Hey, radical massage therapist, and welcome back to the radical massage therapist podcast, and today I'm trying to record this episode just before I leave for work, so I have about 20 minutes before I leave for work. I hope for your sake, I can complete this episode in 20 minutes. I doubt that's going to happen, and this might just be broken up into two recordings, but I thought I'm just going to use my time fast as I can and just try to record an episode. So today I am going to talk about something that might just give you the push you need if you're thinking about becoming a clinic owner. It may even give you a push if you are waiting to act on any decision, but you think everything needs to be just right. I want to share the things that I thought I needed before opening my clinic, and how most of them turned out to be total BS. If you've ever caught yourself saying, I'll open a clinic when dot, dot, dot. When I own my own home, when I save enough money, when I'm the best and most sought after, RMT in the city. Well, this episode is for you.
I thought I needed to own my own home before I could open a clinic. I don't even know where the belief came from. Maybe it was a sense of stability or feeling like a grown up, I probably felt that it would give me some credibility, that it would make it easier to get a loan, that I would be seen as more responsible. How could I own a business if I didn't own a home yet? But honestly, renting hasn't held me back from a single thing. I struggle a lot with the outward image. Maybe you can relate, and I am working on it, but how something looks from the outside, I'm very aware of and what are people thinking of me? Well, we know what people are thinking of me, of you, nothing, because everyone is thinking of themselves, it's still hard to get around around that. And my mentor says, Well, what other people think of you? Is none of your frickin business? Well, emphasis on a different F word that she uses, but it is a work in progress for me, and I'm glad that I overcame this particular concern that I needed to own before I became a clinic owner. You can rent your home, you can rent clinic space, you can lease your vehicle. The point is, ownership of a house has zero to do with your ability to own a business. It really doesn't make any difference for me whether because I'm renting, and I know that outward image as well really impacts me because, like, I live in a neighborhood that is a little rough around the edges, and you know, our apartment is not very esthetic, like the clinic is much more esthetic than my own apartment. And I thought that might be reflected on me as a clinic owner, like, Oh, she lives in this, like, rougher neighborhood, you know, and she lives in this apartment. How, you know, how does that relate to her business? It doesn't have any relation to my business at all, actually. And I, I'm, you know, glad that I can see it that way. So, so it is not a pre work that is a hard word to say. It is not a prerequisite. So if you're waiting for that milestone, don't it's it has nothing to do with you moving forward on your dreams. Also thought that I had to be the most in demand. RMT in town, or at least at the clinic, the one with the months long wait list fully booked all the time. Not only that, but I thought I had to be recognized by my peers as like the RMT, and to a point you are responsible for making sure your clinic stays afloat. And so yes, you do want to know that you have a dedicated clientele that is going to continue to see you when you own your own space. But the best advice that I received, among many pieces of advice I have received from Jana, the owner of aligned massage therapy, and she's in episode six of the podcast, was that I needed to make sure that I could run the business based on my income alone. That way, if other RMTS did want to work at the clinic, it was a bonus. As an owner, I am not desperate to have them, and I'm not desperate trying to keep them. We all know that if we are working for someone else, yeah, our percentage, our split or our rent. We know it's contributing to the daily operations of the clinic, but no massage therapist wants to actually feel that energy from a clinic owner that they need you to pay the bills, and that massage therapist could leave at any time as well. And chances are, if you operate from this need. Need energy. You need them to have a certain income, or you need to have them hit certain client goals. If you expect that from each massage therapist, then they will most likely not stay because they will. They'll just not feel like they're supported, or that they know like you're just trying to squeeze everything out of them just so you can maintain your business, you do need a foundation of clients that are going to help you stay afloat in your practice, and that also comes down to making sure that your space, your overhead, does not exceed what you physically can do as an RMT, either. And if a massage therapist does feel that energy that they're they you need them to maintain the business. Your clinic will have that reputation of high turnover, and that, you know, reflects on the profession. Massage Therapists recognize that. So there's a reason why, and you might be having a harder time attracting massage therapists. And I'm really grateful to say that align massage therapy as a whole. We now have eight clinics in the Ottawa area. The reason most of our RMTS leave is because they move away or they start their own practices. They might start their own practice from home. They might become an aligned clinic owner like myself, but they physically move away. We have a great reputation for not having that high turnover, and we have a lot of massage therapists that do come and go because they've got different life goals. I myself left for two years and