Is there a door in this corner?
Early in October I was having a difficult time getting over 10 clients a week, and I was working a part time job on the side that paid crap and had even worse hours. Out of no where a perfect (or so I thought) opportunity presented it self to me. A chiropractor that had become my client had actively recruited me all of September to come on board as her in house massage therapist. She offered good pay, better hours, great marketing, and steady work. All in all between that job and my clients I was doing apx 20 hours of massage a week, which has pretty much always been my cap.
Come November I had a large influx of 5-7 clients a week thanks to the time of the year and getting my hands on new people at the chiropractors office. My job there is to do 12 minuted focused massage where they get adjusted to help hold the adjustment. All of November I have had no less then 13 clients a week, and 10 hours + a week at the chiropractors. One week I did 27 hours of massage which is an all time record high for me. Thanks to my trainer and my own improved healthy habits I am able to deal with the physical stress on my body better then I ever have in the past. However one month of working 6 days a week, and 23-25 hours of massage a week average has put me in a pretty bad place mentally. I am starting to have seizures again. Not all of that is work related, some of it is holiday related. Come December 28th it will be the longest time I have spent with out seeing my family. Yeah, I'm kind of a pussy that way. My dad told me how"surprised and impressed that Devon managed to get me away from my mother". I have been incredibly sick since Sunday, and while I have worked through some of it, I can't shake whatever it is I have. Four days of a temperature that goes from 98.9-101.2 is taking its toll on me.
Part of me keeps telling my self to just suck it up and work this crazy schedule until May when massage naturally tapers off until November. Between now and January 1st I have no Saturday apts available (which two of those Saturdays I'm going to do chair massage for marketing and gift certificate sales) and a meer 8 evening apts open. The rest of my openings are morning and the odds of them filling aren't that great (knock on wood). Devon and I are taking a week of vacation for xmas to go to Louisiana to visit with his family. He hasn't seen most of them for over 5 years.
The other part of me wonders how I can get out of this corner I backed my self into. I really like working at the chiropractors office. My boss is a great lady, and I get along very well with her and our receptionist. As an added bonus during the summer its steady work of fall back on when I'm down to 7-12 clients a week. I've always had a problem expressing my health problems to superiors. It sucks massively but my PTSD still effects me in everyday life and I don't think I will ever be able mentally to work a "normal"job. In the last year I have had a self realization that I do not play well with others in business situations. I want to go back into therapy but it didn't work out so well for me the last 4 therapists I tried.
My big quandary is how to get down to working 5 days a week and not compromise my business or hers. There are only so many evening apts during the week I can book, which no big surprise fill every week. Saturdays have been filling, but I only do 4 apts on sat due to the hours the gym is open. The only thing I can think of is to offer to train someone to work Mondays for me at the chiropractors and take a cut in hours there. That will free my monday up so that I can have 2 days off in a row. I really don't think that will fly though. I am going to sit down and try to optimize my evening apts and try and get the time span I take in between clients for maximum openings.
I feel like a giant fucking pansy for complaining about having too much work. I know many people out there don't have any, and here I am swimming in it. A year ago I would have jumped for joy to have even half of what I have now as far as clients goes. I just wish I could push though this.
Come November I had a large influx of 5-7 clients a week thanks to the time of the year and getting my hands on new people at the chiropractors office. My job there is to do 12 minuted focused massage where they get adjusted to help hold the adjustment. All of November I have had no less then 13 clients a week, and 10 hours + a week at the chiropractors. One week I did 27 hours of massage which is an all time record high for me. Thanks to my trainer and my own improved healthy habits I am able to deal with the physical stress on my body better then I ever have in the past. However one month of working 6 days a week, and 23-25 hours of massage a week average has put me in a pretty bad place mentally. I am starting to have seizures again. Not all of that is work related, some of it is holiday related. Come December 28th it will be the longest time I have spent with out seeing my family. Yeah, I'm kind of a pussy that way. My dad told me how"surprised and impressed that Devon managed to get me away from my mother". I have been incredibly sick since Sunday, and while I have worked through some of it, I can't shake whatever it is I have. Four days of a temperature that goes from 98.9-101.2 is taking its toll on me.
Part of me keeps telling my self to just suck it up and work this crazy schedule until May when massage naturally tapers off until November. Between now and January 1st I have no Saturday apts available (which two of those Saturdays I'm going to do chair massage for marketing and gift certificate sales) and a meer 8 evening apts open. The rest of my openings are morning and the odds of them filling aren't that great (knock on wood). Devon and I are taking a week of vacation for xmas to go to Louisiana to visit with his family. He hasn't seen most of them for over 5 years.
The other part of me wonders how I can get out of this corner I backed my self into. I really like working at the chiropractors office. My boss is a great lady, and I get along very well with her and our receptionist. As an added bonus during the summer its steady work of fall back on when I'm down to 7-12 clients a week. I've always had a problem expressing my health problems to superiors. It sucks massively but my PTSD still effects me in everyday life and I don't think I will ever be able mentally to work a "normal"job. In the last year I have had a self realization that I do not play well with others in business situations. I want to go back into therapy but it didn't work out so well for me the last 4 therapists I tried.
My big quandary is how to get down to working 5 days a week and not compromise my business or hers. There are only so many evening apts during the week I can book, which no big surprise fill every week. Saturdays have been filling, but I only do 4 apts on sat due to the hours the gym is open. The only thing I can think of is to offer to train someone to work Mondays for me at the chiropractors and take a cut in hours there. That will free my monday up so that I can have 2 days off in a row. I really don't think that will fly though. I am going to sit down and try to optimize my evening apts and try and get the time span I take in between clients for maximum openings.
I feel like a giant fucking pansy for complaining about having too much work. I know many people out there don't have any, and here I am swimming in it. A year ago I would have jumped for joy to have even half of what I have now as far as clients goes. I just wish I could push though this.