From Start-Up to Success Story: Celebrating 1 Year in Business!

When I got a phone call from Renegade Yoga Center last year offering me the opportunity to rent one of their massage rooms, I jumped at it. I hadn’t planned to start my own business yet and I barely had enough capital to get it going, but my intuition told me not to pass it up. So I said yes.

I opened my doors on November 1st and had a total of 4 clients my first month in business.

I worked two jobs, gave away free massages for reviews and referrals, and slowly started to build my practice. But my hands were getting reallllly tired and my body was not happy with how much I was demanding from it.

In April I took my first Ashiatsu Barefoot Massage training with The Center for Barefoot Massage and it rocked my world! I learned how to give more by working with my feet and gravity while saving my hands and energy. I was hooked, and luckily my clients were on board with my new approach too.

I started to focus more exclusively on Ashiatsu and set the intention of becoming fully self-employed by the end of the year. I had a LOT of positive support, but I also experienced some surprising discouragement from peers who told me going solo was a bad idea. For a second I let their doubt get to me, but I kept building my practice, kept training with The Center for Barefoot Massage, and most importantly, kept believing in myself.

At the end of September I rebranded my business to be more “sole-centered”, quit my other job, took the leap and went out on my own full-time.

One year later from the day I started, I’m now solidly booked 6 weeks out with a waitlist, doing work I love and believe in, with people I love and believe in. I am so, so grateful for each and every one of my amazing clients, for the community at Renegade, for my teachers and mentors, colleagues and friends.

And I am so dang proud of myself.

So to all my self-starters out there with a small business dream, I encourage you to trust your gut, put in the work, ignore the naysayers and keep betting on yourself. It’s worth it, and more importantly, YOU are worth it!!