Before you take your next continuing education class, take some time to consider your community. By analyzing the population in the area where you live and work, you may be able to tap into a large segment of clients who would benefit from a certain type of massage therapy or bodywork. If you do discover such a niche, then see if it meshes well with you by enrolling in a continuing education class on that particular topic.
Depending on the state or region where you are located, analyzing the population for potential clients might be simple or it could be quite hard. For example, if you reside in a part of Florida that is famous for its golf courses, then one obvious niche would be a massage therapy or bodywork practice that caters to golfers.
In order to grow your skill set for this segment of the population, you could enroll in a continuing education class all about massage therapy or bodywork for golfers. If you can’t seem to find a continuing education course on the exact topic of working on golfers, then investigate the most common issues that drive a golfer to seek out massage therapy or bodywork. Then, enroll in a continuing education class that teaches techniques to address these specific issues.
The example above is a case where it would be fairly simple to uncover and tap into a local niche by taking the right continuing education classes. This same example can be applied to any area that is known for a certain sport or hobby, such as mountain biking, road biking, skiing, snowboarding, swimming, diving, horseback riding, hiking and so on. If one or more of these activities is popular in your community, then consider taking continuing education classes that would prepare you to offer the proper techniques.
For an example at the other end of the spectrum, perhaps there are no obvious sports or active hobbies that are linked to your region. However, look around and see if there are many office buildings in the area. In most urban or suburban areas, there will be plenty of people who spend their days working at a desk. To connect with this huge population of potential clients, consider taking a continuing education class on any topic that might make it easier for you to access this population.
One such continuing education class might focus on the topic of chair massage. This way, you could bring your portable massage chair into the office building and offer sessions to the employees who work there. Often, the owner or manager of the company will work out a deal with massage therapists and partially subsidize the employee sessions.
Another continuing education class you might consider in this case would be a course that teaches techniques for the issues that tend to plague people who sit at a desk and work on a computer all day, such as neck and back strain, forearm and wrist aches, headaches and more.
It may take a bit more digging to discover the niche for you and your region, but doing so—and taking the right continuing education classes to become an expert in that niche—can certainly pay off in terms of a successful practice.