Office Space, a renter’s checklist

by Allissa on January 17, 2012

in The Business Side

Looking to rent space?

At some point or another, you’ll probably find yourself looking at office space to rent. It can be a big, scary experience and totally overwhelming if you’re not prepared for it.

Bring this list, and use it. Go through it while you’re in the space. Yes, be a geek with a piece of paper and pen, checking off the list and making notes as you chat with the person showing you the space.

Before your visit, review the requirements for state establishment licensure, if applicable.  Bring a tape measure, and if you’re nervous, a trustworthy friend.

Drive by the location at different times of day and note the parking, local noise levels, activity of neighboring businesses.

Is the location near where your ideal clients are?
How does the place look from outside?
Is there adequate parking?
What’s the signage like and will you be able to put your own up?
Is the entrance well marked and obvious? Handicap assessable?
What kind of locks are on the main doors?

Who are the office neighbors, and what are their hours?
Are there shared spaces, common areas like waiting area or bathroom? Who exactly shares these spaces?
What is the distance from bathroom to treatment room?

What is the size of the treatment room, including ceiling height?

Take note of:
door lock
wall color
type of flooring
windows, doors, emergency exits that can’t be blocked
number of electrical outlets and their location

Where is thermostat located, do you have direct access, are there ‘shared zones’?
What design/decorating changes would you be allowed to make?

How long have current tenants been there?

Does rent include:
heat
air conditioning
electric
hot water
snow removal

If not included in the rent, what are the typical utility costs for the space?

Is it wired for internet/cable?

What are the terms of the lease?
Who handles repairs and maintenance emergencies? Are they available 24/7?

Post-visit thoughts:

Who showed you the space? Were they nice? Was it the person who you’ll be dealing with regularly if you choose this space and how do you feel about that?

How much work is involved in making the place functional for you?

Have you looked for space in the past? What am I missing?

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In March I’ll reach my seven year anniversary of graduating from massage school. I started my business the very next day and last week I officially announced that I’m no longer taking new clients. (We’ll discuss the ins and outs of that another time)

In a nutshell, here’s how I did it:

I knew I wanted massage to be my full time job, so I treated it that way from Day 1. If I didn’t have clients scheduled, I still went to the office as if I had a full schedule, and I used that time to learn about marketing.

I hustled at chair massage, working oodles of Friday nights massaging women who get together to scrapbook.

I asked for help from my family to take the load off at home. I let them help me.

I sent thank you notes to new clients.

I sent thank you notes to regular clients, at least annually.

I never settled for an empty appointment book. In the beginning, I would woo friends in with a discount, or offer complimentary massage to great referral partners.

I embraced new marketing methods, like websites, email, and social media when they became available. I got excited about change, not pissy about it.

I started out small, renting a tiny room and a sliver of desk space in a local chiropractic office and kept my expenses low.

I treated every client like royalty. 

I asked for help from my mentor to guide me though difficult situations. I let him help me.

I kept my day job, part time in a local pharmacy. It was great for connecting with potential clients, and keeping me sane, and putting a cushion in my savings account.

I quit my day job. Too many of us slack on Plan A because we have a Plan B. Losing that safety net made me hustle even harder.

I considered my ideal clients and adjusted my schedule to make their convenience my priority.

I listened to my business-owner clients, and read every book they recommended.

I asked for help from my colleagues when I struggled to treat a tough pathology or client. I let them help me.

When I started to feel stifled in my tiny rented room, I moved out into my own office space.

I learned new techniques regularly and advertised that to my clients.

I got active in my local massage community to keep me abreast of new ideas and to keep me passionate about the industry.

I taught a community massage class, to practice my speaking and educating skills.

I asked for help from my friends, to warn me when I overwork. I let them help me.

I set goals.

I rewarded myself when I reached goals, usually with new beautiful artwork for the office or a great massage tool or product.

I got lots and lots of massage. It greatly improved my techniques and allowed me to meet my colleagues.

I rested. A few times a year, two days on a couch watching movies is a great way to recharge (for me).

That’s my nutshell. It’s a great place to be right now.

What’s worked for you?