moved abroad. We have plenty of massage therapists who travel, some of them dabble in the home practice, and we're really flexible that way, so I think that that's really a supportive environment. So going back to me thinking that I used to be the top RMT, I actually learned that having incredible massage therapists working with you who earn more than you do because they see more clients or they have the three month long wait list, is more rewarding as a clinic owner than it is to be the RMT. After all, like the point of becoming a clinic owner for me and for you, if you're thinking about it, is to have the freedom to step away from the hands on time when you have the RMT working in your clinic. And in my case, my whole team is freaking phenomenal. And I'm sure you would say the same about about yours. It is so rewarding. It is a proud parent moment when I can refer confidently to any of my colleagues, when clients come out of a treatment, complimenting the RMT they just saw, because they feel so good. Like I might be in the back, like folding laundry, and I hear them come out and just praising like I like, get a little warm, fuzzy inside, like I'm so happy that, you know, I mean that I get to work these incredible massage therapists. And leadership and business ownership isn't about being the busiest. You know, you don't necessarily need to be. I like being. I like working. I like being in the clinic. I feel that that is important as a clinic owner as well, to see how the day to day is operating, and be in your space and work in your space. But you do not have to exceed the hours of anybody at the clinic. That doesn't necessarily need to be your goal. You don't need to be the hardest working there. You're allowed to have massage therapists who have more ambition, who have been in it, maybe they're newer, or maybe they just have different techniques that allow them to see more clients in a day, and, you know, and that's okay with me. I have given up hours of my own to make sure that massage therapists have the hours that they want. And I think that is wonderful again. I'm trying to back away from that hands on time, and it's a win, win, win for everybody. I realize it's not about how many people want me. It's about how I can create a space where clients get great care and other RMTS can thrive. So if you're worried you're not popular enough well yet, please know that it's not the measure of whether you can open your own clinic, your own personality, your work ethic, your values, your professionalism will attract the right massage therapists. And yes, you do need to do some hands on time and make sure that that rent is paid based on your own efforts, initially, for sure, but you know you could be able to step back a little bit in the in the future, probably sooner than you realize. Another big one is that I thought I had to have, like, all the money saved before starting. I have shared before that. I considered clinic ownership sometime around like 2012 I think. But when I applied to the bank for a $15,000 loan, I didn't qualify. I didn't have great credit. But over the years, I've worked on. It, I paid off my debt and I built some savings. Fast forward to 2022 when I was looking for clinic space. Early days, I applied for a loan so that I knew confidently that I could look for a clinic space. This also gave me a ceiling. I received a $25,000
loan. I asked for more, but only qualified for the 25,000 to pay for some last month's rent and buy whatever we needed. Emphasis on, needed to operate a massage clinic, even if you have savings and you know you're like, that's okay, I can use my savings to start this clinic. I recommend that you do not use your own money to start your own clinic. If you're concerned about interest, it is a write off. It's a business expense. And that shouldn't, you know, scare you off from having a loan, because you can develop a plan for yourself to for me, I wanted to pay off that loan in one year of being open. And he did that. So I highly recommend that you you also set a plan in place to pay back that loan, and you don't have to go crazy with that $25,000 loan. I had to get a little bit creative. Having some savings always helps reduce stress 100% but I would want you to have that savings to cover your basic expenses for your personal your personal use, like your home, your bills at home, those kinds of things to support your family for a short amount of time, and or you have a very supportive partner who can support you for the short term. If it comes down to that, I'm pretty confident you'll be okay, but my husband and I worked out the numbers before I signed up, you know, for clinic ownership,
that if I needed to, could we
cover all the home expenses on one income, and that was his income, I am confident your clinic will take no time to build with the demand that we Have these days. But I definitely didn't have a giant pile of cash sitting around. I started with a scrappy budget and a big, big vision. And sometimes that's better, because, like I said, you, you try to find ways that keep costs low. I buy used furniture, a lot of it, as much as I could, because that's also important to me from a sustainability factor, and it just helped to save a little bit more money because it was secondhand. I waited to make purchases until the money was in the bank. I like I said, we got what we needed up front, but then we added on as we needed to, as more requests might have come in, or this might make life a little bit easier for the clinic. Maybe we needed a table, or this kind of thing, like we didn't even have a proper reception desk for like, four months, or something like that. And you know what? Thankfully, my team didn't seem to mind. I also brainstormed ways, so before I even open the doors like I knew the space and brainstormed ways