Pros/cons of working out of home

[Kwonbaby]

Any thoughts on doing massage out of a home office? I do seated massage (foot/reflexology, Indian Head Massage and traditional chair massage). My biz is focused mostly on doing onsites for groups. But I do have a few clients who come for individual sessions, maybe three appointments a month on average. I'm subletting a room now in an office suite with a couple other therapists, but I never make enough from these infrequent clients to cover the rent. With so few individual clients, I could see them at my home much more easily. (I have a sunroom that can be made into a lovely treatment room.) I'd save $100 a month in rent, cut out travel time to and from the office and also avoid having to find sitters for my kids -- they're old enough to stay quiet and occupied while I have a client but not old enough to be left alone. Anyone have experience with a home office? Advice? Thanks!

 

[ZLD]

That sounds like the most logical solution, to me! Go for it, unless you live 20 miles from your office and think those clients won't travel.

 

[iris054]

Would clients have to traipse through the house to get to the sunroom? If they needed to visit a bathroom would they have to traipse through the rest of the house? It can be a challenge having to keep everything neat enough for paying clients to see your house. If your house is absolutely spotless and no sign of life, OK, or they just have to walk down a spotless hallway to reach the sunroom, but start having open magazines/newspapers/kids in front of the TV with the Playstation etc on the way to/from the treatment room and it can kill the relaxation experience for the client. You may think it is tidy enough, but you could have a complete neat freak client that will be unnerved by it. (no offence to all neat freaks reading)


Would your clients be happy to travel the additional distance to get to your home? You've got to consider some of them may not, so 3 appointments per month may drop down to one or 2.

 

[Saul Fox]

All good points! Thank you. I'm pretty satisfied with the walk-through areas not being a problem. Still, there are a lot of issues to think of: Dinner smells, neighbor kids being noisy outside, etc. Since my clients don't see me for full-body massage I have a tiny bit more leeway -- they don't expect a dark, silent room, for instance. My current office is very light. Yes, the location is about 6 miles away and I may lose clients who feel that's too far. Yet I also feel I can give better service from my home than in my present location -- bigger room, nicer location, ability to easily offer tea (which I think is a wonderful complement to massage), cleanliness of bathroom kept up to my standards (which isn't happening in my current place), etc. Plus, I can be more "present" to a client if I know my kids are safe, I'm not losing money, etc.

 

[MadChuckD]

A couple other considerations which may or may not play in for you since this is not your primary business location:

Does bringing the business into the house affect your home life?

For some people (myself included), having the business within the living space can be a real intrusion. Where you might have a tendency to hang out and relax in a room, it takes on a different tenor being a work space.

Spouses and children having to alter normal habits to accomodate the business can also be challenging.

These are factors I have had to consider recently, and are the main reasons, along with what melb said about having to keep the place clean all the time, that I decided to have an office eslewhere.

Have you considered an arrangement where you pay a perceneforum.xxxe instead of rent? This way, you only pay when you use the space.

 

[FairyFreak]

All good points! Thank you. I'm pretty satisfied with the walk-through areas not being a problem. Still, there are a lot of issues to think of: Dinner smells, neighbor kids being noisy outside, etc. Since my clients don't see me for full-body massage I have a tiny bit more leeway -- they don't expect a dark, silent room, for instance. My current office is very light. Yes, the location is about 6 miles away and I may lose clients who feel that's too far. Yet I also feel I can give better service from my home than in my present location -- bigger room, nicer location, ability to easily offer tea (which I think is a wonderful complement to massage), cleanliness of bathroom kept up to my standards (which isn't happening in my current place), etc. Plus, I can be more "present" to a client if I know my kids are safe, I'm not losing money, etc.

The fact that you aren't making rent at your other location makes it pretty clear that something has to change. I think you are right - chair massage is different and does not require the silent, serene atmosphere; and clients will probably get a better massage when the atmosphere, including knowing your kids are safe and that you are not losing money on each massage, puts YOU in a more "serene" place.

