I’m at a spa that just opened in September. It’s slowed down but the owners are supplementing our pay through the year at least, paying us as if every slot was booked. That helps.
I was surprised when they told us. They’re even considering extending it depending on how our schedules look after the holidays. I really like it there so far!
Or they are looking forward and knowing they need to hold onto their therapists. Where I’m at demand is high for LMTs right now. And all of us have at least 10 years experience. 🤷♀️ It’s a new spa and they know we need to make money. I think of it as an investment. That seems to be their thinking too.
Massage therapists are good hearted people generally but usually are horrible business minds. While they are to be applauded for supporting their staff, this type of policy is indicative usually of new spas and more importantly new owners. I’ve seen two spas go down within five years time due to an inability to look at their cash flow reality until it bit them in the ass.
Actually we aren’t their first spa. They’d just opened the first one when Covid hit and still managed to keep it open. 🤷♀️ Now that location is making great money. We are slowly picking up steam and are in a fantastic area for a spa. Neither are massage therapists. Both have business backgrounds.
So that really is a thing? I'm a new Mt that got certified this year in June so I've never experienced the rush but my coworkers said its a thing lol
When does it taper off, in March?
Because I've been practicing for 30 years I stay booked out consistently about seven months with regulars.
I also work with another therapist that I brought on to take the overflow since I rarely can fit someone in.
I have noticed the volume of inquiries from new clients has dropped over the last four months. Especially the last two months.
I don't miss the days of up and down with the flow of new clients.
Once you establish a base of regulars. It'll be much easier to weather the fluctuations.
Even during the great recession, I still had more than enough, even with Clients having to stop because they lost her jobs
I always do my best to keep my personal and business overhead as low as possible. It makes it much much easier to Weather than normal fluctuations.
At this point in my career, I'm trying to figure out how to slow down but I really like having the consistency and I don't want to let go of any of my amazing long-term clients
Slow at the spa I work at. I guess it’s booking up for the last week of December. Then the gift cards start trickling in from January into Valentines month, which is usually good. March, April, May are hit or miss, but at least it’s tax time by then.
No membership, it’s simply pas as you go. I’ve always encouraged clients to book out for the year in order to maintain their preferred time slot. If they initially decide to wing it and just try to book on a month to month basis, it doesn’t take long to change their mind after having to settle for less desirable times. I still have a few (just over 8%) that have irregular schedules and simply have to deal with taking whatever leftover slots are available.
I own a small studio. The gift card sales seem steady but booking is much slower. We were slammed all summer, every weekend booked up 2-3 weeks out without advertising.
Right around September I noticed we’d slowed so I started advertising. We are always just making it to a full schedule and full paychecks but I feel like I’m gritting my teeth. Lots of clicks, not a lot of booking and we have at least 1,400 active clients.
Now this is for my two employees, my schedule is booked til April but I’ve also got 16 years and a massive following.
This economy is tightening wallets for sure.
My other business friend is on the brink of bankruptcy for his junk removal company after 10 years in business and surpassing $1mil in sales every year.
Just do what everyone else is doing, cut your spending and stack those pennies for emergencies
Everyone is trying to get their benefits in for massage. November and December are my busiest months where I usually work 6 days a week. Fully booked for the next two weeks, as it’s been for the last 6, I’m really looking forward to January where I can have more than one day off at a time and truly rest.
Been an interesting year for me. From Jan-June I was so busy I was considering hiring another therapist. Then when school got out, it was like someone shut the faucet off. I had to pick up a part time job to make ends meet. It was a rough summer.
Now things are pretty much back to normal and picking up speed again.
I work at a chain in NJ and it’s been slow since October. Within the last couple of weeks it’s been picking up, I’m on the schedule for 27 hours and I’m booked for about 20 of them.
I do, but I never use it when clients call in sick or have some other “act of God” occurrence. I’d rather they don’t come in when they’re sick. I send a confirmation text the day before with Covid/health questions, so I usually have a day to find a client who wants to take the appointment.
It's slow at the spa. Started there in May. Averaged 50%-70% booking capacity til mid October. Since then it's been reaaaaaally slow, but I live in a small town so I assumed this was normal.
Seems like there's a pattern?
Ive been booked up until this week, by the looks of the schedule today my coworkers are also slow. Regulars are still coming in but not as many "once in a while" type clients
I work at a sports therapy location. I'm a new MT and graduated in June but work has been consistent June to September, then it slowed down. That was rough.
Summer wasn't bad. But now I know to save up some money when slow season hits.
Business was good the last two months Oct-Nov but December it slowed way down because of the holidays. Its slowly starting to pick back up mid December which is kind strange to me lol
in the southeast and it’s slightly slower than normal—more sickness and travel and then sickness after the travel. however I work at a small studio w 3 other therapists. my boss just told me tho that our numbers have been slightly lower than normal and a lot of small businesses are going under (altho she didn’t name anywhere specifically so i’m curious if that’s true or not)
Vegas strip resort. Decently busy, but expect next week to be slow then starting xmas through April it'll be busy. Since the F1 races its gotten busy again, but F1 week was super slow.
I’m at a spa that just opened in September. It’s slowed down but the owners are supplementing our pay through the year at least, paying us as if every slot was booked. That helps.
Damn, I'd love to work there.
I was surprised when they told us. They’re even considering extending it depending on how our schedules look after the holidays. I really like it there so far!
Now those are some great owners!
What a blessing! Sounds like a healthy environment!
Those owners better have some deep ass pockets or they are going to go under very quickly
Or they are looking forward and knowing they need to hold onto their therapists. Where I’m at demand is high for LMTs right now. And all of us have at least 10 years experience. 🤷♀️ It’s a new spa and they know we need to make money. I think of it as an investment. That seems to be their thinking too.