in order to use the space if massage alone was not going to make the cut, how could I earn income in this space if it wasn't massage therapy, and I'm also a Pilates instructor, and initially, The clinic space had a very open reception space like area with ground floor access. Could I teach Pilates classes? Absolutely, could I invite other yoga or pilates instructors into my space and they could use it for their own classes? Absolutely, I imagine using the large reception area with big blank walls and natural light to invite an art curator to use it as an art gallery and earn commission on the art sales. The clinic that I am in was actually in its past life, one of the businesses was an art gallery, so I wasn't like far reaching there that it was already intended for that space. So that could be like two ways that I could try and earn income, if I was not earning enough income to pay the bills just with massage alone. Now, in a short amount of time, the clinic was profitable and I had a small team, but I had those multiple plans in place just in case. And it's kind of fun and it's relieving. And I mean, bottom line, I was like, I know I'm going to make this work no matter what. And the lease term was short. It's only, was only for three years. So like, Could I if, if it was going to be hard. Could it be hard for three years? Yes, I could put up with that for three years, but thankfully, it wasn't, and I just knew deep down I was going to make it work. Now, don't get me wrong, financial responsibility does matter, but perfection or huge savings not required. So I. I'm going to leave for work now, stay tuned, and maybe a little bit of a different energy when I come back to this, probably tomorrow morning, and we're back on the same side as financially you do not have to have all of your money saved. Let's say that you don't also have to be financially perfect. I thought I had to be financially Perfect, perfect credit score, perfect spreadsheets, perfect cash flow projections, kind of understanding finances around a business. But that is absolutely not true. I definitely learned as I went and here's the honest advice. Definitely learn how to do your bookkeeping or hire a very good one. A good bookkeeper should save you countless hours and stress and give you insight into your business, spending, what's working and where you might need to adjust. You don't have to know everything. You just have to be willing to learn, ask for help and pay professionals for the things that are outside of your wheelhouse, and that is totally okay. Usually in the beginning of your business, you might feel like you're doing all of the things, but do not hesitate to hand off those things, tasks that you hate or you don't fully understand. It does. It's not worth the frustration, especially around finances. It's much better to have somebody professional explain things to you or do all of that, like bookkeeping piece for you. Great accountant also makes a big, a big difference as well. I also thought I needed business partners. Maybe not that I needed them, but I thought that I wanted to have a business partner when I decided that I was going to be a clinic owner or I thought that the only way I wanted to own a clinic was with a partner. I wanted a partner because I imagined that splitting the responsibilities would make everything easier that when one of us was on vacation, the other one was available on site, I thought that we would have different strengths and weaknesses in business, and we could work with each other to make sure that each partner was using their strengths in the business and we were supporting each other's, You know, weaknesses. But the truth is, going solo was simpler and more aligned with my vision. I just also didn't have anybody in particular in mind that I felt that I could, could work, work with, or was on the same, you know, on that same vision as I was. And sometimes, like, again, just timing for me, things just happened a lot quicker. So I just envisioned myself at that point just doing it by myself. I wasn't gonna wait until I had a business partner. I don't have to consult with anyone when I'm making decisions. There's no drama. And my colleagues know who they can come to, because it's just me. There's no like, Good cop, bad cop. There's no. All you know is sort of this. When you have the the parent situation, usually one will always say yes, and one's always saying no, and then the kids know who to play off of. I imagine it's very similar when you're having we have colleagues who know there's two different people that they can go to. And one might say yes, one might say no. One might get deliver a different a different way that might be more in their favor. But yeah, it partners can be amazing, but only if you really share the same values, work styles and visions for the business. Otherwise it can get messy fast, and there are definitely successful partnerships and representations of partnerships in clinic ownership, but a lot of them are also, would also describe it as like a marriage, where there is compromise and there is conflict, but you're basically married to the business, so you do figure out how to make it work, or you end up splitting. And you know that's another reality as well. While my husband is not my business partner, he is a huge, huge supporter of my business, and I do consider his outside perspective valuable in a lot of situations, because he is the classic devil's advocate. And honestly, once I learned to appreciate this quality, both in a professional and personal way, I really appreciated that you need to look at your business from all sides, because then you can be prepared for the worst, sure, like I've got my rose tinted glasses on, but everything's gonna work out. It'll be fine. But he's really good at just making sure that I understand what the worst case scenario would be. And unlike a business partner, I don't have to compromise or feel like I am going over. Or their head, if I feel like I know better I want to or I want to make a different decision, I also don't have any resentment, because I don't want conflict, and I just let them have their way. So I just don't have these issues because I don't have a business partner, and that that makes a huge difference. So don't feel like you have to have a partner to start. It's perfectly okay to go it alone. Working with a business coach, either in or outside the profession, can help as well. So you don't have to feel like you are alone
