Meet Crystal McCraw of Massage in Session, Inc.

I never pictured myself as an entrepreneur growing up. I started my path to business ownership at a pivotal time in my life. The moment was met with my desperate need to find my purpose in life and career. I was working in the financial sector. However, I graduated with an IT degree, so I was sure that that would be the path that I’d take. When I met my husband, all of that changed. At the time, he was a few years into his career working as a massage therapist at a physical therapy clinic in Riverside. As time passed, I learned so much about his career and how massage therapy was helping his clients heal, sparking my interest. His clientele was growing, and I eventually decided to join forces with him in 2016 once I received my massage therapy diploma. My goal when I became co-owner was to help in service, IT, and business. I thought of ways I could bring in my IT knowledge to help build our company’s foundation. I returned to school to get my master’s degree in Information systems. This additional knowledge has helped me implement the applications and systems needed to run our business smoothly. Today, I have had the pleasure of helping build the company from the ground up, and it’s a great feeling knowing that hard work does pay off. All of this was made possible because of my husband’s hard work in excelling in his career and becoming one of the most renowned massage therapists in the area. We are a great team. Now we have expanded to hiring massage therapists—allowing them to grow within our company.

Entrepreneurship is not always a smooth road and our path was met with many bumpy ones. There were times when business was slow and other moments when we were overwhelmed, and sometimes I contemplated giving up. Those were our make-or-break moments. When we faced those bumpy roads, we found ways to go around them, finding and exploring creative alternatives to continue on our path. Our obstacles attracted invaluable solutions—giving us opportunities to think outside the box.

We are a neuromuscular massage business in the Riverside area. We are family-owned. We specialize in therapeutic massage to help alleviate pain, increase mobility, reduce stress, aid in sports training recovery, and benefit overall health and wellness. Our therapy targets specific muscles and lifestyle habits that can potentially contribute to pain and mobility issues. Our goal is to provide relief long-term. We are results driven and let the testimonials speak for our brand and us; we also have experience working with professional athletes. We run our new-client discount campaign year-round and have several discounted wellness package deal options.

The start of the pandemic was one of the scariest moments of our careers. We were shut down for almost two months. This was one of those make-or-break moments for us and so many others. We had no clue how we would get through it as it all happened so quickly. All we knew at the time was— our business is shut down, and we need to find a way to survive. Thankfully, we have a loyal client base and despite all the uncertainty, they kept us afloat by continuing to satisfy their monthly plans and purchasing package deals during the pandemic. We truly are grateful for our Massage in Session community and wouldn’t be in business today without them. The pandemic forced us to think of creative ways to help boost sales—creating inventory was one of them. Sometimes crisis can force innovation and change and it did for us. Navigating and adjusting through this extremely volatile environment has helped and continues to help us compete.