Defining my shiatsu brand
Marketing and Advertising, Personal Development
I must admit that I am spending a lot of my time thinking about the practicalities of building a shiatsu practise rather than shiatsu theory. Never in my working life have I thought about branding, marketing and running a business but this is where my shiatsu is now. I am on the brink of replacing my income as an employee of a large company with the earnings from my own shiatsu practise.
How I present myself in the growing market of complementary therapists matters as much as how I actually practise my shiatsu. I never really that about branding before but I now I understand that being a skilled practitioner or theorist is not enough; my potential clients need to know about my passion if they are to choose me over any other shiatsu practitioner they find.
One area in which I am weak is defining what shiatsu is. I know what shiatsu means but I always find myself waffling when asked what I do. That approach will not win me clients. People are interested in what shiatsu can do for them and do not want to hear a potted history of Chinese medicine, Ki and Masunaga. I need to define what my shiatsu is and have definition clear in my mind.
In my next few posts I will explore this idea of what shiatsu is and in particular what my shiatsu is about.
Tony Brown @ September 28, 2007
Hi Tony
My name is Lee Williams. I live in B’ham Alabama and am a former teacher. I noticed that you are currently in the corporate world. I have a suggestion for you. I am, after 3 years, very successful doing corporate massage onsite. I have 5 tables in 5 different locations around Birmingham and visit one place each day. I am very busy, usually 4-5 hours each day. I only charge $20/30 minutes and people almost always see me in half hour increments. I only work from 10-5 or 11-6 each day, pay no rent and have minimal expense for laundry. My suggestion is that you do something similar in your hometown. I am assuming you have some good corporate contacts and could possibly even start in the company you’re in now. People are SOOO grateful to get a service like this at work. They also are much in need as a result of being chained to desks all day. I have also found that most people who visit me at work have never set foot in another therapist’s office before. It’s all about convenience and need. If you are interested in doing something like that there, just contact me and I can give you more details. I have a corporate flier done (nothing fancy…you could do much better) that you are welcome to look at. Anyway, just thought I’d put that out there to you. Take care! Lee Williams Leewil40@yahoo.com