An interesting thing has been occurring, in the last week and a half I have received calls from two different men who were looking to book massages for their girlfriends. They start out asking if I massage women and I say yes I offer a Swedish massage, the first guy said "oh, ok" and got off the phone. The second guy actually started by asking if I massage couples but I don't because I work alone and then he asks if I massage women, I told him I do a Swedish massage for women and then he asks if I do other types of massages but doesn't come straight out with it so I ask him exactly what he has in mind and he said he wants to get her a sensual massage. I said I don't do sensual massage for women.
I find it interesting though that it's men making these calls and not the women calling themselves. I am guessing it is probably the man's fantasy and they would probably want to be present during the massage and watch or participate in a session :-) I had someone once say that he would love to watch me massage a woman. I am neither a lesbian nor bisexual but massaging women might be less trouble than massaging men, if only I was willing to find out but I am not, oh well.
14 comments:
"massaging women might be less trouble than massaging men"
No doubt!
LP,
What is your situation? By that, I mean do you have your own place of business where you work? Do you work at a massage place owned by someone else? Are you doing outcall with a portable massage table? What is your business setup?
If it's just business and for money why does it matter if it's a man or woman or shemale?
Joe,
I currently work from home and I know that’s probably a big part of the problem. It isn't illegal to have a massage business at home here but the perception seems to be that if you are doing massage at home you MUST be providing "extras" as well.
I am looking at renting space somewhere in the next 2 months as I make the transition back to doing therapeutic massages only. I have been turning away more clients than I am seeing so maybe the money is not a big enough incentive for me after all.
It sounds to me like you need to sit down and develop a business plan. Talk to other massage therapists who have their own storefront. Get in touch with your massage school and see what resources/contacts they might have. Visit your local chamber of commerce and see what resources they have for small businesses. Think about partnering up with another legitimate massage therapist - there might be synergies there with respect to cost saving and expanding a client base. Think not just about the massage services but other sources of income. Are there any products that you could sell? Could you teach a massage class? Could you allow a yoga instructor or something to teach a class out of your space? Or think about different ways of delivering the massage services. I worked at an office once where massage therapists would come in at lunch or break times and do desk massages for $1/minute. You could auction for an hour of desk massages for some charity and generate positive name recognition in the community - I'm sure some boss would be interested in that for his/her office. As you formulate your business plan, think about the type of clients that you want to attract, what image you need to project in order to attract them, and where you would actually find them.
Anonymous,
Thank you for the great suggestions. I had planned on doing chair massage after my initial bad experiences but the offices I contacted were not interested, I tried ads with no results but it could have been the timing. I think everyone was trying to hold on to their money and afraid of the economy. I have thought about trying again, chair massage will eliminate any confusion about what's being offered.
I met with some guys from SCORE about 3 years ago, the info they had wasn't very helpful for my type of business. I looked up the chamber of commerce last year but didn't follow-up that might be worth a try.
I have also recently been thinking about taking a course that will allow me to teach a wellness class and I think doing that could help bring in clients who are more interested in the holistic part of massage. Thanks so much for the ideas.
No problem. I am also trying to get a business off the ground (newly licensed lawyer), so I somewhat understand where you are coming from, including trying to get the right clientele.
I can share with you two good pieces of advice that I have gotten: (1) once you figure out who your target clients are, go to where they are; and (2) don't just reach out to the clients themselves, but more importantly try to persuade the people who influence them.
For example, if you are into the holistic thing, focus your marketing efforts on venues where people who are also into that can be found: natural foods stores, yoga studios. Do you have materinity centers in your area? When my wife was pregnant with our first child, someone gave us a gift certificate for 2 massages as a baby shower gift. If you had some deal where you said mention the name of the maternity center and you'll give each person in the couple a 30 min massage, one after another, for the price of one 30 minute massage (or some other discount), I doubt that anyone who responds would try anything funny. Also figure out where your target audience gets coffee, shops for clothes, etc.
Now to the second part. Once you find those places, talk to the owners about how they run their businesses and market themselves. Take them out to lunch (or coffee if that's all you can afford). Pick their brains and see if they have any tips or ideas for you. If they are helpful to you, tell them as a thank you you would like to offer them a free massage at your new location. If someone takes you up on it and likes the experience, now you have the best kind of advertising there is - word of mouth from someone that your target audience already trusts. You also might find opportunities to do promotions at their businesses. Maybe a natural foods store would let you bring a chair in and offer their customers 10 min. massages. You could offer to donate a portion of the proceeds to a charity of the owner's choice.
When you are out and about, take special note of the image that the owners and their employees project. What do they wear? How do they interact with customers? Also observe the customers theselves. You will get some insight into the expectations that your target audiences has about their service providers. If you look the way they expect you to look and can talk their language, they will feel more comfortable with you and be more likely to give you their business.
Anonymous,
Congratulations on your law licensing and I hope your business is very successful.
Thank you so much for taking the time to share these great ideas with me. I have had thoughts of doing some of the things you mentioned but I tend to procrastinate, however, there is no better motivation to get going than being where I am right now and knowing that this is definitely not what I want to be doing. I have a new respect for people working in the sex industry for years and years, I can't do it :-)
My pleasure. Keep your head up and good luck!
"I have a new respect for people working in the sex industry for years and years, I can't do it :-)"
If that's the case, then you really gotta get out. I tried to imagine myself in your position. If it were me, I could have a couple of great clients that I really liked to see and a bunch of clients who were OK and not too pushy but if I got just one who made me feel real icky or disrespected, that would outweigh all of the other "good" and "OK" clients and I would not be able to forget about how lousy the bad client made me feel. That would just ruin it for me. I think you'd really have to have tough psychological skin to do this job -- while at the same time, you couldn't be too cold and distant or jaded because then you wouldn't be very appealing to a lot of your clients. A really hard tightrope to walk.
You truly have my best wishes as you go forward. Take care of yourself and do things in a way that works for you. Avoid doing things in a way that eats you up inside.
I know you probably know all of this stuff already. I just wanted you to know that I also hope these things for you, also. Life is hard enough already, ain't it? <3
Joe,
You have pretty much summed up exactly how I feel. The bad simply outweighs the good for me. I think some of these guys will be better served spending an hour with a mental health counselor instead of with me, there are some sick and twisted men out there. If at the end of the day I look in the mirrow and don't feel good about what I am doing, the extra $30-$40 is not worth my self respect. I tried to convince myself that I could do this without it affecting me but it hasn't worked out that way. So the writing is on the wall for me.
LP, if you are more selective, only keeping the guys who aren't creepy, would that make a difference?
George,
The problem is that I've gotten mostly creepy guys lately and that makes it very difficult to be pleasant to even those who are not. I did have a client earlier this week that was a perfect gentleman, so I know they are not all terrible.
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