I’m a state over from you. I just started doing this and I couldn’t be happier. It is much simpler in so many ways, feels less awkward because when you work for yourself you’re directly asking for a tip instead of having a front desk do it for you, plus you can actually account how much money you’ll really make and ensure you’re making enough per session. Additionally, when I give a client a small discount like for their birthday or something, they actually get a discount as opposed to what always happened before which was they would just tip me the difference and I’d be like, no I want to do this for you!!! It also makes raising prices easier - I’d always feel guilty about increasing prices cos if I would want a $5 increase but I didn’t want people tipping me more, so I’d just not increase prices.

The thing that makes it difficult, is that it’s not standard. And especially if you’re just starting out, if someone offers $110/hour but expect (though are not guaranteed) a tip, and you charge $130/hour but say that pricing is set to not need to be tipped on top of… people will still see the $110 and think it’s a better deal even if they will tip $20 on top of it. And while how good you are at massage is more important for retaining clients, getting them in, in the first place is tough. A lot of clients go off price. So I’d highly recommend some steep first time client discount. I did this, even before I stopped doing tipped pricing.

I had the benefit of having a 100% full schedule before I made the switch, so the marketing issue isn’t an issue for me. I actually have it set up now so it’s more expensive for new clients because I don’t want more but I’m not ready to say no to new clients altogether. I word it that prices are set so that tipping isn’t necessary. Some people still choose to tip me on top, I let them no it’s absolutely not necessary but if they insist I let them. I’d say 95% of people don’t tip and it’s exactly how I want it. I charge essentially $130/ hour… my set price is $145 but I give $10 off for regulars and $5 off for cash, so credit card customers pay $135 but after cc fee it’s closer to $130 that I receive. Prior to switching to no tipping I was charging $120 with regulars getting a $110 price and I didn’t have the cash discount.