Today we’d like to introduce you to Amber Briggle.
Hi Amber, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
This has been one happy accident since the beginning: I never planned on going to school for massage therapy (I had already graduated from a prestigious 4 year liberal arts college, after all!), and I never in a million years thought I’d be franchising such a successful business and looking at becoming a nationwide brand.
But at every point in my journey, I’ve always tried to find sustainable ways to scale up my offerings, availability, and business — without burning myself out. Early in my career, that meant building a schedule that fit my clients’ needs with the needs of my young, growing family. When my schedule didn’t have any room to take on new clients anymore, I realized that I needed to partner with a similarly skilled massage therapist so that on my busiest days, it would be a smooth transition for those clients to see someone else. That idea very quickly blossomed into a business, and before I knew it, I was moving my studio out of my house and into a brick-and-mortar where I continued to hire skilled massage therapists to help me serve as many people as possible.
Things were going really well and we were looking at expanding into either a larger studio or adding another location when covid hit. We were forced to shut down for 2 months, and by the time we reopened, my team of 13 therapists had dwindled to 4 — and one by one, they continued to quit due to the stresses and uncertainty of the pandemic. Meanwhile, I had literally hundreds of clients who were desperate to come in and see us. Soma Massage Therapy is very well positioned in the medical massage field, and our clients see the work that they receive here as being more wellness-oriented than the fluff-and-buff spa experience. (Don’t get me wrong: a massage at Soma is going to be a luxurious, relaxing experience. But our therapists are well trained at looking at the structural imbalances in your body, so we’ll be massaging not only where it hurts but where it’s coming from, in order to provide longer lasting relief and recovery from injuries.) So our clients, many of whom were dealing with issues like lymphedema, frozen shoulder syndrome, thoracic outlet syndrome, sciatica, fibromyalgia, and more, were pretty desperate to be seen. And I had virtually no staff to see them!
Through sheer tenacity — and a whole lot of spit and scotch tape — I somehow kept Soma Massage Therapy afloat. One by one, I hired massage therapists who were looking for a safe place to work, or whose previous employers closed indefinitely and were on the hunt for a job. We closed in March 2020. We reopened in May 2020. And by May 2021, we reopened again in a gorgeous studio with twice the capacity. By 2022, we were grossing over $1,000,000 in sales, and in June 2024 we opened a 2nd, satellite location (one spare room inside of a chiropractic clinic, to complement our 7 room facility in downtown Denton). We did this through strong leadership, a commitment to safety and quality, being a “people first” business, and hiring only the very best staff who provide the highest quality of care. We are now offering franchising opportunities so that we can continue to bring healing touch to clients across the country and financial stability to franchise owners and their employees. I envision a future where Soma Massage Therapy is lifted up as the gold standard and is redefining the massage industry as a whole.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I mean, can any business owner ever claim it’s been a smooth road? There are always going to be the inevitable bumps and stormy seasons. We have certainly experienced our fair share of growing pains, and that unfortunately comes with having to grow and stabilize a business by yourself! I didn’t have any formal training in business, marketing, IT, HR, bookkeeping — all the things that you need to know in order to keep your business sustainable! I had to figure it out on my own in real time. Most of the time I got it right, but sometimes I didn’t, and it cost me. Along the 20+ years that I’ve been building Soma Massage Therapy, I have collected the best backup team of professionals: CPAs, insurance agents, business lawyers, mentors, coaches, web development and IT, etc. and today we are stronger than ever.
This, by the way, is one of the biggest reasons why franchising makes so much sense from a business perspective. As a small business owner, you are literally figuring everything out on your own. From inventory to marketing to website design to hiring and firing to compliance to bookkeeping to budgeting and literally everything in between, you are doing it alone. But with franchising, you have the experience of the franchisor (in Soma’s case, that’s me) who has figured out how to avoid many of the potholes and paved the path for you, along with the community of fellow franchise owners who are working collaboratively to make sure everyone succeeds. You have the whole map, playbook, and blueprint ready to go, and you as the franchisee just have to put it into action. I’ve figured out a lot of the hard stuff which sets you as the franchisee up for faster success and a more sustainable financial outlook. I wish I would have known more about franchising when I was just starting out (I’m sure it would have saved me a lot of money and headaches!) but am really grateful to be in this space now, where I can use those lessons I’ve learned over my 20+ year career to help others avoid similar pitfalls and make sure that they have as many resources as possible to build generational wealth!
