Massage Therapy Business Plan
Your first step when creating a massage therapy business should be making a well thought out business plan. Why you ask? Well taking the time to thoroughly plan your new venture will make it more likely to be successful.
However, writing a successful business plan can be a bit confusing. While your plan doesn’t have to be formal or fancy, it should definitely cover the basics. So what exactly should you include in your business plan? What is the main purpose of a business plan?
The Purpose
A business plan helps you define your goals and evaluate realistically whether or how those goals can be achieved. If you are planning to borrow money, a financial institution will base its decision to loan you money or not largely on the merits of your business plan. Having a detailed outline for your business plan and carefully researching all the information that goes into it will help you avoid those pitfalls. So it’s very important that you spend time and effort into forming your business plan.
Budget
One of your first steps should be to develop a budget. Unless you are starting your business in a rented space, it should be pretty easy to plan your budget. So what are the first steps of forming your budget? Well first you should calculate how much money you will need to start and operate your massage therapy business for the next three years.
While each massage therapy business is different, there are a few common expenses that they all share:
- Licensing Fees
- Equipment Costs
- Advertising and Marketing
- Training
- Continuing Education
When forming your budget, you should include how you are going to pay for a majority of these expenses; and whether or not you will take out a loan.
Business Structure
The business structure most commonly used for massage therapy businesses is a sole proprietorship. After all, this business structure is the easiest and least expensive to set up. Unless you have partners or a staff of more than three people, consider starting your massage therapy business as a sole proprietorship.
However if you do have a business partner, consider setting a limited liability partnership. If you have a franchise or have a large staff, you should set your business up as a corporation or limited liability corporation.
Location and Competition
This step is crucial, as there are usually many massage therapists in any given area. This section of your business plan will also address whether you plan to have a niche, such as sports massage therapy, deep tissue massage, or massage therapy for pregnant women and new mothers. Additionally, you should scout out a good location that is easily accessible to your customers.
To analyze your competition, see what they’re doing right and what areas they can improve on. By doing this, you can build a better plan by learning from others mistakes and successes.
Marketing
This is a crucial part of building a successful business and business plan. The marketing section of your business plan needs to address what media outlets you will advertise your new business in, whether you will offer customers occasional discounts and special promotions, whether you plan to have a website as a marketing tool, whether they are any complementary businesses you can team up with to gain new clients and how you can use public relations strategies to gain media attention.
Make sure you set up automatic emails and stay in touch with previous customers. It’s important that you have this section of this business plan thoroughly planned out.
The Takeaway
In short, formulating a detailed business plan should be your first step when starting a massage therapy business. Putting your career goals and operational plans into writing is important, whether you plan to work as an employee or be self-employed.
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