Massage Business 101: Location, Location, Location & How To Choose One
The old cliche in real estate & business is “Location, Location, Location.” If you are opening a bricks & mortar business it is still true today.
The area you open in is just as important if not more important than the building you occupy. Read on to find out why & how you can determine if your area is a good one.
I talk to quite a few Massage Therapists who want to start their own practice & while I am excited they want to give it a run I also am a bit concerned for them as well. Starting a practice (solo or multiple therapists) is a pretty big task & just because you can provide an amazing massage doesn’t mean you are going to be successful as a business owner. According to the US Small Business Association (SBA) 50% of the small businesses make it past 5 years.
One of the biggest reasons this happens is a lack of due diligence when preparing to open a business. Just because you have a great idea, product or service doesn’t mean it will fly in your area. Unfortunately in our profession many people still see Massage as a “luxury” and don’t set aside money. This is why the topic of location is super important for success & for your sanity.
Before we go on, I want to make sure I have the right audience here. If you are not thinking about opening a practice or if you think you can make it without any help now is a good time jump ship. IF you are looking to open a practice & would like to improve your chances of it working. Read on!
I opened my first practice in Brighton, Michigan in ’03, the economy was booming & things were great. Then ’08 happened and the bottom dropped out on the entire state. G.M. & Chrysler were going bankrupt, laying people off left & right. The housing market stopped & people were fleeing the state like it was on fire. Needless to say it wasn’t a great time to have a business where disposable income was needed to survive. But oddly enough my practice actually grew during one of the darkest economic periods in Michigan history.
Was I lucky? Did I have some secret power that kept my clients coming back? Why given all of the information above did my practice thrive? The simple answer is location, location, location. Brighton is located in Livingston County, during that period actually grew & had one of Michigan’s highest median income. Livingston County was actually an outlier in Michigan, people were moving there & they had something that was important for my business. They had disposable income, meaning they had enough money at the end of the month to spend on my services. This is critical for a massage practice, as much as I hate to say it people with little to no disposable income usually are not great longterm clients.
I know, you are thinking “This is great for you Shawn but how does this help me understand where I can open and build a sustainable practice?” I will answer that question right now.
Here is a very simple equation of how to determine the disposable income of an area. I found this on a post by New Think Tank http://www.newthinktank.com/2010/08/how-to-find-demographics/.
Take the median house hold income divide it by 12 and subtract it from the median income monthly owner costs for a mortgage. For example the average median income in Livingston County in ’12 was $72,129 & the average mortgage was $1,493. If we use the equation above it would look like this $72,129 ÷ 12 — $1,493 = $4517.75. This means the average Livingston County resident had roughly $4500 of disposable income. I know this is not a perfect number as it does not take into account car payment, food etc, what it does show us is a quick snapshot if the market will support businesses that rely on disposable income. The higher the disposable income the better the chance you have of making your business a success.
Another factor in deciding where to open a practice at is how the community supports local businesses. If there are a lot of big box stores & very few small businesses you may want to look for another place to open your practice. You can do more investigation by either using Google or heading to your local Chamber of Commerce to see how many massage practices are in your area. In 2016 if there are not more than 15–20 you may want to reconsider & search for a community that will support it. Don’t recreate the wheel here, starting a new business is a pretty stressful activity and putting yourself in a place that doesn’t support you doesn’t make it any easier.
One more quick but not popular assessment is if there is a massage franchise like Massage Envy, Massage Green or Lavida in your area. Before you write me off as crazy consider many franchises require an area has certain market demographics like disposable income & size of market.
Please if you are considering opening up your own practice do a little research to see if your area is a good fit. A little work in the beginning will save you lots of headaches & a big disappointment.
If you found this post helpful could you do me a couple of favors. Please click on the green heart as this expands my reach & please share this with a friend or colleague who is considering opening their own massage practice. Thanks!!!
Practice Makes Improvement :)
Shawn Kitzman has been practicing Movement Therapies since 1992. He began his Massage Practice in 2000 and is currently working on a book focused on helping Massage Therapists get out of their rut and put the Passion back into their practice. When he is not spending time with his family, getting thrown in Jiu Jitsu, providing solutions for injured athletes in his practice he can be reached atshawnsynergymt@gmail.com
