Opening My Own Clinic: Taylor Campbell
Episode Overview
Opening your own clinic can feel like a big leap. In this episode, Taylor Campbell shares how she turned the idea into a practical plan—and built the confidence to take the next step.
Host Wallace Long speaks with Taylor, owner of Breathe Massage and Movement in South Australia, about her journey from massage therapy training to working in established clinics and eventually opening her own space. She explains how growing client demand, hands-on experience with clinic operations, and support from people around her helped shape her decision.
Taylor walks through the realities of setting up a clinic: choosing the right location, assessing rent and finances, reviewing a commercial lease, planning the fit-out, arranging insurance and utilities, and preparing for unexpected costs. She also shares how she retained many of her existing clients, attracted new ones through local marketing and word of mouth, and communicated a price increase.
The conversation explores the experience she wanted clients to have, from branding and the clinic environment to the details that make a space feel calm and welcoming. Taylor also reflects on setting boundaries, avoiding overwork, and shaping a business around the way she wants to practise.
For massage therapists and allied health practitioners considering their own practice, Taylor’s story offers an honest look at the decisions, support, and self-belief involved. Her advice: trust your instincts, back yourself, and lean on the people who believe in you.
Taylor Campbell
Key Topics
- Moving from study to full-time practice Taylor’s gradual transition into massage work and building her client base.
- Managing the physical demands of massage therapy Strength training, self-care, recovery, and learning from injury.
- Deciding to open a clinic Building confidence, assessing finances, and recognising when demand supports the move.
- Finding the right premises Comparing locations, rent, accessibility, parking, natural light, and client convenience.
- Planning a clinic space Balancing treatment rooms, movement space, future room rentals, and the needs of the business.
- Getting support and professional advice Drawing on an accountant, family, business contacts, and a leasing specialist.
- Leases, fit-outs, and startup costs Reviewing lease terms, budgeting, organising trades, and handling unexpected expenses.
- Insurance and business responsibilities Covering equipment and premises, considering personal accident and business interruption cover, and updating provider details.
- Retaining clients and setting prices Keeping existing clients through the move, then raising prices with clear advance notice.
- Branding and local marketing Refreshing the brand, using signage and a letterbox drop, and building awareness through community visibility.
- Creating a calming client experience Using lighting, scent, music, warmth, and thoughtful details to make the space feel welcoming.
- Building a sustainable schedule Finding flexibility while setting boundaries to avoid overwork.
- Expanding services and future plans Adding a clinical nutritionist, classes, workshops, and possible retreats.
- Taylor’s advice for aspiring clinic owners Trust your instincts, back yourself, and lean on supportive people.
Chapters
00:00 Opening: Taylor’s journey to opening her own clinic
01:40 Transitioning from study to full-time massage work
03:00 Managing the physical demands of the job
03:55 Building a client base and taking the first step
05:39 When the idea of owning a practice took shape
06:13 Confidence, finances, and deciding whether to take the leap
07:29 Finding the right premises 09:05 Planning the space and weighing the options
11:05 Choosing a location that works for clients
13:07 Getting support with business decisions
14:05 Understanding the lease and getting professional advice
15:38 Fit-out, utilities, and setting up the clinic 17:07 Insurance, provider numbers, and business responsibilities
18:13 Budgeting for startup costs
19:39 Pricing, retaining clients, and communicating changes
20:57 Scheduling and building a flexible work week
21:41 Refreshing the brand and attracting new clients
26:08 Taylor’s creative background and the clinic experience
27:54 Client bookings, reminders, and communication
28:55 Classes, workshops, and future plans
29:52 Boundaries, confidence, and avoiding overwork
33:03 Professional associations and continuing education
34:08 Taylor’s advice for practitioners considering their own practice
34:34 Closing remarks and episode update
Disclaimer
This podcast is for informational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the hosts and guests, and does not constitute professional advice. We make no representations or warranties regarding the accuracy, completeness, or applicability of the content. You should consult your professional advisers for specific advice relating to your situation.
Transcript
Wallace Long
Setting up your own clinic is a goal many qualified massage therapists dream of. If you’re still working out whether it’s your next move, this episode is for you. Today I’m catching up with Taylor Campbell, who five years after completing her training has now opened her own clinic. We discuss it all in this episode. Her first five years as a qualified massage therapist through to making the decision to open her own clinic, including how she went about working out if this was the right decision for her.
