What are the pros and cons of being a massage therapist?

I am considering becoming a massage therapist. What are the pros and cons? Also what is the pay like?





Thanks!What are the pros and cons of being a massage therapist?
I guess we'll start with the upside:


It's a great business for self-employment, which means my client for the hour is my boss for the hour


Help people solve problems, often pain related


Work one-on-one with different people


Job security - one person can't send me to the unemployment line, I have my license to practice and can work anywhere any time


Freedom - I can schedule a day off whenever I want


Respect - as a medical professional and small business owner, I can get quite a bit of respect by some people


Travel - I take continuing education classes wherever I want, and expenses are a tax-deductible business expense. I routinely go to FL in the spring for a class to get an early break from winter and take really cool classes





Cons


In many cases, especially self-employment, no clients means no pay for the day


It takes a lot of time and effort to build up a client base


Loneliness - if you're having a stressful day, we can't unload on our clients and don't always have time or easy contact with someone else to talk to (on the other hand, the massage therapist in the next office to mine is great, so when we see each other we support each other - join a professional association for help doing this)


Depending on the modality/style of massage - we can be hard on our bodies and minds. I feel wiped out after 5 hours in one day and can only do that 4 days a week. Some do get various injuries.


Clients sometimes expect us to solve their problems. Sometimes it's reasonable, just a little muscle pain. Sometimes they expect way too much.


Yes, some people relate massage to prostitution. There is no relationship, but some use massage to provide apparent legitimacy to an illegitimate business. I solve this with efforts towards extreme professionalism and sometimes clinicalness (I've been mistaken for a Chiropractor).





If you like helping other people and working for yourself with one person at a time, it's a fantastic career. I love my job.





The pay.


If you work for someone else, I've heard of as low as $7/hour plus tips on a 40-hour week. I've also heard of $14/hour massage, with no pay if there are no clients, and often without benefits. Common pay scale is 40-60% of the price of a massage, plus tips. Base that on a $50-150/hour massage depending on the location and your experience.





Working for yourself, whatever you choose for an hourly or session rate. I charge $65/hour or $90/90 minute massage. My limit is 20 hours a week.





Either way, many places and certainly self-employment mean no clients today means no income today. It takes time to build clients, so it is not necessarily the fast path to riches. I know many who do massage part-time.





We also need to remember that there are expenses. Licensing costs vary by state and sometimes city or county, as well as the annual membership for professional associations/insurance and space rental fees.





Short answer, you can make $40K/year, but that takes time and effort.





On the other hand, if this was utopia and I didn't have to work, didn't need money, and could have everything I wanted or needed, I would still do massage just because I love the work. A life lesson I've learned, if you hate your job it doesn't matter how rich you are, you still hate your job and your life. If you love your job, you can live in a shack and eat nothing but rice and beans, you still love your job and are relatively happy.What are the pros and cons of being a massage therapist?
Pros: You are helping people heal and relax!, this line of work can take you lots of places. From high end hotels/spas all over the world to cruise ships. You can learn chair massage and ALWAYS have a way to make a couple extra bucks. It just depend on what you are looking for. You also learn so much about how the body works... Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Kinesiology... My next step is naturopathic medicine and look how much I already have under my belt!





Cons: Yes, there is the problem with people wanting 'happy endings'. But as long as you dress appropriately, are confident, and promote your self as a professional individual, you should be fine! If you do not take care of yourself (take classes on the right postures and techniques that do not use your thumbs) you can '


blow out' your hands.





Pay: It depends on where you work. Some places will pay you like a regular employee- hourly, or in other cases, you will be paid per massage and that is also true if you work for yourself. So no massage, no pay. That is why it is good to have more that just one modality. I have Reiki(energy work), Hypnotherapy, Spa treatments and hot stone on top of my regular massage training, so that keeps me busy.





So far I am loving it as do many of my LMT Friends. One other thing you must research is Licensing. In Washington State you must have 1000 hours of schooling(they have the specifications broken down on the website) from an accepted school in order to get a license. It will be different in other states. Some schools will say they are accredited, and you will be exempt from taking an exam. There is also the National Certification exam(can't opt out of that through schooling). So, do your research, find a few school you like, a ask to be a student for a day. My choice went for the school that gave the student the most freedom with the modalities. There are a wide range of schools, and a cookie-cutter therapist is not going to be successful in the competitive world we have today.





Hope this helped, and Good Luck!!!
It's a very demanding job physically, and very rewarding if you like to help people. The $50 per hour is only for the hours that you are actually working on people. Down time and canceled or no show appointments you don't get paid for. There is a lot of flexability in setting your own schedule and you can work in many types of facilities (spa, chiro, PT, hospice, resort etc.) or for yourself. Getting started and building a clientele can be frustrating and take a long time.
You could eventually have your own business, and make your own schedule. I hear they get paid pretty well too. Plus, you get the satisfaction of knowing that you could be helping someone with feel better, or relieve their stress.





But, I think it would be pretty boring to massage different people over, and over again. I know this sounds mean, but you probably have to touch a lot of sweaty people, with wrinkly, spongy skin too...icky. Plus, if you aren't working at an all woman's salon their are probably going to be some perverts that get off on that kind of thing or think they can ask you to do more than your job description...gross.
My mom is a massage therapist on her own time(after work) and she makes 50$ per massage and each one is about an hour. But she often complains of pain in her hands and there are times when nobody needs a massage and she would not make any money. But now she does it as a side job in the evenings and she seams quite content.
i got an NVQ 2 in beauty therapy swedish massage and then decided i wanted to do childcare instead


im 18 and found it hard, a years course


the massage part was easy, but hard to remember all the movements,


you dont say what type of massage therapist you'd like to be?
From friends of mine that are MT, they say the satisfaction of helping others ease the stress of the day and the PAY are major reasons for doing it. And, it is easy to do with proper attention paid to books.





Cons, people think you are there for ';other'; reasons, like to sell a service...or just a little ';side'; work.





And the pay is $50+ an hour