Starting a business in the wellness sector

A strong preference for working in an office environment since I always make a separation between my personal and professional life.

Marc Plata, Founder of CENTRE RESPIRE since 2020

How to stand out?

It’s like hunters, there are no good or bad sophrologists. How to differentiate between a good and a bad sophrologist? Let’s say it’s the person who feels it. You should also be aware that sophrologists are trained. There is specific training, especially in France, where schools have RNCP certification that allows sophrologists to prove the worth of their diploma via the French State, and it also gives credibility to the sophrologists, since the training usually lasts two years, and not two weeks or six months, given that many sophrologist training programs are sold.

How do you prospect?

Prospecting is mandatory. That means that if you open a practice, sit on your chair and look at your phone, you might wait a long time before it rings. What I mean is you need to go out and do the prospecting, always based on your target, but you have to go out and find “prescribers”.

In my case, “prescribers” means health professionals, who I’ll introduce myself to, people I’ll present my services to. People mainly come to me through health professionals, and also by word of mouth. Beyond that, via searches on social networks, on the website, and just on the Internet.

B2B or B2C?

B2B and B2C. That is, both are important, but B2C at first. Why? Because it’s important to be able to get your name out there, develop your image, develop your services, and to be able to simply establish who you are and what you are developing. And B2B came along naturally in the wake of B2C.

Working from home or in a dedicated space?

A strong preference for working in an office environment since I always make a separation between my personal and professional life, and I would have trouble letting people directly into my home, into my private space.

Should we go for it?

Take the time to really talk about it a lot, welcome every comment, every bit of criticism, and all of the kind words, too. Take your time, above all keep believing in yourself, and tell yourself that it’s a project, and that you don’t necessarily need to succeed in order to achieve personal fulfillment. The objective is really to be able to believe in yourself, do what you believe in, and be yourself. So, if I have any advice, it’s to move forward, or let’s say to go for it, to go toward what you believe, but to move forward one step at a time.