For many massage therapists, the summer months are a slow time of year.
This happens for two reasons. First, a lot of people use their summer months as vacation time. Kids are out of school so it’s a great opportunity to get away as a family. So if your clients are away on vacation, there’s a good chance that they won’t be in town to schedule a massage from you. Or they may have allocated that massage money to now be vacation money.
The second reason the summer months might slow down is… you. Maybe you don’t want to spend those hot summer days cooped up in a ten by twelve treatment room with no windows. Or maybe you want to spend more time with your own family. Take the kids to the beach or for a hike in the woods. Go on a family vacation of your own (since your clients are out of town).
Well just because business is slow and you don’t have money flowing into your bank account, that doesn’t mean you can’t be productive. You can still be productive in a way that will generate future cash flow.
For example, while you are sitting on the sunny beach with your kids, you might be reading a book on marketing to get some ideas to increase your client base.
A few books that I highly recommend that would make great beach-reads are, anything by Seth Godin including ‘This Is Marketing’ and ‘All Marketers Tell Stories’. In fact, you should read all of Seth Godin’s books. We know that marketing is a constantly evolving enterprise, but even his earliest books (that might be slightly out of date) have nuggets of wisdom that are beneficial.
Another easy beach read is ‘Duct Tape Marketing’ by John Jantsch. I read this book for the first time almost 20 years ago and continue to refer back to it all these years later because it is still relevant.
These slow summer months are also a great opportunity to take a Home Study Course to earn some continuing education credits. My new Home Study Course is worth four credits and will give you many, many ideas on how to grow your massage practice with repeat business and referrals.
Repeat business and referrals are what I like to think of as the Holy Grail of growing any service oriented business like massage and bodywork.
If you need more structure than reading a book or taking a Home Study Course, you could use your slow summer months to take a workshop (either in person or online). The next Business Building Bootcamp will be on June 22nd and 23rd, 2024. Go to www.repoliconsulting.com to reserve your spot in the next Business Building Bootcamp or to download the Home Study Course.
The Business Building Bootcamp is like the Home Study Course on steroids. You learn how to get referrals and repeat business, and even more information on branding, marketing, and how to generate more income.
If you are a podcast person, you should look up my friend Jessica Miller and her award-winning ‘It’s Your Offer’ podcast. You can find her at www.jessicamillercoaching.com or download her podcast wherever you normally listen to your podcasts. Every week she shares her insights on how to create and implement your very own “Hell yes!” offer to help boost your sales and grow your business. I highly recommend that you download episodes #141 and #142 and listen to what she has to say about having a productive summer.
After listening to those two episodes, go back and start listening from the beginning. Even though her podcast is not specifically for massage therapists, you will find her very entertaining and full of business ideas that you can easily apply to your own massage and bodywork business.
And speaking of podcasts, I have been so inspired by Jessica Miller’s podcast that I have been working on a podcast of my own. “Grow Your Massage Practice” will share helpful hints and business tips for massage therapists and bodyworkers. If you are ready to quit that part-time job and fill up all the empty white-space in your appointment calendar, then this podcast is for you.
My goal is to have a few episodes available for you to listen to by the summer. I am on a mission to help massage therapists make more money. The work we do is important and I believe that you should earn all the money you deserve.
How is it that some of our most important occupations (teachers, nurses, first responders, and yes massage therapists) are mostly low-income-earners, while someone throwing or kicking a sports ball makes millions of dollars? I plan to remedy this situation. We won’t likely make millions of dollars, but there is no reason that you can’t earn a decent six-figure income as a massage therapist.
OK. Sorry, I got off on a rant for a minute. I’ll step down off my soapbox now and get back to our scheduled blog post topic.
Summertime Productivity.
So our goal for the summertime blues is to be productive in a way that will inspire future income growth.
As I mentioned already, that could mean reading marketing and business books, taking Home Study Courses or workshops, listening to podcasts, or many other things that are time consuming that you haven’t had time to do since you’ve been too busy doing hands-on massage.
You could also use this down-time to batch some social media content or your monthly newsletters.
What is ‘batching’, you ask?
You know how when things are really busy and you don’t have time to write your newsletter, or don’t have time to create the perfect meme to post on your social media pages? Well the slow summer months are the perfect time to create a whole campaign of social media posts that you can slowly, over time, disperse at a later date. Because you have a bunch of them, you don’t have to stress out about creating tomorrow’s post. It’s already done. You just need to post it.
Same with the newsletters. If you find yourself with a block of time like when you are sitting on the beach, you can write several newsletters or blog posts that can be posted at a later date. Most websites and CRMs (Customer Relationship Management software tools) allow you to schedule a future date to post so that once you have written your newsletter or blog post, you don’t even have to think about it again. It will automatically post on the date you select.
You can see how this will benefit you later when you are too busy to write. Or too busy to think about sending a followup email. Your CRM will send it automatically so no client will ever ‘fall through the cracks’ or miss out on future offers and opportunities.
So there you have it. Use your downtime to your advantage. This is what Stephen Covey calls ‘Sharpening The Saw’. Your slower times can be used to hone your skills or to create future revenue.
I will write another post soon about how you can actually make some money during these slower times (not just sharpen your saw and generate future revenue).
Good luck.
Peace and Love,
Nick
