Business Design
with Stacy Gogolinski, L.M.T., C.P.T.
Saturday & Sunday, May 16 & 17, 2026
Time: 9am-3:30pm each day
12 CE hours
Cost: $350 • Payment Plan Available
Learn how to create a business plan/employment strategy, including long-term and short-term goals, and résumé-writing!
More important, learn how to create a vision for your business and
how to make it come to life!
Course Description
This 12-hour course will present practical information on creating, marketing, and managing a massage therapy practice, as well as information on other types of employment within the massage therapy field. Throughout, we will discuss the role of computing and the internet to build an efficient and dynamic practice. You will have the opportunity to create a vision of what you want to do with your massage license be it employment or business ownership.
Course Objectives
Through lecture, slides, handouts, and group participation, students will be able to:
• Create a business plan/employment strategy, including long-term and short-term goals, and résumé-writing.
• Review career choices outside private practice.
• Discuss business entity options (sole proprietor, LLC, etc.).
• Reflect on finding and setting up a physical office space.
• Review practice-building ideas, including advertising, marketing, public relations, and networking; generating referrals from and maintaining relationships with other health care professionals; and targeting/maintaining a client-base—with an eye towards online engagement to make this easier.
• Discuss money management, including basic accounting and bookkeeping, IRS expectations, and where to seek further advice—with information on software that can be used to facilitate tracking and tax preparation.
• Look at options for accepting credit cards.
• Review practice management logistics, including scheduling, time management, hiring and managing employees, keeping client charts and records (including legal requirements), accepting health insurance, setting rates, offering gift certificates (physical and virtual), and business charting.
• Operate legally in the massage therapy field, including licensure and liability insurance.
• Discuss the role of professional organizations, continuing education, and skill-building.
• Review HIPAA policies and regulations, ADA requirements, and their implications on massage therapy and bodywork.
Recommended Text
Business Mastery, 4th Edition, by Cherie M. Sohnen-Moe
Fundamentals of Therapeutic Massage, 5th Edition, Sandy Fritz (Chapter 13)
Preparation for Class
1. Read Chapter 13 in Fundamentals of Therapeutic Massage
2. Write down some questions and or concerns that you might have pertaining to the business of a massage therapy practice. Questions and concerns will be discussed in group sessions.
3. Bring paper, pens/pencils, and colored markers/pencils to class
Instructor
Stacy Gogolinski, L.M.T., C.P.T., is a 2000 graduate of the Salter College where she acquired a diploma in Accounting. She has over 25 years of business, finance and accounting experience. In addition, she is a certified personal trainer with over 30 years in the fitness industry and a 2019 graduate of DSM. Stacy created a fitness program from scratch in a local community center in Oxford, MA, has owned and sold 3 fitness studios and worked for many non profit and for profit companies in the role of Accounting Assistant.