Jackson Hole’s Massage Culture
This Blog is about the progress of a new massage therapy company being created in Jackson Hole, Wyoming – by two people who are starting from scratch in the massage industry. My writing is about our discovery and is designed to share it with others who would start their own massage business – not necessarily in Jackson Hole. I write not from the ‘expert’ point of view (most blog articles are advice from ‘experts’) – because we are certainly not that (but we are working on becoming so); but I write from the exposed situation of the newcomer. I write about our successes and failures and welcome any massage industry newcomers, professionals, business owners and massage clients to come along with us on our journey.
What Rochelle and I find is helpful is simply to go with your passion. Work hard, be diligent, define your goals – and go for it. Don’t worry about what other people think. I used to be concerned that we, as newcomers and inexperienced massage therapists were stepping on the toes of other well-established massage therapists in town. Well – so what? There’s no law against it, they say competition is good – and who can really criticize us for ‘going for it’ in an economy where nobody else is going to look after you and working for other people just sucks! Everybody has to start somewhere and every journey starts with the first step. But the truth is that other massage therapists are supportive and happy for us – and as indicated in a previous blog post we see them not as competition but colleagues in the same collective business – and some of them will hopefully become our assets as we offer them contracts to provide our out-call massages. So we hope that this proves to be a win-win situation for other out-call massage therapists as our commission share with them is quite generous – 65% goes to the massage therapist with massage prices starting at $130 – and the contractor keeps all tips. I don’t mean to suggest here that all massage therapists in the Jackson Hole area are falling over themselves to be associated or affiliated with us as quite a few are deservedly booked solid after years of building a clientele.
Of course, Rochelle and I have to take on the lion’s share of the initial work as we have now quite a substantial investment in the company. Any good business owner will tell you that you have to regain or at least control those expenses as soon as possible – not only that, but we need the income.
However, our goals with Massage Professionals of Jackson Hole include establishing significant volume where Rochelle and I perform about two per day, five days per week – and are otherwise administering the out-call business – and taking ‘normal’ time off to enjoy our favorite things: hiking in the Tetons, Rafting the Snake River and socializing in Jackson Hole.
Be well,
Hamish Tear