We get into the detail about what Taylor needed to consider when opening her clinic, everything from finding a location, the lease, finances, budgets, fit out, branding, marketing, insurance and utilities, plus how she kept her existing clients and found new ones. Taylor was open about what she needed to do to build up her confidence to believe that she could do this.
Hi, I’m Wallace Long and welcome to Health Practice Insights, your practical resource for growing your allied health practice. Discover growth strategies for your practice at c2m.com.au
It’s great to welcome the owner of Breathe Massage and Movement in Dulwich, South Australia, Taylor Campbell to the pod. Taylor, how are you?
Taylor Campbell
I’m great, thank you. Thanks for being here.
Wallace Long
You’ve been here what, three months now?
Taylor Campbell
Four months now.
Wallace Long
How’s it going?
Taylor Campbell
Really good, yeah I love having my own space. It’s peaceful, it’s beautiful. Loving it.
Wallace Long
Thanks for coming on the Health Practice Insights podcast to talk about your business story, sharing exactly how you went from training and within a relatively short period of time having your own business.
Taylor Campbell
Yeah, it’s a bit of a blur. It’s happened all very fast, but beautifully.
Wallace Long
How did you adapt from study to working full time?
Taylor Campbell
While I was studying I was obviously working so I could, you know, pay my rent at home and all that. So I had another job already, had a couple of jobs actually.
So when I first started working in massage, I started with one or two days a week and then that gradually progressed to adding into longer shifts or adding another day. And for the first couple of months, I think I was actually just adding a couple of hours on a Thursday night after my work day. So they were pretty long days to start with. Yeah, it’s been a good transition, I think, to slowly build up and get my body used to the workload as well.
Wallace Long
Did you have the opportunity to increase your days?
Taylor Campbell
Yeah, I did have the opportunity to increase, and I think the demand was also there because I had started to build up a bit of a clientele and people were trying to get in to see me more. I didn’t have the times available, so it was a bit of a natural progression of talking to the owners about adding some extra hours, making my shifts a little bit longer or adding other days here and there. So yeah, I ended up working about four full days at that clinic in Unley.
Wallace Long
Full days, what sort of hours are you working?
Taylor Campbell
Anywhere between six and eight clients a day. A good day is around six or seven hours.
Wallace Long
How did you manage that to make sure you looked after yourself? Because it’s a physically demanding role.
Taylor Campbell
Honestly when I was studying I made a lot of bread and lot of gnocchi because I did want to increase my strength in my arms and my hands and it seemed like very similar motion. I do think that really helped too but we did eat a lot of bread. Yeah but honestly going to the gym and doing some strength work outside of work was very helpful and necessary. I was getting all my own treatments like massages and physio appointments because I did actually injure myself pretty early on as well. I tore a ligament in my wrist three years into my massage career and I had to take about eight weeks off. So that was a bit of a wakeup call because I wasn’t doing any of that work at the time.
Wallace Long
So physio gym work, gnocchi and bread?
Taylor Campbell
Yeah, yeah, so I didn’t make any knock your bread for a while and then I hurt myself.
Wallace Long
So what happened next?
Taylor Campbell
Yeah, well was working for four days and yeah, the demand kept increasing. You know, word of mouth in massage is amazing because people really trust if they’ve seen someone, they want to recommend it to everyone else they know. So yeah, the demand was there. Basically I went on a holiday and I came back and I thought, yeah, I could do this full time. So I was still doing one day of admin on the reception desk at that clinic.
And yeah, I just honestly saw a Facebook post in the Adelaide Massage Therapist group and yeah there was a room for rent in Hove which was really close to home. So I thought I’ll just check it out and see what happens and yeah felt like it was a good move to just start expanding where I was.
Wallace Long
At Unley were you employed?
Taylor Campbell
So I was employed for the first three years and then we had a conversation and decided that it would be better to go on as a contractor because I could have a bit more freedom in terms of my work hours and going on holidays and all that as well.
Wallace Long
How did it go at Hove? How did you get that started?
Taylor Campbell
It was one day a week to start with and then I added a second day, a fortnight for the last six months that I was there as well. So I was full-time massage by that point.
Wallace Long
So how many years after you studied? Is that three or four years after you’ve finished your study?
Taylor Campbell
That was about four years.
Wallace Long
And when did the idea of opening your own practice come about?
