For a while now the massage industry has had problems with unlicensed people working in it. I’ve complained about the issue before on my blog mainly because some of them have been making the news in a really bad way and making all of us look bad. It does bother me that most of these people are charging more than most licensed massage therapist do and they don’t have nearly the experience or the overhead we have since they do it illegally and are virtually invisible to the health dept and the licensing board and are not carrying any type of liability insurance that massage therapists are required to carry.
However, I have now befriended a few unlicensed people and maybe have calmed down a bit over the issue. Some of my clients have defended them as well saying they have a right to make a living too. Which I agree. But they should just go to massage school and get a license. It’s only a year but it is very expensive. But when I found out that apprenticeships were available it made me even agrier that these people don’t do that. An apprenticeship lets people get on the job training and it’s paid training and then they are licensed within a year. Now I sort of feel like there is no excuse but most of them have been charging 80 dollars an hour and don’t want to go down to what an apprentice makes which is considerably less.
So this month the laws are being changed to try and combat this problem. Before the laws provided an exception to licensure which stated people don’t need to be licensed if they are working off of donations, or some have put in their ads “this is not an offer for therapeutic massage as defined by the Utah codes”, which did get them around needing a license. But from here on out the law says everyone doing massage must be licensed without exception. So no more working off of donation or simply stating you’re not an official massage therapist, plus the fines are going up for people caught practicing without a license. Before it was a 200 dollar fine for first time violators of the massage law which in most cases therapist had set a fee for something they were not licensed to do. Now the fine is going up to a 1000 dollars the first time they get caught and about 3,000 for the second violation.
I have had a couple people interested in apprenticing with me which I am considering but it is a lot of work on both parts to do an apprenticeship and I want to make sure whoever I choose will commit to the year program. I have to write a thousand hour curriculum and they have one year to complete it and if they don’t we both have to meet with the board to explain why it’s taking so long.

I’m sort of glad the laws are changing and at the same time I’m worried that it won’t make much difference. But we will find out very soon.

In my years as a massage therapist seated chair has made up only a small part of my business. But then I started meeting other therapists who have made it a big part of their business and I have been able to make it a bigger part of what I do.
I used to think seated chair was just for corporations that get massages for their employees but that’s not true. Many of us set up booths at conventions or other events, I even had a woman hire me to do seated chair at a spa party she was having at her home. It’s a fun addition to any event you may be having.
The good thing about seated chair massage is that it’s a non threatening way for someone to experience massage the first time. They are usually very short massages anywhere from 5-20 minutes, your clothes stay on, and you can experiment with what kind of pressure you like. It is also a good way to get to know if you like a particular therapist before booking a whole hour table massage with them.
When you see seated chair being offered it is typical for it to cost a dollar a minute. Some therapists will offer the first 5 minutes for free and then charge for anything after that. Some events therapists are using seated chair as networking tool. Which if you’re lucky enough to catch us on those days you can have the seated chair for free as long as you let us give you our card and listen to our sales pitch as to why we would be the perfect therapist for you.
Hopefully a few more of you will try seated chair when you see it being offered or if your gutsy enough just schedule a table massage.

On Monday, April 25, my dad was playing with his dog infront of his house then had to go inside for a few minutes. He left Timber by the side of the road playing. He is a good dog and won’t leave the vacinity of the house. When my Dad came back out and called for Timber it was odd when Timber didn’t come, that’s not like him at all. My Dad called for several minutes when finally a neighbor came out and told him what happened.
The neighbor said she had seen a blue truck drive by a few times while my dad was playing with Timber and then when my dad went inside the truck drove by again and threw a stick to him a couple times. Once Timber got close enough to the truck they grabbed him and drove off. This happened at about 3 o’clock in the afternoon.
I’m shocked at the audacity of people but we are hoping for Timber’s safe return so if anyone knows anything please let me know. He was a black and white Aussie mix almost a year and half old. You can call me at 801 541-0006.
Animal control tells us there’s not a lot of hope, that Timber was probably taken by people that wanted that sort of dog and if it works out well for them we will never see him again. If it doesn’t work out well they will either turn him into a shelter or release him in the same area.
I wish Timber could read and had access to a computer because I’d tell him to bite his captures and run home as fast as he can.
But I have to settle for just getting the word out there and hope that someone knows something.