 

[Rocks]

Other family members having to behave as if the home is an office can be a real issue. The first few times usually go great as far as "performance," but after that there can be problems. Expect to have to review the boundaries and what behavior is expected of the kids (and partner?) every single time you have a client. While professional boundaries are an everyday thing for you, they are not for your kids, but they will become part of the massage team if you are working from home, so they may need a lot of support to do their part successfully.

It can be hard on a child, and even on a spouse, to know that they essentially have to be part of the profession/job, even though they are untrained and are not reaping professional rewards. You may want to be prepared to periodically gain their consent for their home being a workplace, and for them being part of the team. (I am thinking back to my own childhood, when my father was a member of the clergy, and how that affected all members of the family, even though we were not the ones with professional responsibilities. How we children and my mother were perceived also affected how parishioners saw/interacted with my father.)

I see what you're saying about you being more relaxed with clients when you know your kids are safe. Try to make sure that doesn't translate into giving off a vibe of being comfortably home with the family. The client still needs to know that the focus is on them, not on you feeling good that you could run out of the room and help the kids if necessary. My midwife's office was in her home, and although I loved seeing her there, I felt like her focus was split when her kids were home without their father - like she might have to take care of a family concern during my appointment since she was the only household adult available. (And this did in fact happen on occasion, or the kids would wait until the end of the appt. but pounce on her with worry when we opened the door.)

You may also need to expect some shift in clientele - some new clients who prefer going to a home environment may find you, and some of your existing clients may feel uncomfortable switching out of an office. (I would probably be in this latter category - sorry.) We don't always realize it but our setting combines with our skills and presence to make up the product our client is buying.

 

[Pompal 09.]

Thank you, everyone. Right now I'm seeking approval from the city to work out of my home. All my neighbors support it with no concerns about traffic, noise or the other issues involved in residential businesses -- they signed a statement to that effect, which I submitted along with a letter explaining what I'd like to do. But our home-occupation ordinances are vague and there are still sections on the books equating massage with adult-entertainment, stipulating certain light fixtures, separate bathrooms, etc. -- however there is a clause that makes an exception for professional massage therapists with certified training, thank goodness.

I definitely understand that some folks won't want to receive services in a home setting. Luckily, the focus of my business is doing on-sites, so I'm not expecting/needing lots of individual clients. And most of my current ones are friends or friends-of-friends who probably will be pretty comfortable at my house.

Yes, I'll definitely need to work on boundaries with my kids and husband!

 

[omarvader]

I have worked from my home for 12 years now as a massage therapist and before that from home as a consulting engineer.
As long as you have suitable facilities and heed the concerns others have raised above it is great.
I have worked this way while raising very young children and it has enabled me to be there for them.
You do need to communicate boundaries and expectations to your family, but in my experience this has rarely been a problem.
The savings in rent, travel time, child care and not having to wait in an office between bookings have all been a huge advaneforum.xxxe.
Jeff

 

[Fork UK]

Jeff, thanks for the info on your experience. Did you have to get any special permit from your municipality to practice from home? I'm in Michigan: No state licensing; each community has its own ordinances, which can be pretty confusing.

 

[Jennifer T]

Here in NSW Australia, I work under provisions termed "Home Occupation"
Been a while since I applied but from memory the requirements were-
-non retail
- no employees
-parking space (my driveway)
-no noise or other disturbance to neighbours

It did not matter what the nature of my business was, there were no seperate requirements for massage, no fees, just had to write a letter outlining the nature of the business and how I was complying with the above and the city council wrote back approving it.
Jeff

 

[Smooth Criminal]

Wow! Hope I can get the same response here. The permit application for my city lists 10 criteria, all of which I meet (no sign, no noise, odor, traffic, etc.). However the application has some vague wording at the bottom that they might use to exclude me: "Beauty shops, barber shops, restaurants, clinics, kennels and similar occupations and trades shall not be deemed Home Occupation." Huh? Kennels and beauty shops in the same category??Certainly seems open to interpretation... And I know they allow people to give piano lessons out of their homes, so it's rather confusing. Why would a parade of kids plunking on a piano every afternoon be okay, but one or two chair massage clients a week be prohibited? It will be interesting to hear their response to my request. Fingers crossed!!

