To: James Caddell
From: Jim Caddell
Date: Wednesday, March 03, 2010
Dear James,
Here is your March massage newsletter.
Note:
|
Your last appointment was Friday, July 31, 2009. It is time to make your next appointment. You are eligible for a $10 discount because you are on a regular appointment schedule. Referrals are the finest compliment I can receive, and I am grateful that you were pleased enough to recommend me to a friend. To show my thanks, you are eligible for a $10 discount on your next appointment.
|
I hope to see you soon.
Jim
The Tranquility Times
March Goings On:
Students have Spring Break
this month! And if money is too tight to go to South Padre or Ft. Lauderdale, why not unwind with a massage instead? See coupons for $10 off.
Evening appointment times are becoming scarce. Be sure to
schedule your massage well in advance.
March is American Red Cross
Month, and with the disasters in Haiti and Chile there is no better
time to donate than NOW! I offer up to $20 off when you donate
to the Red Cross (bring your receipt!) Note: I only accept one discount
per appointment; so if you are eligible for two discounts, take the bigger one!
$20 off for a $20 donation beats $10 off for scheduling in advance.
My “Hand to Mouth” food drive is still going on. I’m
offering up to $20 off your massage with your donation receipt, just
like the Red Cross offer above. Click here to
donate.
March is full of fun holidays and observances.
March is Women’s
History Month and Irish-American
Heritage Month.
National Pi day is March 14. (“3.14,” get
it?) By some cosmic coincidence, it is also Albert Einstein’s birthday.
St. Patrick’s Day is March 17. Over 34 million Americans
are of Irish descent, almost nine times the population of Ireland.
The Vernal
Equinox is March 20. The sun crosses directly over the equator, and the
day and night are of equal length that day.
International Earth Day
is always on the vernal equinox, which is March 20 this year, so plant a tree!
Spring is practically here. (U.S.
Earth Day is always April 22.)
If you want to avoid International Earth Day entirely, March 20
is also Extraterrestrial
Abductions Day.
My favorite March observance is National
Chocolate Covered Raisin Day on March 24.
March celebrity birthdays: Dr. Seuss, Knute Rockne, Willard
Scott, Wyatt Earp, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Chico Marx.
Spring Supplemental Newsletter:
A special full-color Spring Supplement is still available HERE as a PDF
file.
There are some good articles in this issue:
Body Image: Learning to Love Who We Are
New clients are often self-conscious about their bodies. My regular clients know that my table is a safe, non-judgmental place to relax.
Massage Ambiance is Key: Is the Scene Conducive to Your
Relaxation?
The squeaky wheel gets the oil. Let me know if something is annoying you or making you uncomfortable. I’ll fix it if I can.
Hibernating is for the Bears: Plan to Stay Fit This Winter
This last bit of cold weather won’t last much longer here in Texas. Here’s what you can do in the meantime.
Confidentiality
I was at a party recently with a large group of friends, one of whom was another massage therapist. He kept saying things like, “Oh, I worked on [someone known to the group] last week,” and even mentioned things that they said or did during the session. That bothered me. Massage clients deserve strict confidentiality. Not only is everything that you tell me in my office confidential, the very fact that you have been in my office is confidential. A fair number of the folks at that party were my clients, and I hope that they know I would never volunteer any information about them.
It’s easy to think that name dropping is harmless. I know therapists who brag about celebrity clients, and I’m sure that such talk even brings in new business. But massage therapists know things about their clients that their clients’ friends and families may not know. We do not have the ability or the right to judge any revelation to be harmless.
So I don’t talk about my clients. Ever. In my office, every bit of information about you is sacred. Even your name.
On the other hand if you want to tell people about me, that’s just fine!
Who are my clients?
But statistics are another matter.
My clients often ask me what kind of customers I get. Obviously, I can’t say anything about individual clients, but I usually just say, “Oh, I get all sorts of folks from all races, religions, genders, orientations, and political leanings.”
But you know I’m a stickler about keeping good records, and those records are neatly filed away in my computer. Since I designed software for a quarter century before finding my true calling, I naturally pull statistics from my client notes for business planning purposes. You might enjoy seeing some of the graphs.
The things I do NOT keep records on are race, religion, or political leanings. I can easily note M/F/TS/TG, but I do not ask about marital status or sexual orientation because those are none of my business. If you decide to tell me, of course I’d be interested to know more about you.
|
Only 10% of my business is outcalls now, down from 15% the year before. Many of these are clients with special needs.
In 2011 I may discontinue outcalls except for these special clients.
I currently offer to waive the outcall fee for disabled clients. |
|
|
|
I work from 10am to 10pm, but not every day, and generally for no more than 4 appointments per day. This graph shows that clients are evenly distributed throughout those 12 hours.