Taylor Campbell
I can’t remember a specific point, but I know that we talked about it pretty early on and that was a really good seed of an idea that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do or if I could do it, but it did come up in conversation quite a bit with clients as well in the treatment room. So I think it just sort of grew into a bigger idea and it took a lot to, I think, build my confidence to believe that I could do it as well. So that has taken a little while.
Wallace Long
What were the things that you were thinking about? What were the things that you had to overcome to get to making the decision?
Taylor Campbell
I think finances for sure, making sure the maths makes sense and also just making sure that I could handle the workload and not over work basically. I think because I had a lot of experience in the admin side of things, working at Unley for a while, that gave me a really good look behind the scenes of how the business runs and I was asking questions to the business owners a lot as well. So that really helped me get a bigger picture idea of how a business runs.
Wallace Long
So what was the next step for you and how did you get started?
Taylor Campbell
So it’s quite funny because I feel like every time I go on a big holiday something big happens afterwards. So I got married last year, we went on like a mini honeymoon and then my husband said to me, right, you’re not allowed to plan anything for at least two months because we just planned the wedding obviously in the holiday. And then about a month after we got back from our holiday, an opportunity came up to take over somebody’s lease for a practice.
And so that really got the ball rolling for me.
Wallace Long
So that opportunity, were you actively looking at that stage?
Taylor Campbell
No, I wasn’t. I wasn’t actively looking. It was just again still an idea of do I want to do this? Where do I want to go with this? And I did feel like I was ready for some sort of change in my work life, whether that was location or just in terms of my own scheduling as well.
Wallace Long
And how did that first opportunity about a practice, how did that play out?
Taylor Campbell
Yeah, so we went through the motions of discussing how that would work and walking through the location as well. And eventually I just didn’t feel like it was the right location for me and my work. I also thought it was a little bit far away from where most of my clientele already are. So gut feeling, it just didn’t feel right.
Wallace Long
What did you actively then do to start looking for premises?
Taylor Campbell
Yeah, so I think after that first seed of thought was planted, I really started to go, yeah, I can do this. I went away. did some equations of how much rent I could afford and would it be worth it? Would I be able to earn more of an income?
And then I just started looking around at different prices, different suburbs, how much space I would need for the price I could afford. And yeah, so that started to narrow things down quite a bit as well.
Wallace Long
In looking at the finances and considering how much work you could physically do yourself, did you have a vision for a space that you were looking for and what you wanted to create?
Taylor Campbell
I sort of had two frames of mind actually, so I wanted either a space that had a couple of treatment rooms so I could potentially rent out other rooms to other practitioners, but I also didn’t want to rely on other practitioners coming in to pay me rent to help with the overall rent. I didn’t want to rely on other people for that as well.
The other thought was to find a space that has a treatment room where I can see my clients, also potentially rent that out, but also a bigger movement space to run things like workshops and classes and bring in some of my other background as well.
Wallace Long
How long did it take you to find the premises that you’re currently in?
Taylor Campbell
It probably took maybe about six months actually. It felt like longer. It really did. So I think I went through a period of really hustling to try and find a place. And it’s, always find it funny because I think as soon as I started to just hit the brakes a little bit, I thought I was maybe pushing myself a bit too hard. That’s when I found this place.
Wallace Long
How many premises would have you looked at over that six months?
Taylor Campbell
Maybe a dozen in person. Yeah, a lot more online for sure. It was really good to be able to walk through and really visualise and imagine working in different spaces because a lot of places looked really promising through their pictures online and then yeah, like I would sometimes just get in and say, or you know, it’s a lot smaller or crappy floors or something. Yeah, so it was really good to walk through a lot of the spaces to really feel out.
What felt good, what didn’t work, what does work, what I think is important as well. So that really helps me narrow down the bigger things that I really needed in my business.
Wallace Long
So when you first opened the doors and had a look inside these premises, what did you see? What did you feel?
Taylor Campbell
Honestly, sounds crazy. When I saw this advert for this place online, I just had a feeling like, yep, that’s the one. I just knew, I think because the frontage of the shop has so much character to it and big windows with lots of natural light, that was a big key for me. Yeah, I just had a good, really good gut feeling. And then when I came in, it was set up as a tattoo shop at the time.
But a very comfy, cosy tattoo shop. There was a big three-seater couch and everything. Yeah, it just had that warmth and that brightness that I was really looking for in a place. It wasn’t just like a square, new-build sort of cookie cutter shop.
Wallace Long
If people listening to this and they’re considering getting some premises, what are the key things that you see in choosing the right location?
