1. What motivated you to start your business?
When I first started studying massage therapy, I envisioned a centre where people could be educated, treated and supported around a range of alternative health care paradigms. I was the only one in my class with this crazy idea, almost everyone else wanted to go and work with a sporting team.
As I had studied psychology and neuroscience at Uni and I had always been interested in how emotional issues, can and do, manifest themselves as physical illnesses. I wanted to be able to offer people alternative health care options that were outside the scope of traditional Western medicine. After completing my Bachelor, I went on to study remedial massage, with the goal of being able to care for people holistically.
My dream is finally coming together, as we now have a team of therapists who offer an ever broadening range of treatments and services. We have almost every style of massage available at Therapy Masters. From our core business of remedial and sports massage, through to relaxation, Eastern, Thai, Lomi Lomi, Hot Stone, lymphatic drainage, and foot reflexology.
Many of the staff have undertaken or are undertaking study in other disciplines (hypnotherapy, naturopathy, Reiki, Bush Flower remedies, business, remedial massage and more). I look forward to our range of services expanding as our therapists complete their training.
2. Your company, Therapy Masters, operates in a competitive segment of the market, how do you position it, to help it stand out from other therapeutic and massage providers?
For us, standing out in the City has become relevant easily, as all of our biggest and nearest competitors have closed down in the last three years! Each one has closed for different reasons and we’ve tried to learn from their successes and failures.
For any business to be a stand out you have to have integrity between what you say you do, and what you actually do; it’s really that simple. We genuinely want to help people cope better with their lifestyles. We want to educate you about the many benefits of massage therapy, and provide you with a better understanding of how your body moves and functions.
We like nothing more than for someone to leave us saying that’s the best treatment they have ever had, that their headache has gone or they can now lift their arm above their shoulder. Providing outstanding treatments and service, and having a genuine desire to care for people, is really the basics of our business philosophy. 3. Please tell us something about the way the business has evolved.
The business originated from the spare room in my house in 1997! I then spent the next 6 years working from home, travelling with a sport (I got sucked in to the sporting world too!) and contracting to another massage business, before I decided it was time to open Therapy Masters in to commercial premises.
When we opened in 2004 it was my one woman show. I was responsible for everything: treatments, customer service, marketing, book keeping, laundry, reception, cleaning. You name it – I did it!
Over the next 12 months I slowly added more therapists, as our client base grew. We are now open 7 days a week, with 7 therapists on staff and a part time receptionist. The business has gone through many changes from our hours of operation, treatments available and therapists on staff.
We’ve had the most changes in the last three years as I’ve had to take time away from Therapy Masters, due to an injury and other business commitments. I’ve been fortunate that most of our staff have stayed with us for a number of years. I’ve always said that to be a great therapist, you have to put your love in to the work. We’ve been blessed to find others who have put their love in to Therapy Masters.
Thankfully the team are self sufficient without me, due to both the systems we have in place, and their passion and dedication to the work. I know the business is in safe hands even when I’m elsewhere.
4. As a small business owner, are there particular challenges you feel are unique to your business and how do you address them?
Marketing and branding are unique issues in the massage industry. Unfortunately many people still associate massage therapy as either something for tree hugging hippies or a service that belongs under a neon sign in Fyshwick. Neither perception is correct and we have to continually be aware of this in any branding or marketing that we undertake.
The other issue that is unique to massage is that while we are a service based industry, individuals are paying for a specific amount of our time. I like to use the comparison of the beauty industry or hairdressing to better explain this. A salon or day spa can put extra clients in simply by cutting or waxing faster. As a client you don’t feel cheated if the hairdresser only takes 20 minutes to cut your hair or wax your legs, instead of the usual 40 minutes. Your hair’s styled and your legs are smooth, regardless of the time taken. However, try rushing your massage client out the door in less than the allotted 60 minutes, and they won’t be happy!
Massage is often perceived as expensive so we need to value add to our services so that the client knows that they are receiving value for money. At Therapy Masters we offer a loyalty program to our regular clients, provide post treatment recommendations, and tailor the treatment specifically to the client’s needs. Once again by having integrity between what we say we do, and what we actually do, allows our clients to understand and appreciate the high level of service and care that they receive from us at Therapy Masters. 5. The nature of your business must rely on the expertise and qualifications of your practitioners, how do you attract and retain them?
