For those of you who are planning on going into the field of massage therapy, or if you are already in the field, you should make sure that you present yourself in the best possible light. Brush up on your people skills and learn how to make a conversation open and pleasant. Learn how to listen instead of talking and learn when, not to say anything. One of the secrets to being an excellent massage therapist is by learning the importance of communication skills in your massage business.



But the biggest impact that you can make in your massage therapy business is learning how to present yourself, in a professional and business-like manner. I know that this may sound like common-sense but more likely, either you forget about the importance of it or you forget that your massage business, even though it is a very nurturing, holistic and relaxed atmosphere, is still a business.

Your business still must pay the bills, support yourself and your family and most of all, meet the need, to have a steady stream of clients, both old and new. In my 10 plus years of working for myself and various spas, I contribute most of my success just purely on my presentation alone.

Here are some questions to consider.

•How do you speak? Are you speaking in terms that your potential clients understand?

•Are presenting yourself in a professional and clean manner?

•Are dressed professionally?

•Is your hygiene where it should be?

•Where are you conducting your business, do you have a clean and professional facility?

These are just some of things that you need to consider, the other thing is, how do you want to brand yourself?

The branding aspects are so important here, it is the very thing that will make you a successful bodyworker or massage therapist or it will drive you out of this business. Most massage therapist, do not consider the branding aspects and fail they miserably. The most successful corporations are successful because of this element of branding alone, their branding value, in many cases will be much higher than their market value. Think about this way, what if you walked into a McDonald's, one of the best known brands in existence today and it was dirty and not kept up, would you go back? This is precisely my point.

When I first started my career as a massage therapist, I was working at corporations doing chair massages. One day while working at Yahoo, this was one of my biggest accounts, I all of sudden realized that the whole time I am doing a chair massage, the customers, only view were my shoes. They were good shoes, not dirty, a little worn and had some signs of aging. But here I am working on Managers, Supervisors, Dept heads and regular staff members, and I had some Rockports from Mervyn's, not quite the professional, I am successful look that I wanted to put out there.

That very next day I went out and broke down on a pair of $175.00 pair of ECCO's, it was a very steep cost at that time, but instantly when I returned to my corporate sites, I was getting compliments after compliments on my shoes, which directly increased my leads for massage services outside of the corporation. I also went out and got manicures every other week, my hands were my money makers and I treated them as such. Presentation to success; is what I would tell every massage therapist out there in the field.