A lot of massage therapist don’t take credit cards and about 7 or 8 years ago I finally broke down and started taking them. I did feel like this was a good step for me, as if it all of a sudden legitimized my business. Most real business can take credit cards right?

However, only about a quarter of my clients like to use credit cards, especially by business people from out of town like it for record purposes. But I have always liked being able to say I accept all major credit cards. But unfortunately my little wireless machine that I can even take on outcalls with me has given up and went dead. I have been told it is so out dated I have to get a new one. Now there are even new laws that they have to come with encryption programming in them so all these scammers can’t steel credit card numbers out of it. It’s amazing what people find to do.

Long story short I cannot take credit cards until about wednseday or thursday ): I can take a manual slip and then enter it into my new machine when it arrives. I’m very sorry for the inconvenience.

Allison

I fired my laundry service today. They claim they were not willing to do anything about the fact that I’m down 20 sheets again and it is my problem not theirs. I screamed, I yelled and pitched a fit in true girl fashion. Did it help? No, But at least I got to tell them exactly what I thought of them and with the exception of the driver, Jeff, none of it is good.

So I called their main competitor, company A right after I threw company B out of my office. Their sales rep came and met with me today so I told myself I’m not going to let them know right off what just happened with the other company and how unhappy I was there. I don’t want them thinking they have me in the palm of their hand and they don’t have to try that hard for me because compared to where I came from if they do one thing right I will be basically happy and hopefully nobody has that bad of customer service or math skills for that matter.

Well I held out for 5 whole minutes. For me that’s impressive. An astrologist once told me that I vent my anger because my Mars is in gemini. Well I don’t know about that but I do know when I’m mad it’s hard for me not to talk about it or tell people. Maybe I shouldn’t be using my massage blog as an outlet to vent, to all of 5 people that probably read it, but part of me wants people to realize the work behind the scenes. So many think that I just have to show up with my hands. But it’s a lot more than that. It’s laundry services, correlating with other therapist when I have groups of skiier and not all therapists get a long or have the same ideas. Then there’s the advertising and how to make that more effective and target the clients you want to get in. Credit Card processing companies, which don’t get me started on them either, and creating relationships with all the concierges in town at all the hotels so they will refer me their guest who are looking for massages. The list goes on.

I do expect the same issues to come up with this new company and I don’t even care that mistakes happen but I get really mad when a company is not willing to make good on their mistakes and that’s why I had to get rid of my last company. I hope it goes so much better with this one.

Allison

Laundry is never ending for massage therapists. I used to work until 10 pm hit the gym on the way home, get home at midnight and then stare at a massive heap of laundry and think holy moly I hope I’m gonna be ok without sleep and then spend at least 2 to 3 hours doing laundry finally get to bed at 3 am.

Then I brought another therapist in to work with me and share the load of clients. Just one problem now there’s twice the laundry and I was barely keeping up with my laundry and I wasn’t willing to give up sleep all together. So I decided to give myself a little down time at night and to save my sanity I will hire a laundry service. Unfortunately it has only added to my stress.

When I started looking around for a laundry service I found one individual and 2 main companies. The individual charges 50 cents a pound and then a 25.00 travel fee and you supply the sheets. So I went home, weighed myself and then picked up a bundle of 20 sheets and weighed myself again. My sheets weighed a pound and a half each so I would be paying 75 cents a sheet plus travel sheets. The big companies charge by the sheet, 55 cents each and 5 percent for a travel fee. It ended up being a lot cheaper than the individual.