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As we learned in Part 1, Why Use Twitter, Twitter is a real-time information system network. You can connect with all sorts of people: experts, authors, massage peeps just like you, etc. You name it, you can find it on Twitter.

In a fantastic twist of great user friendly service, the good people of Twitter have created a great beginner resource for twitter here.  I suggest you stroll through the menu and start with Twitter 101: How should I get started using Twitter?  And once you’ve got the hang of it, there’s a great Twitter for Business guide, too.

If you’re not familiar with Twitter, you’ve got some homework to do before the rest of this makes sense. If you are familiar with Twitter, this post is for you!

Please Do

Know why you’re there. Are you looking to connect with clients, friends, leaders in your industry? Do you just want to follow comedians and retweet jokes? These are all perfectly legit uses, but those choices should govern your behavior, who you follow (because many will follow you back) and what you share.

Use a Twitter handle that’s easy to recognize, and is consistent with your presence on other platforms. (Unless you’re using twitter just to retweet off-color jokes and talk about your ceramic clown collection. Then hide under a wacky pseudonym and don’t follow any clients or colleagues. Please.)

Have a good avatar, a clear headshot or your business logo.

Share information that is useful and interesting to your followers.

When you share information, be sure to give credit to the originator of the information. It’s just nice, and you’ll likely make a new friend!

Have a sense of humor, enjoy the conversation, and be outgoing.

Keep it to 140 characters or less. If you have to put out multiple tweets to get a point across, you’re in the wrong platform, you want Facebook or Google +. Twitter is about microblogging: communicating your message in 140 characters. This can be tricky at first, but it gets easier with time and practice, trust me. I am certain that I’m a better writer because of Twitter. It’s forced me to create crisp, concise thoughts that can be easily understood. (Think we can’t communicate ideas, feelings, in 140 characters or less? Go here sometime.)

Be yourself. An appropriate, professional, fun version of yourself.

Interact. Converse. Engage. Play.

Thank people for retweeting you and following you.

If you’re managing multiple Twitter accounts and/or Facebook accounts use a tool like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck. It allows you to share content to specific platforms with the best formatting for that platform.

Please Don’t

Auto DM new followers with a sales pitch. It’s insulting, sales-y and gross. Example, I started following a major massage company, and they Auto DM’d me about their new product that I should want to buy. Ick.

Likewise, don’t Auto DM new followers with a request to follow you on Facebook. I’m here on Twitter because I want to be on Twitter. Meet me where I’m at, I’m not traveling to you.

Tweet while drinking or otherwise not in your clear, deliberate mind. Trust me.

Be an automaton. This is still human interaction, just through the web. People want to interact with people. Not robots.

(okay, go get a beverage, because I saved the most intense points for last.)

Please Don’t link your accounts so that your Facebook posts appear as tweets.

More often than not, the post is well over 140 characters and translates into a tweet that is truncated. I created an example (instead of publicly calling someone out on this. See, I’m not a total jerk).

On it’s surface this isn’t an awful tweet, and really, it’s one of the more attractive examples of linking. This may not seem like a big deal, but it is in Twitter Land. The links to Facebook don’t work well on mobile. Clicking on that link will open a browser, not the mobile app, and I’ll be forced to log in to Facebook. It’s a pain in the rear. Experienced Twitter users quickly learn to ignore links with ‘fb’ in the address.  We simply don’t click on them, and we start ignoring the person constantly tweeting them.

But if this were a good tweet, it would be short and concise, it would tag the NCBTMB’s Twitter account and use a hashtag in front of massage so it would appear in searches, etc. Check this out:

 

It’s the same message, but with clickable links to the person (or brand) we’re talking about and a link to the topic, too.

Sometimes, Facebook posts just don’t translate well. If there’s a picture posted, we don’t see it on Twitter the same way you do on Facebook, so often the headline that we do see doesn’t make sense. You’ve lost me. I’ll never hear what you’re saying.

Also, you are losing the opportunity to incorporate Twitter’s most useful (and fun!) features into your tweets. Twitter uses @tags and hashtags (#) to identify people and topics. You don’t get those clickable in-tweet links when you’re just funneling updates from Facebook

Please Don’t link your accounts so that your tweets appear as Facebook posts.

