A Plan Comes Together...Gary and I have made decisions together quickly ever since ten days after our first date when we got engaged. Many thought we were crazy, and are eating their words, as we've been married since April 2002. A month after our wedding, we visited Colorado and decided we would eventually have to live here...that was the only decision we've waited on, since we had already opened our new business in Northern Virginia. A year later, we had several massage therapists working with us, and ran a clinic with three treatment rooms, having grown our clientele base exponentially. Within three years, we won the Best of Herndon/Dulles award for our volunteer efforts, Outstanding New Business of the Year Award 2003, and Outstanding Business Citizens of the Year 2004. By the time we sold our business in '06, we had 10 Nationally Certified Massage Therapists working for us, and had a database of over 1300 clients. 
But, I should probably back up...initially, our plan was to create a space for other massage therapists to do what they loved, to create *their* authentic practice. We ended up diverting from that plan, and were managing a huge business which took much of our personal time. During the four years we owned that business, our daughter was born and we juggled our schedules at the office, so that one of us could always be with her. This was the best decision we ever made, but it meant we didn't have a whole lot of time together. So, when we had a date one night we realized that although we loved our business, the friends we worked with and our clients, we needed to spend more time together. One month from that night, we announced our decision to sell our business, our home, and move to Colorado. The response was universal...they hated that we were leaving, but knew it was a good choice for us. The first buyer of the business fell through, and then one of our clients decided it was the time for her to buy a business. There is certainly nothing more flattering than having a client enjoy her experience in your business so much that she decides to live it. The pieces which all fell together to get us to Colorado was nothing short of Divine Order. We were very focused on our goal of living out west, and kept moving forward, even though we weren't sure how it was going to happen.
We coordinated all the last minute plans so that we would arrive in Fort Collins for New Year's Eve...New Year, New Life, New Home, New Adventure. The symbolism for us was very powerful. Although Gary was trekking through crazy weather in Nebraska as the second monumental storm in two weeks tore through these states...he made it in time to join us for dinner. Mission accomplished! We built our first large, successful, massage therapy business entirely off-line with networking. We had a pathetic little website this entire time, basically an online brochure. It was merely a place holder for directions, hours and rates. Not one person in FOUR YEARS ever *FOUND* us with the internet. With the creation of this website, we have learned how to share our knowledge, and the people who are looking for the specific service we provide to our business now find us through the internet. We do still network, and are present within our community, but it is no longer our sole source of 'getting the word out'. The format of this hosting service allowed us to learn everything we needed to know about getting found by search engines, and strategies to make it happen. Going out and networking to meet people and build business is something we know how to do...in fact, we teach other business people how to network and build relationships in their community! However, this website is the most effective tool to allow new clients to find us. If you are running a service or local business and don't have an effective website...you will welcome the growth in business and be amazed by the process! Don't bother paying someone thousands of dollars to do it, when you can learn how to do it on your own. The second great thing about our website businesses is that they are working 24/7. When a visitor sees something interesting and clicks through an ad, or views a page, we get paid for that. We learned how to drive targeted traffic to our website, by sharing our knowledge, so that the people visiting might be interested in the products we have, or the products which are advertised on our site. We have received a 1099 from Google the last couple of years, and the income increases every month, as we work on our sites. 
Another great aspect to this website business, is the great benefit to create passive income. Now, when we are sleeping, spending a day hiking or even on vacation, we are still drawing visitors in for the information we have to share, and making money. If you are looking for an effective website business with a program which shares how to get serious traffic to your site...meaning THOUSANDS a month instead of hundreds...track those visitors, evaluate keywords and put your product in front of people who are looking for it, you may want to click the banner below to watch a video on how it works. To give you an idea of our traffic: In the beginning of 2010, we have exceeded 20,000 monthly page views. SOOOO...we have been in Colorado for several years now, and our family felt complete when our son joined us in 2008. He was born at home, with a wonderful midwife. Our quality of life has dramatically shifted for the better, since leaving the DC area. We have family adventures every week...hiking and spending tons of time together, AND we have fun building multiple web based businesses based on things we are passionate about. The effectiveness of this website in particular, was such that, in only months, our clinic was on the front page of Google for every keyword that potential clients type into their computers. Our return on the investment of hosting fees are paid for many times over by advertisers and affiliates every year. This is more fun than any project we've had in YEARS! The banner below links to a 28 minute long video to help you to understand how a website business works...see if it might trigger some fun ideas for YOU! :)
Go to Fort Collins Massage Therapist Page
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This adventure reminded us of a scene in one of the Indiana Jones movies, which has Harrison Ford stepping out into a chasm...and a stepping stone rises to meet his feet with every step. For instance, we didn't have a buyer for our business before we put our house on the market, but we just knew that we had to be committed to make our goal come through. 
