In Your Home Massage- how did it come about?
Hi, I am Claire Masser. I am a mobile massage therapist based in Christchurch, Dorset and I started In Your Home Massage. This article explains why....
I came into the massage industry really late, by that I mean when I was 49! I took a massive change in direction with my career path by re-training to become a massage therapist and I have, literally, never looked back.
A number of years ago I was in a highly stressful, poorly paid job working as a press officer for the Police. I was working long hours with a long commute in a highly pressured environment with an ever increasing workload due to continued cutbacks in staff. I was more and more controlled as to when I could eat, drink, go home and have days off. The situation had got dire; I had to do something for the sake of my children, my relationship and myself. I had to change something and fast. Not an easy decision as I had been in and around the police for nearly 20 years, beginning as a police officer, then after a few years to break to have children, coming back as police staff.
My lightbulb moment!
One day after a more than usual stressful day, fighting with the traffic on the way home, I had a lightbulb moment. A chance throw away comment from a friend had burrowed its way into my brain and was now nagging me to take notice. I had always been tactile - with my kids, my partner and friends – always rubbing their shoulders, or backs and giving head massages and I was doing such a thing when one of them said, ‘You should do this properly, you are really good at it.
Of course at first I didn’t take much notice. Me, a massage therapist, how could I do that? I had a secure job, a regular income, I would be mad to give it up. But on the other hand I hardly ever spent time with my teenage children, I hardly saw my partner and when I saw anyone I was exhausted. I did not have any quality of life, the ‘job’ was my life and I was miserable.
So, on this horrible journey home I began to think, ‘why not?’ Why couldn’t I change my life? I certainly couldn’t continue the way I was. What was there to lose? If the worst comes to the worst I would go to work in Sainsbury’s, it would still be better than what I was going through in the police. So, I took a few weeks, looked into it, booked a massage course and resigned!
A year and a half later, I had a successful mobile massage business that was giving me more income than I had in the Police, more free time and more quality time with my family. I am my own boss and I work the hours I choose an most importantly I love my job. I meet amazing people every day and I have a superb work/life balance.
I became a mobile as matter of necessity as I did not have any room at home and no money to rent a salon room. However, I soon realised that the mobile part of the business was a growing market. The demand for mobile therapists was increasing exponentially with lives becoming busier and more people in groups such as the elderly and disabled realising that massage was an essential part of their lives.
In business terms it took me no time at all to make myself a living. I am constantly turning down business because clients contact me but live too far away or I am already booked up. I am being told by clients that they have heard there is someone in their area but they can’t find them. I have heard from therapists that they struggle to get clients.
There clearly was an issue where clients wanted a mobile massage therapist but could not find one. Some research also showed me that mobile massage therapists struggled to get clients because they did not have a presence on the internet.
So I had another lightbulb moment and decided to help therapists and clients to find each other.
www.inyourhomemassage.co.uk was born – a mobile massage therapist directory. A directory designed to help massage therapists to find clients and clients to find mobile massage therapists.
I continue to work as a mobile therapist as I absolutely love my job. I have met, and continue to meet amazing people and I work hours that suit my life and my commitments. It also gives me great pleasure to launch www.inyourhomemassage.co.uk to help other massage therapists reap the benefits of being a mobile therapist and of being your own boss, while also helping clients wanting and needing massage in the comfort of their own home, to be able to find local therapists.