Taylor Campbell
I think you’ve got to think about what’s important, not just for like myself as a business owner, but for the clients as well. So obviously parking is a big thing and I have a lot of clients that come in with the saw backs, let’s say, or, you know, a lot of aging clients as well. So I don’t want them to have to walk too far. For me, natural light was very important because both of my previous workplaces didn’t have any windows in the treatment room. And although my treatment room doesn’t have any windows now, I have a beautiful glass door with foggy glass.
So I still get that natural light coming through. And obviously just having enough space to move around the bed and around the table to do the work I need was very important as well.
Wallace Long
So there is easy access here from a parking point of view. There’s one step to get into the premises which assists your ageing clients, as you mentioned, and you’ve got street frontage visibility. And I think also one thing I see here is that it’s a small group of shops and you’ve got a combination of a cafe and a hairdresser as well. I’m interested to know who the team is that supports you.
Taylor Campbell
My husband’s a really big support. We basically did the numbers and we were just trying to see if going out on my own was going to be financially worth it because I didn’t really want to undertake all this work and all this effort if it wasn’t really going to be adding much income to what I’m doing. My accountant has also been really helpful in that front as well. So he’s been able to help answer a lot of questions and ongoing questions even still now I’m already open. But he’s been really helpful as well.
And then both my parents run their own businesses as well, even though they’re very different businesses, they’ve been really good to ask questions to and to seek advice from. A lot of family members as well have been really giving with their knowledge and information.
Wallace Long
With regards to the commercial leasing terms, how did you go about analysing that?
Taylor Campbell
Well I forgot to say I had another great person in my back pocket helping me out.
So my beautiful friend Brooke works in commercial real estate and so I was asking her a lot of questions when I initially started looking at commercial properties. So she was extremely helpful, although she comes from more of a shopping centre background. She was really, really helpful. She was happy to just jump on the phone with me at any time and give me some advice on how to negotiate some things.
Yeah, to be honest though, when I got the draft of the lease for this place, I was very overwhelmed. It was like 80 pages long. And I thought, yeah, I can just Google a few of these terms that I don’t understand. And then I got four pages in and I thought, oh, my gosh, what is this mumbo jumbo? It’s not making any sense at all. But I have a beautiful client who actually works in commercial leasing law. I can’t actually remember the term for that.
But she happened to actually come and see me for the first time in years, a couple of weeks before I saw this space. And I just said to her, hey, I might need your services in the next couple of months. Can I grab your card? So yeah, I ended up going to see Josie. And she helped me out a lot with just explaining the lease and getting a few clauses removed or edited and changed. So I’m very glad I sought professional help for that.
Wallace Long
And what about the fit out? You’ve created a beautiful space here. Did you have any restrictions on what you could do?
Taylor Campbell
Not really. One little hurdle that I had, not hurdle but delay, was the fact that I was preparing to move in the start of February and I was planning this, well, I think my application was approved just before Christmas. So I basically had all of Christmas to plan and try and organise some trades. But I also had to get approval from the landlord for anything that I was going to do to the space.
Because of the Christmas holidays and the real estate agents being on holidays as well that delay things a little bit. But because I haven’t really done too much to the space I didn’t need to get anything crazy done. I’ve just put some doors in and basically just furnishings and curtains and things like that.
Wallace Long
How did you go with transferring all the services across to yourself?
Taylor Campbell
The water is already connected, so that’s in my lease that I just pay a certain percentage of the entire block of shops. So that was already connected, didn’t have to worry about that. The power, it took a few days to get it on and it was very hot the first week I was here. But that was just a bit of communication error on the power networks end of things, because I couldn’t access the fuse box that’s in the cafe’s courtyard.
A few very hot days when I first opened.
Wallace Long
Taylor, you’ve been a business owner contracting your services to other people’s businesses. Now that it’s your shop and you’re responsible for everything, what were the things that you had to turn your attention to?
Taylor Campbell
Yeah, so guess because I was already a sole contractor, I already had to have my public liability and professional indemnity insurance, so nothing changed there. But now I have to have insurance on all the equipment, because it’s all my equipment now, as well as the glass and shop frontage insurance.
Yeah, contents insurance. To think about personal accident and injury cover. So if I was to get sick or into myself severely, what would happen? And also business interruption insurance as well. So if something was to happen to the actual building and I can’t work out of it, what do I do? I did have to get obviously my provider numbers to be able to offer private health benefits for clients. That was pretty easy through my association. You just let them know that I’ve got a new address and they do all the work. It’s fantastic.
