With the economy continuing to worsen, almost by the day, many massage therapists are becoming more and more concerned about the future of their practice, income, and livelihood.

Questions like, “Are people going to be able to afford massage therapy” and “What the heck’s going to happen to my practice in the future” are only some of the thoughts and concerns many therapists are dealing with. And rightly so. The economy IS terrible and it IS more difficult than ever to be a successful massage therapist. However…

It’s in times like these that fortunes are made!
It’s times like these that separate the “real-deal” from the “ordinary and average”.

I believe that wholeheartedly because history has proved it time and again.

The question is… do you?

Do you believe that you can still thrive in a tough economy?

If not, the battle is already over. You’ve already thrown in the towel.

If you do believe it, than hopefully you understand that it’s going to require change, adaptation, and flexibility.

Change, because times are different today than they were even just 24 months ago. You can’t expect to practice and promote the same way you were then, and yet get the same (if not better) results. It’s just not going to happen.

Adaptation, because you’re going to need to adapt your practice and marketing to what works. In other words, you can not continue hoping things are going to improve for you (and not get radically worse). You need to adapt what you are doing to the economic environment as if you were a massage business chameleon.

Lastly, flexibility, because you need to be willing to do what works. As you may have heard me say before… and it’s one of the profound pieces of advice I can give you… you must be mature enough to do the things that work in your practice, NOT the things you’re most comfortable with. When you’re in business for yourself, as you are as a practicing massage therapist, you MUST remain flexible enough to do the things in the best interest of your practice.

In combination, the willingness to change, adapt, and be flexible with your practice and marketing, is what will help you THRIVE in these tough times while other practitioners remain rigid and eventually go extinct.

So, how do you put these three in action in your practice?

Great question!

First, recognize that marketing… especially now… is the engine that drives your practice-growth. Right now, you should be leveraging online marketing technologies out the wazoo (i.e. email, online video and audio, webpages, etc.). Of course I recommend the Massage Business Dashboard. These technologies are not only free in most cases or extremely low-cost, but, they can also be automated and are extremely effective right now.

You should be leveraging these technologies to educate clients on the value of massage therapy in these somewhat stressful economic times. As well, you should be using regular online communication to establish yourself as a trusted health and wellness expert and resource, if you haven’t already. Remember, you’re really in the relationship business. People have a hard time quitting a relationship, but an easy time quitting a service.

Second, I recommend you begin conducting Virtual Health Classes for clients and prospective clients. You can do this with weekly teleseminars that you could legitimately do in your underwear from your kitchen table (not that I’m recommending that). This is a great way to overdeliver value to clients and add another step in your prospective client marketing funnel with zero additional expense.

You see why I said you must adapt, remain flexible, and change. For most therapists this is completely foreign and outside of their comfort zone. But, it should be “whatever it takes”.

Lastly, you need to concentrate as much on client retention as you do on client acquisition. Remember, the most expensive activity within any massage practice is client acquisition. Not too mention, 2 of the 3 ways to grow a massage practice take place with existing clients.

Examine your marketing system to see how often you’re marketing new services, products, offers, etc., to existing clients to fulfill more of their needs and deliver greater value. If you’re not making at least 8-10 new offers to clients per year for more “stuff” you’re missing the boat.

The point is this…

You CAN thrive in tough economic times. You CAN!

It just takes some maneuvering.

Are you willing to maneuver?

I hope so.

(I’ll be releasing a series of FREE training videos on how to make money and achieve more success during a recession over the next handful of weeks. So, be sure to check back at the blog on a regular basis.)

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this post below. Share your comments.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 8:02 pm and is filed under Massage Advertising, Massage Business, Massage Marketing Articles, Massage Website. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.