Why I Left Massage Therapy

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I don’t remember what I wanted to be when I grew up. Maybe if my parents are reading, they might remember! I was interested in biology, I liked helping people, and when I was 15 years old, my parents brought up the idea of massage therapy. One of my former babysitters became a massage therapist, and everything seemed to be going great for her! With my interests it seemed like a good fit, and before I graduated high school I was accepted into the massage therapy program at the Canadian College of Massage and Hydrotherapy in Bedford, Nova Scotia.

As many of my classmates were figuring out what they wanted to do, I remember feeling relieved that I had it all “figured out”. I didn’t explore many other career options, I briefly looked into the journalism program at St. Thomas University in New Brunswick, and by briefly I mean I considered it for a day.

The massage therapy program was difficult, there was a lot to learn. I was the type of student in high school who didn’t have to study much to get good grades, and that was not the case in the massage therapy program. After some initial hiccups, I learned how to study and apply myself, and I graduated in 2010.

So there I am, graduating at 19 years old, while most of my high school classmates were only halfway through their undergrad.

I was an adult! I got offered the first massage therapy job I applied for, and signed the contract. Here in Nova Scotia, most massage therapists are hired as subcontractors, it is very rare to find a clinic that will hire you as an employee. And so I unwittingly became self employed.

There was definitely a learning curve to being self employed. Dealing with my income tax was the hardest, but I got a system down where I would automatically save money from my pay (read more about how I pay myself as a self employed person), and things settled down, until I made over $30,000. At that point I had to start remitting HST, which felt like a whole new learning curve, but I eventually got that down to a science too.

Although I was “self employed” the clinic took care of most things, like client billing, advertising, laundry, reminder calls, and booking. I was in charge of my schedule to a certain point, but not 100% in control. I could take time off whenever I needed it, but I couldn’t always work the days/hours that I wanted to.

Around 2015 I started feeling like I wanted more control. Mostly of my schedule, and of the way that my regular clients were treated by the front desk/administration. My husband was in paramedic school at the time, and I remember thinking that once he graduated and got his job that I might go out on my own.

That didn’t happen. He got his paramedic job, we bought a house, and I felt like it was too big of a financial risk to go out on my own doing massage. Our house wasn’t set up for me to treat at home, and so I stayed where I was. I was pretty happy with my job, most of the time, until about 2019. 

I started this blog in 2017, as a project to keep ourselves accountable when we were paying off my husband’s student loans, and because I loved to write. I won’t lie, I always had the intention of turning this blog into a business. I saw other people making money online and thought I could do that too! Although it’s not as simple as just starting a blog and money will magically show up, there is strategy involved, but I did make a little money in 2018/2019.

By 2019, I was feeling restless. I loved my massage therapy clients (and I miss them now), but quite frankly, I was bored. A lot of people come in with the same or similar complaint, and I was good at my job, and could operate on autopilot most of the time. 

Fast forward to the pandemic in March of 2020, massage therapy was shut down in Nova Scotia. I had so many emotions, because I was losing my income, I was definitely afraid of the virus, and knew I was going to miss seeing my coworkers and clients. In total we were shut down for 80 days, reopening on June 5th 2020.

I cannot explain to you the dread I felt when they announced massage therapy was going to reopen. I had spent the last 80 days working on my blog, working on myself, painting the house, and it still felt risky to reopen with the virus. I felt like everything I had worked on for the previous 80 days was being ripped away from me. I cried a lot, and decided to only go back part time.

The summer was okay, and by the fall I increased my massage hours, not because I wanted to, but financially I sort of had to. In November, a previous massage therapy client of mine posted on Facebook that she was looking for a virtual assistant to help her with her small business. I read what she needed, and thought “what the heck, I can do all of that!” So I sent her a message.

I literally sent her a message while we were driving to the Nordic Spa, and spent the rest of the day dreaming about where this new business could take me.

Although I didn’t technically have a VA business then, and I only had experience doing that work for myself, she gave me a chance and I started working with her. It wasn’t many hours, so I was easily able to squeeze them in around my massage practice. 

When we decided in late 2020 to sell our house in Lower Sackville, and move back to our hometown, I decided that my goal was to turn my little VA side business into my full time gig. Obviously to do that I needed more clients, and through personal connections and referrals, I was able to get enough work to make this business sustainable. 

I guess that brings us up until now! I am working as a virtual assistant at home, and it has been working out really well.

The first time I had to write “occupation” on a form since moving, it felt very odd to not write “RMT”. Being a massage therapist for 11 years, it was part of my identity, and it’s been difficult to untangle that from myself. 

Although I am still registered as a massage therapist in Nova Scotia until the end of 2021, I’m not really sure what I’m going to do with my license after that. I could renew as an inactive member, just in case I want to go back, or I could not re-register and let it go. I think when the time comes to register, I’ll be able to trust my gut and know what the right thing to do is. 

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading.

You can learn more about my VA services here if you’re a business owner looking for help!

Chat soon,