When I’m hiring staff, qualifications are only one of the things that I’m interested in. Yes they need to be qualified, but I also need them to be reliable, personable, talented and dedicated. I’ve had staff in the past with great hands, who were unreliable and other staff who had outstanding qualifications but the wrong attitude. They also need to be a good fit with the existing team. We’ve had a few personality conflicts in the past and it becomes hard to manage and resolve in a close knit team.
I like to think I retain my staff because I try and be a good boss. I try to be flexible, understanding and easy going. I’ve had a number of below par bosses and managers myself and try very hard not to be anything like them! I reward my guys often and let them know how much I appreciate and value them, and their work. It’s one of my basic business principles – you take care of the people who take care of you.
The last few therapists we’ve hired have actually come to me and asked for work, which I know, is a pretty special place to be! Simon, our Thai therapist, knows other previous staff and they recommended Therapy Masters to him. Linda our Lomi Lomi practitioner had heard about Therapy Masters, and sent me an email enquiring if I had any positions available. I find this is a better way of finding staff - in letting them find me.
6. You recently won the Canberra Business Blitz competition following an intense four week program. Was there one key insight into being a businesses owner that you came away from the experience with?
My husband and I have had business interests now for around 16 years. You forget how much you learn from your day to day business struggles. We’re insane and currently have three businesses in three separate industries. When you work for yourself and rely on your own abilities, you often take for granted the skill set and experience you have acquired. Without wanting to sound arrogant, the Blitz reminded about how far we have come and how much knowledge we do have.
7. Were there some beneficial outcomes from the experience you didn’t expect?
From the Blitz I gained a better understanding of marketing and branding. I had always viewed branding as something emotionless, and just saw it as a need for consistency in the way things were done and represented across the many faces of the business. Clint Wright (from Threesides) my project manager for the competition, taught me the value of a brand that has emotion and connection with your client base.
As business owners, we spend so much time building up our business and brand that we become complacent and forgetful of our audience. We all know we need customers to survive but we get so busy, we forget to check back with them. The best analogy I’ve come up with from my Blitz experience is that a ‘brand’ is like a shield (imagine an old school heraldic or sword fighting shield).
All our time, energy and money is invested in this shield. This shield is what we want people to see, remember and relate to, when they think of our business. Once we’ve built this shield, we hide behind it and carry on with our work. We forget there are people on the other side who don’t know what we do, can’t see us and don’t relate to us. Branding is about making part of the shield transparent. Our customers need to know who they’re dealing with and what we do, so that they can make the connection with us that builds a relationship.
Besides this knowledge we also got to walk away from the Blitz with an improved new look website, the infrastructure for our eNewsletters and the design for a promotional card. Thank you also to Steven De Costa and the team from Link Digital for their assistance with the promo card design and feedback on our website. Thank you also to my personal chic geek and husband Dave for implementing all the great ideas we came up with for our website!
From the Blitz I was also re-energised to do the work that I do. It was wonderful to meet and work with a group of people who are all very passionate about what they do, and only wanted to see each other excel.
8. We always like to ask our interviewees this one: How does Schmooze fit into your marketing, business or professional development activities?
To be honest it probably doesn’t fit in as well as it should. As a multi-business owner I’m always time poor, so I don’t utilise the services and activities of Schmooze to best advantage. However the events that I have been to, have been well organised and informative.
Now that we have secured a corporate membership as part of our Blitz win (thank you Phillip for this and your expertise throughout the Blitz) I’ll be able to send my staff in my stead. So look out at being inundated with Therapy Masters people at all future events!!! 9. What do you love most about your business?
I’m excited to have the opportunity to continue my work as an ambassador and advocate for the massage industry. Sharing information, helping and educating people are what I’m passionate about. It’s an honour to be a part of things like this (i.e. Blitz competition, Schmooze network and this interview), as it helps make my work to share information a whole lot easier!
On a business front it is rewarding and humbling to make a change in someone’s health, to know that your work has benefitted another person. I feel privileged to have helped so many people over the past 12 years.
Lastly I look forward to seeing Therapy Masters flourish in to new avenues of business, growing to help and educate more people, than my single set of hands ever could.
Lisa Allmey-LaMaitre is the Managing Director of Therapy Masters, a professional massage clinic located in Canberra City
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