Have you ever traveled to another location to give a massage? If you learn to do this right, it can be fun and quite lucrative. Traveling massage services are a great convenience and people who love convenience have no problem paying for it! If you’ve never considered this part of your practice before, it’s a great way to expand your offerings and make extra money in less time. In this article, I’ll go over the Pros and Cons of mobile massage.
The Pros
Make more money! Did that get your attention? Who doesn’t want to make more money. Therapists who go on-location make 30-50% more than most therapists who only take office clients. Convenience comes with a premium and why not? Your services are valuable and you should charge more. Since you are making more money in less time, you can work less. How’s that for a change in pace?
Your location is constantly changing. I love the fact that I never get bored since I’m always changing locations. Sometimes it’s great to have an office but for me, being in the same location all the time would quickly start to feel like work. While traveling for work, your scenery is new and exciting everyday. It’s nice to have a variety of locations to work in because it never gets boring. Your office is wherever you set up your equipment!
More control of your time. When you do on-location massage, you can arrive on time, finish on time and leave on time. When you practice out of an office, you are at the mercy of late comers that can throw your whole schedule off when they are running late.
The Cons
Last minute calls. This can be a bummer sometimes when you try to plan your day to run errands. Often you need to be willing to redirect your day in order to take work. Always be ready to go at all times. When doing out call massage, sometimes you never know when you’re going to work. So when you’re out running around in the car, it’s best to have all your supplies and equipment with you at all times. Being caught without enough sheets is a real bummer when you could have taken all those appointments.
Late night calls. Depending on how you get your clients or referrals, you might sometimes get that late call at night. If you’re in for the evening depending on when they call, you can politely say that you’re booked up this evening. That is much better than saying that you’re finished or tired. Less information is better. Always offer to book at another time right away.
What social life? The biggest downside to performing an on-location massage is that a lot of the work tends to be at the very last minute. It can be hard on family and friends when something is planned and then you have to cancel. When you commit to plans and then miss work, it can be frustrating. You have to make choices and then stick to them.
It’s important to create as much of a balance as possible. When you’re chasing the dollars, it’s easy to forget what’s most important in life. Do take time out to spend time with loved ones; you never know how much time any of us has.
Hopefully this overview of mobile massage gives you some insight into the hits and misses of doing massage on-location. Traveling massage can be very fun, lucrative and adventurous. Be sure to take time out for yourself and the special people in your life.