Massage: A Career at Your Fingertips

by Martin Ashley JD LMT

How to open and market a massage practice, retain clients, and handle the financial and legal aspects of the business are just a few of the topics covered in this comprehensive guide to a career in massage therapy. Addressing the practical day-to-day as well as the formal components of running a business, this guide provides candid, grounded advice from 50 massage practitioners. Beginning with an overview of the profession, this handbook offers a thorough orientation to the business with specific advice on ethics, professional associations, governmental regulations, licensing laws and zoning requirements, insurance coverage, and sources for equipment and training. How to professionally handle clients who seek sexual massage or are survivors of abuse, the challenges unique to male massage professionals, and the politics of massage are also addressed.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction

300 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1995

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be sure, most of the massage career advice books I've been looking at and picking through offer largely the same information. Although my edition of this is a little old and some of the advice feels pretty outdated, I did think that this book offered a good overview of all the pieces to think about when building a massage career - either as a contractor/employee or in private practice.

The biggest things this book did for me were:
1. Convincing me to join a professional association as a student member now.
2. Drilling into my mind that I should not expect to make, like, ANY money for the next 3-5 years (thanks).

I also didn't read the end of the book very carefully - the info on liability and health insurance, various licensing requirements state-to-state, etc. It felt like an overwhelming amount of information considering that I'm going to be in school for another 15 months.

[Greg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Licensing and regulatory information out of date and bad information for business strategy. That sums up my review of the book. It has good advice on ethics, good advice on marketing, although social networks is the new frontier. The problem is that the advice for a business plan is totally in adequate!

[Annalis]

read several times

[Liz Filippone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great reference book when starting your own massage business.