Our Advice From the Pros series of blog posts will highlight one of the leaders in the massage and bodywork field once a week. Laura Allen (www.lauraallenmt.com) is our featured expert this week. Allen, an educator and the massage division director of Soothing Touch, has been a massage therapist for 18 years. She is the author of five textbooks published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins and is a regular contributor to trade publications.
The best thing I ever did to grow my practice is …
Laura Allen: I was very active in my local Chamber of Commerce, which I joined the first week I opened my business and ended up serving as a board member for several years. They really helped publicize my business.
The key thing I wish I knew when I was starting out is …
Laura Allen: You can’t pay your staff more than you pay yourself. You’re the one with all the responsibility and taking all the business risks. It’s noble to want to pay people well, but you deserve to make a good living.
My definition of excellent customer service is …
Laura Allen: Being client-centered, listening to their concerns, having clear and professional communication, giving them what they contracted for, and not going off onto treatment tangents just because you want to. It isn’t all about you.
My business management advice for therapists is …
Laura Allen: Take an honest inventory of your strengths and weaknesses before starting out. If you’re not good at accounting, or you’re a slacker about housekeeping, hire someone to do it at the outset instead of waiting until it becomes a problem.
This blog was created from Massage & Bodywork’s July/August 2017 Business Side column "Advice from the Pros."