At one point, I was collecting qualifications like they were Pokémon cards. Massage, facials, machines, beauty treatments. If there was another course I could do, I was probably looking at it.

And every time I added another qualification, it felt like I was growing my business. I could offer more treatments. I could add another page to my website. I had another certificate to put on the wall. Surely that meant I was moving forward?

For me, it didn’t quite work out that way.

Eventually, I had so many treatments on my website that even I wasn’t really sure what my business was anymore. Worse than that, I didn’t even enjoy doing some of them.

It took me a long time to understand something that sounds very simple now:

Being qualified to do something doesn’t mean you have to offer it.

And I think that’s particularly worth talking about in the massage industry, because we’re constantly being sold more training.

There is always another course

If you’re a massage therapist, you’ve probably seen the adverts. A new technique. A new machine. A weekend qualification. Something clients apparently can’t get enough of.

It can be very easy to think, Maybe I should offer that too. Especially when you’re newer and still trying to work out what your business is going to look like.

Learning isn’t the problem. I still love doing courses and I still spend money on training. The problem is assuming that another qualification automatically means a better business.

It doesn’t.

Sometimes another course is a great investment. Sometimes it gives you a technique that completely changes the way you work. And sometimes you’ve spent £300 on something you don’t particularly enjoy and now feel like you have to keep offering it because you’ve already paid for it.

I’ve done that too.

Check whether you can use the qualification before you pay

This one cost me money.

I trained in microdermabrasion and only afterwards checked whether my insurer would cover the qualification. They wouldn’t.

You would think I learned my lesson immediately. I didn’t.

Later, I found radio frequency training. This time I spoke to the training provider and was told my existing qualifications were enough to take the course. Great. But I still couldn’t get the insurance cover I needed afterwards.

So now, if I’m considering training that will change what I offer, I don’t just ask the company selling me the course. I ask my own insurer.

I want them to know the exact course and training provider, and I want to know whether they’ll cover me to offer it once I’ve qualified. That’s a much cheaper question to ask before paying for the course.

Would you want to do four of them on a Tuesday?

This is probably one of my favourite questions now.

A treatment can look brilliant during a course demonstration. You watch somebody doing it for twenty minutes and think, Oh, I’d love to learn that.

But learning it and building it into your working week are two different things.

Would you still want to do it after the novelty has worn off? Does it suit the way you like to work? Does it fit the clients you want to work with?

Would you be happy if four people booked it on the same Tuesday?

That last question changes things surprisingly quickly.

The course price isn’t necessarily the real price

A £300 course can look like a £300 decision. It might not be.

Before booking, think about what happens after you receive the certificate. Do you need equipment? Products? Consumables? Additional insurance? Models to practise on? More training before you feel confident?

Then you need to introduce the treatment to your clients, add it to your website, create content for it and give it space in your marketing. And after all of that, people still need to book it.

I’m not saying that makes the course a bad investment. It just means the number on the checkout page isn’t necessarily the amount you’re investing.

Not every qualification needs to become another treatment

This was a big change for me.

Some of the training I’ve done has disappeared from my business completely. I’m still qualified in it. I just don’t want to offer it anymore.

Other training stayed, but not as a separate service.

Hot stones are a good example. I don’t charge extra for them or have a separate hot stone massage on my treatment menu. On colder days, or when I think heat would work well with what I’m doing, I can incorporate them into the massage.

I can do the same with cupping or warm bamboo. They’re tools available to me. They don’t each need their own treatment, price and little box on my website.

That has allowed me to keep learning without making my business more complicated every time I learn something new.

Look at what the course adds to your business

Before adding something new, look at what you already have. Does this new qualification fit naturally with it? Does it help you become better at the work you already want to be known for?

Or are you about to create another completely separate service that you’ll now need to explain and market?

There isn’t one correct answer. You might be deliberately moving into a new area, in which case a new qualification could make complete sense.

But if your treatment menu is already getting difficult to explain in one sentence, adding another unrelated service might not solve the problem you’re trying to solve.

Sometimes a business becomes stronger because you add something. Sometimes it becomes stronger because you remove something.

The question I ask myself now

There is one question I find particularly useful when another course catches my attention:

Would I still want to learn this if nobody was advertising the course to me?

Sometimes the answer is absolutely yes. I’m interested in it. I can see how I’ll use it. I’ve researched it and I want to learn more.

Other times, somebody has simply made a very good advert and, for five minutes, convinced me that my business is missing something.

There’s a difference.

I don’t regret collecting all those qualifications. Some taught me techniques I still use. Some took me in different directions. Some I enjoyed for a while and then moved on from. And some I don’t use at all anymore.

That’s part of running a business for me. What suited my business several years ago doesn’t have to suit it forever.

You can learn something, use it for a while and then decide, “Nah, not for me anymore.”

That doesn’t make the course pointless, and it doesn’t take the qualification away from you.

Sometimes growth is adding more. Sometimes it’s getting better at what you already do. And sometimes it’s finally giving yourself permission to take something off the treatment menu.

Before you book your next course

If you’re hovering over that Book Now button, I’d check these first:

1. Will my insurer cover this exact qualification and training provider?
2. Do I want to learn this, or have I just been sold the idea of it?
3. Would I enjoy providing this treatment regularly, not just learning it?
4. What will it really cost once I include equipment, products, insurance and practice?
5. Does it fit the business I’m trying to build?
6. Does it need to become a separate service, or could the skills improve what I already offer?

You don’t have to stop learning. You just don’t have to turn every certificate into another treatment.