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November 13, 2007

Buying A Client List

A handful of my readers who know me personally know that I have plans to attend physical therapy school starting in January, 2008. Don't worry, I'll still be blogging about massage and plan to use my new information to enhance my understanding of body dynamics. Of course, the peers I trade with in my community know that I am relocating away from the city, and will have my clients referred to them.

One massage therapist has offered to buy my client list. This raises a lot of questions for me about the ethics of selling client names to another massage therapist. I'm sure there are legal issues that go along with this including privacy issues. And then, of course, how do you determine the value of your client list? I would have preferred to have sold my whole practice including the space and phone number to a therapist, but I wasn't able to find anyone to take my place. However, I know there are plans for my former co-lessee and mentor to expand her business space to incorporate mine.

I have found a blog from a Canadian massage therapist about how to assess your client list and determine where most of your income come from. They talk about booking patterns and include this little nugget of information concerning the sale of a client list: But selling just a client list is not usually seen, because as health care providers we are required to ‘pass on’ care of our clients to someone else when we become unable to continue to provide care.

Has anyone out there sold their practice or their client list to another therapist or company? Is this fair to do, since I've already promised my clients and the other massage therapists in my community that I would be sending my people to them? Should I retain the services of a lawyer? Any input on this issue would be greatly appreciated.

tags: massage massagetherapy wellness massage therapy bodywork health massage ethics

Posted by linda at November 13, 2007 7:29 AM