I’m not sure I can actually mention the name of the companies because talking about my experience with them might be construed as slander. So I will call them comany A and company B. But each company wants a long contract, 3 to 5 years. I talked company B into a 1 year contract. However, they consistently short me sheets. I went with them because they are local and family owned while company A is a national chain. For some reason I thought my customer service would be better with company B, being local and family owned. I can say now that assumption is false. When I complain about being short they accuse me of stealing them or it’s on my end but I count them right before I send them out with the driver and it’s never what I get back. They charge a minimum so I pay a certain amount weather I use that many or not and when I try and get them to make my inventory right they charge me for the extra sheets they bring. I tell them I always just send out the minimum required so I’ve already paid for them. I feel like I’m being double charged, taken advantage of and pushed around just because I’m a one man operation here.

They also tell me that no one else has this problem. I finally contacted company A who says they have a laser counting system that no one else uses and I would never get shorted. So I start asking other businesses who use a laundry service and if they have any problems and my research showed weather people were with company A or company B every one claims they get short sheeted.

Now I’m thinking I have found a need in this town, a quality laundry service. If If I can find a way to make sure no one ever gets short sheeted I bet I could have a very successful second business. It probably has a terrible overhead and would need a lot of customers. All I know is there are a lot of unhappy customers out there with their laundry service and would switch in a minute if someone came along with a better way of doing things.

I don’t think I really have the time or patience for this but if any one out there does, I will be your first customer.

Allison

So this morning a rep from one of my ads called told me I am harder to get a hold of than his wife’s boyfriend. I thought that was funny and also explained what a feat it was to get a hold of me. So for future reference, being a small business I get hit up by every sales person out there and sometimes it makes me avoid my phone so if you are able to text it is a very good way to get a hold of me because I can scan through those inbetween sessions fast and get back to people.

I will tell you last year was one of my toughest and the last couple months have not let up on me either. But before getting into all of that the truth is most massage therapists are small business owners but more or less they are a one man band, trying to be their own laundry service, marketing manager, receptionist plus most importantly doing massage sessions. I actually hired a laundry service but it’s not working out. So if anyone needs an idea for a business there is a need for a good laundry service in this town. That will probably be the subject of my next blog.

Sometimes I think about hiring a second person to help me but it’s so scary to know who you can trust and bring into your business. But just having someone answer the phones would be a big help but with the economy who knows if there will be enough business to support having help.

So in January we were robbed and I was hit the hardest out of my office building and it seemed like an inside job which hurt the most, more like devastated me. This person didn’t bother breaking into my work room but went right to the room where I keep my valuables and what seems extra low is they even stole the change out of my piggy bank on my desk. I don’t know what the world’s coming to when you can’t even keep a piggy bank around. I wonder how those people justify what they do.

But I am happy to say I’m getting back into the swing of things and I would like to apologize to everyone who has had a hard time getting a hold of me. I would also like to thank all my clients for their continued support.

Allison

As a small business I really should put more effort into posting blogs and letting clients know what’s new and what’s up and coming. But I swear in the world today I feel fortunate to just wake up and get out of bed. I can’t listen to anymore news about the economy it’s way too depressing. So now I’ve decided to put up my little fantasy bubble and pretend the world is perfect. I love having such a good imagination.

On another note I got a strange phone call today from someone claiming to be helping Janet with her ads and he said my website still had us both on it or we were tied together somehow. I looked through everything and couldn’t find her anywhere on the website but I finally found she was still listed on the site description so I apologize. But just to reiderate Janet and I no longer work together. I spent a whole year trying to portray the two of us as partners or a team of sorts which in hind sight was not a good idea. Now I’ve spent the last year trying to figure out how to get people to see us as seperates again.

Sometimes on my sight I say me, my, or I and somethimes I say we and that is because even though I am the main force behind my little massage business I do have other therapist that work with me on an on-call basis. They help me with over flow and couples massages. However, I am reluctant to refer my overflow to them until I learn the style of massages clients are looking for and who would best be a match for them.

Sorry for any confusion this may have caused, but I am solely Allison’s Magic Massage.