Thanks, everyone!
sunheart

 

[Oliver]

Here in NSW Australia, I work under provisions termed "Home Occupation"
Been a while since I applied but from memory the requirements were-
-non retail
- no employees
-parking space (my driveway)
-no noise or other disturbance to neighbours

It did not matter what the nature of my business was, there were no seperate requirements for massage, no fees, just had to write a letter outlining the nature of the business and how I was complying with the above and the city council wrote back approving it.
Jeff

That all sound so reasonable and as it should be. I think people should be alowed to work out of their house if they want ot without a bunch of bureaucratic hassle.

 

[TheDominatorOfCheese]

i don't know what city you are in michigan but if you're anywhere near me, you're not going to get approval. i certainly don't mean to be a downer but in this area you can't run a business out of your home...especially a massage business. so hopefully you're nowhere near wayne county. livonia, plymouth, westland, redford, northville, canton and surrounding areas just will not approve it. problem is, now that you told them where and who you are you can't even "fly under the radar" and do business any way (not that i encourage or discourage it but this is what some people do in order to work from their home- sometimes you do what ya have to).

good luck! i hope it works out for you. sounds like it may just be the right set up for you. if not, have you considered taking some clients in the office that may want a 60 minute session on the table? or maybe find a way to boost the onsite business so you don't have to worry about paying rent in the office or working out of your home.

 

[Maryah]

Hi

I've worked from my home for about 3 years. I started doing it while it was still illegal to do so in our city, but we found out that within the last year it has now become legal.

We have a pretty nice setup that just sort of happened to work out. The neighborhood is convenient to get to, but still is nice, quiet, and safe. Our neighbors are not petty and they keep to themselves, so my small amount of traffic and parking haven't been a problem. Our house is laid out in such a way that the clients come through the front door and see only the front room (sort of a living/dining room but has our desks and a consultation/waiting-area table and chairs), and a hallway with the door to the treatment room at the end, and a client-only restroom on the way. They see NOTHING of our kitchen, living room, bedroom, laundry room, etc. In fact, the hallway to those rooms is sectioned off at the front with one of those Japanese-looking 3-panel room dividers.

Because of our setup and the fact that my husband's and my schedules are identical and we have no kids, our home life remains pretty unaffected. We're quiet people anyway, so when one of us is in session (we're both MTs) the other doesn't have to alter their activities much. It's actually pretty cool because my husband knows I'm safe at all times--because he's right at home with me, usually right down the hall at his computer.

The main thing to concentrate on is the cleaning, at least of those areas the clients see. While everyone understands a house IS lived-in and not just a museum, it still has to be REALLY sanitary. Bleaching down the restroom weekly and vacuuming at least every other day is a must. As far as food smells, there's an easy way to deal with that. At one of the local craft outlet malls, they sell these scent lamps that you fill with a scent of your choice. The mixture is mostly alcohol and a little bit of fragrance oil, but the alcohol will burn off and leave only the fragrance wafting through your house. The neat thing is, it will sort of "soak up" or neutralize odors. We tested ours out after making pan-fried salmon with garlic for lunch. A friend of ours came over (who hates salmon) and we mentioned to her that we'd just had it and she said she couldn't smell it AT ALL.

Working from home isn't for everyone, but it works best for us for sure I joke around that you can't beat my "commute", since it's only 12 feet down my hallway, which often makes the difference between being able to see one more client or not

Good luck!! I hope it works out for you, and we wish you the best

Hugs,
~Jyoti