Wallace Long
Did you have a budget to get started? Did you have a budget for the fit out and did you sort of forecast what it may cost to get the curtains in, get the signage?
Taylor Campbell
My husband and I did a budget also with his uncle as well who also owns his own business. Extremely helpful conversation. So we did a budget to look at what I would need to spend for the basics of setting up what I need in terms of getting a massage table, massage oil, all the things that I need, the HIGHCAPS machine for the private health benefits, all of that.
So we did do a basic budget. I think I can say that we definitely spent more. Because there was a lot of things that we didn’t really think about when setting up things like, you know, the electrical wiring. Once we plugged everything in, the wires were just hanging out and I didn’t like the look of that. So we, you know, another trip to Bunnings and another couple hundred dollars later.
Wallace Long
The place looks fantastic. Did you do it a lot of it yourselves?
Taylor Campbell
I can’t say I did it by myself but I had a lot of help from family and friends. We basically had one tradie come in and that was to do the doors and help me with some cabinetry that my brother and I tried to install and didn’t do very well. But it was definitely a family and friends festival. It was amazing. I had people in every day helping. It was great.
Wallace Long
Was there anything you needed to change in regards to pricing or the services you’re offering in this location compared to the location you’re at before?
Taylor Campbell
Yeah, so a big thing for me was trying to retain a lot of my clients from my previous workplace as well. So I actually chose to keep the pricing the same as I was already charging. And I think that was a good choice as well, because I did retain most of my clients. A couple of people obviously didn’t want to drive across town because it’s a bit of a trek from Hove. But I did realise pretty quickly that I need to increase my prices as well. So they’ve actually just gone up in the last month.
I was a little nervous about the prices increasing as well but I’ve really had no no one actually comment on it apart from a few people saying well done.
Wallace Long
How did you communicate that with your clientele?
Taylor Campbell
I sent a monthly newsletter and so I just included it in the monthly newsletter and I gave about six weeks notice, so gave plenty of notice to my clients and I also have a little sign on my front counter to say that the prices were increasing from the first of the following month and then I sent up another follow-up email I think a week or two before the changeover happened.
Wallace Long
Let’s turn to the clinical operations and the services that you’re offering. What does the schedule look like for you?
Taylor Campbell
So I’m working mostly Monday to Friday now and then I’m working occasional Saturdays as well. I love just having the freedom and flexibility to work whenever I need to. Even last week for example I had a few people now leading into the start of winter. I had a few people call in sick last minute and I thought I need to pick up a few more people for the budget this week and so I ended up just seeing a few people on Saturday to make up for that, and I can because I’ve got the space and the time.
Wallace Long
With the move into your new premises, you took the opportunity to give your brand a refresh, Breathe, Massage and Movement. Can you take me through the process?
Taylor Campbell
When I first started working at Hove, I initially made my own branding very quickly on Canva and I was never really impressed with that, but it did the job for the time I was there. So when I first started looking for my own space, I knew I would need to revamp the branding. So we had a lot of conversations about colour themes and the initial impression that people get from it.
So that started sort of thinking about how the branding was going to evolve and even things like logos and then about I don’t know around the time that I was looking at the lease for this place I saw this lady on Instagram and I loved what she was doing, a bit of a stalk through her Instagram feed and I love what she was about so her name is Kirsten and she lives in the hills and we really talked a lot about what I offer, how I offer it, how I want people to feel who my ideal clients are and I guess sort of what the energy around what I do and how I want it to be.
And from there then we sort of yeah, started tweaking a little bit more with like colour palettes and I knew exactly what I wanted but I couldn’t get it out into words so there was a lot of back and forth but yeah, I’m really happy with my branding and how it looks now.
Wallace Long
It looks absolutely fantastic. What else have you got in place to make people aware of you? Obviously you’ve got your street frontage here and the and the words you’ve got on that are really clear and welcoming. What else do you have?
Taylor Campbell
I’ve got a website, I’ve got an Instagram page and we did a letterbox drop when I first moved into the area as well which really, really helped get new clients in. I think because of where I am the community is very tight and everyone knows each other and they’re all parents of the schools around the place as well so word of mouth has been really good since moving here as well.
Wallace Long
Have you retained many clients from your previous practice?