Don’t let the economy or the weather get you down and by the way massage can help to relieve stress in case I’ve never metioned that.

Allison

I’m sad to report I have not been good at managing my masssage business lately. My father was in a terrible car accident on February 5, which was exactly one year after his last accident. So now he has sworn to stay in bed on Februray 5 forever more. We’ll see how that plan goes. I am now happy to report I am back working my full schedule. So I would like to apologize to everyone who has had a difficult time getting in with me or even able to contact me, it’s been a rough few months. Not only that but after my dad got better I kept getting sick. I think it was all the stress I was under. It’s amazing what stress can do to your body.

After my dad’s last accident he was left with numbness in his arms. He tried getting help from doctors but nothing was working and finally he got a prescription for massage. Now normally insurance will not reimburse family members but my dad got special permission since he thought it was rediculous to have to go to someone else when his own daughter is a massage therapist. So we started doing regular treatments on him once a week for a half hour each time.

Almost everyone I’ve come across complaining of numbness in the arms have triggerpoints on the inside edge of their scapula. So I focused on triggerpoint therapy and detailed work around the scapula. The first few sessions he thought were some what painful but soon his numbess subsided and he said the massages were finally feeling really good instead of painful.

I have also picked up two other accident clients that report their numbness to be going away with massage treatments. This is very good news.

Hope everyone is well…and to see you all soon.

This time my dad was driving through Tremonton when he hit some black ice. He drove into a snow bank in the median thinking that would slow him down. But the snow was packed really hard and instead launched him like a ski ramp. The police said his car flew 50 feet and then he landed nose down. He was seat belted in and the air bags did deploy but still the impact was forceful enough to shatter his L1 vertebrae.

Many clients have been asking me how I feel about the news of last week. How again another massage therapist at Massage Envy has been found to be violating clients during sessions. Well to answer the question I think it’s deplurable. This massage therapist was arrested based on his own incriminating statements, not just the statement of the victim’s, and the police are incouraging anyone else who may have been victimized by this man to come forward as well. Because, as I have seen it stated on the news, these cases are not isolated to one event. And I would like to add my own encouragement. It’s not only more horrific in this case because the woman had special needs it makes people affraid to come in and get much needed therapy. The last thing my profession needs is people like this hurting people under the gies that they only want to help them heal.

Many people will choose a place like massage envy over an individual like me thinking it’s safer because there are more people around. Which of course is not true. Sometimes we come accross people that just don’t have normal thought processes and those people usually do not care how many people are around. Crazy is always crazy, some might beable to hide it more than others but for the most part the true colors come out no matter who is around.

So what can be done to protect yourself from crazy people? As I have suggested on my home page check out people’s licenses. Every therapist has a license number they should be able to give you the public does have the right to look it up on DOPL and make sure it is active and hasn’t been suspended for any reason. Unfortunately, I think this massage therapist is licensed and in good standing because no one had come forward before now to say what he was doing in his sessions. So what could take it one step further? You can always ask the company if they do back ground checks on all new employees. Most probably don’t, so far I don’t feel like I’ve given much hope so I plan to do more research and hopefully have more options for being safe in the future. But my main advice would be as soon as anything happens in a massage to make you uncomfortable end the session and be very vocal in asking them to stop such actions.

I really don’t understand people like this. In our day and age if they want things like that they could find consenting adults to do it with. But I have learned from friends that work at the rape crisis center rape is never about sex it’s about control. Most people committing these crimes feel like they have no control in their lives and this is one way they can assert control. But no matter the reason, their circumstances or yours it is always horrible that it happens and especially when it’s someone supposedly devoted to being part of the healing process instead of part of the pain. There is already enough pain in the world all I’ve ever wanted was to try and help heal it. Even though I know I can only reach the tip of this wide spread problem I still and always will be trying to help people with their pain.

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas I am leaving Christmas Day to go see my sister in DC and will be gone for a whole week, until New Year’s Day. I look forward to seeing any of my clients before I leave or after I get back.

Allison