How to Keep Your Massage Business Moving Forward

Okay, so you’re stuck. Positioning, marketing, sales, and all of that…it can sometimes feel overwhelming. You’re a massage therapist, not some marketing specialist or sales expert right? Why can’t you just do your massage therapy work like you always intended?Sure, a couple of these questions are more loaded than others, but if you feel stuck, the first temptation may be to panic or feel like giving up. First of all, know this, you’re not a failure for getting stuck. This happens to the most seasoned professionals.

Rather than view this as a setback, you can see it as an opportunity to recalibrate and explore new ideas. After all, being stuck is a sign that you’re aware of your progress and that you’re growing. In this blog, we’re going to help you through this little bump in the road with a few tips and tricks for pushing through or seeing a different perspective.

Tip 1: Revisit the Foundation of Your Passion

Stop and take a deep breath. Remember why you’re here.

You made the choice to do this for a reason, so let’s draw those reasons to the very front of your thoughts for a few minutes.

Meditate upon this, or grab a pen and your journal to work through these thoughts.

The goal is to revisit the foundation of your passion. You were once on fire for this work. If you still are, good! Keep the flame going by providing your amazing service to your clients.

Reflect on your very best days and your most rewarding client experiences like they just happened today. Write down how you felt, how they felt, and how it made you remember that this profession is everything you love for a reason.

Take your time with this exercise. In addition to past client experiences, what are some future experiences you want to offer your clients to really blow them away?

Do you want to invest in certain equipment or offer a service you still have yet to learn? Create that future experience in your mind and on your journal pages. Go ahead and spend some time there–what are your days like? How do you spend your free time? How are you wowing your clients with your services and improving not just their concern but their whole day and maybe even their whole life? You’re a giver of the gift of wellness, dwell on that. Enjoy it.

You’ll know the exercise is working when you feel reenergized and fulfilled. Now that you’ve spent some mental time in the best moments of what you live for, what can you learn? What are some lessons from your future self that you can apply?

If you’re stuck in the weeds on some issue, what might your future self say? Would you move on to something else or address it right now, get it to 85% good, and move on? Remember, we’re not striving for perfection. Good enough will do. Tweak it later if you have to.

Tip 2: Seek Insights from Your Clients

Don’t forget how wise your clients are.

You will need to be a good listener in this line of work. Listen in when you spend time with your clients, especially in the initial stages.

If you’re feeling stuck on something, you might even be able to see beyond your own issues by listening to other people talk. It can be healing, almost like there’s another world outside your own. This is not to minimize your problems but to maximize your view of the world around you.

When we get stuck, it can be comforting to know we’re not alone. Plus, something very special happens when you can help someone else solve their problem, even if you’re still stuck on your own. It might just be the next person that you help. As soon as you solve their problem through your skills, you might find that suddenly, your problem has a more straightforward fix than you realized.

Pay attention to your clients so you can pick up on trends and recurring themes, especially when it comes to satisfaction. After all, if they keep telling you they’re happy with your service and your people keep booking more appointments, you’re doing something right! Some people might just need that one reminder to get unstuck.

Helping others will always help you, so just keep that in mind.

Tip 3: Open Up More Doors by Exploring Micro-Niches

This may sound counterintuitive, almost like you’re going deeper when you’re already stuck. Why add complexity, right? Hear us out–your current niche may feel too broad or generic.

In other words, the reason you’re not gaining traction is because you’re not specialized enough. You may need to narrow your focus just a little bit to move forward.

We’re going to call these micro-niches. They work because you can dig a little deeper into your problem-solving skills. By going a little more specialized, you find that you’re not limiting your potential opportunities, but you’re opening yourself up for more.

Blair Enns, author of The Win Without Pitching Manifesto, describes specializing using the analogy of a series of doors. You think that walking through one door (specializing) confines you to one room with four walls. However, the truth is, when you walk through one door, you find another hallway full of more doors.

Exploring a micro-niche is much the same. Clients with very specific needs would love to see you address them with tailored messaging. For example, rather than just helping people with “stress relief,” maybe you focus on “workplace burnout for executives.”

We’re talking about a specific market here, yes, but one that would appreciate your specific expertise. Executives might not take an interest in “stress relief.” However, if they come across messaging tailored around your “workplace burnout for executives” package, they suddenly see your value.

Micro-niches might help you uncover that new angle that resonates deeply with your ideal clients and aligns with your passions. By getting specific, you’re not limiting yourself; you’re actually standing out more. Go ahead and wander through that door and see what possibilities are on the other side.

Tip 4: Gain Fresh Perspectives

You may need a fresh perspective. The beauty of learning ways to build a better business is that you can get interesting insights from anywhere. We mean anywhere.

You can learn things about business from frozen yogurt shops, those places that offer skydiving lessons, and motor vehicle commissions. You name it. Well, those probably wouldn’t be the ones you’d name, but let’s look at these examples.

