Massage Therapy Salary
The Sky is the Limit
Estimated Massage Therapy Salary can be as various as the services offered by a personal professional massage practice. If you are working as an employed massage therapist, this information might help you understand what your services are worth. As a massage therapist working for yourself and being self-employed, the sky is the limit. If you don’t mind working long hard hours and have the clientele, your stamina will determine your work load. Be careful of over booking. This will just create unsatisfied customers. They will know when you are not performing at your best. An average massage therapy salary per hour is $50 to $60. A good rule of thumb for hands on massage is 20 hours per week. 20 hours is probably the maximum average a therapist should plan into a work week in order to provide a quality service to clients without experiencing work overload and fatigue. Ideally, this 20 hours a week could produce revenues of $1,000 to $1,200 a week resulting in an annual income of $50,000 plus. When figuring massage therapy salary working for someone else as an employed therapist this estimated salary will probably be much less. The benefit here is that customers might already be available. And don't forget potential benefits such as health insurance by being employed rather than self-employed. An example of this type of scenario might be a health spa where you might be employed on an hourly or on-call basis. For a more scientific approach for determining massage therapy income forecasting . . .
Starting Salaries for Massage Therapy
Another way to get an idea of massage therapy income is by researching the numerous massage therapy and estimated salary sites. Here is what many other web sites claimed to be an
Average Massage Therapist Salary
Strength in Numbers
Join an Association
One other option is to team up with other therapists as an association where you are still self employed, but have the benefit of attracting clients by the association doing group marketing. There is power in numbers, several therapists working under one roof. Sharing of office costs, advertising costs and maybe getting discounts by buying supplies and equipment in bulk. This can work well as long as all involved understand the agreement and participation of the other therapists. A written agreement is a must in this type of arrangement.
To help plan,
Massage Therapy Expense
will give you ideas of what to expect.
More details on income, such as what area of the United States you are doing business in and an example of what your paycheck might look like can be viewed -
Massage Therapist Salary
Starting Out - Your Practice Will Grow
When starting out as a self employed therapist, there are so many paths you can take to obtain your goals. At this point, starting salary will be determined in how creative you can be. Most practices take at least one year to ramp up to a good potential. Your massage therapy salary will come from office visits, promotion from advertising, maybe chair massage at events. Some businesses have wellness programs and welcome a massage therapist coming in once a week. Always have a stack of business cards on hand and don’t be shy about telling people about what you have to offer.
Be creative with your massage therapy business and do more than just offer your basic services. Diversity, such as offering services other than massage and maybe offering products for retail sale can help provide additional revenues.
Massage Therapist Income
can be substantially increased simply by expanding on what you already have to offer.
One Massage Therapist’s Personal Testimonial
I interviewed one therapist in Montana (a remote area) that said her business did not take off for 5 years. She persevered and currently does between 4 and 5 massages a day. Her practice pulls in between $200 and $300 per day and often times she will work a six day work week. She is enjoying a $50,000 a year practice and would not tell me what she earns in tips per year. She has a large office (rent of only $250 per month), works solo and takes a week off once every 3 months. She has been doing this for 10 years now. I would estimate her massage therapy salary plus tips at $58,000 per year before expenses and taxes. This Therapist asked me not to mention her name in this story.
Many Opportunities to Grow Your Practice
One thing to remember is that everyone hurts. There is an ample amount of potential clients out there. And 3 in 4 people have not had a massage. Often times when people get a taste of massage, they continue coming back. Your goal as a Massage Therapist should be to always offer a quality service and keep the well being of your client foremost in your mind.
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