This method is not as awful, but I still don’t love it.

The nice part is that, because the post originates in Twitter, it will be 140 characters or less. What’s yucky is, the tweet may be full of @ and #, and that’s garbage* to people on Facebook. It doesn’t make sense in that forum, and people ignore it. But if you leave out the @ and #, you’re not using Twitter fully. Bummer.

Also, you are losing the opportunity to incorporate Facebook’s most useful (and fun!) features into your posts. (If this sounds familiar, thanks for paying attention) Facebook has expanded the update fields to allow for over 63,000 characters. You can be more descriptive, you can tag pages and profiles, you can attach pictures that are seen on the wall at the same time as it’s headline.

An aside:

I understand it may be ‘easier’ to just link accounts and leave it be. But networking and community, and building relationships, is not always about what’s easier for you. It would also be easy to skip the proofreading of your brochure. It would be easier to not give a client a knee bolster, or a warm pillow under the neck. You’re better than that. Also there are tools to make it easy to properly manage multiple accounts and platforms. Check out Hootsuite and Tweetdeck.

So there it is.

Are some people pulling off techniques I have in the “Don’t” list? Sure.

Are we all using Twitter in our own way? Yes.

Regarding Comments to this post, here is my Wish List:

I would love to know how you use Twitter to connect with colleagues, clients, Richard Branson, Samantha Bee, marketers, whoever YOUR community is.

Or I would love to know why you aren’t using Twitter, what’s stopping you?

*phrasing courtesy of Teresa Deak, 

**For more reading on the evils of linking posts across platforms see here and here

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Why use Twitter?

by Allissa on January 5, 2012

in Marketing

“What is it?”    ”I don’t get it.”    ”I don’t know anyone on there.”

Can you imagine saying that about a roomful of potential clients? “I don’t know anyone there.” That’s exactly why you go to new environments full of potential clients (aka onsite massage jobs), to meet people.

Or how about a roomful of people with successful massage businesses and serious marketing skills? If you’re in the same business, trying to get some more clients, couldn’t you benefit from listening in on some conversations, maybe asking a few questions? Wouldn’t you want to have a beverage and hang out with those people? If you’ve ever wanted a mentor, or to be a fly on the wall, or to just make new connections from the comfort of your own recliner (hello, all you introverts!), Twitter is your chance.

Just to be clear: If you’ve got a successful practice and all the clients you want, this post probably isn’t for you. Likewise if you’re making an educated decision to NOT participate in this particular social media venue. I respect that. (I don’t do much on LinkedIn. I learned it, I see how it could be valuable, but I just don’t like it. It doesn’t speak to me. But since Michael schooled me on LinkedIn, I don’t knock people who use it and I don’t make ignorant comments about its usefulness or purpose.)

Also, this is not a Twitter tutorial.  This is the WHY of Twitter. (As I see it.) Tutorials are coming in Part 2 over the next week. I’ll include a discussion about linking Twitter and Facebook posts, (which was actually the debate that started this whole topic).

What is it?

It’s a real-time information network.

What kind of information? Any kind you want. You choose who you want to hear/read. You choose what information you want to pass along. You choose who to talk to.

I think the best way to explain is to give examples here. Right this very second, I’m opening my Twitter and looking at all the tweets on my Massage Therapy list, (I also have a Marketing list and an Autism list. But I can choose if I want to read everything in one stream or separately by the lists I’ve created. More on that later.)

There’s a link from @Lippincott about back surgery. That’s useful info for my clients and me.

 


 

 

Boulder College of Massage Therapy, @bcmt, linked to an article in the @abmp journal featuring one of their instructors. (And it’s an article about retaining clients, pretty useful stuff.)

 

 

 

 

Craniosacral therapist @katherineriggs posted a paper.li newsletter with all sorts of great articles, culled from Twitter, in fact.

 

 

 

 

I can get great information about my other 2 loves, marketing and children with autism spectrum disorders quickly and easily, too.

