InTouch

As a consultant I often have to deal with the delicate balance of resource use, including space planning. How much do you dedicate to revenue generating like services and retail and how much goes to ensuring a quality experience for the client which includes staff support, décor, and amenities?...

Getting up in the morning and going to work does not seem to be an issue for most of you. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. What I hear from so many of you at trade shows is how much you love your work especially because you feel you are making a difference...

Over the years I have dedicated myself to being an effective therapist for Active Aging Adults. I have now reached the point my books are consistently full and if I’m going to continue to expand I need to fine tune. As most of you know, it’s easy for this type of intense work to become out of balance. I love it and would never give it up, so this year my focus is on incorporating Zest into my life and my practice...

Here we are once again off to the start of a brand new year. I always enjoy the anticipation of what lies ahead. Some things reoccur annually, so I pencil those in right away on my Day Timer. But there’s still a lot of time and time slots waiting to be illed. And that brings me to the point of my first blog of the New Year. What’s in store for you in 2012? Is it going to be pretty much a repeat of 2011 or is the year the year when you plan to try something new with your business. Call it a reinvention or maybe just a refresh, but the demands of the market and your clients – not to mention your own personal and professional aspirations – require doing something differently...

Three years ago, a friend who lives out of town sent me a digital picture frame for a Christmas gift. I remember being very excited about the gift and looked forward to setting it up so my life could truly flash before me. Photos from the last six or more years are digital so that makes loading them on the little card that comes with the picture frame very easy. But I also have a lot of prints. I could probably set aside a month of my life scanning 24/7 to get all of my prints converted to digital format...

Time Well Spent is the name of my business, my promise to my clients; and it’s my measuring stick. For example, before I introduce a product or protocol into my treatment room it must add value and effectiveness to the time my clients spend with me. It’s a simple and tangible appraisal system...

Bring up the subject of joining a professional organization and I often hear, “I think professional organizations add value, but I’m just too busy to add one more thing to my plate.” It’s an understandable response. After all, owning your own business is much more than a nine-to-five job when you consider the time for networking, marketing, enhancing your skills through classes, and more than likely some volunteerism...

The Season for Giving is well under way. You may have noticed all those Black Friday and Cyber Monday opportunities in your inbox! Many massage businesses miss out on the holiday shopping craze, when they should be cashing in. It is a shame because there is no better time to encourage clients to refer their friends, family and workmates...

I happened to catch one of episodes of Frasier the other night. That’s not hard to do considering how much they rerun the old sitcoms. Frasier was always a favorite of mine because the characters were kooky and the writing was very clever. This particular episode was one the earliest about Frasier’s dad moving into his apartment and bringing his chair along, as well as his dog Eddie. The old unattractive chair was a real fixture in the series and a thorn in Frasier’s side for the entire run of the show’s 11 years...

If you’ve been a reader of our InTouch blog for some time, you may be asking yourself “is blogging something I should do.” After all, what better way to share your knowledge and experience with your customers and get feedback than blogging? If you’ve been on the fence about starting your own blog, here are some good reasons why you might want to take the leap...

One of the more overlooked areas for cutting costs is product usage. Profitable product usage is not about buying the least expensive products. It involves three things:

• Avoid waste by monitoring usage and pre measuring products
• Research and compare the cost effectiveness of products
• Evaluate how much product is needed for each client based on the service

September may seem a little early to be thinking about Thanksgiving, unless you are a retailer or you are going to use it as an opportunity to “dance with the ones that brought you”... In other words, to show appreciation to those who have provided support and patronage. I know that a lot of business use Christmas for this purpose. But I asked myself a long time ago why should I present my tribute to people at a time when it will end up competing with their insurance agents, hairdressers etc. It has always made the most sense to me to use the holiday that we all celebrate, to express what that holiday is all about...