loose business as a pregnant massage therapist

[Sam I am]

Well, I just found out a few weeks ago I am pregnant ( 7 weeks tomorrow) :shock: . A very unexpected surprise as we were not trying. I am worried about my massage business though. I have read were plenty of you have massaged into the late seforum.xxxes of pregnancy but how was your business affected by your pregnancy, and subsiquent leave? I am just starting out...well, Dec 2006 was when I opened doors and I still work part time as a secretary. I have not done as much advertising/promotion of my business as I should have and my business is extremely slow (averaging 2 to 3 a week and I only have 3 constant clients, one is in her 1st trimester of pregnancy, so she will be back later)...I was just thinking I really needed to get on the ball and get this thing going but know I am wondering if new people will be willing to come to a pregnant massage therapist and if anyone lost business because of their pregnancy and subsiquent maternity leaves?

 

[MOON WILLOW]

congratulations!
I've never been pregnant, so I can't really answer how it's affected business, but as I was reading your post - I thought of how you will be able to market yourself for pregnancy massage - as you will have a first hand knowledge of what it feels like to be pregnant.
then after your baby is born, you can have "infant massage" workshops, where you teach new moms how to massage their babies. And you could even bring and massage your baby!
Although this might take some focus/time off other massage clients, I think you could really play this to your advaneforum.xxxe and angle your business accordingly. it will actually help that you don't have a huge clientelle built just yet, so you can easily shift the direction of your market.

 

[Pompal 09.]

I think clients who get regular massage stick with the therapists they like. When I got pregnant I was also just starting out on my own with rent and everything. I was probably seeing the same amount of people (2-4 week). I got kind of freaked out and decided to get out of renting and go to a salon on commission so I wouldn't be stressing about money. I didn't market myself much at the salon to build a regular client base, but I was kept much busier with 8-15 clients a week. I had a great pregnancy and worked until my water broke 3 weeks before the due date (had to cancel some appointments) and, of the maybe three regular clients I had at the time, one stayed with me and came back immediately when I returned to work 8 weeks later, another came back to me after about a year, and is still a regular, the third one came back over a year later, but just for a couple of visits.

Six months after giving birth I was ready to get my act together with marketing myself to really build a business up and I decided to move to a different salon which really helped. And six months after that I had built up a steady enough business to move out on my own again.

With the clients I have now, if I were to get pregnant again, I am quite certain that the vast majority would have appointments on the books waiting for my return from maternity leave. I also would not recommend that they go see someone else in my absence.

If you want to focus your energy on building a regular client base right now, I'd say do it! The people who like you will stay with you so don't worry about it. Or since you already have the income from the secretary gig, you could just coast and do what you're doing and enjoy your pregnancy and maternity leave, then after you're settled into motherhood you can figure out your game plan and build it up to a level that meets your family needs and your needs for family.

 

[blizz123]

I just did this! My son is almost 9 months old. t049

I had NO issues at all. During pregnancy or after. I was able to pick right up, if not be busier than I was before my leave.

The only jobs I gave up during my pregnancy were 2 regular chair massage jobs that I have. I stopped a month or so before birth. I just couldn't lean and stand with my big belly. I still have both those jobs and all the clients still get massages. They were very happy to have me back.

I kept up with taking care of myself. I didn't overload my schedule. I have very understanding clients. If I had to sit or take a little "potty" break they were fine with it. I made sure they knew that I felt up to the work and never made them feel like they were pushing me to work when I didn't want to.

Congrats on the pregnancy. Happy and healthy 9 months!

 

[Raynah]

Thanks to all who replied. You have helped me feel so much better about this. I guess with all the hormone fluctuation going on it was looking impossible there for a while Well I am glad to see others have done this and there is hope for me. Again, thank you very much.