And in answer to  your impending question: Yes, it can be overwhelming. Information overload is certainly an issue. So here’s what I do when I get over-excited about everything I want to read and learn. I STOP READING THE TWITTER STREAM. I simply choose to not take in anymore information.

It’s a conversation.

And conversations lead to relationships, virtual mentorships, new clients, knowledge, etc.

Through Twitter, I met Paola Bassanese (@paolaenergya) a massage therapist and marketing guru in London. She’s been so kind about sharing my blog with her audience, and I’ve learned about yoga, spa therapies and nutrition from her. AND I have a friend moving to London this year, so I already know I’ll be buying gift certificates from her. Sweet. Oh, and she just won a big award. Rock on, Paola.

 

 

 

 

I have been setting up a new business in my Quickbooks for Mac. I ran into a snag and tweeted at @Quickbooks and my bank, @allybank. They both responded!

 

 

 

 

 

 

and

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and @allybank even checked me out and read my blog!

 

 

 

And my all-time favorite Twitter conversation is this one. Justin lives in Indianapolis. I don’t remember how or why I started following him, but this happened (just click on the image to make it bigger and readable):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, yes. You CAN get clients from Twitter.

You can also build relationships with your current clients and other locals. Check out Steph Lasch’s brilliant move with her business’s twitter:

 

 

 

 

 

 

But it’s so much more than that. It’s a virtual room full of people, most wearing name tags that specify what they do. And guess what, they all want to talk with YOU.

Join in!

Ready to dangle your feet? Check out Twitter basics here.

Ready to play? Sunday nights at 10PM EST, Kelli Wise hosts a live chat on twitter. Here are details and instructions for that.

Need some ideas on who to follow? Check out my massage list here.

Find Part 2 of the Twitter series here.

 

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We ran a contest, to win this awesome CD, a Massage Therapy Foundation fundraiser. It pained me to choose a winner, so I’m happy to bring you the runners-up, one by one, for your enjoyment.

Special thanks to Ravensara S. Travillian for this hilarity:

Back when I was in massage school, we all had a certain number of practice massages that we had to carry out each week. My friend Greg volunteered for a practice session. As he lay prone on my table, I was working intently on his traps and occipitalis. I was so focused on my work close-up that it was like nothing else in the world existed for that moment–just Greg’s head and neck, and the work underneath my fingers.

Suddenly he yelled “Hey!” jolting me out of my concentration. Startled, I looked up to see the covering sheet sliding rapidly up and over his buttocks and off the bottom of the table.

From that moment on, my cat Shimi was instantly and permanently banned from all practice massage sessions, with no option for appeal.

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It’s just after dark on January 1. I’ve been wanting to write since I woke up this morning, but other tasks called for my attention all day. There was a last minute trip to the grocery store, the making of salad and Monkey Bread, preparing for guests. There was a New Year’s Brunch today, and I was involved. It was an assembly of things I don’t really enjoy, preparing food, being social, making small talk and such. But we push ourselves to do things for the people we love, right? And this was one of those times. Not surprisingly, I made it through just fine. Also not surprising, it was even fun.

I always watch for the reaction when I say, “I’m a massage therapist.” Sometimes the declaration is met with an eyebrow raise or a barely-perceptible flinch. Sometimes it’s met with an, “Oh, I love my massage therapist!” I’m finding more and more of the latter nowadays, and I’m so grateful for that.

In a few conversations, I got to be an ambassador for massage. I talked to an Occupational Therapist working in geriatrics. I gave a great referral to a man with a chronic vocal cord spasm issue. I’m hooking up a new friend from Boston with a Shiatsu practitioner.

And it all came naturally, with little of the social anxiety and stress I normally feel at these kinds of things. Yes, I still wanted to crawl into bed and nap for hours when the last guest left.  Progress, not perfection. But the baby steps are significant and I think it’s really important to note them.

A year ago I wouldn’t have pictured myself here, pleased and happy after a social event with new people. I didn’t think I would ever feel comfortable and able to speak in an educated way about massage, without fumbling the thoughts and shying away. But here I am. It happened.

Anything is possible.

