I am posting this from the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, en route to Florida to spend a few days with my dad. While pondering life’s great questions (Why wasn’t that lady ready to get off the plane? Are most of our decisions during the day driven by our stomachs, or does it just seem that way in an airport?), it occurred to me to post some of these questions and observations racing around my head for your reading, uh, pleasure, and hopefully stimulate your thinking about your practice.

1. Labor Day is coming and school is starting. Why are these typically occasions to buy a mattress? What will your promotion be to get people on your table?
2. What do your clients look like? Are they all the same? Do you have a cookie-cutter clientele? What’s the average age?
3. Do you have a specific treatment routine? Why or why not?
4. What’s missing from your practice?
5. If I were in the business of developing new techniques or treatments, I think I would craft one called “Women’s Escape from High Heel Purgatory Foot Massage.” You could make some money at any airport in the country.
6. Do you practice anything else besides massage or bodywork? What other training do you have and what proportion of your time is spent on it? What would a pie chart of your time look like?
7. After thinking about #2, do you have any thoughts about expanding the types of clients you see?
8. How tall is the tallest client you’ve worked on?
9. I was once told by a therapist that she charged more for male clients than for female clients. Her rationale was that men’s bodies are more work and hairier. What do you think?
10. Another treatment promotion: “Video Game Wrist, Hand, and Forearm Tune-up.” That will get the male twentysomethings (and younger) demographic.
11. I like to play golf. My biggest challenge with golf is the time involved; it’s difficult to find 5+ hours a week for practically anything. Does that apply to massage? Should we be promoting more time- and cost-sensitive alternatives for potential clients? Do you offer 30-minute sessions?
12. If you accept gratuities, what do you feel is a reasonable tip for an hour session?

Now it’s time for me to take the train to get in line to get on the plane and head east. Feel free to reply with your thoughts on any of these, or add your own questions or comments. I’ll do the same. Safe travels.