Background
Meagan Ford, Massage Therapist and Certified Yoga Instructor is the proud owner of Integrated Massage and Wellness – located in Dover, on the seacoast of New Hampshire.
After working in the corporate world of sales and marketing for over 5 years, she made the switch to purse massage therapy, which eventually led to her purchasing Integrated Massage in 2018.
As owner, Meagan initially focused on therapeutic bodywork, incorporating Reiki and other esoteric practices, before needing to step back and take maternity leave to welcome her first child into the world. We discuss her journey up this point in Ep 244 of The Scaling Wellness Podcast.
Originally, Meagan never intended to return to the treatment room after her leave. However, when she came back to the office, she found she owned a business that needed a lot of work, and so she embarked on a journey to scale her massage business to places she had never reached before.
Results At A Glance
The Core Problems
When Meagan first began working with Scaling Wellness, she faced 3 core issues:
- A Lack of Clarity & Clear Identity – While primarily massage, Meagan’s business had grown by selling whatever service people were buying, and hosting an esoteric mix of wellness practitioners without a single unified focus. Meagan was unsure of which direction to take the business next, and unable to make key decisions regarding the day to day, as well as the long term future.
- Stalled Revenue – While that business had seen growth under her ownership it had also begun to plateau between $15k-$20k/month in revenue, while facing a rising cost of operations.
- Being back in the treatment room – Throughout her business journey, Meagan welcomed her first child into the world. When Meagan originally left for maternity leave, she thought she was going to leave the treatment room for good.
However, the business wasn’t stable enough, and demanded her to return to working 1:1 with clients.
The Solutions, Strategies and Changes
Over the course of 1 year, we worked to focus on 5 key areas to find Meagan’s solutions.
1) An Updated Vision, Mission, & Purpose
The first and most important key step was to get clear on the Vision, Mission, and Purpose of Meagan’s business. Like many group practice owner’s, Meagan had begun to lose track of the core focus of her business, and her energy was spread in multiple directions, trying to chase whatever was bringing in revenue in her business.
Instead of trying to have every wellness service possible, serving all types of clients, Meagan focused on becoming the leading center for holistic healing through customized therapeutic bodywork.
With a refined mission, vision and values in place, Meagan was able to more clearly see the path forward, and have a better filter for making decisions. She began to look at all aspects of her business and ask “How does this support where we want to go?”
2) Implementing Clear & Simple Systems
In order for things to go to that next level, it was important to simplify, and standardize the day to day operations of the business. Prior to working together Meagan had no operations manual, nor any systems in place.
While nothing was falling apart, everyone on the team was doing things in the way the best saw fit, as there was no standards or order on how to accomplish their daily tasks.
This lack of systems lead to inconsistent performance, and inconsistent outcomes across the business – including the quality & standards of treatment, front desk operations, and client rebooking & retention.
By taking a deeper look into different processes, Meagan was not only able to document and standardize the best practices in her business, but she was able to simplify and streamline the day to day operations.
3) A Radical Mindset Shift
Through introspection, Meagan came to a profound personal realization that her true passion was driving the success of the business, rather than being solely immersed in hands-on massage therapy.
As part of her work with Scaling Wellness, Meagan had direct access to The Wealthy Wellness Collective – A private community of 6 & 7 figure massage business owners.
It was in one of the regular monthly meetings that she heard someone else say out loud that they liked running their business more than they liked being in the treatment room.
By embracing her role as a business leader and owner first, above that of being a massage therapist, Meagan was able to let go and create space for the transformation that her business needed.
4) Refining The Hiring Process
One of the essential items Meagan needed to break her revenue plateau was more massage practitioners. However, like many group practice owners, she was facing the common issues of:
- Attracting qualified candidates
- Getting them trained and up to speed quickly, and
- Keeping great people, as long as possible
To solve these, Meagan began to screen candidates not only on their hands-on skills, but on their cultural fit, alignment with company values, and their alignment with Meagan’s future business.
By reviewing and updating her hiring process, Meagan was able to not only attract top talent but also ensure that the new team members seamlessly aligned with the core values of the business.
5) Clear Goals & Continuous Accountability
The final key component of Meagan’s transformation was to set clear goals, and to keep a cadence of regular accountability.
Together, over the course of 1 year we broke down Meagan’s long term vision into major goals, and further into small manageable pieces – focused on 1 Quarter at a time.
Each quarter we focused on up to 6 large ‘rocks’, containing all energy, effort, and focus for the time period. Meagan’s rocks included things like revenue goals, completing training manuals, and even setting aside time to make large and key decisions.
By setting clear direction and goals, and not focusing on too many, Meagan was able to stay focused, make informed decisions, and avoid the trap of trying to do everything, while making progress on nothing.
The Final Results
As a result of all the changes, Meagan was able to see a rapid and drastic shift in her business in just 1 year. Including:
Monthly revenue surged from $17,000/month to nearly $34,000/month, with year-over-year revenue almost doubling, jumping from $200,000/year to $360,000/year.
Meagan’s team experienced a significant expansion from 3 therapists to 8, along with increased front desk staff and support personnel.
Clientele increased from 197 clients per month to approximately 290-300 clients monthly.
Meagan successfully transitioned out of the treatment room, reducing her client load from 20-25 per week to only 4 per month. This shift allowed her to focus more on leading and growing her business.
Meagan’s Advice for Others
“Do it. Do it and dive in. Take your excuses and just put them behind you.
Things are always gonna come up. Things are always gonna get in your way, but if you think that there’s an inkling that you need to scale, do it.
Take the leap, focus on simplicity, and recognize the booming opportunities in the wellness industry.”
Dive in, open up your arms, let it happen and just go for it.”
Meagan’s Books To Read
Meagan also recommends three incredibly transformative books that have served her throughout the journey of scaling her business.
Closing Remarks
Meagan’s journey highlights what’s possible not only as a massage therapist, but the journey of scaling and rapid growth by taking an intentional focus on scaling.
Meagan has come such a long way since we first discussed her business journey, in Ep 244 of The Scaling Wellness Podcast.
From here, Meagan’s next plans are to continue the scaling journey, and maximize all of the available space in her studio, to be able to serve more clients at the highest level.
Ready To Scale Your Business? Schedule your strategy call to take your massage business to the next level, today!