Whatever you think can’t happen, maybe it can. Whatever you think you’re not capable of, maybe you are. Perhaps change will occur without fanfare, as it did for me today. I hope to be more cognizant of the gentle baby steps that lead to these quiet successes. They are victories, really.

I hope 2012 is full of gentle steps and quiet victories for you, too.

With all my heart I wish you the Happiest New Year. Thanks for starting it with me.

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We ran a contest, to win this awesome CD, a Massage Therapy Foundation fundraiser. It pained me to choose a winner, so I’m happy to bring you the runners-up, one by one, for your enjoyment.

Special thanks to Maria Candelaria Solis for this giggle:

Of course I have had many funny things happened throughout the years I have been a massage therapist.

One in particular happened about 4 years ago.  I had acquired this business woman as a client a few months prior.  Everytime she came in for an appointment she was dressed in a business suit and high heel shoes.  This particular evening she came in, I greeted her, talked to her about what we were going to accomplish during the massage session.  I left the room to give her the privacy to get ready for her massage.

When I came in she was underneath the sheet.  I uncovered her upper back and proceeded to start working.  After I was finished with her back, I covered the area and then went to uncover one of her legs.  Imagine my surprise when I uncovered her leg still wearing the high heel shoe.  She was still wearing her pair of shoes as she was relaxing on the massage table receiving a massage.  It was all I could do to keep from laughing at the situation.

She is still a client, always comes dressed in a business suit and spiked heels but she removes them when she gets on the table.

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We ran a contest, to win this awesome CD, a Massage Therapy Foundation fundraiser. It pained me to choose a winner, so I’m happy to bring you the runners-up, one by one, for your enjoyment.

Special thanks to Nicole Smith  for this batch of silliness:

Not sure if this is funny or gross.  Not funny at the time now after a several years I can laugh about it.

Lets face it, we all have clients that let out toots (farts) here & there.  I had a regular client come in one day for her appointment.  Right when I started working on her she says “I had chili for dinner last night and forgot to take my beano beforehand, so I am a little gassy today”
Ok, no big deal, I thought, she has tooted before in a massage, so whatever.  Well, let me tell you.  One was let out at least every minute and they were not smelling like roses!  Chili/Beans for dinner, mmmhhmmmm!  Wow. I had to put my shirt over my nose as well as I could.
I thought I was going to throw up about half way through. I tried to time her flip over just right as to when she let one out to lift the blanket and let her smell herself.  She never said another word about it, but I was SO HAPPY when that hour was over!
Now, years later I think it makes a funny story!

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We ran a contest, to win this awesome CD, a Massage Therapy Foundation fundraiser. It pained me to choose a winner, so I’m happy to bring you the runners-up, one by one, for your enjoyment.

Special thanks to Eleanor Dukes for this nugget of funny:

So I was working at a Spa last year and I was seeing a prenatal client her whole pregnancy. We were down to every 2 weeks sessions. She said she wanted some more time on her feet because they hurt. Of course I saved the best for last, I on covered her feet and started to work. Then I looked at the clock and saw that I had just about 15 mins left so I decide to sit on my stool.

I bent my knees and pushed my butt back to sit….the darn thing was not there! I THUMPed on the floor, hit my head on the wall and up in the air went my feet. I was on my back! when I looked up in the semi dark room the stool was at the other end of the darn table. My oil bottle fell out my holster and the top came off, all of it poured out. My very pregnant client said in a clam voice,

Client: did you fall? 

Me: Yes I am fine

Client giggling: how’d you do that? don’t get up yet make sure you are not hurt, do you me want to call someone? that sounded pretty hard. Take a minute if you need to. 

Me: Jumping up quickly in fear that my RN pregnant client may feel the need to take care of me. Um no I’m fine. Continues massage, end massage. Apologies for my clumsiness. Client re-books and leaves giggling. 

At lunch the therapist in the room next door said she was walking by and heard a bang on the wall and then a thump. She called the manager because she thought I had the huge male client, he made a pass at me and I knocked him to the floor. They had one person stand outside the door for 10 mins while they checked the schedule to see who I was seeing. When they saw it was the pregnant clients they got worried cause they thought she rolled off the table.

