Northern California Massage Therapists

Comment

Comment by Lisa S. on April 23, 2011 at 8:24pm

Hello, Namaste. I'm new to this group, I will mostly lurk, read and learn, but I wanted to intruduce myself and I'm open to networking and making new friends.  I'm currently a MT student in the Sacramento area and loving every minute!  I'm convinved this is what I was born to do!

Comment by Narayani on December 2, 2009 at 6:57pm

Id like to get information on starting a massage school in California in 2010..Where or where to begin? Suggestions?

Comment by Tracie S. Tyler, CMP on October 19, 2009 at 10:25am

Hi Cheryl,
I am a new CMP (started this year) sort of local to you in Loomis, outside of Roseville. I am in a similar situation as you are. I was a "CMT" (until now). I have 250 hours of courses and of that, I am not sure what actually applies to the new certification levels. I have to go back and check my transcripts. I took a college level Anatomy/Physio course when I was working on my Bachelor's degree - I wonder if that time would apply.


Thank you for the tips. I have 25 yrs in customer service and every point you hit on is excellent. I hadn't thought about "me time" since right now my massage business is second to my "mundane" job (for benefits and guaranteed income). I have to take the appts when I can get them - even if it means an evening massage. I was relieved when a client cancelled on me the other night because I had been so crazy-busy all day at the other job that I knew I wasn't going to have it in me to do a good massage. It's a completely different environment from massage - high stress, active, "immediate" results sort of work. I'm going to have to reconsider making those appts on the days I work all day.

Comment by Cheryl Shimada on August 30, 2009 at 1:22pm

I would guess approximately 97% of my clients re-book prior to leaving their session. I have a long standing clientele, some since I first started in 2001. I only work 4 days/week and I don't work the late hours, my last massage starts at 5 or 5:30 p.m. depending if it is a hour or 90-minute. I have 2 young children and they come first. My evening appointments go really quick. Most of my regulars have a schedule and they have voiced their appreciation when I just plunk them into a spot and I know their schedule. I am currently booking into the end of the year. I have always opened up my calender 3 months in advance, that way I know what I'm looking at as far as fiscals go.

The majority of my current clients have come from chair massage I did at my gym I belonged to at the time. Since I live in Sacramento, there are a lot of state workers in the downtown area and my office is not too far, on the persons way home from work, or a nice reprieve from the 5 p.m. rush on their way home in other directions. All of my new clients come from word of mouth. I have not had a mailer, or ad in the local paper since 2004.

My recommendations for someone starting out, knowing what I know now...

Return the phone call/email within a reasonable time. I have heard countless stories from my clients on how they have called other CMTs before working with me and they never got a call back or it took the person several days and by that time they booked with someone else. On my work days I make it a point to call my clients back within 24 hours. If it's on my day off, it waits until the day I get back.

Determine a schedule and stick with it. It may be hard to turn down that one massage session, especially if you need to make rent, but your energy and personal time is important to nurturing oneself. You can make exceptions, but I have found when I did, I have been disappointed, either the client was late or re-scheduled last minute...it was always something.

If you are new and inexperienced, see financially if you could discount your first massage in order for the client to make a future investment in what you provide. If you have taken a break from massage and know what you are doing and feel confident in your skill, and are just trying to re-emerge, then maybe don't discount your hourly rate due to one's experience.

You attract the type of clientele that matches your personality. It took me a few years to understand and see this in my business. I worked out of fear of not making enough money and took on anyone and anything and ignored that little voice inside of me telling me it was not a good fit. Now I with maturity and knowledge and experience, the clients I have are very much like me or one standard deviation left or right of me. I show up early to my work so that when the client shows up early/on-time/late, there is no excuse on my end to give them the full hour or less if they are late. Most of my clients are early/on-time and the one's who do show up late are barely late (within 5 minutes or they call to say they may be late).

I'm professional in that I call the day before so there is no excuse for the no-show and it is much easier to collect on the no-show fee (mine is the entire session fee) or they cannot book with me until they do, as they know that if I don't work, I don't make a living and I could have booked someone in their time slot had they given me the courtesy of a call. I do make some exceptions depending on the relationship I have with the client.

When booking their appointments whether it is one or 3 at a time, I give them an appointment card. I also give them a receipt showing payment. All of these things may seem small, but they have paid off in the end. I cannot tell you how many CMTs I've been to who do not call the day before, give out an appointment card, nor a receipt for payment.

The comments my clients have made to me is I'm consistent and they appreciate it. I call if I have to cancel and I follow through if I don't get a hold of them to re-schedule. I don't put that responsibility on my client. If they cancel and it's done on VM, I'll call back with some dates and times to get them re-scheduled, which many have told me they appreciate.

In the end it is whatever works for you.

Comment by Cheryl Shimada on August 25, 2009 at 11:36am

Hi Nor Cal CMT's or should I say CMP/CMT. I think it is great that CA is now licensing. However, for someone like me, who has been actively doing massage therapy for over 8 years on a full-time basis, the additional hours to get to 500 is quite annoying. I have enough to get my CMT through continuing ed, however, since my original certification hours of training were 126, I now have to go back and get the additional 50 hours of anatomy/ehtics/hygiene. Does anyone know of a different way? I heard that you can turn in W-2 or Schedule C, but is that only good for those whose school has closed down? Please advise.

Cheryl

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