Congratulations! You’ve achieved what so many massage therapists strive for: a fully booked schedule.
You’re successful, stable, and your calendar is jam-packed week after week. It’s a fantastic place to be, but it also raises a critical question: now what?
As a solo practitioner who’s reached this milestone, you might be wondering how to keep growing without burning out. In this deep-dive, I’ll walk you through your options once you’re fully booked, with a special focus on the journey of expanding into a group practice.
We’ll explore the different paths forward, the benefits of building a team, and some realistic expectations to keep in mind. By the end, you should have a clearer vision of what’s possible, and hopefully feel inspired to take your next steps.
The Crossroads: Different Paths After “Fully Booked”
Hitting a fully booked practice is both a triumph and a turning point. At this stage, you essentially have two broad paths in front of you:
Option 1- Stay Solo and Optimize:
Many therapists choose to remain a solo practitioner but optimize their practice. This could mean raising your rates, refining your services to a lucrative niche, or curating a long waitlist.
If you love working one-on-one with clients and value the simplicity of being on your own, this path lets you continue doing what you do best while adjusting for demand.
For example, some therapists will increase their prices once they have a waitlist of clients, ensuring they’re not leaving money on the table and preventing burnout.
Others might scale back their hours (working fewer sessions) while maintaining income through higher pricing or selling add-on products.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with choosing to stay solo, you maintain full control and keep things simple. But this approach does cap your income and impact at the limit of your personal time and energy.
Plus, eventually you will want to exit your business in some way, whether that means to retire or sell your practice.
Option 2- Pursue Other Creative Paths
If you’re ready to step back from the table but not interested in managing a team, there are other options:
- Start teaching, mentoring, or developing online courses
- Create your own products, tools, or branded experiences
- Offer coaching or consulting to newer therapists
These routes allow you to scale your impact, income, or influence without necessarily hiring a team. They usually require a different skill set (marketing, teaching, or product development), but they’re all valid ways to grow beyond one-on-one sessions.
Option 3 – Scale Beyond Yourself with a Group Practice:
The other path is to expand your practice beyond just you – typically by starting a group practice and bringing on additional therapists (or other wellness professionals).
This is the route to truly scale up your business’s impact and revenue. Instead of turning clients away when you’re full, you could have a team ready to serve them. Instead of every dollar depending on your hands-on time, you start generating income through your employees or contractors.
This path is the core focus of this article because it’s how you transform from a single practitioner into the owner of a larger wellness business.
It’s exciting, but it’s also challenging – a big leap that comes with new responsibilities.
Why Consider a Group Practice? (Benefits & Opportunities)
Choosing to grow into a group practice is a big decision, so it’s important to understand why it can be worth it. Here are some major benefits and opportunities that come with building a team-based practice:
Reason #1 – Serve More Clients (and Stop Turning People Away):
When you’re maxed out as a solo therapist, there are only so many clients you can help personally.
By adding other therapists, your practice can accommodate far more clients than one person ever could. You won’t have to refer people out or put them on endless waitlists – your business can say “yes” to more people in need.
Reason #2 – Increase Your Revenue Potential:
With a group practice, your income is no longer limited by the hours you personally can work. Each additional therapist can generate revenue for the business. Over time, a well-run team can significantly boost your monthly and annual revenue beyond what a solo practice could achieve.
For example, one of my clients Tara T., restarted her business in a new town and grew a group practice to $30,000 per month in under two years
You can imagine the income possibilities when you have multiple people contributing to the bottom line.
Reason #3 – Achieve More Freedom and Flexibility
Ironically, scaling up can eventually give you more freedom – even if it’s a lot of work up front.
With a trusted team in place, you don’t personally have to do everything anymore. You can take vacations (real vacations where you’re not checking phone messages between beach naps) and know clients are still being taken care of.
One of my clients, Tracy, added $150k in revenue in a year and was able to step away for a 5-week vacation for the first time, coming back to find everything ran smoothly in her absence.
A group practice, when properly structured, becomes a business that can operate even when you’re not physically there.
Reason #4 – Build a Supportive Community
Solo practice can be isolating. In a group environment, you’ll have colleagues to collaborate with, brainstorm with, or even just chat with during lunch.
“This environment can help you feel connected to other people working in your field,” notes one industry guide, because you have the support of others to bounce ideas off of and ask for guidance..
Being part of a team can spark growth and learning. You can mentor junior therapists and also learn from others’ specialties. There’s an energy that comes from not working completely alone.
Reason #5 – Share the Work (and Overhead)
In a group setting, you can delegate tasks that used to all fall on you.
For instance, if you have administrative staff or shared responsibilities, you’re not solely in charge of every phone call, laundry load, or social media post anymore. Even among therapists, some expenses can be shared.
Advertising costs, rent, or front-desk staff might be split across the team, giving each individual a benefit they might not afford alone. You’re essentially achieving economies of scale, and leveraging group resources for efficiency.
Reason #6 – Grow Beyond Personal Limits
Perhaps the biggest reason to consider scaling is to fulfill a larger vision. Maybe you want to create the premier wellness center in your town, or you have ideas for services that require more hands on deck.
A group practice allows you to expand your impact and even create an asset that could someday be sold or passed on. You’re building something bigger than yourself, which can be incredibly rewarding.
So which path is right for you?
That depends on your personal vision. If you’re content with your current lifestyle and income, you might fine-tune your solo practice and enjoy the stability.
But if you find yourself dreaming of doing more, like helping more clients, making more money, having more freedom, or even one day stepping away from the treatment table, then it may be time to consider scaling up.
Group Practices in Action
If you’ve been feeling the pull to grow into something bigger, you’re not alone. Stepping into a group practice is one of the most powerful ways to expand your reach, your income, and your ability to serve your community.
But what does that actually look like?
In the next part of this series, we’ll explore the many forms a group practice can take — from small, close-knit teams to multi-location businesses — and share real-world examples from massage therapists who made the leap.
Whether your vision is boutique and intentional or bold and expansive, you’ll see what’s possible.
→ [Read Part 2: What Does a Group Practice Look Like?] ←
Want Scale Your Practice? Let’s Talk
Whether you choose to remain a highly successful solo therapist or to step into the role of group practice owner, the key is that you decide where you want to go next.
If in your gut you know there’s more out there for you – more impact, more income, more personal freedom – then growing your practice beyond yourself might be the adventure you’re looking for.
➡️ Let’s connect: You can schedule a free 1:1 strategy call with me to talk about your goals and challenges.
This is a casual, no-pressure call where we’ll look at where you are, where you want to be, and how to bridge that gap. Whether you just need a few pointers to get started or you’re ready for some coaching through the scaling process, I’m here to help solo practitioners like you succeed on your terms.
Remember, fully booked was once a dream and you made it a reality. Now new dreams are calling.
You’ve built something amazing as a party of one, imagine what you could build with a whole team by your side. The next chapter of your business might just be the most exciting one yet.
