Build a Thriving Hands-On Practice

“Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen.” —Brené Brown

Taking the leap into full-time massage is a dream for many practitioners, but it can feel daunting. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to make the transition from a part-time role, the step to full time is one that requires courage, planning, and action.

Many massage therapists find themselves caught between the desire to build a thriving practice and the fear of not having enough clients or financial stability. This uncertainty often prevents therapists from committing fully—instead they may choose to stay part time in another role or leave the massage profession altogether. However, with the right approach, transitioning to full-time practice can be both rewarding and sustainable.

I understand the challenges—and the rewards—firsthand. My journey began with working at a chiropractic clinic and a day spa, then slowly building my private client base until I was ready to go solo. There was a lot to learn, but I continued to grow until a few years later I had my own clinic with a team of nine staff and a thriving client base.

The Benefits of a Full-Time Massage Practice

Before diving in to how, it’s worth exploring why you might want this as a goal. A full-time practice offers some incredible benefits:

• When running well, it pays better than working for someone else, offering financial stability and long-term security that means you no longer flinch every time the electricity bill arrives.

• You get to choose the type of clients you work with, so you can go where you are most fulfilled and gain specialized experience that lets you help clients even more.

• Continued professional growth is natural. As you study what you are passionate about, hone your skills and establish credibility in the profession.

• Most importantly, with more time dedicated to your work, you can profoundly impact your clients’ health and well-being.

Running your own practice isn’t without challenges, though. And the transition should be handled carefully. You may find yourself held back by fear of financial insecurity or the difficulties of balancing personal and professional life—even knowing where to start can be a hurdle. But these challenges are like knots in a shoulder—totally workable with the right techniques.

I Think I’m Ready . . . What’s Next?

Whether it happens right out of massage school or after years of gaining experience working for other people, at some point every massage therapist considers going into their own private practice. So, if you feel like it might be about time to take the leap yourself, here are the three main areas to focus on as you grow.

Mindset

The foundation for your success. How you think and the stories you tell yourself directly impact your ability to thrive.

Marketing

The engine room for growth. Connecting with the right clients and building a consistent flow of bookings is essential.

Mechanics

The systems and processes that create stability and freedom in your business.

Most importantly, this isn’t just about business strategies. It’s about creating a career that brings joy, financial stability, and the freedom to serve your clients at the highest level.

The Fully Booked Model: Your Foundation for Success

To build a thriving practice, you need more than just technical skills. (Spoiler alert: Being great at massage is only part of the equation.) Let’s break down each pillar further.

1. Mindset: Building the Foundation

Your mindset is the foundation of your success. Many therapists struggle with self-doubt, fear of failure, and limiting beliefs. These mental roadblocks can hold you back from achieving your goals. Here’s how to shift your perspective:

Set Clear Goals

Goals give your brain a direction. Visualize what you want to achieve and break it down into actionable steps.

Adopt an Abundance Mindset

Success isn’t a finite resource. Focus on possibilities rather than limitations. Remember, there’s plenty of room in the massage world for everyone’s elbows!

Embrace Failure as Feedback

Every setback is an opportunity to learn. Treat challenges as stepping stones toward your goals. And, even if you stumble, at least you’re moving forward, right?

Mindset Case Study

Lisa Elwell was a fly-in, fly-out worker employed at a mining site. She was struggling to achieve her dream of transitioning to her own full-time massage practice. When I met her, Lisa worked two weeks on site in her mining job and then had one week off at home—so it was hard for her to create the consistency with client bookings she needed to feel comfortable making the leap.

But then Lisa took several steps that moved her forward: She worked on her goals and got really clear on what numbers she wanted to hit before committing to full time. Then, she learned how to use marketing effectively and implemented a great client-retention system. She tracked her numbers weekly, built a steady client base, met her targets, and confidently left her mining job, allowing her to grow her business further.

2. Marketing: The Engine Room of Growth

Marketing is how you connect with people to attract and retain your ideal clients. There are hundreds of marketing activities available, but sometimes that makes it feel overwhelming. For a solo massage practice, it can be very simple. There are four main steps:

Identify Your Niche

Who do you love working with? Whether it’s athletes, pregnant clients, or weekend warriors, defining a clear niche helps you stand out. (No more trying to be all things to all people—it makes you bland, and you’re not a buffet!)

Choose the Channel

You don’t need to do everything, so choose to start in just one place to meet your clients where they are. Regardless if it’s social media, email, online search, or referrals, use a channel that aligns with your audience’s preferences.

Consistency Is Key

Successful marketing requires a rhythm that lets your audience see you regularly. Develop a schedule for campaigns and stick to it. Remember, marketing isn’t about perfection—it’s about showing up.

Share Testimonials and Reviews. Positive feedback from satisfied clients builds trust and attracts new business. Ask happy clients to share their experiences online, in whatever platform you are most active.

