Michelle is a massage therapist and so much more. Her repertoire includes body work, Reiki Master, spiritual healing, certified aroma therapist with plans to become a registered aroma therapist. Early in her career, she worked as an independent contractor with some of her own clients. Having done mostly in-home care and lugging everything around, Michelle decided it was time to establish her own business.

Michelle Doetsch started taking GROW classes in Jan 2012, Small Business GPS was her first class. In that class she worked on her business plan. Michelle tells us, “I had the massage down, but the business stuff was completely foreign to me. Profit and loss, balance sheets, all of that stuff! Still makes my head spin sometimes, but not as much as it used to!”

Michelle opened in her own space June 2013 and New Yew was born. As she was walking around downtown Grand Rapids, she saw a sign for space available in the Masonic building. Knowing that there were offices in there, it never hadn’t really occurred to her to look into that space. When looking, she said, “It was funny because we went in then, took a look around to see what was available. It was there she found a great space, on the ground level that was, in her words, “ the perfect space to do massage.”

Michelle specializes in massage for stress reduction, Sciatica, low back pain, headaches, and even fibromyalgia. She understands that the type of work needed for chronic pain is much different than what is done for injuries.

“GROW really helped me focus on a business plan,” she continued. “I had to do one in massage school, but they didn’t really look to see how realistic it was. I guessed at the pieces in that plan, finding things online and in books here and there. I thought, I’m never going to be a business owner. Haha! And theeenn…”

Michelle worked with GROW’s program director to help her really focus on the planning and get all of the parts right. That planning, and then understanding the financial aspects are the things that really helped. “The resources that are available here, plus the lists we got in class, that information was invaluable. I had heard of some of those organizations, but didn’t know what they really did. To find out what they did was helpful. I found out that I wasn’t too small to get help.”