Money Speaks Louder Than Words

Often I'm fascinated by how small increments of saving will affect my actions. For example last week I had to stop for gas. I pulled off the road, viewing the menagerie of various fueling options, and saw the first sign: $3.37/gallon. A half block down the road I saw a $3.36/gallon, which got me going in that direction and led to a station with gas for $3.35/gallon. Sensing this price to be a real bargain, off I went. Only later did it occur to me that for my ten gallons of gas I was saving only 20 cents – much less than could easily be found under my car seat. The attraction to cheaper prices demonstrated to me the old adage that money talks and everything else takes a stroll. So, how do you get money to work for you?

We’ve all had that fresh-out-of-school experience wherein we visit establishments and ask them to display our business cards. Most people, appreciating our novice’s zeal, happily place our cards on the counter. But we have also had that been-in-the-real-world experience that the next time the office needs clearing up, those business cards go straight to the trash can. In essence, they are treated no better than junk mail, and your valuable time, effort, and expenses in creating those cards have all been for naught.

What can you do to bring value to those cards? Put a value on them by showing the business owners how your cards can make money for them and for you, all with minimal effort. In our practice, we have used two methods to achieve this goal with good success.

Cash speaks, so give the business that displays your card an incentive to send people to you. Offer them $5 (for example) for each person who comes to your clinic with a card from their business. It’s money for a product that costs them nothing and includes no inventory hassles. All the people at the business have to do is write their establishment’s name on the back of the card and presto! Five dollars may not sound like much, and it isn’t really, but when you stop by every week with $5 or $15 cash, the employees appreciate your honesty and integrity and will continue to send business your way, making it all the more worthwhile for your effort. The best businesses for this kind of promotion are small, owner-operated businesses that have a high volume of traffic, such as clothing and specialty stores. The owners often know their customers personally and are therefore better able to refer customers appropriately. If you want to make the deal even sweeter, tell business owners that you will give a free service/product to them for every five people they send your way. This practice is good for you too, because once the owners have first-hand experience of your  product/services, they will be even better able – and more likely – to encourage people to visit you.

A second method that has been successful is profit-sharing, which can be a bit tricky. If done well, profit-sharing can lead to your practice’s pre-eminence with out-of-town guests. Write a letter to managers and owners of local businesses which proposes a profit-sharing plan in which you will provide your service to them and people they refer at a substantial discount (20%, for example). In this first letter, do not explain your exact plans because you want to leave some space for bargaining when the real meeting comes. Do use attention-grabbing words and phrases (such as “at no cost to your establishment”) and include any distinctions you have (such as, “licensed,” “insured,” and/or “certified”) to impress the proprietors. Once you set up a face-to-face meeting, work out the specific details of the arrangement. Try to be as transparent as possible about your business, because it is very important to reassure the owners that you will not expose their establishment to any liability or negative publicity. We have used this arrangement at a hotel for the past year with resounding success, and it has even led to our being invited frequently to work during conventions there. The one tricky part of profit-sharing is working out how money will be collected. Generally it’s best to let their business collect the money and write an invoice for you. At the end of the month, they can write you a check for the balance they owe you (80% if you discount your prices by 20%, for example). A plan like this one works well, and has the added bonus that the other establishment will be much less likely to deal with other massage therapists since they are earning money from you.

The above ideas are but two ways to make your money talk. There are many ways to enhance the above suggestions, but try to keep in mind that money is the best motivator and will have the most long-lasting effects