Business Resources for Healers

Most healers begin as a sole proprietor, which costs nothing and needs no filing, and move to an LLC once there is real money or real risk. There is no single right answer, and the right one changes as you grow.

• A sole proprietorship is you, trading under your own name. Simple, free, and your personal savings are not separate from the practice.
• An LLC puts a wall between you and the business. It costs money to form and to keep, and California charges an annual minimum franchise tax, so check the current figure before you decide.
• An EIN is a free federal tax number from the IRS. You can get one in minutes, and it means you do not have to hand out your Social Security number.
• Your city or county may want a business license even if you work from home or rent a room by the hour. This is the one people forget.

Professional liability insurance is the piece most often skipped, and it is usually cheaper than people expect. Many studios and event organisers will not let you through the door without it.

• Professional liability, sometimes called malpractice, covers a claim arising from the work itself. General liability covers somebody tripping over your bolster.
• Renting space almost always means the landlord asks to be named on your policy. Ask what they need before you sign anything.
• Professional associations for your modality often bundle insurance into membership at a lower rate than buying it alone. Start with the association for your practice.
• Get a written intake and consent form, and keep your notes. This protects you more often than insurance ever gets used.

Self employment means nobody is withholding tax for you. The healers who stay calm in April are the ones who opened a second account on day one and moved a slice of every payment into it.

• Open a separate bank account for the practice before you take your first payment. It makes bookkeeping an hour a month instead of a lost weekend.
• Self employed people generally pay estimated tax four times a year rather than once. Check the IRS pages for the current dates and thresholds.
• Track mileage. Driving between clients, to a studio you rent, or to an event is often deductible, and it adds up fast in the Sierra.
• Selling products such as tinctures, tea, or crystals is different from selling a session. That may need a seller's permit and sales tax, and California and Nevada treat it differently.

A lot of healers charge less than their own numbers support, and the reason is rarely the market. It is that the price got set from a feeling rather than from the arithmetic.

• Count the whole hour. Setup, cleanup, notes, laundry, and the drive are all inside the session even though nobody is on the table for them.
• Work out what you need in a month, divide by how many sessions you can actually hold without burning out, and see whether your price matches. Most people find it does not.
• Raising a price on new clients only, and giving existing ones a date months ahead, is the version of this that nobody leaves over.
• A sliding scale works far better when it is written down with tiers than when it is decided in the moment, for you and for the person asking.

You do not need to be good at marketing. You need to exist in the three or four places somebody looks when they finally decide to book something.

• Claim your Google Business Profile. It is free, and for a local practice it is worth more than any social account.
• Use the words people actually search. Somebody types massage in Truckee, not integrative somatic bodywork, even when that is what they want.
• One good photo of you beats five of your room. People are choosing a person.
• Ask happy clients for a review, in person, on the day. That one sentence is the hardest thing for anybody to compete with.

There is a whole network of free business advising that almost nobody uses, funded already, staffed by people who have run businesses. You can sit down with a mentor for nothing.

• SCORE pairs you with a volunteer mentor, free, for as long as you want them. Sessions can be remote.
• Small Business Development Centers offer free one to one advising and workshops, often through a local college.
• California's Office of the Small Business Advocate keeps a directory of local centers and grant programs.