About Natural Touch Marketing:
An interview with Amanda Braun, LMT
by Eileen Ryan & Diana Moore, January, 2008

I had my first massage ever on my honeymoon. It was the most amazing experience of my life. I walked out into a blustery day, but felt warm and peaceful and wrapped up in a lovely cocoon. I thought, “If I could spend my life making other people feel this much better about their lives, that would be a career worth giving my life to.”

At that time I was a field trainer in the bookkeeping/employee records department of a huge bookstore in a 26-store region. I was the person in charge of tracking everything employees did wrong. My job was to figure out why an employee should be disciplined. I was miserable in the corporation. It just didn’t suit my personality.

I was very unhappy, but while I was there I read a lot of literature on how to talk to and manage customers. I learned to manage time, interact on professional business level with people, and manage money and schedules. I really got a grip on interacting with clientele on a marketing level. Even though I didn’t agree with a lot of the corporate philosophy and goals, I could see how the marketing ideas and techniques were useful.

Then during our business class at East West College in Portland, they used AMTA’s business book as our textbook. It was a good start, but I think most massage schools could beef up their business classes, or at least create a strong list of reference resources. I feel if I hadn’t had my business background, I probably wouldn’t have been able to start up my practice. I would have been intimidated and given up.

I graduated, and was licensed in July ’06. I did nothing for a whole month — I had been working at the same time as going to school full time. I was originally planning have an outside part-time job as I built my practice. Then I found out the job was not going to work with my private practice plan, so I declined it. I started out cold turkey — very scary and exciting. I knew I would have to be standing on my feet financially within a year. So I started looking at things intensely.

I read a whole bunch of massage magazines and articles by Cherie Sohnen-Moe and anybody that had anything to say about building a “health business.” I took their advice and experiences and applied them to me. I’ve had awesome ideas to take, adapt and run with. They already laid out the breadcrumbs.

I also attended an all day Small Business Administration (SBA) fair in Portland. The SBA speaker was best of the day. I found out that the SBA has all this free information, such as help with creating your business plan, and offers free community college classes. If you’re just starting out, take classes on starting and running a business — your community college may have free ones.

I’ve gone outside my comfort zone a lot. I remembered one of my coworkers from the store said her business networking group was useful. So I went, but it was very scary. Deep down, I like quiet and one-on-one contact. At the group, I had to stand in a room of strangers and tell them why I was so wonderful and then whirl around and ask them why they were wonderful.

The networking group helped me summarize my business and what I did. I visited some chapter meetings, and joined because the value was obvious. As uncomfortable as it was for me personally, I knew it would pay off as far as my business was concerned, and I kept at it.

There’s something to be said for “sticktoivety.” I invested in my business even when it was hard. I made myself do it.

By April, I was paying my own rent, and starting to get rebookings. It was really hard to ask clients to rebook, but I did it anyway. Suddenly everybody started rebooking when I asked. Go figure.

I also signed up for the free newsletter from bodyworkbiz.com. The first newsletter talked about how he took 400 gift certificates to a law office good for free massage — either 15 or 30 minutes. I took that idea and made it my own. This was REALLY close to Xmas. I sent a promotional to the members of my business networking group that said, “Be your clients’ favorite person this holiday. Why not send gift certificates for 1/2 hour massage? Recipients can upgrade for $30.” I sold the 1000 gift certificates for $1 each to cover the costs. I had 260 people redeem them, and all but 20 upgraded to an hour!

I learned how to do insurance billing for referrals from the chiropractor I rent space from.
Taking insurance clients was another terrifying thing to do, but it actually isn’t that bad, although it’s not where I’d like to have the bulk of my practice.

To bring new people in, I’m now really reaching out to connect with the alternative health community — people I could send my clients to. I want to know them personally before I send clients to them. It’s amazing how much trust your clients place in you.

When new clients call, I get their address and tell them they will be getting a welcome kit. The kit includes a letter introducing myself and what to expect from massage, the brochure How A Massage Helps, my personal brochure with a menu and prices, a sample gift certificate, and a few business cards with a reference to my referral rewards program.

They are so touched I took the time to call them and often ask for another session or mention that they will schedule for a session soon — and do.

I send out newsletters, quarterly postcard promotions, and birthday cards with a special promotion. I like to follow up with my clients. If they are experiencing a migraine, say, and walk out feeling better, I call and ask how the session worked for them and how they are feeling. Most of my clients come in because they hurt, not just because they feel like relaxing. I give them follow-up suggestions if they ask for it. They are so touched I took the time to call them and often ask for another session or mention that they will schedule for a session soon — and do. It means the world to them that I asked.

Never underestimate the value of the clients you already have. Treat them like family and they just keep coming back and back and back. That’s my favorite thing to do, so this is the perfect job for me.

I track every promotion I do. I have to know if the time, energy and money are worth it. I just sent out a summer promotional. I’ll go through the files every week or so to see how it is doing, then I’ll make a judgment based on use — say it might be a good idea, but the wording could be changed.

When I started my business, I already had a business plan that had been finished for three months which I knew I’d have to tweak. I still review and tweak it constantly. My ideas, thoughts, and plans always change and I don’t want to lose track of where I want to go and where I should be going.