in the business if you have questions or you're having difficulty making a decision because you've never done this before. I'm grateful, because I do have, you know Jana as a mentor for a line, but you can hire a business coach again, who has somebody is an outside perspective and who will give you some realistic advice just because they don't have any skin in the game, right? So an outside professional or a business coach can make a really big difference. There another biggie. I thought I needed to know how to run a business from day one. Well, guess what? You learn by doing and sometimes failing forward. And I really encourage you to embrace failure. I know it sounds silly to say, but it's where you grow and you make the most progress, and you make the mistake, and then you know to do better and how you would do better next time. And that's, that's the only way, is by feeling, feeling nobody's born, knowing how to hire, handle taxes, negotiate leases or deal with tricky clients, you just figure it out. If you are currently working at a clinic and you think you want to be a clinic owner, this is a really great opportunity for you to start acting as if you are the owner, at least you know in your in your mind, look around and take note of what's working. What would you change and why? Observe how the owner handles difficult situations. Would you do the same? Can you learn from them? Would you do differently? Like, of course, you can. I encourage you to think like an owner, even if you are practicing like in a group clinic, because it'll give you some different perspective on whether or not you really want to handle the day to day of owning a business, just by observing so many of us are so privileged to just walk into a clinic, we do our best work, we see amazing clients. Everything is there for us, and we just turn around and leave again at the end of the day, it is a real privilege to be able to do that. The owner doesn't have that luxury, and that might not be something you want to deal with, and you might not know it until you actually become a clinic owner and then realize you just didn't want all of that extra work and behind the scenes, things that happen. So really start to observe now and and maybe even ask the owner, you know, questions about the business, if you have that type of relationship with them, to get some more insight. I have great mentors, as I already mentioned, you know, within a line. So when I do encounter something new, I can go to someone with more experience in clinic ownership, and they have a solution or a suggestion, or they are at least I present. This is what I'm going to do. What do you think? And when they agree disagree, offer an alternative. It's fine. I have made mistakes in the three short years of clinic ownership, and I take responsibility for these mistakes, and I want to do better if this situation comes up again, or I take a good look at how I can prevent it from happening again in the future, the key is being willing to learn and being humble enough to admit that you don't know and that's okay. Finally, I thought I had to wait until I had everything figured out before starting. Well, spoiler alert, no one really knows what they're doing at first, even the people who look super confident. You build your confidence by taking the leap, not by waiting until you feel ready. And if I'd waited until I felt 100% prepared, I'd still be waiting today. And I'm so glad that I did not wait, and I just also knew, like, it's not a lifetime commitment there we can get out of everything. It might seem big and scary, but it does. It doesn't have to be for a long period of time. It's just, even if it's a short, a short stint of clinic ownership, you realize it wasn't for you. There's some great again. There's a few great examples of massage. Therapists who have been clinic owners for maybe a decade, and then they're just like, You know what? This isn't for me anymore. I've become a better person. I've learned a lot, but now I'm don't want to own a clinic. I want to just go back to being a massage therapist without the ownership title, and I might also pursue other things, but so I think that that is really important as well. When you can leave on a good a good note, or you decide it wasn't for you because you gave it a try, like you just never know until you try. I stopped that on a business card back in the day. So if you're listening to this thinking, I'd love to open my own clinic, but I'm not ready, because answer your reason here, please hear me. You probably don't need as much as you think. You don't need more. You just need to trust what you've already got. If this episode sparked any questions or made you feel seen, come hang out on Instagram at the radical massage therapist, send me a DM. I'd love to hear your story, and if you're enjoying the podcast, it would mean the world to me if you would leave a review. Reviews help more massage therapists see the podcast or share it with another radical massage therapist who needs a little encouragement today, or is on the fence about clinic ownership, of course. So thanks so much for listening and have an awesome day.
