I'm a husband, father, movement therapist and baseball dork. My work and passion is exploring the potential of the human body. Practice Makes Improvement :)

Feb 12, 2016

You’ve Finished Massage School & Now What? A Field Guide To Finding Work & Starting A Practice.

So you have graduated from Massage School, got your certificate/license now what? Do you set up your table in the local park & start working? How can you find a place to work? When should you start your own practice?

Read on dear reader to hear my answers to all of these questions.

The transition from school to working & then starting a practice can be a tough one. I remember getting out of MT school in ’98 & having no clue how to get into the field. In fact I didn’t start working until ’00. I was a 24 year old male massage therapist in a very conservative community. There were not massage practices at every corner like there are today. My journey since then has been filled with bumps, bruises & successes. Hopefully I will be able to pass on things that I have learned to shorten your learning curve.

Before I go on let me throw a warning out here. Some of what you are going to read you may not want to hear. I am going to be completely honest & tell you things I see/hear from new MTs quite often that I feel hurt them. Again my intention is to shorten your learning curve. So read on, keep an open mind and be patient.

You Need More Experience To Be Good

Massage School has done a wonderful job of giving students the basics, but those basics need to be refined and added onto in order to become great. This refinement is needed in the following areas.

Technique: Just because we know what the name for a muscle is doesn’t mean we can palpate, understand how it interacts with other muscles & when to treat it.
Build A Practice: You can intake info from all of the books, podcasts, webinars in the world but building a practice happens by spending time in the trenches getting your hands dirty.
Developing A Reputation/Network: This takes years of consistent effort. It’s showing up to the community & networking events. It’s working on your ability to sell & deliver on your promises. You will get burned & you will have successes but none of these things happen over night.

Go Work For Someone & Respect Their Experience

I can remember when I was in school dreaming about my own practice & how cool it would be. I have had my own practice since ’03 & have loved it. With that being said it was extremely valuable for me to work for another practice before I ventured on my own. I meet many beginning MTs who have grand illusions they are going to come out of school, set a table up & clients will flock to them. This is just not realistic or true. In fact that’s the quickest way to failure I can imagine. It is my opinion new MTs should find a place to work to build the skills discussed previously & here is why.

Gain Experience & Clients: Starting out MTs have little professional credibility, this makes building a clientèle base hard. An established practice has all of the things a new MT lacks; experience, credibility & an active clientèle base. These are all things a new MT can borrow from until they are established.
A Good Practice Will Have Systems In Place: There are so many things to think about & learn when you are first starting out, working at an established practice will allow you to make the needed mistakes to get your chops. Unless a new MT has previous business experience or has spouse/family member that does I would not suggest starting a business on your own. Forgetting to reschedule an appointment for a client is an easy mistake to correct, filing your taxes incorrectly is a much bigger problem. Take 3–5 years & learn how to be the best massage practitioner possible. Spread your wings when you can deliver a great massage, manage clients & understand how a practice runs.
Keep Your Head Down & Work Hard:I cannot tell you how many times I hear about the inter office politics from practice owners. People pissed at each & bickering over who gets more hours, clients & pay. When you are a new MT be prepared to prove yourself to your colleagues, clients and the practice owner. Remember you don’t have a track record, that only comes with consistent time & effort. Work so hard at getting clients & providing them with the best service everyone knows what your worth to the practice is. There is no arguing with a MT who brings in clients and money.
Respect The Practice Owner: Contrary to popular belief most MT practice owners don’t make a fortune off of the MTs on staff. I know of a practice owner who makes $14.00 expenses for each hour that billed in her office. I bring this up because I hear often MTs that are employed/contracted thinks the owner of the practice makes a ton of money off of them. When you factor the risk they take to open, furnish & provide an environment for other MTs to make a living I think they deserve to pocket a little money. Have respect for them, they did after all take a risk bringing a new MT into their practice.

Lastly Be Prepared to Work Hard

Starting a practice before you are ready is a very, very difficult task. I know, I have been there. It is my opinion I jumped into private practice 2 years before I should have. As a result there were many times I didn’t have two nickels to rub together. I had my power turned off, eviction notices on my door, tax issues from not filing properly. I worked my ass off to get myself to where I am today & after 15 years I am still working my ass off to be the best practitioner & business owner I can be. You are going to have to do the same & it is not easy. As I said before keep your head down, an open mind & work hard. This is a wonderful vocation and worth every drop of blood, sweat and tears.

Practice Makes Improvement :)

If you found this post to be helpful please share it with a fellow student or new MT. Also please give me a like on by clicking on the heart below, it helps me to expand my reach.

Would like to give a big shout out to The Massage Nerd. This post was inspired by a FB chat we had.

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 at shawnsynergymt@gmail.com.