You need plenty of ideas and equipment to start your massage therapy business—from the decorations in your room to the name of your practice itself. It’s easy to overlook your mission, vision, and values—after all, they aren’t strictly required to jumpstart your practice. So what makes them important?

The best massage practitioners know that their mission, vision, and values are crucial to ensuring they provide the best possible service to their clients and stand out from other providers. We’ll break down what these three concepts entail, why they’re so crucial for your business, and how you can establish your own.

What do mission, vision, and values mean?

• Mission statement. This statement defines your practice’s core purpose and what you want to achieve. It should say something about how you intend to practice massage therapy and be client-minded.
• Vision statement. This statement outlines where you hope to go in the future. It describes where you aim to grow and what you hope to achieve long-term in the tenure of your business.
• Values. These are not unlike your personal values. They establish the ethical standards and principles you’ll hold your practice to, creating a sense of identity and culture for your business.

Why should a massage business have a mission, vision, and values?

Articulated mission, vision, and values help set you apart from your competitors, affecting your brand identity, client loyalty, employee satisfaction, marketing, and much more. It makes it easy for you to ask yourself: Is this the right choice for me and my business? Does this align with what I want to bring to my community and my clients? When you’re in doubt, you can always refer to your statements and values list.

How to write a mission statement for your massage therapy practice

Condensing your practice’s goals into one statement can be a tough ask. Let’s break it down into smaller chunks to make it more approachable:

1. Start with your “why.” Get to the core of why you chose massage therapy as a profession. Maybe it was because you suffered from an injury, or grew up in a home full of athletes, or because you’ve always loved helping people.
2. Think about your ideal client. What do they love about coming to your practice? What empowers and invigorates them? Why do they seek massage therapy for their self-care routine?
3. Describe the feelings you want your clients to have. Be as descriptive as possible. Instead of saying “happy,” say “joyful.” Instead of saying “excited,” say “passionate” or “empowered.” Get a thesaurus if you want to!

Take a look at what you’ve written down. Are there any words that stick out or that you wrote multiple times? Focus on those. Try to create one powerful sentence that sounds like you—the you that is excited when someone asks what you do for a living. That’s your mission statement!

If you need more guidance, here are some example mission statement ideas for massage practices:

• To provide premier massage therapy service to all
• To innovate techniques and expose people to new modalities
• To make massage more accessible to all
• To heal injuries quickly
• To get athletes back on the field better than they were

Ultimately, your mission statement should be unique to what your business will achieve. Don’t be concerned if it doesn’t match these examples!

How to write a vision statement for your massage therapy practice

Now that you have your mission (i.e., what you plan to do today), let’s discuss your vision: what you plan to do in the future. Start by imagining yourself once you’ve retired and ask yourself:

• What do you hope people say about you and your business?
• What have you achieved?
• How do you feel?
• How does your community feel?

Jot down the answers to these questions. Then, streamline your language and condense it into one phrase. Here are some examples:

• To improve health, mind, and body
• To create a world with deeper relaxation and less stress
• To empower human bodies with relaxation & rejuvenation
• To make massage an integral part of healthcare
• To unite a productive and communicative massage community

Vision statements can begin with “to” but can also follow a different format. What’s most important is that you feel like you have goals to achieve beyond your day-to-day.

How to write your values

Your values list should be a little easier to write, as you won’t need to articulate it in a single sentence. However, it’s best to refine it to the three to five words most important to your business.

Here’s a prompt for starting your list of values. Think of your favorite employer. What made them empowering to work for? How did they make you feel? Or, picture a room full of your closest friends and family. What qualities do each of them possess that attracts you to them? Write those down. Determine which ones you want to apply to your massage practice.

Some example values for massage businesses include:

• Integrity
• Honesty
• Clear communication
• Innovation
• Efficiency
• Lifelong learning
• Empowerment

As you start your business, you’ll want to use your values like a mantra. It will help you make all kinds of decisions.

---

Now that you’ve gone through these exercises, you should be able to write concise and powerful statements for your mission, vision, and values. We’d love for you to share them with us on Facebook or Instagram. Follow us @massagebook.