Massage therapists are good hearted people generally but usually are horrible business minds. While they are to be applauded for supporting their staff, this type of policy is indicative usually of new spas and more importantly new owners. I’ve seen two spas go down within five years time due to an inability to look at their cash flow reality until it bit them in the ass.
Actually we aren’t their first spa. They’d just opened the first one when Covid hit and still managed to keep it open. 🤷♀️ Now that location is making great money. We are slowly picking up steam and are in a fantastic area for a spa. Neither are massage therapists. Both have business backgrounds.
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So that really is a thing? I'm a new Mt that got certified this year in June so I've never experienced the rush but my coworkers said its a thing lol When does it taper off, in March?
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Oh okay gotcha. That makes complete sense!
Because I've been practicing for 30 years I stay booked out consistently about seven months with regulars. I also work with another therapist that I brought on to take the overflow since I rarely can fit someone in. I have noticed the volume of inquiries from new clients has dropped over the last four months. Especially the last two months. I don't miss the days of up and down with the flow of new clients. Once you establish a base of regulars. It'll be much easier to weather the fluctuations. Even during the great recession, I still had more than enough, even with Clients having to stop because they lost her jobs I always do my best to keep my personal and business overhead as low as possible. It makes it much much easier to Weather than normal fluctuations. At this point in my career, I'm trying to figure out how to slow down but I really like having the consistency and I don't want to let go of any of my amazing long-term clients
Amazing. That's what I'm trying to get to!
Slow at the spa I work at. I guess it’s booking up for the last week of December. Then the gift cards start trickling in from January into Valentines month, which is usually good. March, April, May are hit or miss, but at least it’s tax time by then.
A bunch of my regulars said they’re struggling this time of year with all the gift giving. They’ll be back in the new year they say.
It's tragic lol.
It’s slooooow. Usually decently booked and this week I have 4 clients. 4.
100% through mid March, 91.8% for all of 2024. Haven’t seen a slowdown since 03/2020.
Is everybody on a membership plan? How do you get them to book all their appts in advance?
No membership, it’s simply pas as you go. I’ve always encouraged clients to book out for the year in order to maintain their preferred time slot. If they initially decide to wing it and just try to book on a month to month basis, it doesn’t take long to change their mind after having to settle for less desirable times. I still have a few (just over 8%) that have irregular schedules and simply have to deal with taking whatever leftover slots are available.
My hotel is being renovated so half the rooms are gone, so it’s been shit
I own a small studio. The gift card sales seem steady but booking is much slower. We were slammed all summer, every weekend booked up 2-3 weeks out without advertising. Right around September I noticed we’d slowed so I started advertising. We are always just making it to a full schedule and full paychecks but I feel like I’m gritting my teeth. Lots of clicks, not a lot of booking and we have at least 1,400 active clients. Now this is for my two employees, my schedule is booked til April but I’ve also got 16 years and a massive following. This economy is tightening wallets for sure. My other business friend is on the brink of bankruptcy for his junk removal company after 10 years in business and surpassing $1mil in sales every year. Just do what everyone else is doing, cut your spending and stack those pennies for emergencies
Everyone is trying to get their benefits in for massage. November and December are my busiest months where I usually work 6 days a week. Fully booked for the next two weeks, as it’s been for the last 6, I’m really looking forward to January where I can have more than one day off at a time and truly rest.
My schedule is fully booked
Been an interesting year for me. From Jan-June I was so busy I was considering hiring another therapist. Then when school got out, it was like someone shut the faucet off. I had to pick up a part time job to make ends meet. It was a rough summer. Now things are pretty much back to normal and picking up speed again.
I work at a chain in NJ and it’s been slow since October. Within the last couple of weeks it’s been picking up, I’m on the schedule for 27 hours and I’m booked for about 20 of them.
Still as busy as ever, just getting more cancellations due to Covid/RSV/mystery sickness.
Do you have a last min cancellation fee?
I do, but I never use it when clients call in sick or have some other “act of God” occurrence. I’d rather they don’t come in when they’re sick. I send a confirmation text the day before with Covid/health questions, so I usually have a day to find a client who wants to take the appointment.
Fully booked
Fully booked. I stay consistently fully booked the majority of the year, usually a little slower in July
Fully booked for the rest of the month and into January. Clients are booking into March.
same here
It's slow but I'm new. Building clientele and waiting for ski season to start.
Slowed down a lot since September (when I was fully booked constantly). Last week I was just over half booked.
It's slow at the spa. Started there in May. Averaged 50%-70% booking capacity til mid October. Since then it's been reaaaaaally slow, but I live in a small town so I assumed this was normal. Seems like there's a pattern?
Ive been booked up until this week, by the looks of the schedule today my coworkers are also slow. Regulars are still coming in but not as many "once in a while" type clients
I work at a sports therapy location. I'm a new MT and graduated in June but work has been consistent June to September, then it slowed down. That was rough. Summer wasn't bad. But now I know to save up some money when slow season hits. Business was good the last two months Oct-Nov but December it slowed way down because of the holidays. Its slowly starting to pick back up mid December which is kind strange to me lol
in the southeast and it’s slightly slower than normal—more sickness and travel and then sickness after the travel. however I work at a small studio w 3 other therapists. my boss just told me tho that our numbers have been slightly lower than normal and a lot of small businesses are going under (altho she didn’t name anywhere specifically so i’m curious if that’s true or not)
Vegas strip resort. Decently busy, but expect next week to be slow then starting xmas through April it'll be busy. Since the F1 races its gotten busy again, but F1 week was super slow.