My Office Goodies

 

There's nothing more freeing to a massage therapist than being able to choose their clients, their work hours, and choose their pay. Working for a spa means you have to surrender all these. Honestly, they both have pros and cons. It's all about which “con” you are more willing to work with.

But, let’s pretend that you’ve decided it, weighed the pros and cons, and you’re ready to dive in! After having tested many products in my own office, here are my suggestions of products that have worked the best for me.

I admit that I had NO idea where to start and nowhere to turn to. I tried so many blogs for any reviews that people may have done. There were a few, but none that broke things down for me. I pulled from my experience at the spas and had to decide whether I could afford all the professional goodies the spas had.

Through trial and error, a lot of error, I found some products that helped me a lot in my office. Here is just a handful. I will leave links to the products below. These are products that I purchased (some two years ago) and tested out. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, but the products that I recommend will be ones that you find in my office if you walk through my door tomorrow!

If you use my link at Massage Warehouse, you’ll receive a discount there too!

Now, to start with -

The Table

So what's the first thing that you need when running a massage office? A table, duh.

I'm pretty sure it's standard for your school to "give" you one (it's including in your tuition most likely).

If not then take a look at the available massage tables through Massage Warehouse, or even on Amazon to find a good one.

Mine is an Oakworks. I don’t know what version or model is it since the school purchased it, but this one is pretty much it -

 

Nothing fancy, but it's held up incredibly well over the last 10 years, even after spending several years of that in the trunk of my car.

Depending on what your startup costs are for the business, looking into a hydraulic table can save you so much pain later on in your massage career. The main reason I stuck with working for big-name spas for as long as I did was simply because they had hydraulic tables. If you don't have it in your budget to get a hydraulic table, no worries! It's always something that you can upgrade to in the future.

In the meantime having a stable table is the most important. You can even use a hammock underneath the table for extra storage if your office is small, and most of our first offices are very small. I’ve used mine for everything from pillows, to mini bolsters, to hiding my Bluetooth speaker during a session.

 

Coziness on the table

On to a table warmer! I was a skeptic of table warmers in the beginning, but after lying on one after a car accident and feeling all my stress melt, I was sold.

 

I have used many many over the years, and I can tell you that even if they are the same brand, table warmers vary from unit to unit. They’re as unique as the therapists themselves. This brand is one that I used in spas and it hasn’t failed me in my own office. It even has a timer to turn itself off in case I forget to (not that that’s ever happened… at all… ever… always).

Something that seems an afterthought for most therapists is a wool pad under the sheet and the face cradle. It seems like just fluffery, but the elegance of your office will skyrocket with them. Clients will feel the difference as well.

After dealing with many different types, this is the one that has worked the best! To stop it from shedding so much when I wash it however, I combed it through a couple times before the first few times it went in the wash. -

 

And of course, you can't have one without the other. I don't know if you've ever tried a with and without test as far as the fleece face cradle cover, but with is SO much better!

 

Oh Sheet (pun always intended)

 

Most MT’s that I know personally went for the “snuggle into a cozy table” kind of feel and chose flannel sheets. As a person on the bigger side, flipping over against a flannel sheet was frustrating and painful!

Also, my first independent office was on the first floor with no elevator and I carried 5 sets of heavy sheets up and down every day. It was NOT fun.

Since it was the beginning, I opted for cheap, cotton blend sheets from Walmart. Nope, they were still too heavy, for me carrying them and for my client's temperature comfort on the table. So next I tried their microfiber sheets. These were great, nice and thin for carrying and slide-y enough for clients to comfortably turn over on the table with.

After about 6 months of everyday use however, the sheets started to pill, where the fabric developed these little balls stuck to the sheet. It wasn’t pleasant to touch for me so I didn’t want the clients to keep feeling it.

Things were going well enough financially that I decided to risk buying some legit massage sheets on Amazon. I found some absolutely amazing sheets that are made for the abuse MT’s put them through.

 

Unfortunately, lavender seems to be a popular option so don't miss it when it's available! When I went to buy more sheets, they were out so I needed something that would go with the color. I decided to go with black just so I could get oil on my sheets and not have to worry about staining.

