*New Feature* Overdue Appointments Box Collapsible

Have a lot of "overdue appointments" on your dashboard that you haven't quite gotten to completing into session records yet? Now you can easily collapse the overdue appointments box so it doesn't take up your whole dashboard.

Just click the little arrow on the right of the Overdue Appointments box.

Voila! They are hidden and your dashboard is more open. 

The Integrated Stretching Harness (ISH)

http://www.ish-stretch.com/

I first met David Henre several years ago at the AMTA National Convention in Phoenix, Arizona. It was in 2008, to be exact... wow 7 years ago!

He stopped by the Bodywork Buddy booth at the 2014 AMTA National Convention this past Fall in Denver, Colorado and brought us a bag of goodies - the Integrated Stretching Harness (ISH). David's timing was perfect as it was day 2 of the convention, Berin and I were really feeling the effects of standing on the convention floor all day in combination with spending our free time in Denver walking everywhere. My calves were screaming at me and the thought of standing in our booth for another 2 days was pretty daunting.

I put the ISH on my calf and let it work it's magic while I stood in our booth and talked to massage therapists about Bodywork Buddy. The difference it made in my legs was amazing. I felt so much better and had no problem standing on the convention floor all day. I wore it most of the day and alternated between each calf. I don't doubt that my body would have been much worse for the wear after that 2nd day were it not for David's ISH.

David explains that it works by pinning 2 points of pressure on a limb above or below the joint, changing the shape of the tissue. This allows the soft tissue being pinned to stretch while you go about your day.






The Integrated Stretching Harness is available for a variety of areas including:

What massage therapist couldn't use THIS? mmmm....

• Hand/Foot
• Forearm/Upper Arm/Lower Leg
• Upper Leg
• Shoulder
• Hip/Glutes

A little bit about David:

Growing up in Colorado running cross country, climbing, bouldering, road and mountain biking, and alpine and telemark skiing (doing just about everything The Rockies provide access to!) helped fuel David's appreciation for what gives him the ability to enjoy outdoor activities: strength and health.

In 1991, David cracked vertebrae and compressed and broke a disc in his back. The threat that he may be paralyzed and his lengthy healing process after surgery sparked his interest in fitness and alternative medicine.

"Nobody needs to live in pain. I feel very strongly about this. It's why I got into fitness in the first place," David says.

In 1995, David achieved Personal Training Certification through the National Federation of Professional Trainers.

The ISH is a winner in our book. Many thanks to David for helping us out at the convention by bringing us several!
Learn more about ISH and order one at www.ish-stretch.com or visit their Facebook page.

*New Feature* Highlighted Business Hours in the Calendar

We've just made some updates that will now show your open business hours highlighted in light green in the calendar from the week and day views.

*New Feature* Services Report

Happy New Year! We're hard at work here at Bodywork Buddy to make 2015 the smoothest year yet for your bookkeeping needs for your massage practice.

We've added a new report option in Bodywork Buddy. You can now generate a yearly summary filtered by service type.

To access this report: Dashboard > Reports > Service Report >
Simply choose the year, and then select which service from the drop down menu to pull up a report of how much income you made that year from that specific service.
Please note this report is for service totals and tips from those services only.

Top Tech Tools of 2014 for Massage Therapists

Top Tech Tools of 2014 for Massage Therapists

• Online Scheduling
  Many massage therapists report online scheduling being their single most important tech tool for their practice.
  Mary-Claire Fredette of Cincinnati just wrote a blog post of her own on the topic: Why Online Scheduling Works for Massage Therapists.
  Using an online scheduling system not only provides a convenience for your clients, but it also helps to cut down on no-shows with email and text reminders, helps to reinforce your cancelation policies, gives you more control over your schedule, can help fill last minute openings, eliminates phone tag, and increases your professionalism. (Just to name a few of the benefits!)
  
• Professional Website 
  Having a professional website for your massage business helps to build authority, builds a relationship with your clients (before they even walk in the door), improves credibility, and much more.
  Some things to consider when creating or redesigning your website:
  Make it easy to navigate.
  Update it regularly.
  No flash graphics or music.
  No "wall of text". Break it up visually with some pictures.
  For more guidelines on creating a winning website, check out our past post When good websites go bad.
  
• High Ranking Search Results / Search Engine Optimization
  Search friendly design, keywords, content, links... there's a lot to consider with SEO, but a few basics can get your website going in the right direction. Be cautious of guns for hire claiming to skyrocket your search engine rankings, this is an area that has a lot of scam artists online.
  We'll be writing more in 2015 on ways to improve your SEO, so stay tuned.
• Testimonials 
  Many MT's report the use of testimonials as a key influencer for new clients to book. Whether it be a review site like Yelp.com, or the use of your own collected testimonials, showcasing reviews for prospective clients can be very persuasive and help you build your business.
  Bodywork Buddy automatically collects client testimonials for you and displays them on your online scheduler.
  We also have a checklist you can signup to receive that details lots of great ways to use testimonials to boost your business.
  

Using Bodywork Buddy For 2 Different Locations

While Bodywork Buddy was really designed for a single location for online scheduling, we do have some members who use it for multiple locations.

There are a couple of different ways you can do this.

The first is to create your service groups of the types of services you offer, and then within those groups create different services for each location.

For example, a service group of "Hot Stone Massage" with the services of "60 minute hot stone massage @ location 1" and "60 minute hot stone massage @ location 2". This method seems to be the preferred style with our members.

Another way you could create different locations on your microsite is by creating different service groups for each location.

*While this workaround seems to be suitable for some members, please note that it is not possible to create only certain days in the calendar as "open" for each location. You could add in the text descriptions for the services which days are at which location, but clients scheduling online would still see all of your available openings in your calendar no matter which service or location they were scheduling for.

Member Spotlight: Sarah Littlejohn

http://www.westgamassage.com

• Today's Bodywork Buddy Member Spotlight is Sarah Littlejohn from Carrollton, Georgia of West Georgia Massage & Bodywork.

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  Q: What inspired you to become a massage therapist? A: When I was 15, my mom was in a car accident. She went to see a chiropractor who was also a neuromuscular therapist. I was so amazed at the progress my mom had from receiving manual therapy. Pretty soon, the chiropractor let me sit in on massage sessions (my mother’s) and explain what she was doing. It was like a whole new world was open to me. That same chiropractor soon opened a massage school. After going to college, I decided to follow my original dream and study NMT. I never looked back.

  Q: How long have you been a MT? A: I’ve been a massage therapist for almost 5 years now. I kick myself constantly for not doing it sooner.

  Q: What is your favorite thing about being a MT? A: When you an help someone who is in tremendous pain to walk out of your office virtually pain free, what better feeling is there? I’m incredibly lucky that I get to provide this service to people daily.

  Q: What is the most challenging issue you face as a MT? A: No job is without its challenges. At first everyone struggles to gain clients. It seriously just takes time. The biggest struggle for me though, has been my trying to be taken seriously by physicians. The key is to always be up on the latest massage research and to promote an evidence-based practice, which I do with pride.

  

  
  

  Q: What advice would you give to other massage therapists to help build their business? A: First, if you are a sole practitioner, subscribe to Bodywork Buddy. It will make your life so much easier. Second, the best piece of advice is to stay motivated. There have been times that I have been slow. This happens to everyone. It’s common to feel stagnant. Don’t let this get you down. Take advantage of slow times. Use your non hands-on office hours to study, take a class, work on marketing, or simply rest. Down time is a gift and is key to the building process of your business. Don’t give up! You will get there. Stay motivated.
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