We were lucky to catch up with Colleen Beyler recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Colleen thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. 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?
I never planned on being a business owner. It has never been a dream of mine, so I feel like I really stumbled into the beginning of my private practice. I became licensed in 2017, and had worked for several local massage establishments. Many massage therapists become burnt out after a couple of years, because working in traditional massage studios usually requires a lot of physically demanding deep tissue work (you’ve gotta give the people what they want!), and the pay is not ideal. After working for others for 4 years, I was becoming frustrated with the lack of autonomy over what kind of massage I could give, and not being able to directly communicate with my clients outside of sessions (checking in to see how they felt the day after a massage, being able to send them exercises I thought might be helpful for their condition, etc.). I felt that I wasn’t helping people as much as I could.
Despite all this, I was terrified at the thought of taking the leap and going solo. Luckily, I had a little push to go in that direction. A good friend and colleague of mine who had been in the game longer than I had told me that she was getting ready to go out on her own. She had planned every detail of her business, the only thing she needed now was to find office space. She expressed to me how difficult it was to find affordable space on her own, and without thinking too much about what I was saying, I floated the idea of splitting a room with her. It was in that moment that I realized maybe I did want more than what I currently had. Maybe I was willing to take the risk in order to have a more fulfilling career. I had been ruminating on these thoughts, but none of it had seemed real before that conversation.
Because this was a VERY spur of the moment decision, I had literally no money saved to start a business. This is the main thing I would do differently next time- start saving up so you have a safety net before taking the leap! Eventually I made enough profit to cover the debt I took on in the early days of business, but it was not ideal. Because of financial constraints, I did everything myself, from creating my website to setting up my LLC. It took a lot of research, and I was terrified that I would make a mistake. I leaned a lot on my suite-mate, and having someone else who was also a first time business owner to learn with made everything much more bearable. I also reached out to friends who had started their own practices previously. I would highly recommend asking lots of questions to other business owners in your field before going out on your own. Community is everything!
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 am a Massage Therapist and Bodyworker who works with clients dealing with chronic pain. I specialize in neck pain and headache/migraine management, but I work with people dealing with all sorts of ailments. I utilize a variety of techniques in my work- Craniosacral Therapy, Cupping Therapy, Orthopedic Massage, Trigger Point Therapy, and many other modalities I have picked up along my massage journey. I am also passionate about client education, re-framing narratives around pain (no, you are not broken!), and dealing with pain from a holistic angle- what you eat, who you spend time with, the stories you tell yourself, sleep and stress will all greatly affect how you feel and how your nervous system deals with stimuli. I am constantly learning and searching for new ways to bring more relief to the people I work with. Nothing brings me more joy than when a client tells me they are without pain for the first time in months or years, or when they tell me they feel seen and heard by a health professional for the first time.
Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?
A true desire to help others, deep compassion and empathy, and a thirst for knowledge. There are many people in this field who claim to be “healers”, and really just want to be adored and put on a pedestal. They will tell people they need a million sessions and recite unhelpful narratives to make people think something is wrong with them so they keep coming back. I think you must be able to set your ego aside and really listen to the person in front of you, and be willing to change your game plan if what you are doing doesn’t seem to be helping. And if you aren’t committed to learning and constantly challenging what you think you know, you will get bored very fast doing the same massage routine that you learned in school.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
I send an automated follow up email to clients after each session. Along with checking in about how they are feeling and asking that they reach out with any questions, I ask them to leave a review if they would like to help others find my work, along with the link to my google page. This has proved to be an extremely effective way to build up my google profile so I come up higher in searches. I also offer referral discounts if a client refers a friend or family member to visit me- both them and the person they refer get $20 off their appointments.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.pinkmoonbodywork.com
- Instagram: @pinkmoonbodywork
- Linkedin: Colleen Beyler
Image Credits
Crash Griffin, Rebeca Mendizabal