I came up with the idea of starting my own massage business after I was fired (no kidding) - first time ever and I was devastated. Yes, I was working as a massage therapist, and this is not invented as an interesting lead to a blog. I was fired.
My clients are probably reading this and thinking, surely not? But it is the truth. Turns out the owner of the massage business was a little concerned with my performance, you see, everyone one was asking for me, I’ll let you put two and two together ;)
I found massage in my mid-thirties, or rather it found me. I was living in England with a young family and working as an editor, when the opportunity arose to do a paid course of my choice. So my first foray into massage came about as a hobby. I trained for 12 months and started massaging friends.
We relocated to Perth after a family member’s health scare, with our now almost four year old daughter with the ‘plum in her mouth’ English accent. So after a turbulent start with the aforementioned firing, Hills Massage came into fruition in October 2003. I had big plans you see, so I registered the Business Name, Hills Massage. I started mobile, slogging my table around, night after night. Did some senior massage at The Jack Healey Centre, and finally convinced my hubby to convert our front room into a clinic.
In the meantime, I continued my studies to acquire my Remedial Massage Diploma (coming second in the ‘Achievements in Theory’). Probably also a good point to let you know here, that I was a qualified Registered Nurse, but typically injured my back in a lifting accident and had my lower spine fused. Yes, I was admonished by my mother, who thought massage was not really a sensible idea for an ex-nurse with a dicky back.
After five years of working from home, my reputation was growing and I was invited to move into one of the physiotherapist’s rooms at Mead St. This is where the business blossomed. I now had a central location and access to an electric table, WooHoo! (you have no idea how much better it makes life for the therapist, not to mention the client).
The business thrived and I took on my first therapist, that dream of opening my own clinic was getting closer.
Finally in October of 2014, my dream came into fruition; I leased a small space on Haynes St (our current clinic). We worked hard to fit it out.
I then I lay awake at night thinking, “Is this the right thing to do? Can I sustain a business on my own?” The clinic looked great, two individually temperature controlled rooms, electric tables, and a swish reception area/waiting room (Well I think its swish).
So that brings us up to now, nearly three years after opening the clinic, we are happily thriving. I now have my best friend and hubby, Alec, on board as Practice Manager, we have two fantastic Remedial Massage Therapists, Ben and Eilish, oh and our daughter (the lovely face in our ads), works in the café below us. All I can say is dreams do come true if you really believe.
Michelle xx
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