When I started my massage therapy practice in 1993, I was 23 years old and barely had two nickels to my name.

It’s true. When I opened my private practice, I started with a $100 budget and eventually grew it into the full-service massage therapy clinic.

I’ll share one little secret with you: I almost didn’t make my practice a success. For the first four years, I really struggled and had to work other jobs to support myself.

Why?

There were plenty of reasons including that I had no clue how to run or grow a business. But the biggest reason of them all was my mindset.

You see, for the first four years, I treated my practice like a hobby. It was merely a part-time hobby that created cash to pay for beers with my friends or the periodic Saturday night date. If I made $40 on Friday doing a massage, I’d be buying the first round that night with my buddies.

It took me getting fired from my Physical Therapy job to change my mindset.

Getting fired completely shook me up.

I had been there four years and was one of their first-ever employees. I was their top-ranked employee in patient satisfaction. But it didn’t matter when they decided my manager was more important to keep than me. It was “Bye-Bye Mike!”

At that point I made a shift in my mindset and how I thought of my practice. I stopped treating it like a hobby and starting running it like a business. From my work attire, how I talked with clients or answered my phone, I changed my attitude and my practice for the better.

So what happened?

Within 3 months, I was up to 15 clients weekly. Within 6 months, 25-30 clients weekly. I went from almost no referrals for 4 years to clients asking me when I could fit their spouse or friends into my schedule.

When I changed my attitude and changed how I thought about my practice that was when the major breakthroughs to started to happen. I went from “Gee, I hope I get another appointment this week” to “I’m sorry, I can’t fit you in until next week.”

Start thinking of your practice like a business and treat it like a business. As Michael Gerber (the author of The E-Myth) says, start working ON your business and not just working IN your business. Your clients will thank you for it!

Until next time,

Michael