 

I purchased these and still use them everyday. I went for some others that were just the flat sheets and tried these, which have also held up very well too!

 

Specialized Focus

I’m curious, what kind of focus will your business have?

Having worked for a few different big spas, I liked doing hot stones. The lava rocks were very nice to work with but cleaning them was a hassle.

Then I was introduced to Himalayan Hot Stones and that was it for me. I only wanted to work with the stones. These are the stones I use and I have to say that I'm still in love with them years and years into working with them. The stones just uses a different type of heat dispersal and the clients leave extra drunk due to the salt exposure.

 

Use my link for a discount! - Massage Warehouse

I spent most of my career using this lotion and if I weren't using salt stones, I would still be using it in practice.

I highly recommend this lotion. It has an amazing glide without soaking in too quickly (unless they’re dehydrated of course). While I couldn’t use this lotion with the salt stones, I still have some for massaging my hands at night.

Some spas strictly use coconut oil for their salt stones. I use mine for clients who request it or have allergies to any of the ingredients for the gel I use. While this oil is amazing with the stones, I’m picky and I don’t like the glide on the feet. Coconut oil has a graininess to it so it’s harder to use regularly.

Of all of these, I picked a gel to use. It’s amazing! The stones love it and I don’t need to reapply as the gel lasts the whole massage. I can even use it on the feet with the stones. I don’t think it’s classified as “hypoallergenic” but I haven’t had any clients who are allergic to anything in it. According to Amazon, I’ve ordered it three times in the last two years. That’s not bad given that it’s just me in the office!

 

Enhancement Goodies

What else are you planning on doing in your office? Will you have enhancements?

I’ve had so many clients that love that I offer more than just a massage. The most popular enhancement I have is a peppermint scalp treatment.

The second is aromatherapy. Everyone from holistic clients to just overly stressed love the essential oils. Personally I order mine through a company called New Directions. I highly recommend them as well. The oils are of exceptional quality and conveniently come in larger sizes if you need.

Also true to my spa background form, I offer hot foot sugar scrubs (you wrap the feet and hot towels then scrub with sugar) but I suppose you can also scrub with salt if you want to.

I do not recommend scrubbing with coffee. I tried this very briefly and found out how big of a mess it was haha. The problem with coffee is that it doesn't dissolve and it can leave your towels stained. But the biggest of these is that the coffee doesn't dissolve, therefore you're left with the granules in your towels and your sheets and on your floor. I know how elegant it sounds to get a coffee scrub, but leave that to people doing it in their own bathtubs haha.

For sugar scrubs, this is the brand that I use.

I found it on a Shelf at Cracker Barrel, but found that I could find it on Amazon just as easy.

Since I was only planning on using my office towels for foot scrubs and cleaning, I decided to just go for the cheap ones from Walmart. They do exactly what they’re supposed to.

So next we'll go on to cupping. I started out using the silicone cups, but I found that I was very annoyed with the continual change of the section and it hurt my hands use them.

Given that I started my office to try to reduce my hand stress, using these cups was not a good idea.

After taking several cupping classes, I found that my choice would be the vacuum therapy machine. I found this one on Amazon and I love using it! You can set the suction amount and it's the same amount consistently.

But to be honest… the instructions have a WHOLE OTHER purpose in mind when you order the machine. More of a cosmetic usage than what I had planned. I had to find instructions and use my own trial and error. I love the machine now and use it all the time.

 

Or at least planned out. The next thing is how are you going to Market yourself? And also how are you going to set up appointments? I have many friends that keep their own soap notes in their own notes on their phone and use Google calendars for their clients. This can work well if you're using something like Groupon because then you can just integrate the scheduling together. It can also work if you have a Google listing, which I highly recommend, because then the customer can see the openings that you have. I personally don't use Google for this. It's nothing against Google, but I didn't want another calendar that I would have to constantly be checking to make sure I had my personal time blocked off. I wanted something that I could.

But this post is already so long I feel like it needs a potato.