Marketing Case Study

Genevieve Simmonds is a canine musculoskeletal therapist who discovered her niche after years of working as a vet nurse. She loves dogs! And now she gets to massage them. But when I first spoke with Genevieve, she was struggling to make ends meet and lacked confidence in her ability to make it on her own.

By creating marketing that had a clear focus on her expertise, she was able to increase her rates, attract more of her ideal clients (and their dogs), and transition to full-time practice. Genevieve now charges a premium price for her services and works exclusively with the types of dogs and owners she loves.

3. Mechanics: Creating Stability and Freedom

Mechanics are the systems and processes that keep your business running smoothly. They save you time and allow you to focus on your craft without getting bogged down in administrative tasks. Let’s face it—nobody became a massage therapist for the love of spreadsheets! Here are a few steps to get things running better:

Know Your Numbers

Get clarity on where you are and where you’re going by setting smart goals and then tracking metrics like weekly bookings, revenue, and client retention. For example, if your goal is 20 clients per week at $120 per session, you’re looking at an annual income of $115,200—a figure many therapists only dream of.

Implement Systems

Use tools like online booking software and easy scheduling tools to streamline operations. Automating as many tasks as you can reduces overwhelm and has the added benefit of enhancing the client experience. Plus, it frees up your brain for more important things.

Scale Strategically

Once you’ve built a solid foundation, consider scaling through workshops, retreats, or hiring team members. But remember, scaling requires planning, analysis, and strategy.

Mechanics Case Study

Keyu-Katre Kay is a specialist therapist from North Carolina who was working full time doing medical massage in a hospital setting when I first connected with her. Kay was enjoying the security of a weekly paycheck from the hospital while also running a home-based clinic, where she was seeing about 10 clients a month. She felt stuck in this loop and didn’t know how to transition to working solo.

Kay told me she had a goal to commit full time to her private business in one year. However, she made such fast progress that she was able to make the leap much earlier, confidently leaving her other job.

This happened because Kay got her mindset aligned to her goals and realized how few incentives were actually holding her in her employed position. Stepping out was still daunting, so she identified everything she would need in place to feel confident—and then worked on those items until she had everything she needed to succeed.

Kay has discovered her vision, is clear on her niche, and is now loving her fully booked practice!

Getting Real

Transitioning to full-time practice requires a plan. It doesn’t have to be a super-detailed or long plan, because you’ll often get insights into the detail as you make progress. But it needs to be a plan with goals, a timeline, and a vision of what you want to achieve.

Remember, there’s no rule about what the goals are—nothing saying how many clients you need or how much money you should have in the bank—to be ready to go solo.

Instead, it’s all about you, your goals, and what it will take for you to be confident enough to go full time. This activity is designed to give you clarity on your path forward.

We often think if we build our hands-on skills, the business side of things will naturally flow; but business is also a skill—and one that must be learned and practiced.

Visualize Your Goals

Write down three goals for your practice. Use the areas of mindset, marketing, and mechanics to help you break it down.

Now get really specific. What do you want it to look like when this goal is reached? What do you want to be hearing? What do you want to feel? What will you tell yourself when you get there?

Visualize these goals daily to stay focused. One example would be to create a vision board. Bonus points if you display your goals where you would see them often or make them a wallpaper on your phone (on average, smartphone owners unlock their phones 150 times a day).

The Framework for the Transition

Often, when I talk to therapists, they think they need to wait until they have replaced their other income with their private clients before they leave the security of their job.

However, I believe you can often transition out by dropping back hours gradually, with smaller steps along the way, as well as having a healthy conversation with your current employer around expectations and what     
is possible.

To break it down and make it easier to create your path, start by setting incremental goals rather than trying to jump from five to 20 clients overnight. Break it into bite-size chunks.

For example, you might say that when you have five regular clients each week, you’ll ask to drop another day at your other job. To make this work, you’ll need to keep a weekly record of your total client numbers and compare that to your transition goals. Then, you can work on your marketing and watch the numbers grow each week until you hit your target.

After that, adjust the target to the next incremental step. So let’s say we’re seeing five clients a week; our next target could be 10. And once we see that number consistently, we set our next goal. At each step, we adjust our actions to make the numbers move to the new target.

And—importantly—if you don’t reach a goal as quickly as you were expecting to, don’t let it hold you back! Simply take it as feedback and try another tactic in the next week until you find the actions that bring the numbers up. It’s a game of experimentation
and resilience.

The next challenge is to know how much time needs to pass in order for you to feel confident your number is the new level of “normal,” and you can count this incremental goal as achieved.

For you, how long do you need to be at a certain number of treatments to count this as reached? One week? One month? Or maybe two months or longer?

For example, let’s say you decide that four weeks is your standard—it means that after seeing five clients per week for four weeks in a row, you count that as done and you reset to your next goal.

