To Be or Not to Be
Before walking into your superior’s office, telling him off and announcing that you quit in a glorious bridge-burning ritual, you must ask yourself if you think you really have what it takes to be a professional masseur. To you, is massage really about wellness and holistic care? Do you have the necessary patience, people skills, and desire to help people that are integral to being successful as a message therapist? Are you a self-starter and resilient to setbacks and challenges? Ask yourself these questions (and other relevant ones too) and ponder your answers. The money right now might be great, but practicing bodywork in the long term requires a different mindset altogether. Make sure this is a path you really want to tread.

Be a Man with a Plan
A masseur who works independently must get in touch with his entrepreneurial side. Essential to succeeding is having the self-motivation, discipline, and business-mindedness to attract and maintain clients while sustaining your lifestyle. A simple business plan will help you tremendously. Start with a budget: know how much you will need to make a month to cover your life expenses as well as monies that go to savings (rainy day funds, vacation, etc.), paying taxes (yes, you should definitely pay your taxes!), and of course, the expenses pertaining to your new career (equipment, training, advertising, etc.). From there, you will have a better idea how many clients you will need to take on each month, or each week. It will also help you modify your pricing structure as necessary. Your business plan helps you set goals so you know what you need and what it will take to get it.

Get Trained, Get Versatile
There are basically two reasons why a client seeks a massage: relaxation and therapy. In the Western world, Swedish massage is the dominant technique for the former and many massage schools have this modality in the basic curriculum. However, many gay men particularly enjoy Thai massage because of the amount of body contact between the practitioner and client. Moreover, getting trained in therapeutic techniques is a great strategy for broadening your potential client base. For example, certification in orthopedic massage will allow you to access clients who seek massage therapy for medical purposes; likewise, learning sports massage could help you build a big athlete clientele, and training in tui na makes the plentitude of people interested in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), and alternative medical systems in general, a vast potential market.  In the US, certification or licensing as a “massage therapist” is regulated on the state level, which require anywhere between 500-600 hours of training, while there are also private institutions that can certify a bodyworker in a specific modality after fewer hours of training (around 100 to 200 hours). Certification/licensing is a necessary expense to “legitimize” your career, separating you from the many amateurs in the field.

Practice What You Preach
Your ability to last in the bodywork business is integrally related to the quality you maintain in other areas of your life. Massage is a holistic career. How can you teach others to relax when you aren’t relaxed? How can you promote a more stress-free existence when you barely have one? In practicing what you preach, you remind yourself of the value of your services. You continue to believe in your work, which in turn, makes your new career all the more rewarding.