We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Carrie Weinberg a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Carrie , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about how you went about setting up your own practice and if you have any advice for professionals who might be considering starting their own?

After graduating from massage school I knew that I wanted to start my own business and not work for the major massage chains. I wanted to be able to design my own protocols and implement them as necessary, basically I didn’t want to do cookie cutter massages. The first step I took was to find an affordable place to work out of. That wasn’t the easiest seeing as I had zero clientele and not any financial reserves. I finally found a studio that wanted to share space so I started there so I could begin to grow my clientele with not as much overhead. Fast forward about 6 months I was ready to find my own suite or room to rent and I found one, it was scary because the room was $200 per week plus a hefty security deposit. I knew deep down that I was meant to do this so I hustled and it came together.
I have now moved to my own suite and have hired staff. This was a huge undertaking and I have learned so much from mistakes but have also grown from them. If I had all the information I have now then, I would have saved more before finding my own suite, I would have used a realtor to help me negotiate with lease terms and I would have sought out a mentor to help me through things like business insurance, unemployment insurance, employee handbooks etc. There is so much that goes in to running a business and it would have been so helpful to have someone who has already gone through it to help me.
To any young professional I would advise you to reach out to your community, whether that be through social media, their local government/council members for advice and guidance. I now have these connections and a mentor and it has up leveled my business.

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

I was in a serious car accident when I was 19 years old. Part of my rehab was a weekly visit to a chiropractor and he had a massage therapist in office that I saw as part of my treatment. I truly believe this was such a big part of my recovery that I decided to change from a health focus in community college to enroll in to a trade program at Arizona School of Massage Therapy. I and my staff provide a wide range of massage therapy services. We are constantly learning new modalities and adding them to our menu to further benefit the clients we serve. Our clients know that each massage is customized to them and their issues on that day, none of us just go through the motions. It was very important for me to craft a team of professionals who truly love to help people heal and to feel better, combined we have over 10 years in the industry. I know how much massage helped me in my healing journey and it was so important to me to keep our services affordable so that people can access the care they need. The pandemic hit our industry hard and I have fought hard to keep our doors open and services affordable because people need this care now more than ever.

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

Growing up my dad ran his own insurance and financial services business. I watched him and his interactions with clients and the behind the scenes things he did and I use many of those today. We send out handwritten birthday cards that are signed by each staff member to each of our clients with a gift card for a coffee on us. This has been one of the biggest hits with our clients. They feel so valued and appreciated and this keeps them coming back to support our small business. We also try to participate in community events/vendor fairs etc and provide free or reduced cost chair massage, this is so helpful for any bodywork professional so that the client gets a sense of who you are as a practitioner.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I was in my second year of practicing massage when I had to have an emergency gallbladder surgery in January of 2020. As I was recovering from that the pandemic hit and massage/spas were shut down. Due to not being able to work I was not able to pay my rent for my massage studio and I had to leave. During the pandemic closure I became certified as a Personal Trainer and Nutritionist and started to get clients because this was something that I could do remotely. I saved as much as I could and when our industry was allowed to open back up I found a new space which is where I am located currently. I basically started from scratch and began contacting former clients and see if they would start coming back in for services. For the first year I worked 7 days a week at least 10 hours per day so that I could pay rent. I knew that if I stayed the course and worked hard my dream would blossom. It has been tough but so rewarding to watch my business grow, I now have a full staff which has its own challenges but I know this would never have come to fruition had I given up.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.desertsagebodywork.com
• Instagram: @desert_sage_bodywork
• Facebook: Desert Sage Bodywork