Frozen yogurt shops like to use colorful marketing and aren’t afraid to make it fun. Skydiving instructors know how to build trust through credibility quickly and focus on clear communication to reduce anxiety. Motor vehicle commissions… let us get back to you on that one.

The point is this–you need to step outside your own practice for a fresh perspective. Get involved in communities, head out to networking events, attend conferences, or even join some professional groups. You might get a ton of valuable insights from listening to people in (and even outside) your profession. Listen to how others describe their challenges and how they were able to make breakthroughs and overcome their difficulties.

In fact, just hearing other professionals talk about their approach to niche might be enough to help you spark some new ideas.

Tip 5: Use Market Research to Refocus

Market research is a more objective, scientific way to get unstuck and refocus your attention on the market. You can use it to dive deeply into the national or regional trends in wellness and massage therapy.

Feel free to revisit our piece on researching your massage niche, but if you prefer a brief summary, here it goes.

Use sites like Google Trends or keyword planners to see what people are searching for. Are key phrases like “stress relief massage” or “sports massage” trending? Is “workplace massage therapy” experiencing an upward swing over the past two years? Likewise, use your social media accounts (make sure they’re business accounts) to check your engagement, follower count, and what people seem to be interested in.

You can also learn a lot from what your competitors are doing and what seems to work for them. You might not be able to apply precisely what they do, but how can you iterate on their ideas in your unique way?

Don’t forget to have a close look at your local demographics. Check out the community hubs where your practice is located to see where people congregate. Are you surrounded by office buildings or conveniently located in the middle of a college campus? Also, check out your local publications and see what comes up in your search results in your local area.

These are all great sources of information that can tell you in a very matter-of-fact way whom you need to target. Then, you need to find where your passions interact and how to position your services effectively.

Tip 6: Experiment Without Fear of Failure

Don’t be afraid to fail. Treat each failure as a learning experience. This can definitely feel overwhelming if you’re taking your practice in a new direction.

To help with this, go ahead and try things out on a smaller scale before making a full commitment. Test and learn what works so you can adjust as you go. If you find what works, do more of that. Find yourself stuck again? Don’t worry–just pivot a bit until you get it right.

One way to do this is to create a limited-time offer with special introductory pricing. See if a new service gains any traction with your existing clients before rolling it out to the public. You might even launch a niche-specific campaign to see if anybody is interested.

By starting small, you can treat each test as a learning experience. It’s better to do this early on to see what works before spending all your time on one service, package, or niche. This makes it less of a high-stakes situation where you feel it’s purely succeed or fail.

Once you’ve found what works, you can dive into it like you’re strapped to someone who knows what they’re doing while jumping out of a plane.

Tip 7: Consider Rebranding Your Messaging

Another factor to consider is that it’s not your niche but how you’re positioning yourself through your messaging. You might have the perfect niche, but you’re unable to write messaging that resonates with your ideal clients.

If this is where you feel stuck, you should revisit your website, social media, and marketing materials with fresh eyes. Better yet, see if someone can give you feedback on what you can update, whether it’s friends or clients. The messaging needs to reach the right people, and if you’re using language that doesn’t resonate, you’re probably missing out on opportunities.

Ask yourself if the messaging speaks to your ideal client or if they respond better to different positioning. You might change a few words or rewrite a good chunk of it. If you can get it to that good enough stage, get it there and see what works.

If the wording gets you completely stuck, hire a freelance copywriter to give you input or walk you through how they would update your messaging. Nowadays, it’s pretty easy to hop on Fiverr or Upwork to find someone who fits your budget and understands your project.

Tip 8: Take a Break to Recharge

You may just need to step away. Not just from your practice–completely away.

Some people who get into substantial mental and emotional blocks find they get unstuck simply by going for a walk, picking up a hobby, or playing a sport.

Why? These activities help you mentally and physically step away from your work. You have to commit to focusing on these activities, forcing your brain to be present and to have a break from dwelling on what’s getting you stuck.

This is not a selfish endeavor. You owe it to yourself and your clients to be the best version of yourself. Creative solutions to your problems won’t come if you keep repeating the same daily tasks that keep you stuck.

You don’t even need to step away for that long. Take a 30-minute walk. Enjoy a Tuesday night cooking class. Head to that skydiving place so you can jump out of a plane. You’re going to have a hard time focusing on being stuck while skydiving.

If you need to step away for a while, that might be what’s necessary. Take some time. Come back refreshed and bring new energy to your challenges. The solution might just be right in front of your face when you return.

Finding Momentum Again

Don’t worry about feeling stuck–it’s commonplace in everybody’s journey. It isn’t a sign of failure and doesn’t have to derail your progress.

Try these tips and tricks to see what works for you and your situation. Of course, everybody will approach things differently based on their challenges and struggles.

Take heart in knowing that being stuck shows that you’re on the verge of growth. Embrace this time as an opportunity to get a fresh perspective and refine your niche into something even better.

Want more insights on building your massage practice through strategies and actionable tips, check out our eBook "How to start a massage business - 10 steps to success"