Mistakes I've Made on My Way to a Full CranioSacral Therapy Practice

So far in this series on Creating a Safe Container for Your Business, we’ve looked at a 5-part framework that can help you see any pieces of the puzzle you may be missing as you work on creating a successful massage or bodywork business.

Next, you learned how to communicate like a Pro, so that you can attract more clients to your practice.

Now, it’s time for you to once again learn from my mistakes. In the 16 years that I’ve been practicing massage and CranioSacral Therapy, I’ve made a TON of them! And one of the biggest is not having a clear plan.

Before we get to that, though, I want to tell you a story about when my husband and I first moved to Wilmington, on the southeastern coast of North Carolina.

It was 2004, and we literally knew no one in the area, other than our realtor. But I had decided that it would be a good idea to hang my shingle out and open a massage and bodywork business. I mean, what could go wrong??

Plenty, it turns out.

I had made vision boards, journaled about my ideal practice, and spent many an afternoon daydreaming or “visualizing” my wonderful new business.

My husband and I renovated a carport attached to our new home into a beautiful office and treatment room for me, complete with a separate entrance.

I was all ready to go!

But I didn’t have a clue about how to actually go about building a successful practice.

So rather than reaching out and trying to find a guide to support me, I just kept visualizing, thinking that somehow everything would magically “manifest” and take care of itself.

The low point for me came when our realtor invited us to her annual Christmas party. I tried to be positive and upbeat, and I visualized lots of people at the party booking appointments with me. And here’s the REALLY embarrassing part: I even brought my Old School credit card machine with me, a big clunky thing that ran credit cards on carbon paper (remember THOSE??)

So, here I walk, into this party, where I knew no one, sporting my giant credit card machine, hoping that someone there would want to not only book an appointment with me, but would want to pay for it right then and there. With a credit card.

Even typing this right now, I’m again feeling the embarrassment and cluelessness of the younger me. I had no idea about the Client Journey — the phases a potential client goes through on her way to becoming a paying client. And I didn’t know that before someone would feel comfortable booking a session with me that they would first need the chance to get to know me, like me, and trust me. I didn’t really know anything about business.

You won’t be surprised to learn that no one booked an appointment that day.

All I had done was think happy thoughts about what I wanted my business to be. I hadn’t done any of the important work to begin to make that vision a reality.

It’s not enough to visualize. You also have to have a plan — an actionable, concrete plan that you can work on every day, and then track to see how you are doing.

You need to have 30-60-90 day goals to keep you going in the direction of your vision.

And if you need help with your plan, it’s time to reach out for guidance and support so that you can begin making REAL progress toward your goals for your business and your life.

It doesn’t have to be so hard, and you don’t have to do it alone. And you CERTAINLY don’t need to arrive at the party with your giant credit card machine.