This is an article written by Jing Massage;

Wow! Can you imagine a life where every day you get up bursting with enthusiasm to go to work; a life where you can make your own hours; have time to go to that yoga class in the middle of the day; pay yourself a decent salary and most importantly pack your bags every summer and take off for a month! Who would say no to that! Yet the issue that most therapists come up against time and time again is an inability to make a living out of the profession they love. The website www.payscale.com puts the average massage therapist earnings in the UK at £11,400- £14,983 for 1-4 years experience. – That’s less than the average wage of the 17 year old at your local fast food outlet! Not to mention the terrible working conditions we usually award ourselves as the self employed – crazy hours, no holidays, scarce money for further training. Yet it is more than possible to earn a great living as a therapist – and to have time to enjoy your life into the bargain. So to paraphrase the great philosopher Bob the Builder – Can we make a great living as a therapist- the unequivocal answer is “YES WE CAN!”

The 3 cardinal errors of therapists

The economics of being self employed are actually resoundingly simple – the only way to pay yourself more is either to bring in further money or to cut your costs. I find that therapists’ costs are usually minimal so this is not an option. However most therapists are making one of 3 basic errors:

1. Not charging enough
2. Not enough clients coming through the door
3. Not rebooking clients so only seeing them once

So how is it possible to reach our dream goal of 35K profit per year?

First of all it is important to work out actually how much you need to charge per client to make your target salary.

1. Work out your costs: Lets assume your costs are £11000 per annum – this would include for example clinic room rental, your own further training, website costs etc. So you would need to bring in a total of £46K per year to pay yourself a salary of 35K. With me so far? Good!

2. Decide how many weeks per year you are going to work. Right so you want to take 6 weeks holiday over the year- a nice month in the summer and a couple of weeks at Christmas. With 52 weeks in the year taking 6 weeks off leaves us with 46 weeks working time

3. Calculate how much you need to earn per week to bring in your target amount: So handily in our example we would need to earn £1000 per week (£46000 divided by 46 weeks)

4. Calculate how many clients at what price you need to see to make your target income. This is your crunch figure and a great surprise to most therapists who are usually undercharging for their time. A full time workload for most therapists whether you are doing massage, aromatherapy, beauty treatments, homeopathy or counseling is 20 client hours per week. The rest of your workweek should be devoted to marketing and administration of your business. In our example you would need to charge £50 per client hour to bring in the required £1000 per week (20 clients x £50). I need to stress that this a reasonable average amount to pay in ALL areas of the UK for an hour of a therapist’s time! Some areas will be able to charge more but I know therapists working in the most deprived areas of the country who are able to charge £50/hour.

Getting the clients; keeping the clients! The golden secret to building your business
OK so that’s all very well I hear you cry – but how do we get these 20 clients a week to support our dream lifestyle! There will be plenty of top tips on this in future articles coming up in this great magazine, but I will leave you with one golden secret to whet your appetite.

It’s a well-known fact in marketing that it is far easier to KEEP a client than attract a new one. The mistake I see therapists making time and time again is not rebooking their clients – you need to do it there and then at the time of payment. So the top tip for today is the next time you see a client, take a deep breath, visualize that holiday in the sun, get your diary out and re-book them! Well done- that great summer holiday is one step nearer!

As you can see the math works, although it is not £35K net as tax/ni, will need to be paid, @£26k will be the net income and there are some simple tips, but more importantly do you think £50 per hour is realistic?

'I need to stress that this a reasonable average amount to pay in ALL areas of the UK'

A straw poll in my area is £30 - £45, but more £30 - £35 (a mixture of back bedroom and clinics). You could argue that this is undercharging or more importantly is it matching the market. I.e. if you increase your charge to £50 will those existing clients stay and will you gain new ones? I somehow doubt this.

I should add the following;

X is the Co-Director and Founder of the Jing Institute of Advanced Massage Training (and has been teaching and practising massage for over 20 years.
X writes regularly for several massage and complementary health magazines .
X is a sought after guest lecturer for several institutions including Mctimmoney Chiropractic College, CPDO (centre for professional development of osteopaths), the FHT and the International Dermal Institute.

So the question is, is £47k pa achieved just from clinic work or from teaching/writing/lecturing? Does it include sale of equipment etc?

I am not having a pop at the individual but believe the article may be misleading to new entrants, and to a degree, existing ones.

My reply, I have no qualms with articles I simply want them to be accurate, especially for newbies, I can imagine the number of therapists on courses paying good money and thinking, i'll be earning £35K a year in year 1


Your article, how to make £35k P/A made for very interesting reading.

First off I should make it clear that I respect what you have achieved over the past 20 years, including setting up Jing institute, lecturing and article writing.

The figures suggested £46K P/A less expenses £11k equating to £35k, or £50 per hour is very impressive, I agree that 20 clients per week, for an established therapist is very much a reasonable target.

The insinuation that this should be attained from year 1 is, I believe, somewhat misleading.

I would suggest that the majority of therapists in years 1 – 4 will be earning as per the payscale indicated, indeed I believe again, the majority, will actually be part-time, combining their day job with building up a client base that can sustain them on a full time basis. Obviously some therapists may decide to remain part-time.

You make a very good point on

1. Not charging enough

2. 2. Not enough clients coming through the door

3. 3. Not rebooking clients so only seeing them once,

These points you make are very true and indeed are often overlooked.

If we take my catchment area, there are at least 10 therapists, without delving into further research, each charges a range of £30 - £40 per hour, so if one suddenly increases their fee by a minimum of 12% (£40 to £50) would the client still attend, some naturally will, others will not, this is a case of market forces. And economics. Too high and people will look elsewhere, too low and people do not appreciate your skill.

I will assume that all income is derived from therapy and if we take my catchment area the figures based on 20 clients and £35 x 46 weeks are £32,200 less expenses as you say £11,000, I think this may be high, equals £21,200 less tax/NI = £17,234 a figure much nearer to the payscale advice.

My overall point is that for an established therapist £50 per hour is an amount that can be charged, for an up and coming therapist this is not feasible, please remember you have 20 years experience and have built a strong client base, would you pay £50 for a newly qualified therapist, I believe the majority of clients would not,

Skill sets, market forces and economics drive prices.

What would be helpful is an article on marketing and client attraction; in turn prices will look after themselves.

It is good to discuss articles, be they science, general, practice or advisory, this is what makes for an interesting industry.