Today we’d like to introduce you to Andres Gutierrez.
Andres, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Everything started when, while in High School, my mother worked at a local bakery 60+ hrs. per week and was coming back home tired and sore from her feet and legs (most of her work day she will be standing). Often I would give her a foot and calve massage in the hopes that she could sleep better and would be able to work the next day without much pain or discomfort. After those short massage sessions she would report significant improvement and many times she would ask for more time or getting more of those massages. While planning a gift for mother’s day, I was determined to give my mother a 1hr Professional massage as a present (after all, if 20min[tops] massages from an untrained person were making such a difference, a 60min massage from a professional must be a gift from the Gods!). In my search for such gift I found how expensive a massage was (and still is)…at least for us, a low income family. Back then franchises such as Massage Envy and Elements were not around, so the cheapest session that I found was for $90 an hour. After much research I ended up getting her a 1 hour session on a Sunday (her day off) from the student clinic at the Muscular Therapy Institute in Watertown ($35). The day of her appointment it took us over 2hrs to get to the school and she ended up getting about 30mins of massage… I was so frustrated and angry out of the whole situation. And to make things worse, when she got out of the massage I asked her how was it, to which she replied: “…it wasn’t that great… I think that you do a better job!” At the moment my frustration and anger consumed me for the entire day. I was frustrated because I was really hopeful that she would feel A LOT better. I was frustrated because seeing my mom come back home so tired and at times in pain made feel so limited inside! And I felt angry because I couldn’t afford massages for her.
Since that event I started to consider massage as a career path along with Chemical Engineering. After all I had always had a passion for biology, anatomy and Physical education (Gym) in Colombia. Due to our immigration status at the time and our incomes, we (my mother and I) could not afford my out of state tuition at a state college or a private College; but it was possible to afford a career on massage therapy while working full time.
Two years went by and I got my Diploma as a massage therapist on June 2008 and on September of that same year I opened the JP’s Massage Therapy Center in Jamaica Plain, MA. Since then we have relocated twice in the neighborhood including our current location at 408 South Huntington Ave where we now have 3 therapists on staff.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
When I decided to open JP’s Massage I had no more than $500 of savings, which will limit the amount of things that you can do establish and promote your new business. So I started really small in 2008 with a sublease of just a few days a week, out of a local acupuncture office. In June of 2013 I was told that my sublease will not be extended and that I needed to relocate my business. I started to look for places to sublease, but nothing was available at the moment, except the space at 408 South Huntington Ave. The thing was that in June of 2013 it was just me working part time at JPs Massage (plus full time at a local elementary school) and the space at 408 South Huntington is a store front of 1000sqf which’s rent was going to be 500%+ more than what I was paying at the time. And truth be told, I was not ready to expand that much! However I decided to take move forward with the change.
Since then I really have been struggling with finances. Being a new resident of the US, my credit score was low and the business income was not enough to get a loan from a bank (nor did I have cosigners that will help me apply). Also, after being terminated from my job at the school in June of 2013, my personal income was entirely dependent on the income of JP’s Massage. On top of that, to get the proper licensing to have more than one therapist on staff (Multiple Massage Establishment) in our office was a task that took me almost an entire year! Which limited the office’s income even more.
It is until 2017 that we were able to consolidate multiple high interest credit cards and microloans into a single bank loan with low interest rates, that JP’s massage has been able to take a sight of relieve from bad debts.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with JP’s Massage Therapy Center – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
The JP’s Massage Therapy Center is a massage studio that provides different high quality massage therapy modalities at affordable prices.
We currently have an inclination to Therapeutic Massage, or massage that will help us feel better when it comes to certain aches and pains (Ex: stiff neck, back spasms, soreness, lower back pain, tension headaches etc…). This is why our most affordable massage modality is therapeutic massage and not a relaxation massage (which in the eyes of a therapist is easier to perform and could be cheaper for that reason). I believe that there are many tools that could help us relax, such us: Music, a warm bath, heat, comedy, meditation etc… but from all the current overuse that we give to our body (sitting, computer use, driving, lack of sleep), many times a hands on approach (massage) is what is needed. That is why we try to keep our therapeutic sessions as affordable as we can.
As a company I am proud that we can provide our employees with an environment where they can exercise their career, get well paid and still not get burned out. One of the current big issues in the massage field is that therapists have to see way too many clients in a day, in order to make a living (mostly seeing on big franchises). We want our therapist to not have to worry if they are making enough money at the end of the month, so that they can provide a fantastic massage and experience every time.
And I think that above two are what sets us apart from others. We want to provide top-notch massage options to our clients (which is also a tool for our therapists, because then they can recommend a different modality based on what the client’s goals and needs) at affordable prices while also providing a space for our therapists where they can exercise their career, long term, with passion and safety.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
We are looking forward to acquiring our own space, in which we want to have a kind of a health center (Acupuncturists, Yoga, Chiropractic, Hot Tubs) and after that we would like to start getting multiple locations. Big plans! And we look forward to achieving all of them when the time comes.
Pricing:
- Therapeutic Massage 60mins $60
- Deep Tissue Massage 60mins $80
- Melt Away Session 2hrs $250
- Cupping Massage 60mins $80
- Hot Stones Massage 90mins $120
- Couples Massage 90mins $220-280
Contact Info:
- Address: 408 South Huntington Ave
Jamaica Plain MA, 02130 - Website: www.jpsmassage.com
- Phone: 6173045794
- Email: info@jpsmassage.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jpsmassagetherapycenter/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/jps-massage-therapy-center-jamaica-plain
- Other: https://www.wellnessliving.com/massage/jamaicaplain/jps_massage_therapy_center1/review/
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