We recently connected with Megan Suttmiller and have shared our conversation below.

Megan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the story behind how you got your first job in field that you currently practice in.

After graduation, I tried making it on my own renting space in a hair salon and found out very quickly clients don’t just come running to you. Shortly after this realization, I applied for a job at a Nashville day spa and was hired. It was a game changer. This spa contracted with the vast majority of the hotels in downtown but also had its own brick and mortar location. Signing on with them was one of the best moves I could have ever made. I learned so much about the spa industry and what it took to provide quality mobile massage therapy service. After working my way up to lead therapist in a year and half time, my heart was pulling me in another direction. I was being drawn to more clinical setting, medical type massage. A few months later, I was asked to take over a fellow therapists clientele at a chiropractic office in Hendersonville, just north of Nashville. This was the opportunity to start my own practice. I took over his clientele at the chiropractic office and was there for a year before moving to another clinic that would be my work home for the next 15 years. Working in so many different settings and treating a huge variety of clientele has taught me so much over the years.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Native Massage Company has been a dream of mine for a long time. We provide mobile massage therapy treatments for your bachelorette parties, girls night in, in-home self care, work events, wedding parties, etc. We pride ourselves on being able to provide quality massage therapy with a professional attitude and fun loving personality.

In the beginning of 2020 before the pandemic started, I had already been leaning towards expanding my business into adding bachlorette and birthday parties to my calendar. It is fun to mix it up, meet new people and try to share your knowledge of health and wellness in a fun way. And there is a need for it in Nashville with the booming tourist market now.

In March of 2020 we like most of the work world were rocked. Although we were clinically trained and worked on clients with injuries and chronic pain at a chiropractic clinic, we weren’t allowed to treat our clients. Then everything shut down. No one was working. So that put a halt on expanding the business.
I am a firm believer there is good in all circumstances, whether good or bad.
The silver lining for me during all of that mess was learning two things:
One: Nothing in life is more important than family. So not being able to work during that time allowed me to get to spend more quality time with my husband and girls at home. And that was priceless.
Two: It wasn’t time to expand yet. I had just opened the doors to this new business idea and then the world shut down. God was telling me to wait. And wait I did. And boy am I glad I did!
Covid changed a lot of things for a lot of people. Things at my clinic changed, opening up another path for Native to be fully born. It also opened the door for mobile massage to be not only more welcomed, but preferred.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

I’m sure this may be an unpopular opinion about how to grow a business but in this industry, I have always felt word of mouth is the best way to grow your clientele. Think about it, if you get subpar service or food somewhere, are you going to tell your friends and family to try that place? No. You talk about the places that leave a lasting impression. Word of mouth is the best form of advertisement, we feel it is the best way to retain good clientele. “Slow and steady wins the race.”

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I believe consistency, quality, professionalism and word of mouth are what continue to build our reputation. I have worked for myself for 17 plus years and these are the things that have made my business thrive thus far.

Contact Info:

• Website: [email protected]
• Instagram: Native_massage_company

Image Credits
Elizabeth McGlathery Cement 6