I was very confident that the stool was at the end of the table, because I had 2 in the room all day. We had a front desk trainee and she wanted a stool to roll back and forth so she took the extra one in my room. 

Everyone had a big laugh cause I am not a skinny minny, I am pleasantly plump with a rump. They figured I had enough cushioning to soften the landing. Of course I had to do a reenactment for the other MTs cause they have never heard of falling in a session. 


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Separation of Church & Marketing?

by Allissa on December 11, 2011

in Ethical Dilemmas,Marketing

No doubt if you’re on Facebook, you’ve seen the current meme going around about not being allowed to say, “Merry Christmas” and having to say “Happy Holidays” instead. As is often the case, it’s an outdated, not-really-truthful sentiment that gets people all riled up.

As far as I can trace, it comes from some news a few years back about how Target removed the word “Christmas” from their advertising (briefly) and maybe the story about a few merchants who gave employees rules about appropriate holiday greetings. (But that’s not really what this post is about, so let’s not get caught up in that.)

When I first saw the cheesy status update, I posted on my Facebook Page:

Not everyone is Christian. Keep that in mind when choosing your holiday cards, greetings and email subject headings. Be thoughtful, not prideful or fanatical, and make the choices that are right for your business & your audience.

Some really great comments and questions arose. Is Happy Holidays okay? But what holiday are we talking about? Some groups don’t even celebrate the New Year on January 1. Is Peace on Earth okay? Sure, that’s great on cards and such, but weird to say as a verbal greeting.

It’s not really about the Christmas greetings, so let’s move past that. But that conversation made me think more about how people often include references to religion in their marketing.

It’s been lingering in the back of my head for quite some time. I’ve seen it in website bios and welcome messages. Things like, “I thank God for my wonderful clients and community.” I’ve seen people list Christian, Believer, Follower of Christ, etc, in their Twitter profiles that are used for business. Ditto for Facebook and Google+, both in profiles and on pages.

I’m a big fan of using personality in your marketing. Cleary, since I wrote an ebook about it. And I think that one’s religion and activity within a group can certainly be considered part of one’s personality. But we need to be sure that the inclusion of god and religious references is mindful and carefully considered. 

Why? Because not everyone is your religion. And religion is a touchy subject often woven with extreme emotion. Putting a reference to god on your site may steer away an otherwise really ideal client. That might be okay with you, but be mindful that it could happen.

I went into a local locksmith shop last year to have some keys made. The same owner has been there since I was a kid, and he’s always had the 10 Commandments displayed in the front window. I’m not a fan of that, but I like to frequent local businesses (and I was having breakfast next door) so I went in. While I waited for the keys to be made, I realized that a very extremist Christian radio program was playing, loudly. There were several pamphlets on the counter with religious messages. There was a rather graphic pamphlet regarding a political reproductive health care topic. I was really uncomfortable, and if he didn’t already have my keys in his hand I would have left immediately.

I will never go back there. I will wait in line for an hour at Home Depot to have keys made. And that’s okay. It’s his business and if that’s the message he wants to put out that’s none of my concern, I’ll go elsewhere.

Yes, that’s a dramatic example, but consumer choices happen like that all the time. In choosing between two great websites for local MT’s, a potential client may choose someone else if a religious reference appears on your site. Conversely, a client may choose you because of that reference.

You must know your audience. You must consider the thoughts of potential clients. You must decide how inclusive and exclusive you wish to be in every area of your marketing, and the realities of sustaining your business with the choices you make. That includes your website copy, paper brochures, greeting cards and even the words you choose when speaking with people.

I worked in retail pharmacy for many years, in a very diverse neighborhood. We always said, “Have a nice holiday.” We did that all the time, around December holidays, spring holidays, even for arbor day and flag day. The customers loved it. I like finding reasons to celebrate every day, anyhow.

Consider your word choices carefully, or don’t. Just know that every aspect of your marketing is a choice about who you want to draw in and who you want to push away.

Have a wonderful National Noodle Ring Day, or if you’re getting to this late, perhaps National Violin Day.

 

 

 

 

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