Help! need some advice on free/volunteer work

[Brit]

Hi. Im going to start working at a new place. its wellness center for woman. The owner wants to know if im interested in two wellness events coming up whereby i would "Volunteer" chair massage ... unpaid. she feels it will drum up business. Ive never done volunteer work, and honestly, im still
a struggling therapist trying to make decent money in this career.
I currently work at another place as an I.C. and appts are sometimes far and few. Like 2 a week. sometimes more, but mostly not more than 6 a week.
While i start at this new place, im going to continue working at the other place because i need the money and can't let go of the old place till this new place starts getting clients and known out there.

Soooo, my question is, i have to limit this volunteer work so i can still do my paid work. only so many days in the week! How should i work the volunteer massages. Should I only offer 5 min massages? i feel this type of marketing work should not be 'giving away freebies" for hard work like massage. but since its good to get business I dont mind. But how should I work it? how many hours of the free chair massages should i limit myself too. I could get slammed giving out free massages somewhere and not getting paid either.

Well, any thoughts... anyone? how much time should I allocate?
i can't afford a whole day to not make any money, would you say
2 hours is good ?

Dwd

 

[Leaira]

Honestly, I have not found that free chair massage results in paying clients. After two years, I have learned to limit my volunteer work to real charity events, such as relay for life. Chair massage is expensive and hard on you. The face rest cover has to be changed every 5 minutes and you have to clean the chair and throw away another wipe every 5 minutes. Then they don't book a massage they will have to pay for!

If you *have* to volunteer for these events, at least require the wellness center to provide the chair, face cradle covers and cleaning products. And yes, limit it to 2 hours. You're right - you cannot afford to work a full day for no pay, and anybody reasonable will understand that.

Good luck! I do IC work from a fitness center, and it was slow getting started. The fitness center was brand new when I started, so we were all in it together. It is picking up after a year, and I'm getting enough work there to be worth my effort. I really enjoy it - but I haven't had one client booked from the free chair massages I gave out back when we opened!

 

[as.erwin]

well, you say it's 2 actual events correct? so, what are the hours of these events? what else will be taking place at these events? i think it may be a good idea to have your chair out, some info on yourself, run a special if they book that day/night or call within ____ days to receive ____ dollars off. giving maybe 5-7 minute sessions would be nice. it may not bring you tons of clients right away but it will get people familiar with who you are.

i once worked an event at a men-only gym. the guy who owned the place was having an open house to try and build his business. i came and set up my chair for no charge and offered free chair massage. this event was only about 2 hours. i didn't work with very many people and really had no expectations of receiving business from it. i did it more for him than myself. but....i had a lady call me to schedule an appointment at my office for her and her husband. she has referred people to me who have also referred people to me. so, it was nice. it took a while for her to call originally but when she decided she needed a massage, she called me 'cause she remembered me. it's nice when that happens.

go and have fun with it. be super friendly and smile the entire time. wear a bright shirt that states you're a massage therapist. have your prices available and any other helpful info for clients. hours, rates, why massage is good for them etc....

i wouldn't do this on a regular basis if this is the location where you will be offering massage. people will get used to receiving free chair massage and they'll look forward to that and not schedule appointments. and yes, i'm a believer that giving away chair massage does not build your table massage practice. sure it can get you some clients, but it won't keep you busy.

 

[Miss Revenge]

Yes, they are two events. The one is a teachers appreciation week,
so it appears they are looking for therapists to put there to do chair massage, free of charge. So that somewhat concerns me. I think its differant
if you set up a chair on your own somewhere and try to market yourself that way. I think both of these events there have been request to have a therapist there. I know they both can bring in clients and I can meet people, but I dont want it to turn into where they just utilize me for free. Thats why im trying to find a way to do it but not look like im just standing there at the disposable of who knows how many people for free work.

Ive been doing it for a year. Still struggling cuz a) cant afford my own space and b) dont like a spa environment (been there, got used and abused) c) the place I work now i only get 'overflow' appts (where the 2 owners are booked and I get an appt when there is a conflict of time and they need a 3rd. However, they do give me anyone who calls and requests me. Ive been there since february. Fabulous place, I like it there, and the owners, they are super nice. its just not enuf work for me. sometimes one or two a day. So im excited about this new place i found.
i'll be the only therapist there to start, so i will get all the appts!

lots of good ideas on what to bring with me on these chair massage
events - thanks! Becuz they are having an event like "teacher appreciation", i'll be there, and i dont want to get slammed with alot of chair massages when im not making any money doing it. Its to market myself, but becuz they have something going on they may utilize me cuz im there. See what I mean. Is this normal? do other therapists do these type of things for free and use it to get clients? I look at this differant than if I were at lets say a health food store, offering a quick chair massage.
people are in the store for another reason, they dont know im going to be there, so i would feel its more like im there for me to get business,not to just be at the disposable of them for their events.

