Offer a service to come to people's homes to give foot massages, or hire others to do it for you. You should charge about $50 per massage. You will need a small seat for yourself, a cushion for the customer's feet, a foot tub, towels, and various scented lotions and oils. Who could turn down such a wonderful idea if they have the money?
Since you will be offering this service in people's homes, you will need to make sure that you charge enough to cover your transportation expenses. You might also offer to give a small discount for others at the same address if they are interested in a foot massage too. This will spare you needless travel for your next appointments.
Each appointment should take you about 45-50 minutes to do. Make sure when you schedule the appointments that you give yourself plenty of time to arrive at each appointment. If you are charging approximately $50 per massage, you should be able to make good money just in a day. You may start out at first with a few customers but eventually you will be busy all day every day if you choose to be. You can decide if you want to make this a part time job or a full time one.
Once established and booking many appointments, you will be able to pick-and-choose your own hours and customers. Those customers that you may not want to keep for various reasons, you can pass on to others that may like to join you in your business. Charge them a percentage of their profits for giving them new customers. Just explain to your customers that you are overbooked and would like to offer the skills of another qualified massage technician. Your business could grow very quickly with many people working with you eventually.
This job choice should not require you to spend much money on getting started. You will need a small seat for yourself, a cushion for your customer's feet, a foot tub, and various scented lotions and oils. Make sure that you know how to give an excellent foot massage, also make sure that anyone that you may send your customers to, is good too.
Be sure and check your local laws on running this type of business in your area. Be sure to have a business license and include it somewhere in with your equipment that you will be using with your customers. It would be a good idea, if there is a way, try to make sure it is showing through a pocket on your bag or on front of a binder that you can set out.
Before you leave each massage session, try to book your customers next appointment. This will assure that you keep a steady booking schedule. This will also make it easier for your customer to make the appointment and possibly save a favorite slot of time just for their message on a regular basis.
Remember too, that this could be a good 'business idea' to offer to people while they are still at work. Offer shorter massage sessions if need be, to work with their scheduled work breaks. Many corporate business people schedule full body massages in their offices, for health reasons and because of the many hours they work there. This shouldn't be an unusual thing to offer workers. You may even be able to talk to businesses and see if they would like to sponsor foot massages for their employees. This could bring you close to many customers in close proximity to each other.
You might also offer gift certificates for your services, these make great gifts for people that are not sure what to purchase for some one. This gift idea should appeal to most people!
Resources:
http://www.sba.gov/smallbusinessplanner/index.html
http://www.learn-massage-online.com/
http://www.drfoot.co.uk/
September 15, 2009
