morin LMT
www.sensesationalmassage.com
207-850-1014
