Massage Therapist can Thrive with Modern Technology
Historically, independent Massage therapist (LMT's) have had quite a battle when competing with established practices and national chains. The big firms have a big physical location, spend money on advertising, and provide all that fancy equipment. Meanwhile, LMT's have limited capital, time, and resources. What do independent therapist have? The answer is of course Talent and Charm! However, to compete successfully, one needs more than talent and charm ! As Sun Tzu says, one needs a good strategy.
“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”
What are the outlines of a winning strategy?
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Flatten the Playing Field
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Turn your disadvantages to an advantage
How does one flatten the playing field ?
Here is the good news: 96% of all consumer research begins online. If you can connect with the customer online with a credible marketing presence, you have as much of a shot of obtaining the customer as a large gym.
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(Example: The boom in Food trucks can be directly attributed to technologies such as Twitter where the businesses require customers to become “Followers” in order to find food truck location, deals, and menu updates. Also, everyone loves to share information about a great meal!) |
How does one turn disadvantages to advantages?
Disadvantage: Big Chains have locations and equipment ⇒
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Advantage: Independent therapist can be mobile and provide consumer flexibility
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Advantage: Independent threrapist does not have to carry the costs of building/equipment. We can be much more agile and efficient.
(Are their examples of success? Yes.. check out the food truck industry above)
How does one get started ?
Embrace the internet and the third generation platforms (such as Ocoos) which are enabling small companies to compete successfully. These platforms allow a independent therapist to build a modern and powerful web presence (Can be built in one-click with our Facebook Page tool), which include built-in online scheduling and ecommerce capabilities (Example). In addition, this new website is integrated with a suite of simplified tools:
The Integration allows business operations to function automatically, meaning your bookkeeping, client management, and scheduling is all done for you.
The Outcome
Success is based on quality and not on resources, and independent therapist can use their greatest assets (talent and charm) to build deeper relationships with their clients.
Learn more at: http://bit.ly/Y3EFEa
Daniel Sosa Co-Founder @ Ocoos.com [email protected]
Disclaimer -Author is the Co-founder of Ocoos.com