If your next goal is to see 10 clients, how long do you need to see 10 clients per week before you’re comfortable dropping a day of work in your employed place of practice?

When you see 15 clients a week consistently for four, six, or eight weeks, are you then able to say, “I see 15 clients a week consistently and know that’s my new level of normal”?

And when you see 20 clients a week consistently for eight weeks, that’s when you’ll know it’s time to resign completely. These numbers are just an example, but you can see how it works and fill in the blanks for yourself.

The benefit of growing your business this way is that you create the certainty you need to take a step you know you are comfortable with. It allows you to have a safety net that reduces stress and provides stability during quieter periods. If you are unable to hold another job at the same time as starting your practice, you’ll most likely need another way to get financial support as you build. This could be through a savings war chest, or a family member or partner who is willing to support you. You can also consider a loan to help along the way—as long as you ensure you are comfortable with the financial risk and it makes sense with the plan you have.

Beware of Overlap Energy

While this all might sound very logical and neat, I must warn you: Be prepared for what I call “overlap energy.”

Starting a new business takes time and energy. Balancing other work at the same time as growing your practice is challenging! But remember, this is a temporary phase that serves as a stepping stone to full-time success. Yes, you might feel tired, but that’s what coffee is for! To recap into a stepped framework:

Set Incremental Goals 

Don’t aim to go from five to 20 clients overnight. Gradually increase your client load while maintaining your current job.

Track Your Progress

Consistency is key. Aim to hit each client target for at least four weeks before moving to the next level.

Prepare for Overlap Energy

Balancing part-time work and a growing practice is challenging but temporary. This phase is a stepping stone to full-time success.

You Got This

Making the leap to full-time massage isn’t just about working harder; it’s about working smarter. By focusing on mindset, marketing, and mechanics, and understanding where you are on the Health Leader Ladder, you can create a practice that is both fulfilling and financially sustainable.

Remember, success is a journey. Embrace the process, learn from your experiences, and act with confidence. This is your year to make the leap—it's you breakthrough year!

A Deeper Dive—Climbing the Health Leader Ladder

Understanding where you are in your business journey is crucial to knowing what your most important activities for growth are right now and what to prepare for next.

We often think if we build our hands-on skills, the business side of things will naturally flow. But what I’ve discovered in my 20 years as a therapist is that mastering your business is also a skill—and one that must be learned and practiced just like anything else.

That’s where the Health Leader Ladder comes in. This is an insightful tool that shows the stages of career growth for therapists, going from “newbies” just starting out to industry leaders who mentor and teach others. Each step on this ladder requires a set of skills and focus areas.

Step 1: Newbies (0–5 clients per week)

New therapists often face challenges related to fear and uncertainty:

• Fear of being unsuccessful

• Fear of not earning enough money

• Uncertainty around their skill level

• Overwhelm at all the tasks needed to build a business

Through gaining experience and taking consistent action, newbies can overcome these fears and build the confidence to commit to making their business work.

Step 2: Explorers (5–10 clients per week)

Explorers are in the experimentation and learning phase. They are discovering:

• The type of clients they enjoy working with

• Which treatment modalities resonate most with them

• How to attract clients

• How their business model will come together

The biggest focus at this level is getting more clients and gaining clarity around their niche.

Step 3: Rising Stars (10–15 clients per week)

A therapist is seen as a “rising star” when they have built a foundational client base and learned how to attract new clients. They’ll experience better cash flow, but it’s still tight. As they’re working more hours, the new challenge they face is systemization:

• Implementing structures to keep the business running smoothly

• Outsourcing simple tasks to free up time

• Moving away from manual systems, such as paper diaries, which become inefficient at this stage

• Using software and systems to stay organized

Step 4: Successful (20–25 clients per week)

You’ve made it to a successful solo practice! At this stage, therapists have established systems and a strong client base they like helping, and they’re basically doing as many sessions each week as they want.

They have marketing in place that brings in new clients regularly, they’re charging good prices, and the business is organized and balanced. They’re getting paid well for the work they’re doing, and despite the common experience of this stage feeling very “busy,” many therapists find it is also very rewarding. At this point, the focus shifts to:

• Raising their profile in their community

• Sustaining growth

• Introducing higher-level marketing strategies, such as speaking at events, running workshops, or contributing to publications

The next stages on the ladder are a little different. While this guide focuses on the journey to full-time practice, it’s worth mentioning the final stages.

Step 5: Scaled

Therapists at this level often hire staff and develop additional income streams, such as workshops, retreats, or product lines.

Step 6: Mastery

These individuals become leaders in the profession, speaking at conferences, mentoring others, and contributing to the profession in significant ways.

Each stage of the Health Leader Ladder requires specific skills and focus areas. Understanding where you are and what steps to take next will help you build a thriving, sustainable practice.