“About 25,200 openings for massage therapists are projected each year, on average, over the decade. Many of those openings are expected to result from the need to replace workers who transfer to different occupations or exit the labor force, such as to retire.” - Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Massage Therapists, at https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/massage-therapists.htm

Top 5 tips for a long and lucrative career as a Massage Therapist!

According to the Bureau of Labor statistics, the massage profession is expected to grow 20% over the next decade "much faster than the average for all occupations." If you look at the outlook for the massage therapy profession on their website, the future looks pretty promising. They go on to say "Many of those openings are expected to result from the need to replace workers who transfer to different occupations or exit the labor force, such as to retire."

While some therapists do have a long career, (myself included) and many of us do retire, there are way too many who leave the field due to injuries, burnout or lack of business skills. Estimates vary on the average length of a massage therapy career, but many sources site 5-8 years. For the time and expense to become a Massage Therapist, you want to be sure to have a career that lasts longer than 5-8 years, right?

With that said, here are my top 5 tips for a long (and lucrative) career as a Massage Therapist:

1. Use leverage

One of the first things you learn in massage school is proper body mechanics. When I train new therapists, I often see that they have a good sense of staying in alignment while they work. Their body mechanics are good, but they don't really have a good understanding of how to use their body weight to do the work, rather than their hands and arms.

With Massage, learning to work smarter, not harder is key. To get deeper into the tissue, learn to lean into the work and slowly “let” the body relax. Be sure to take enough time to warm the tissues before you go in with an elbow. Try stacking your hands to get more pressure. Be sure to keep your wrists and elbows taut, but not locked, and to move your body with your hands for better flow.

2. Have realistic expectations

As a new therapist, I remember thinking I could work from 8 am to 8 pm every day and would make a crap ton of money. Back then, I was 20 years old and a massage costs $30! In order to make a living, I was doing 6-7 massages a day.

I think our gross income that year was around $50,000 which isn’t bad for 1982! Of course I also had to pay my expenses, and I wasn’t factoring in the taxes I would owe. As you can imagine, I was headed to injury, burn out or worse-giving up entirely!

So my advice is to have a really good understanding of how much massage you can physically do. In our Spa, we book our new therapists no more than 4-5 sessions per day. They don’t have to spend time on marketing or running the business, though. Our manager also does massage. She works a 38-40 hour week, but only does an average of 3-4 massages per day.

3. Set Boundaries

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.

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! Read more about setting boundaries here

4. Learn to duplicate yourself

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 and train great people, you can duplicate yourself and have a business you can sell later.

5. Learn to manage your energy

ENERGY! My very favorite topic. When I say energy, I mean not only your physical energy, but your emotional and spiritual energy, too. Most of us didn't grow up learning how to manage our emotions. We learned to react emotionally when things weren't going our way, often causing a roller coaster ride of highs and lows.

As a Massage Therapist, learning to manage your emotional energy is important because many of us are empaths and feel others feelings as well as our own. When I learned Quantum Touch Energy Healing, I learned skills that not only helped manage my physical energy, but to change my emotional state, too. I use these Frequency tools for my own use, and to help clients.

Running a business can bring you lots of challenges that affect your emotions. Bringing that into the treatment room can be hard to manage. When you learn skills to help change your energetic vibration, you can easily brush off disappointments and give 110% to every single client.

If you are struggling with your energy levels, emotional ups and downs or feel disconnected spiritually, there are healing tools that can help. I love connecting with and helping other therapists. Let me know where you're struggling and find answers to help you have a long, rewarding and lucrative massage Therapy career!

Want to learn more about how to have a long career as an MT? Send me a message or book a call and Let's chat!!