Am i looking at this wrong? If places like these two events always know they can get a free therapist to do the work, then they never would hire one. ???

 

[sandyblondegirl]

I'm with Pete - if an employer wants to appreciate their employees, for crying in the night pay for it.

Also, MTs doing this kind of thing for free all the time has led to the perception among the public that chair massage is just something that MTs ALWAYS do for free - people feel entitled to it. I think the only way we can change that is to stop giving it away, period. It won't pay off for you.

 

[Loretta]

Well I have done one of these teacher appreciation day things, were the principal of one school paid personally for the teachers who received chair massage... we set up a flat rate of $10/10 minutes and if I went over with the clients which I sometimes did... I considered it a "donation."

And about 2 years later one of the teachers showed up at the salon where i worked for a 1/2 hr massage. Do you figure it took her that long to save for it? At least she remembered where I worked!

So, are they good sources of revenue? Haven't you heard that teachers are under appreciated and under paid? LOL

 

[some half blood]

I just did a donation for a teachers appreciation week at one of the school districts here. I did not give away free chair massages however. Instead, I made nice little postcard/coupon from vistaprint with my contact info, and a nice little "we appreciate you, so here is a 15 dollar discount" message on the back. It cost me about 50 bucks, and I gave them about 500 to give to every teacher. My idea is that one booking covers the cost of the marketing, and I did only 15mins of work for it. I believe I will get a least one booking out of 500. If not, 500 teachers in the area now have my "business card" and might give it to someone who might use it or say to themselves a year down the road or to one of their friends "hey I remember there was this nice guy who donated to our teacher appreciation week, you should go see him". In any case, that was my idea. I donated to a good cause, got great marketing exposure from it, and with little cost and very little effort. Good luck!

 

[SammyD]

i'm with pete on this one! don't do it. this is totally different and i would not do an event like this and NOT get paid for it. no way. this is the kind of event that should either pay, or be something the PTA calls a massage school for. you will be doing a lot of massage at an event like this and none of them realize that YOU are the one appreciating them (by giving them free massage that is). they'll think you're getting paid by the principal/pta ~ which you should be. pass on this one and set your focus somewhere else.

good luck!

 

[Celina]

Here's another vote for Pete. If they really "appreciate" their employees then they'll pay for your services. Anything less is insulting to you! Chair massage is just too brutal and draining to do it for free, especially on a regular basis!

If it were a marketing event for you, it would be something else entirely, as at least you might gain something from your time. But free chair work and even paid chair work very rarely translates into paying table clients. Be forewarned...

I used to have a spa owner who thought I should do chair work, FREE, for clients waiting for facials, etc. That same sort sort of opportunistic slavery is what this situation smacks of.

 

[ronghui lu]

I hate to be negative about this, but I too have found very minimal good results with free services being offered.

We offered free massage... as in come to the office and recieve an hour free on the table... to the area firefighters (one specific station is very close) -- we gave them a sign in sheet for their use at work, from the hours of 11-8, we just kept that particular day completely open for them to just come in (the sign in sheet was so they would know which firefighter would be coming... we didn't care, just as long as one at a time came). We offered this for two months (Mondays - our off day) and sat in the office for two months doing nothing but paperwork and answering the phones. Not a single one came in.

Very disappointing as we were offering it as a "thank you for serving our city" and nothing more.

I think people see free and don't believe it.

Or in a case like you mention for chair massage... they don't appreciate it.

 

[Beci]

Well, thanks for all for their posts. I decided NOT to do the teacher event. For obvious reasons. I think they should pay for appreciate events!

But the health and wellness month at the YMCA i will do. apparently its health and wellness for the whole month of may, so im stopping in for two hours. 10am-noon next wednesday. I will have my chair with me and do sort of discrentionaly work on people. I still dont think i should just lend out free chair massages for two hours. I figure I will speak to people as they approach me ........and offer chair massage if they have any current issues. I think im going to try talking most of the time and occassionally sit someone in my chair. This way, for those who don't want to listen to my speaking in order to possibly receive a chair massage, then they will just not hang around. I am not too thrilled about it at all, but maybe it will allow me to acquire some clients. Even though its a health and wellness month at the YMCA, i still dont see why I cannot go in there for two hours and charge $1 per minute. $5.00 for 5 minutes is cheap for a nice intro to massage therapy in a seated chair massage. i think that also limits it to people who ARE willing to pay for table massage and be a client.

 

[Meeka]

Honestly I dont know why. however i did ask my new manager if that was an option.