“As a Business owner who also does services, it’s easy to think you can do your payroll or reconcile your bank account in between clients. The reality is, those activities require different skill sets and use different parts of your brain. It’s really hard to multitask between them.” - Denise Willinger

Prevent Burnout with Clear Boundaries

Even though I’ve had a long career as a Massage Therapist and have owned a business for over 20 years, it wasn’t without a steep learning curve. I actually burned out and took time off (quit doing massage!) three times. There were so many things I did wrong in the last 40 years-

• doing too much massage

• Not knowing how to be a boss

• Not making time for myself

• Putting everyone else first

• Self medicating with food and/or alcohol

• Checking out when I felt overwhelmed

That’s just the short list of things NOT to do in your massage career! There were so many times I wanted to quit. A few times I actually did. I won't go into all the details here, but if you want to read my story, you can find it here

Lucky for me, I’ve learned how to create balance over time (and a lot of tears). One of the biggest lessons I learned was about how to set the right boundaries for myself, my employees and our customers. Setting the right boundaries helped me create a business I love, become a better boss and attract some great people (both our customers and our team!)

When you learn how to schedule yourself when you have the most energy or creativity, you can create boundaries that will help you enjoy your job. You can help your staff be productive and successful, without overworking or injuring their body. You’ll enjoy your time with customers without feeling your time is not valued or you aren't paid what you're worth.

No more feeling overwhelmed, overworked or worse-ready to give up!

Here are my top 5 tips for setting boundaries in your massage business:

1. Set a specific schedule

 There’s an old saying “If I don't schedule me, someone else will!” Whether you are in private practice, are a business owner or an employee, having a regular schedule can help you set specific times for work, self care and leisure time. Unfortunately, Business Owners and Managers tend to work way past closing time. Create a specific work schedule for yourself and your employees that works with your energy levels and physical abilities.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve hired someone who wants to work full time, but they over commit themselves. Before long, there are meltdowns, sick days or they want to quit. To be honest, a brand new therapist right out of school should only do 2-3 massages per day. Work them up to 4-5 per day over a 3-6 month period.

If you run a commission business or work on commission only, it’s tempting to try to book the therapists as much as possible. DON'T DO IT! If you want to have a long career or you want to keep your staff a long time, overworking them right out of the gate is the quickest way to having an injured or burnt out massage therapist!

That’s why we run our Spa as a Team Based company. Everyone is an employee and we all work together to reach our goals. Our staff is paid not just when they are doing hands-on work, but are also paid for training, meetings, consulting with the client, clean up time and more.

(To learn more about how to run a Team Based Salon or Spa business, check out Strategies.com. Their coaching is the gold standard in our industry! )

We try to schedule everyone with enough time to prepare for their guest, to have a consultation with the client, and plenty of time after the service for creating a treatment plan, too. There’s time for clean up and to be ready for the next guest. We schedule lunch for everyone, too. When you touch people all day, you need some down time, so taking a lunch, fueling your body, and having some time for yourself is super important.

That goes for owners and managers too! If you’re consistently working through lunch or after hours, you need to start taking time off to care for yourself during the workday. Be sure to block some time for self care, too. Meditation, journaling, taking a bubble bath, whatever rejuvenates you can be made a priority in your schedule.

2. Use Time blocking for productivity

What is time blocking? Time blocking is creating specific blocks of time in your schedule for specific tasks at the time when you are most likely to do them well. As a Business owner who also does services, it’s easy to think you can do your payroll or reconcile your bank account in between clients. The reality is, those activities require different skill sets and use different parts of your brain. It’s really hard to multitask between them.

To be more productive, I learned that I have more physical energy in the mornings. So I schedule things like my morning walk in the morning before I start my day. I can do bookkeeping or writing in the mornings, but if I wait to do my daily walk, more often than not it won't happen. So I make sure to use my energy levels to my advantage to feel my best.

Are you a morning person? Great. Schedule your massage clients early, and your admin time after lunch. Night Owl? Maybe you can schedule your self care time in the mornings and your clients in the afternoon. Time blocking can also look like a CEO day-where all of your end of month admin work is done in your home office without interruption. Or a planning retreat. We take our managers on a three day planning retreat to schedule our marketing and promotions for the next year. By scheduling tasks that require the same energy levels and bandwidth together, you can get more done in less time!

3. Learn to say no

There is a huge difference between urgent and important. Many items on your to-do list are important, but don't need to be handled immediately. As business owners, we get so many requests to make decisions each day, we sometimes feel that our job is just solving problems and putting out fires! In addition to time-blocking, you need to learn to say no to anything that’s not on your schedule.

Whether you’re an employee, a contractor or a business owner, you are going to have different admin duties that are part of working as a massage therapist. I’ve learned the hard way that multi-tasking between admin and services is really difficult. You have to be in a completely different mindset to book appointments, call and confirm customers or create a marketing campaign than you do when you're giving a massage.

Set specific hours for performing each task. Block out time for massage when you have the most physical energy. For our manager, we block out the morning for her managerial duties and lunch, so she’s only on the schedule from 2-6 for services. During services time, she concentrates on clients and giving the best service possible. Admin and managerial duties are ONLY addressed during admin time! Here’s what that looks like:

Susie Employee-“ Boss, I need to ask off for _______”.

Boss “Susie, you will need to fill out a request Off form (see how important those systems are??) and I will look at it during my admin time tomorrow. Thanks.)

You also have to create a schedule that will give you time between clients. A client should never feel rushed. Neither should you! By setting boundaries for yourself AND your clients, you will have more energy and time for both a fulfilling career and your friends, family and self care!

4. Create Systems in your business

If you want true longevity in your massage career, you want to learn to build a business along with your massage practice. Early in my business, I knew that I wanted to build a business that I could retire from and eventually sell.

If you build a massage practice based on your own abilities, when you retire, your business retires with you. This goes for all personal services, including esthetics, hairdressers, nail techs or even tattoo artists or personal trainers. If the clients come to you for a service, they often don't want to switch to another therapist.

If you build a destination and a brand that offers consistent service, no matter who the practitioner is, you build a business that will far outlive your retirement. When you learn to systemize your proprietary methods and learn to hire, train and manage great people, you can duplicate yourself and have a business you can sell later.

Create systems for EVERYTHING! Service standards for hiring, training, and managing your front desk, your service providers and customer relations are the best way to assure you are spending your day doing things that lead to success rather than putting out fires!

5. Take regular vacations

Burnout is a huge problem in our industry. Whether you are physically or emotionally burnt out doesn't matter- either one can shorten your career. When you have a massage practice that is fully booked, it’s really important to schedule your time off IN ADVANCE! If you book six to eight weeks out, be sure to block a long weekend every month or so, and at least one full week every year to recharge.

You may not even go anywhere-just stay home and enjoy family and friends, without thinking about your business.

It’s important for your staff to take time off, too. Respect their time off by not calling or texting them when they're on vacation, and they will respect your time, too. Offering paid vacations to your staff will give them the opportunity to recharge without losing income.

That can go a long way toward helping retain good employees and prevent burnout for yourself and your staff!

Core Values

Make respecting boundaries, self care and family first part of the core values of your company. By creating systems in your business you will have well defined boundaries for yourself, your customers and your employees and help prevent the burnout that is so prevalent in our industry.

Want to learn more about how to run a successful massage practice?

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