Meet the co-founders of The Massage Company

You’ve heard of movies, meal kits and HIIT classes on subscription – but what about massage? The Massage Company was founded in 2016 by Charlie Thompson and Elliot Walker, to bring accessible and regular massage to the UK. Now with five centres and counting, Charlie sits down to tell us about the excitement and challenges of successfully growing the business, the pressures of the pandemic, and his advice to entrepreneurs starting their journey.

There’s always a lightbulb moment before the beginning of a new venture. What was that moment for you?

The light bulb moment for us was when we launched the very first Centre in Camberley in early 2016. As part of getting massage therapy launched, we brought in pre-opening offers. And the very first minute that we opened the gate for people to buy our pre-opening offers, they came flooding in. The interesting thing was, I was sat in a meeting for some consultancy work that I was doing before this, and just quietly watching the sales come in while trying to conduct this meeting. It really was this fantastic feeling that – we’ve done this, it’s going to be popular.

What inspired you to launch your business and what is the end goal?

The inspiration behind the business was twofold. For me, running two spas at Virgin Active, which had its own health and beauty membership, we could see the gap in the market, because massage therapy was never provided for, but the membership itself was so sticky, it was really popular and people didn't leave it. People often left the fitness membership and then stayed in the Health and Beauty membership: you didn't have to be a member of the health club to stay part of the spa membership. So it was super, super exciting. And my business partner Elliot was watching the massage market develop in the only other place in the world where it already exists, which is in North America. Our goal is to do the same as they’re doing in North America, but do it better in the UK, and do it differently. The aim is to grow to 100 centres here in the UK, plus hopefully some European locations as well.

What keeps you motivated as an entrepreneur when you hit bumps in the road?

It's really that end goal that keeps us motivated. We have increasingly become aware that we're on the right wave, we're in the right space: being part of the growth of the health and well-being sector. That’s going to continue, people are looking after themselves. That underlying motivation is really powerful. But also, knowing that we have responsibility for a growing team – we started with six people, now we have over 80 – is something that we take very seriously.

Working with a co-founder can be tricky, so understanding and compromise is important. How have you both found the process of building a business together? What makes it work?

Between us, of course, we’ve developed different roles. Co-founders can often cut off or have to spend huge amounts of time catching up, but we actually do the opposite: we divide and conquer. As a result, we've been able to build the two sides of the business: the operating side and also the franchise side. So, one part of the business is finding and retaining customers. The other side is finding franchisees. Together we make that work really well. We have quite a formal structure, as you would expect, with formal agreements and processes behind it, and we’re very respectful for each other's opinions. We'll also tell each other when we don't agree. 

What plans do you have for The Massage Company over the next two years? 

As well as the usual growth in centres, growing our customer based, and educating a wider group of people to the mental and physical benefits of massage therapy, we’ve excitingly just launched The Massage Company Training Academy. It allows people – whether they are graduates or people looking for a career change – to become certified massage therapists. And they’re guaranteed a job at the end of it. 

How important is company culture and what is your top tip to get it right?

We talk a lot about culture. We had a big winter conference at the end of November, which really talked about getting people on board the TMC bus. The message is essentially, if you want to join us on the journey we're going on, let’s try to share the vision of where we want to go. But if you don't want to join, that’s fine, you can get off the bus as well. That's really key to culture, letting go of people that don't want to be on this journey, and being clear that we know it's not for everybody. If it's not for them, that’s ok. 

Is word of mouth working to your advantage?

Word of mouth is really important. For us, over 15% of our business is customer referral. But actually, it's just as important on the staff side too, that people become aware of the reputation or organisation, the training quality, the investment in people. And we never take that for granted. We always want to be crucially aware of how we are viewed in the marketplace, by recruitment consultants, by the people that work for us and the people that have left us.

What are your top tips for entrepreneurs wanting to get their business out there?

Our top tip for entrepreneurs is to use the advice of others. Meet with a lot of people before you open the business, meet with PR companies, meet with social media companies, meet with digital companies. They will all give you the insight you need to share your business and give you ideas. You can then select the from those ideas, choose the best ones to suit you. Be aware, too, that there will be plenty of people that will disagree with you, potentially even your family and closest friends. So you need to have a clear head.

What's the most important question entrepreneurs should be asking themselves?

You have to also ask yourself, is this going to make the long-term business work successfully? Am I using this to grow long-term benefits to the business? We always rank dealing with people first, dealing with sales second and then dealing with operations. Get your people right. That's it. For us the most important question is, have you got the right people working with you? Can you keep them? Have you invested your time to train them, to educate them?

Do you prioritise self-care as an entrepreneur?

For us, you know, self-care and mental health has been a huge area of growth from a consumer perspective. But when we look at ourselves, we insist that all the staff have a massage a month: it's to improve their physical and mental well-being. Personally, I do the same, we have a massage a month as well. Also, self-care around fitness is important. I play hockey and my business partner, Elliot, plays rugby. When we're playing sport, we're not thinking about the business, we're clear in our head, whether it's training or playing the game.

Has the COVID-19 crisis placed more pressure on the mental health of the business owners?

There's no doubt that the COVID-19 crisis has placed more pressure on us. We've had to manage three different lockdown closures and three different re-openings. We've had to work our socks off during lockdown, when we were basically paying money out to the business, while it was losing money. Furlough’s been helpful, the grants have been helpful, but basically you lose less money by doing this, not none. So of course, it's placed more pressure on us. And even as we worked hard every week on training for the team, we knew that a few people's heads would be turned and that a few people would leave, despite all the goodwill and care and love and attention you've given them. People will do their own thing and then they'll move on their own way. That's a that's a real shame and does become quite hard. But there's always an excitement as an entrepreneur, to do more and spend more time delivering. We're also very fortunate to work in an industry where we can get massage therapy, day in day out. For us, we have our own solution to those pressures right on our doorstep.