Building a thriving practice involves learning theory, evaluation & technique. It also involves connecting with people who want your services, running websites and/or social media platforms, and making sure you have the best tools to provide transformative treatments. We would like to share the resources that we have used in our practice to help accomplish these goals.

Business Podcast

My favorite ever podcast for small business owners is Smart Passive Income with Pat Flynn. I started listening his podcast over 10 years ago. It has helped me build our online presence and learn so much about business and communication. I used to listen to it on headphones while exercising and making breakfast every morning. I highly suggest checking out his podcast and website for a wealth of information and inspiration.

He is offering many resources for free right now through something called the Online Business ToolKit. Here is a link to that page: https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/online-business-toolkit/.

Here is a link to his podcast: https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/shows/spi/ . I suggest starting with some of his older episodes.

Make sure to scroll around all over his website, because there are SO MANY resources there that could be useful to you.

Treatment Equipment & Tools

Futons & bodyCushion

bodyCushion - essential support cushions used in shin tai and central channel work;
Receive a 10% discount on any order by using the code GOODMAN10 when checking out at http://www.bodysupport.com/
Sun and Moon Originals - http://www.sunandmoonoriginals.com/store/p/78-Organic-Shiatsu-Massage-Mat.html
Sage Meditation - http://www.sagemeditation.com/shiatsu-massage-mat-medium/

Massage Tables

EarthLite - https://www.earthlite.com/massage-tables
Oakworks - https://www.massagetables.com/massage-table.aspx
Massage World - http://massageworld.com/massage-tables/

Website & Email Services

Websites

I build and maintain our websites. The last few years I have been using Squarespace and I love it. There is a learning curve to learn how to use the platform and it takes a bit of practice to get comfortable. There is pretty good customer service along with extensive video and written tutorials. It is convenient in that you can get your domain name, business email account and commerce capabilities all within the Squarespace account. You can even set up to take appointments bookings and payments online, although we do not do that.*

I used Wordpress for years, and also had some good experiences with it, but I find Squarespace much more simple to use and maintain. When using Wordpress to build our websites, I used GoDaddy for domains, hosting & email accounts.

Many bodyworkers hire someone else to create and maintain their website. It is well worth the resources to do this if you do not have the desire to figure it out yourself. If you are serious about building a practice and have no interest in building a website, don’t do it. It takes time and energy and lots of patience, so if you don’t feel any attraction to doing it, it will be difficult to make it through the learning curve necessary to figure it out. I very much enjoy being able to design and tweak and constantly change and adjust things on our sites, so it was worth it to me to learn how to do it myself.

* Our experience has been that it is best to have contact through voice phone interaction, especially for first appointments, in order to prevent cancellations or misunderstandings regarding what treatments are about.

Email Service

I highly recommend collecting the email address of every client and student you have. This allows you to communicate with them easily when you need to and build a deeper relationship over time. You can share articles and ideas about bodywork, healing, nutrition…. anything related to wellness and personal development. Plus, even if you do not offer other services, classes or products other than treatments, you may at some point. An email list is an important way to let your clients know of any new resources or services you have to share.

And if you have more than 10 clients, an email service provider is invaluable. They offer things like bulk mailings, newsletter design and segmenting clients into different groups (like those who are regulars and those who aren’t or those who want to learn more about self care and those who don’t). You can share articles (yours or someone else’s), healing tips, treatment photos, class dates, scheduling information, etc. in a regular email letter in order to help those who are coming to you.

Here are some options:

MailChimp: I recommend MailChimp if it is available to you and you want a no-cost option. It is free for a mailing list of less than 2000. Can’t beat that!
ConvertKit: I used to use ConstantContact, which was great. I switched to ConvertKit a few years ago though, as our mailing list and needs grew. It offered more options that were relevant to what I needed and actually felt more simple to use. I love ConvertKit. Each of these platforms is about $29/month for less than 1000 subscribers.

Livestreaming & Online Services

If you are looking to offer video consultations and/or classes, there are many options. The good news is that it is no longer necessary to have fancy camera, lighting and sound equipment to do video work!

For live 1-1 consultations or group sessions, I suggest using your mobile phone and the mic on that. We have used Skype, Google Hangouts Meet, Duo and Zoom for this type of meeting. They are all free or inexpensive for small groups.

If you are going to be close to the camera without much movement (which we hardly ever are), you can get a lavalier mic for less than $25 that plugs right into your phone, and your sound quality will be better. I have tried many times, but not had success setting up a wireless mic system to use while doing live recordings, so end up using the phone’s mic.

For recording videos that are not used live (you will post or send to your mailing list or use on social media), you can also use a mobile phone. There is simply no need for an expensive camera, sound and lighting setup unless you are doing a professional level movie production. It is worth it to do some sound improvement however, if you are up for it. If we are doing a recording for something that does not involve movement (this is rare for us - an example would be if you are sitting at a desk speaking about a subject or interviewing someone), we use a Blue Snowball mic which costs about $100. For making videos of demonstrating a treatment or something like that, we use a clip-on lavalier mic and connect it to a recorder in Saul’s pocket called a ZoomH1 Handy. Then I dub that onto the video clip and remove the original audio track that was recorded through the phone’s mic (which is lower quality).

As with a website, you can hire someone to do video production for you, but it does take considerable resources. We have hired someone for a few classes and projects and had varying experiences with that. Bartering is an option that you may find works for you, like treatments in exchange for a photo shoot or camera work.

Video and Sound Editing

For those of you who are interested in creating videos for online resources and education, you will need video and sound editing software. There are many options out there; begin as simple as possible if you haven’t done it before. I can only share my (unprofessional) experience.

I use a Mac computer. For years I used the standard beginner video editing software provided for free called iMovie. It has basic sound editing as well. I upgraded to FinalCutPro a few years ago, which is a more advanced software that costs a few hundred dollars. I really have like using it, although there are strong opinions out there going both ways about FinalCut. For sound editing I have begun using LogicPro, which is another software through Mac that costs a few hundred dollars.

For recording only audio tracks you can go very simple with GarageBand on Mac. It’s free and pretty easy to use and very versatile. You can make audios of whatever you want to share with your audience.