Taylor Campbell
Most of them, yeah, most of them have followed me here, which I’m extremely grateful for. And I have had a few people drop off, but mainly because of the distance from Hove to my new location, which is expected anyway.
Wallace Long
Of those previous customers of yours, what are they saying about the space?
Taylor Campbell
They love the space. think the first thing that a lot of people say when they walk in is, wow, it smells so good in here. Which I love. And it feels really comfortable and really cosy, which is exactly what I wanted to feel. I wanted it to be a space where people could just relax in straight away and somewhere where they could drop their responsibilities from life, whether it’s work or being a parent, this should be a space where they can just be themselves and relax their mind and their body.
Wallace Long
When you walk in it certainly has a really calming sort of sense. But I think a lot of that’s to do with you as well and the way that you are. With the new clients, how do they come to you?
Taylor Campbell
Honestly, the letterbox drop was incredible for this area. A lot of people, even in my first two weeks, which is when we did the letterbox drop, I was getting phone calls, was getting inquiries online, and a lot of new names started popping up. And even when I was setting up this space, again, it was really hot when I was setting up, so I had the doors open every day. I didn’t have any curtains up, so people were having a good sticky beak in the area. There’s a lot of foot traffic, a lot of walking, dogs and stuff around the area.
Yeah, so that was honestly my big marketing was just being here, being open, having signage go up as soon as the signage went up on the front windows. Incredible how many bookings came in as well.
Wallace Long
At your previous premises you had an A-Frame on the street. You don’t have that here.
Taylor Campbell
I thought about it and I did inquire because I do you do have to get permission from the local council actually to do that and I did seek permission but they wanted to see designs and make sure that it was fitting within their height requirements as well. So I did get a design made up for that as well but then I got in the space and I saw how many people with sort of walking aids and even just the parking that is right out the front of the shop coming and going a lot.
And just thought you probably wouldn’t actually see the A-Frame from the road anyway, so I didn’t bother.
Wallace Long
You’ve created a beautiful space in here and that just doesn’t come by accident. You’ve got a creative background. Can you tell me about that background and the creative arts experience that you’ve had?
Taylor Campbell
I went to the Australian Institute of Music and I’ve got a bachelor in music. That’s a part of my background. So I’ve got a big background in dance and performing and I did a lot of work teaching dance, not only in just schools, but in private dance schools as well. So a lot of ballet, a lot of contemporary, I did a lot of music theatre as well. So yeah, love the creative arts.
Wallace Long
And you’re also a qualified yoga teacher?
Taylor Campbell
Yes, so when I was actually studying my music degree I also did my yoga teaching qualification. Just as a of a side gig just to earn some money while I was studying and I fell in love with teaching. Yeah, I loved teaching yoga and also went on to do my bar teacher training which I also really love.
Wallace Long
Can you describe to me what you were trying to create here, the senses that people would experience when they walked through the door?
Taylor Campbell
Yeah, so we’ve had a few conversations basically about nourishing all five senses when coming into the space. So like I said before, when people walk in, they first say how good it smells. I have little lollies at the front desk so they can have a little sweet treat at the end as well. And the feeling of warmth, so soft lighting. There’s actually really bright fluorescent lights on the ceiling that I don’t use because they’re very harsh. So instead I use a couple of lamps around the space.
The treatment room, I’ve got fluffy blankets, I’ve got an electric blanket on the bed so it’s nice and warm. And obviously, yeah, have really good music going on as well, which sort of changes depending on my mood for the day as well.
Wallace Long
If somebody is booked online, which I’d imagine most people are doing nowadays, can you talk to me about the touch points that you have once they’re booked online in regards to do you do emails, texts, reminder messages? I know you mentioned you’ve got a monthly email newsletter, follow-up communications. What’s the plan? How do you process and communicate with those people?
Taylor Campbell
Yes, most people do book online. I’ve got a few people that prefer to just text me, but I don’t generally have too many people doing that, which is great because I’m usually in the treatment room. But when people do book online, they get a confirmation email straight away and then they’ll get a reminder email two days before their appointment. They’ll also get another email if they’re a new client to fill in a health history form. So that’s all automated.
At the moment I’m manually sending my text confirmations out as well the day before but I will be updating that in the next couple weeks just to take that off my plate as well.
Wallace Long
You’re established now as a massage therapist here on your premises in Dulwich. What else are you doing in this space?