The percentages are misleading because there are 2 hours in the morning, 5 in the afternoon, and 3 in the evening. |
|
I do work on Saturdays and Sundays, although I seldom schedule more than one client on a Sunday.
Since the week-end counts for 28.6% of a week, this graph shows that clients are slightly more likely to come in on a weekday than a week-end. I expected the opposite. |
|
|
|
Except for the “under 20/over 70 group,” shown here as “Other,” my clients are fairly evenly distributed by age. |
|
This graph counts the number of male/female massages for the last year, but the client base itself is split fairly evenly between male and female clients. Apparently female clients tend to make appointments more regularly.
I have a few transgendered clients, but there are so few that they are not statistically significant, so they do not appear in the graph. |
|
|
As you might expect, draping preferences are seasonal, with 50% - 60% undraped in summer and 20% - 30% undraped in winter. |
As you know, I am one of the few legitimate massage therapists in the area who allows clients to be undraped (naked with no sheet). Although this is the norm in European spas, it is unusual (but legal) in Texas. It is more common in California.
With Esalen massage, my specialty, I work the whole body at once rather than one little bit at a time; that means the less draping to get in the way, the better. Esalen is traditionally done undraped or with a towel drape.
Many of these undraped folks came to me because they feel uncomfortable under a drape. Others discarded it somewhere along the way because they feel that the massage flows more smoothly without it. I just do whatever makes the client feel the most comfortable: tight drape, loose drape, towel drape, or no drape. It’s all good!
|
|
I regard tips as an indicator that I’m doing a good job.
Tips varied greatly for any given month, but they averaged about 13% for the last two years. Since we are in a recession and some clients can’t afford to tip right now, this is very encouraging
The zero tips bring the average for any given month way down, and I suspect that this accounts for the variability. I must have some happy clients out there who pulled the average back up to 13%. Some months averaged more than 18% even with the zeros averaged in, so that tells me I’m doing something right! |
|
|
|
Some clients are missing out on this newsletter. Thanks for continuing your subscription. |
|
Sometimes clients fret because they don’t have enough cash at checkout time. Although I prefer cash or check because of credit card processing costs, credit card payment is always available for your convenience.
Some massage therapists tell me they won’t take checks, or that they insist on payment in advance. If you trust me enough to be my client, then I trust you too. I’ve never had a bad check, even though 20% of my clients pay with checks. |
|
|
Although most of my business is from Richardson, Dallas, Plano, or Garland, people come to see me from all over the Metroplex. It gives me a warm feeling to know that people are willing to drive all the way from Mesquite or Lewisville or Cedar Hill for a Tranquility Time massage.
|
|
Video:
Tranquility
Time Ad – Contains computer generated flyover of tranquil tropical islands
and other feats of CGI derring-do. Music from a wonderful 1927 recording.
Mother’s Day
Ad – Contains exquisite Renaissance music played by John Sayles.
Upcoming Classes:
Infant Massage.
3/13/2010,
9:00 am - 1:00 pm
This class is appropriate for and geared to parents, grandparents, and other
infant caregivers. Massage therapists can receive CEU credits for the class as
well.
Although it’s fun and rewarding to massage other people’s babies, the primary purpose of this class is to teach parents how to bond with, communicate with, calm, and soothe their own babies. The relationship between a parent and baby is enhanced and strengthened through the nurturing touch of infant massage. Parent’s often find that their baby sleeps better, fusses less, and gains more weight when massaged regularly.
A baby’s world is all about touch, and this course is intended to help you share your child’s world more effectively. It’s fun for you; it’s fun for your baby!
Sorry! We will not be using real babies in this course, so leave your little one with grandma. Or bring grandma and leave Junior with Auntie!
My Client Loyalty Program: 6 Ways to Save:
And these days, who doesn’t want to save money? Read all about it by clicking here.
Free Stuff!
Here’s a reminder about all the free stuff that’s available with your massage. Just ask for it!
March Coupons:
March’s money-saving coupons are at Coupons.TranquilityTime.com.
New this month:
· Spring Break! $10 for students (with ID).
· Senior Discount, because seniors deserve a break too. $10 off with ID.
And back by popular demand:
· Up to $20 off for your donation to the North Texas Food Bank. $1 discount for each $1 donated, up to $20 total. This discount has been extended to include donations to the American Red Cross.
· $10 off for new clients. (But none of you are new clients, so you get $10 off if a new client drops your name. Tell ‘em to say “James sent me!” and I’ll make a note in your file. That’s all part of the client loyalty program.)
Note: most coupons have restrictions. See the conditions printed
in red at the bottom for specific information.
Thanks!
Thanks for being a loyal client and continuing to subscribe to the newsletter.
Best wishes,
Jim
|
Links and Contact Information
|
|||||||
|
