Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/992435
24 m a s s a g e & b o d y w o r k j u l y / a u g u s t 2 0 1 8 BLUEPRINT FOR SUCCESS best practices Balancing Generosity 7 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Volunteering Your Services By Allissa Haines Massage therapists get asked to work at all sorts of events, especially charitable fundraisers. Road races, golf tournaments, PTO nights, and health fairs can all be great. These types of events get our names and faces out into the community where we can network and build career- sustaining relationships. Often, we are asked to work those events for free. Volunteering our time and massage skills is a dicey topic. Some business owners say we should never work for free. Others say we should be generous with our time and services. I think there are no definitive answers here, just some helpful questions we can ask ourselves to parse out the best solution for our own businesses. 1. DO YOU NEED NEW CLIENTS? If your schedule is full and you get plenty of regular referrals from your current client base, you probably don't need any more face time in the community. But if you are new or looking for more clients in a particular niche, getting out and meeting people can be great fun and ultimately lucrative. 2. HOW MUCH WILL IT COST YOU IN LOST WAGES? Performing a free gig on your busiest office day will cost you lost clients. Is the event worth it financially? Consider how many new clients you would have to gain to make it worth your time and effort, and let the math help you decide. 3. WILL YOUR IDEAL CLIENTS BE THERE? If the event will be chock-full of the exact type of client you seek, then it makes sense to do this gig. But if you specialize in pregnancy massage and the free event is at a senior center, it may not be a good fit. Likewise, if you are concentrating on building a geriatric massage