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Soma Massage Therapy is an award-winning brand that is redefining the massage industry:
We have a strict no-tipping policy which sets us apart from the vast majority of massage studios out there. Our philosophy is that if you’ve never tipped your physical therapist or chiropractor, why would you tip your massage therapist? We belong in the healthcare field, and not the service industry, after all! Besides, massage should be a stress-free experience, and tips just add to that stress! We want you to be present and focused on the work we’re doing, and we want our therapists to be present and stress-free too. When they know that their paychecks will always be steady and consistent, that reduces their stress as well!
We offer FULL 60-minute hours (vs only 50 or 55 minutes of hands-on time like many other places). When you book a massage at Soma Massage Therapy, your massage is always booked with an additional buffer time which allows you as our client to give your therapist a full rundown of what your goals are for your session so that we can be as prepared and knowledgeable as possible to provide the highest quality of care. That buffer time also gives our therapists ample time to sanitize the room, help you check out and answer any self-care questions you may have, and grab a quick bite to eat and something to drink so they have the energy to focus on the next client. No one should feel rushed at Soma — we want every experience to be personalized and grounded.
Speaking of personalization, we go above and beyond to personalize every session. We don’t have one style of massage — we tailor every appointment to the unique needs of our clients, understanding that every person and every session is going to be different. It is our job to make sure that you get the experience you need to meet your wellness goals that day! This means that we also don’t charge extra for deep tissue vs Swedish massage, because we need to be nimble and versatile in our approach, and typically may need to combine massage styles in order to customize every session.
We are very community-focused, and donate regularly to our public schools and local nonprofits. We have a very holistic approach to our model of care, and if we want our clients to be healthy and thriving beyond our doors, then we need to do everything we can to make sure that the community they live in is healthy and thriving too. Over the years, Soma Massage Therapy has provided menstrual products for Interfaith Ministries, collected nonperishable food items for the Tarrant Area Food Bank, donated school supplies to Communities in Schools, provided hygiene products to Denton County Friends of the Family, sponsored scholarships for graduating high schoolers through LULAC, eliminated school lunch debt at a local elementary school, and donated hundreds of massage gift cards to local nonprofits for their silent auctions and fundraisers. (We’ve done a ton more too, but this is just a sampling.)
Soma is a people-first company. That means that we take zero shortcuts on safety and quality. It’s the people that make the business, after all. And the moment that you start monetizing *people* is the moment that you start cheapening your brand. Safety, quality, and people FIRST — once you’ve established that, then everything else will fall into place. (You can read more about our commitment to safety on our website at www.mysomamassage.com/safety)
Soma Massage Therapy is a multi-year, multi-award-winning company, too: we’ve been recognized as Best Massage Studio every year since we opened our first brick-and-mortar over 12 years ago, and Best Pain Management several years running (beating out the chiropractors, spinal surgeons, back doctors, and PTs!), and we were recently chosen as the Denton Chamber of Commerce “Small Business of the Year” because of our success and leadership.
We are open 7 days a week by appointment only, and you can book with us online at www.mysomamassage.com/appointment
I’m super excited to be able to take these values and this approach to business to a wider audience through franchising so our franchisees can experience this success too! Visit www.mysomamassage.com/franchise for more information!
Who else deserves credit in your story?
I certainly haven’t built this business alone. I already mentioned my all-star team of business professionals that I keep on speed dial when I have a question, but it’s the day-to-day operations that obviously need the most focus and attention. That comes from having such a brilliant, grounded, and nontoxic team of employees. Everyone from our front desk to our managers to our highly skilled massage therapists works collaboratively to make sure Soma is as successful as possible. They make my job easy, because there is very little hand-holding or micro-managing that needs to happen. They are all drama-free professionals who show up to work, do an incredible job, rinse, and repeat. Having such a great team has freed up my energy to look toward the future and keep my eye on the horizon, vs having to put out fires every day at the office! I honestly couldn’t do any of this without them, and I’m grateful every day for my team at Soma Massage Therapy.
Pricing:
- 60m massage: $100
- 90m massage: $150
- Various upgrades such as cupping, hot stones, reflexology, etc available from $5 – $20
- We offer a variety of styles including lymphatic massage, prenatal massage, cupping massage, couple’s massage, deep tissue massage, and more! More information can be found on our website at www.mysomamassage.com
- Amber Briggle is also available for personalized self-care seminars (online or in person) for employee appreciation or staff inservice days! Contact us for more info on pricing and scheduling.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mysomamassage.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mysomamassage/#
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/somadenton
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mysomamassage/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@mysomamassage
