The 6 Things No One Told You About Being a Massage Therapist

Going into a career in massage therapy is exciting! There’s always new people to meet and the ability to help people, each and every day. It’s also great to be able to work your own hours, be your own boss and take control of your financial destiny. But there’s also a few things that they DON’T tell you about being a massage therapist.

1. You’ll need to work your inner Martha Stewart and learn how to fold a fitted sheet.  This is the most common type of sheet to use in your practice and wadded balls of sheets don’t stack well or look very appealing to customers. Plus, they retain these giant wrinkles after the fact. You’re better off learning how to do it the right way, every time.
2. And building off the comment on sheets, you’ll be doing a lot of laundry. Make sure that your current laundry equipment is up to the task or purchase some that is. Each client needs their own complete set of sheets, covers and pillow covers. Based on the amount of clients you see in a day or week, that adds up.
3. And adding is something else you’ll have to do. While you don’t take a math class you do need to know basic math to be able to do your bookkeeping and get your information in the correct format to an accountant. Or take the time to try and figure out all the self-employment tax info on your own.
4. You must have very, very short nails. If you are into those pretty fake nails or long nails, this might not be the job for you. You need to have super short nails or you will end up scratching all your clients when you go to work on them.
5. You’ll need to start now with your networking and looking for a job. It seems like plenty of other people have the idea of being a massage therapist as well. You have to make a name for yourself and develop your own clients.
6. Clients will come in with all types of cold, flu or other yucky conditions. Your job is to massage their body in the condition it comes in so you’ll need to determine for yourself if that is something you can handle or if you want to invest in additional plumbing for your workspace. Shower anyone?