Opportunities. Threats. Peacocks.

-or- In Which She Gets Real, and Gets Cocky.

There’s been a bunch of SWOT-ing going on. Last week I started a good, hard look into my business with a list of my Strengths and Weaknesses.

Of course, Kelli over at Massage Therapy World is already into her analysis (she’s got a CHART, are you kidding me?) and I’m just busting out part 2 of my SWOT, the Opportunities and Threats.

Here we go:

Create a list of Opportunities for you outside your current business

• Learn new modalities to improve deep tissue work. I love doing it but am concerned about blowing out my body.
• Get structured about selling product in the office. Whenever I have certain items on a shelf, they sell themselves. Why not increase what I carry and offer? If it’s product I use myself, I’m just spreading the love. Word of mouth with the topic on hand, really.
• Subletting the space. I have a second treatment room that is only rented for 3.5 days a week. Get aggressive about finding a renter for the other 3.5 days. Further, get more rigid about MY schedule and sublet my room when I am not using it. This would also require me to learn to share. We’ll see about this.
• Have workshops in office. I’ve got space for 6 people seated, 4-5 if we need to move around. I had a small breathing class in here last winter, people loved it (Except me, I was far too antsy to lay on the floor and ‘full wave breathe’ for 20 minutes. Go figure.)
• This here Blue Streak project. What (if any) part of this will become a source of income? hhmmm… (relax, the wit and charm will always be free. and plentiful.)
• Teach couples massage. I used to do a class at a local enrichment program/night school. The schedule got too cumbersome and I turned it over to a friend. But what about 1 couple at a time? Offer an in-home lesson with each partner practicing on the other as I teach basic massage skills. Maybe a 3 hour package? Promote it with a special gift certificate around christmas & valentines day?

Then,

List the things outside of your control that could harm your business. (Threats)

• The still-stumbling economy? I just don’t know. I’ve been fortunate (and also busted my ass) and have had decent growth over the past 24 months. But I have noticed some clients booking maintenance massages a bit further apart. How concerned should I be about this? If I’m still getting new clients regularly, it all evens out. Seems all I have to do is take a long weekend off and 11 (exaggeration) clients I haven’t seen in 2 years want to come in. hmmm… I guess that 10 days out of the office in September will be interesting…
• I could get hurt, or just plain burn out with the hands-on work. That would suck.
• The new MT down the street is pretty good. Her marketing is more full-spectrum than mine. Entirely possible that I’m losing potential new clients because she’s got a fancy sign right on the busy route that advertises her ‘$49 intro’ pricing.

That’s all I’ve got. I might need help coming up with more threats.  I’m so deep in this business, and I don’t have a clinical mind, so I don’t know that I can be objective and clear. I may need to pull in some help.

We’ll see what happens when I make a fancy chart and start to pull it together.

(Oh, FYI-Kelli and I will be irrelevant soon. We just met Kat, a massage student and writer who is funnier than a hat on kitten and has cool videos on her site.  I still have this awesome blue hair, I don’t know what Kelli’s gonna do to keep up…. But when Kat’s ready to go, you’ll hear about it here and there.)

This week’s (motivational?) rant. C’mon. You knew it was coming.

Last week someone said to me something like this: “You have so much more time than I do, I have a 40 hour/week job plus kids plus massage clients, plus blah blah blah.”

Initially, the personal nature of the excuse pissed me off. My feisty peacock response lit right up. In my head was the, “Listen, I went to school & built my practice while <<insert your hardship here>>. Don’t tell me I had more time. Don’t tell me you can’t make it work. I did. It was damn hard, but I did.”  But the peacock is over-zealous. She is protective of pride and image and not all that useful in growing functional working relationships. She doesn’t give a flying leap about Sprezzaturra. She wants credit and props and street cred and a medal and a trophy and a sticker that says “I DID IT!!!” to smack right on her forehead so everyone she meets will say “Wow! you did it!!” and “My, don’t you look pretty today!” So I shut her down quick and moved along.

Now that I’ve thought about it more, taken my reflexive emotions out of the equations (you know, made it less about me and more about her), I am so sad. I am sad that my friend can’t see past where she is. I am sad that she really does think that her current situation limits what she can accomplish long term. I’m sad that she ALLOWS IT to limit her. Mostly I am sad that there is not much you can say to shake people out of that PLACE. Such talk will only trigger their defense mechanisms so they shut you down. Or lead to more spiraling self-pity. Or just piss her off so she doesn’t have drinks with me anymore.

I console myself with the knowledge that 5 years from now, she will have seen the light. She will have recognized that she has a CHOICE about how she allocates her resources (aka. spends her time). We’ll be having drinks and I’ll say, “How wonderful that you achieved  <<insert goal here>>! Here’s to you!” and she’ll say “Yeah, remember when I couldn’t see my way out of the hole? That was stupid. What a waste of time.”

And then we’ll need refills.

Consumed while writing this post: Tomato soup. From a straw. (I had a cavity filled today.)

Image: Tina Phillips / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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