Taylor Campbell
I’ve just had a clinical nutritionist start last month, so she’s going to be here once a month now. And she sees clients in this little area for her consults. So she works with women with hormonal imbalances, gut issues, all sorts of amazing things. She’s an absolute legend as well. I do classes of my own once a week as well. And there will be some workshops coming as well.
This weekend actually I’ve got a bridal shower that I’m hosting for a friend who wanted just a really calm, quiet day. So we’re doing a bit of a breath work meditation workshop. And yeah, that’s going to be a really great practice for me in the next few months, hosting my own workshops and then in the future, some retreats as well is a big goal.
Wallace Long
Taylor, as a female practitioner in a caring role, what boundaries have you learnt to set, to protect your energy now that you’re a full-on owner as well as a practitioner?
Taylor Campbell
I think a couple months ago when I started really talking to the real estate agents and a lot of sort of more business people rather than carers, I realised that I sort of needed to have a double personality. So I, in my head, this probably sounds a bit crazy, but I feel like I’ve got a business mode and then a work caring mode. So I do think I have to approach certain conversations with the real estate agents, the owner, all the utility services. I approach those conversations very differently to how I would as a therapist basically.
Wallace Long
You said that the coaching gave you clarity. What did you have to start believing about yourself to sign the lease and make the commitment here?
Taylor Campbell
I think it came just to confidence, like believing that a) I’m good at what I do, which I think was pretty obvious actually because my bookings have always been very consistent, booking out weeks to months ahead, people booking their whole year of appointments ahead as well as referring their family and friends to me. I think that really does speak for itself. But I think as well, having the confidence to be the one making the decisions was something that I had to really, I think I still do work on as well.
Having people that back me has been really helpful.
Wallace Long
How have you shaped the business around you?
Taylor Campbell
I think that was also a big reason why I wanted to find my own space was to have it work around me and the way I want to work. So for example, the way I treat, I really wanted it to be a quiet, peaceful environment because people are really coming to see me to be nourished and to feel like they reset their energy. So I didn’t want there to be noises around. I didn’t want there to be, you know, a laundromat next door with rumbling and noises or higher traffic outside. That was very important.
And in terms of my schedule, it’s definitely been fine tuning that since I opened because I did have a month when I first opened where I just worked like crazy because I could. I had the time and the space to do it. I wasn’t having to share the room with another practitioner or work within someone else’s schedule. So I very much overworked in my first six weeks.
I very quickly reminded myself that that’s not why I’m here. I’m not here to overwork. I’m here to work with that balance that I preach to my clients too. I really want to practice what I preach. Yeah, listening to my body when it needs rest, when it’s been overworked. Maintaining my own energy, whether that’s like just sleeping in a little bit more or going a bit early or yeah, going to get a massage or just even a walk around the block sometimes to refresh my energy.
Also, getting my own treatments to recover has been really helpful.
Wallace Long
Taylor, can you talk to me about the Massage & Myotherapy Association that you’re a member of?
Taylor Campbell
To be a qualified remedial massage therapist you need to be a member of an association. So there’s a couple out there. I actually signed up as a student member for I think two or three different associations because as a student you can sign up for free and you can get access to everything. Basically I just thought Massage in Myotherapy Australia was the best one. It was the clearest in terms of the things that I need to keep up to date to keep up my membership.
And to have an associate membership basically gives me provider numbers which allows people to claim their private health benefits through the HICAPS machines. So they’re incredibly helpful because they get my provider numbers set up for me. I don’t have to do anything, just tell them my address. They are very good and persistent about keeping my CPE up, my Continuing Professional Education, as well as my First Aid, my CPR. And I also get a discount for my insurance through them as well, which is bonus.
Wallace Long
Taylor, thanks so much for your time. Last question: What advice would you give women who are thinking of opening up their own practice?
Taylor Campbell
To back themself, have the confidence to trust your instincts and trust the people around you that you can do it.
Wallace Long
Taylor Campbell, thank you.
Taylor Campbell
Thank you, Wallace.
Wallace Long
So inspiring speaking with Taylor. Also an update since we recorded, Taylor has a new Massage Therapist joining her at Breathe. I trust you enjoyed the episode. Feel free to share if there’s someone in your network who could benefit from hearing Taylor’s story. There’ll be a full transcript on the website, along with images of Taylor’s clinic, and we’ll pop those on socials as well.
Thanks for listening. I’m Wallace Long, and I’ll catch you next time on Health Practice Insights.