A Massage Therapists Guide to Selling Gift Certificates

If you are a self-employed massage therapist, gift certificates can seem like a dream come true. Payment is received immediately for services to be given in the future. This can allow you to rake in some big bucks, especially during the holidays.

It seems like easy money, but the wise therapist will not spend a dime. It is more beneficial to put it in savings instead. Money spent before a service is complete will feel like a free massage later. The busy therapist won't even notice a difference in her weekly earnings if one or two certificates get redeemed, but what if five or six get cashed in and you have already spent the money? Management and discipline are key elements in handling the extra cash flow.

Another problem with gift certificates is that people don’t use them. Family and friends think it’s the perfect gift for that hard to buy for person, but that person may have fears and phobias about having some stranger touch them, prompting them to toss their gift aside. Two years later they resurface when a desk drawer gets cleaned. Now somebody else wants to use it.

This brings me to the next problem. Let’s say you sold a one hour massage valued at fifty dollars, but by the time it gets presented, your prices have increased. Now what?

I actually got so tired of this process that I stopped selling them. I could feel the weight being lifted off my shoulders, but then a new problem arose. People continued to give me money anyway, instructing me to mark, so-and-so, as paid the next time they came in. Now I really had a mess. There was money and no system to claim it. I had to come up with something.

My gift certificates now come with a one year expiration date. That doesn’t mean I won’t honor it after the year has passed. It is simply designed to motivate people to use them within a reasonable amount of time.

The other change I’ve implemented is that a dollar amount is shown as the gift instead of a service. People can no longer ask to break their ninety minute massage into three half hour sessions. If there is a remaining balance after a service is complete I simply adjust the value of the gift certificate and send it back home with them.

This system has allowed peace to be restored once again. Isn’t that why massage gift certificates are issued in the first place?