Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/1234356
14 m a s s a g e & b o d y w o r k m a y / j u n e 2 0 2 0 BLUEPRINT FOR SUCCESS best practices You could make $100,000 providing massage, but if you have to spend a huge portion of that income on rent in a fancy neighborhood, utilities, a slick website or marketing specialists, linen service, advertising, dues to networking groups, and all sorts of other expenses, you'll only take home a small portion of that income. A gross income of $100,000 is not so glamorous if you spent $50,000 to make it and only take home $39,000 after taxes. Gross income only matters in relation to the amount of it you take home. The number that really matters is the owner's draw—the wage you pay yourself. Managing Cash Flow By Allissa Haines and Michael Reynolds We work as massage therapists because we love it, but at the same time we want to make money because we like to eat and put gas in the car and keep the lights on. Since many of us have questions about the actual take- home money part of business finances, let's get real about paying ourselves in a massage business—starting with cash flow management. Cash flow management sounds kind of tedious—maybe even a little complicated and scary—but what is it really? Cash flow management is a flexible system for making decisions about your money. It is not a set of rules or even a strict budget. Good cash flow management begins with thinking about your priorities and what you want your money to do before it comes in. Then, you can adjust the plan as you go so it continues to serve you and your business well. To fully embrace good cash flow management, we first need to slay a big money myth: gross income matters. MYTH: GROSS INCOME MATTERS I'm sure you've seen plenty of resources that promise to teach you how to make $100,000 per year—or more—as a massage therapist. These resources come wrapped in claims of freedom from financial stress, plenty of vacation time, and encouragement to "let your business work for you, not you for your business!" While many of these resources have great business- building ideas, the advertising is pretty scammy because that $100,000 is referring to gross income. And gross income is a terrible metric to count on because gross income is the total amount of money you receive providing your service before expenses.