Valley native enjoys success as masseuse
In 2019, a young woman, native to Valley City, started out as an entrepreneur and has been successfully running the business since the past four years.
Cidnee Reinhart, massage therapist, is the owner of Massage by Cidnee, based out of Salon 356. She has always considered herself ‘the girl next door’ and she encourages other young women inspired by her success to take risks to seize their dreams.
“Literally just go for it, I was terrified, I did not know what happened if I failed, I had no clue but it all works out in the end. Just keep going,” said Reinhart.
Reinhart started out as a Nursing student and later realized her path was different and bravely switched to it. She graduated with a degree in Massage Therapy from Josef’s in Fargo and worked at Central Avenue Chiropractic for a year before she started her own business Massage by Cidnee,
“I did start out at nursing school, when I was in nursing school at college is when I made the switch to do Massage
Therapy just because I like this form of pain management rather than other things I guess.” said Reinhart.
There are not a lot of people who influenced her to be a Massage Therapist but if there is someone, she would say her mom who is a nurse. Reinhart always had that spark to be a business woman one day,
“No, not really anyone influenced me, when I started out in nursing, its because my mom is a nurse, Massage Therapy is what I just kind of decided to do it one day and then I did it,” Reinhart said. “Right after school, I wanted to open up my own business, of course I was sacred, I am glad I worked for someone a year because I learned a lot doing that.”
The business runs from Monday to Thursday from 10am - 6.30pm. Reinhart is completely in control of her business, as she runs every aspect.
“It’s just me, I do all the scheduling, contacting people, changing out my rooms, sanitizing everything — it’s just me,” Reinhart said. “Right now, I like doing it myself, I like having my own schedule and freedom to schedule when I want to so right now, it works for me because I love doing everything by myself, sometimes it is a lot but it is manageable, again because I like being in control,” said Reinhart.
Looking back four
years, Reinhart recalls how terrified she was to start a business by herself. It was not easy considering she was new to the field of business — and at the same time not that hard to start the business because she exactly knew where she wanted to start and what she intended to do,
“I have been getting my hair done in Salon 356 since I was a kid and I have always told them about wanting to start my on business, I reached out to them and told them I know you have rooms available so would it be okay renting a room and they were all for it,” Reinhart said.
The hardest part when it comes to a startup is the supplies, staff and the funding for it but Reinhart had planned everything in prior,
“A lot of my supplies I actually already had because when you are in the massage program, your tuition covers things like a table,” Reinhart said. “I did buy oils and essential oils and things like that and I had an iPad and all that. So the startup cost was not a lot, just making sure I had money for rent and actually my grandma did help me out a little.”
Reinhart loves Valley City, finding it hard
to stay away. She explained about how she did not move to Fargo even when she went to college at Fargo for massage therapy,
“Yes it is because I am from here,” Reinhart said. “Another option was Fargo, I know a lot of people go there because there are a lot more people that could come to you but I felt more comfortable here I guess and I know a lot of people here because I grew up here, I felt easier to start a business here where people already know kind of who you are. After a month of opening, I was immediately busy because people in the town knew who I was already because I was working over at Chiropractic office and I guess staying in the town definitely did help too.”
There are different types of massages for people of all ages.
“I do a different bunch of massages like there is deep tissue massages, relaxation massages, pregnancy massages, more of a medical side of massages so people who are in physical therapy, they also come to me at the same time for relief,” Reinhart said. “For massages, I can massage anyone from an infant to 100, I massaged all ages, I have massaged kids and it is very beneficial for everyone.”
The most common massage is deep tissue because it is not just for relaxation but there is a medical benefit to it.
“I do focus on deep tissue massages, more the medical aspect of it. I get referrals from chiropractors and stuff like that but I love doing all the other too,” Reinhart said.
Some people find it a time to relax from this busy world.
“Some people literally come because they don’t want to be stressed anymore so they just come once a month and they think it is great stress reliever if they don’t have any physical aches,” Reinhart said.
All massages are different from each other and the customers can choose what type they want considering their medical condition. The only required thing before the massage is to fill out an intake form that asks the person’s medical history, recent injuries, certain medications they are taking because Reinhart should be aware of all these before she can do the massage,
“It’s different and completely dependent on a person because every massage is different and there is no two massages that are the same,” Reinhart said. “It is customized to the person’s
wants, needs and what they want their outcome to be.”
Different people have different reasons to do a massage and it varies from kids to elderly.
“So typically in young children, some kids have constipation issues so that would be mostly like work on their tummy and that is what I typically would do for a young child and usually high schoolers, they come in after sports, they get sore and they wanted to be ready their next game or whatever is going on,” Reinhart said. “Adults and elderly come in with shoulder issues, back issues or what they are doing out on their job, repetitive injury issues and things like that.”
Reinhart’s massages are definitely not painful but can be uncomfortable depending on a person’s pain tolerance.
“I guess it just depends on your pain tolerance, I mean massages does not have to be painful, definitely not but sometimes it can be a little uncomfortable if you have issues,” Reinhart said. “I don’t think I would ever do deep tissue on a kid because it can sometimes be uncomfortable.”
The normal price for a 60-minute massage is $65 with an extra charge of $10 if the person wants to do cupping just because of the extra work added on to it. Most of the people prefer 60-minutess massage and Reinhart does not do more than 90-mins.
“I do anywhere from 30-minutes to 90-minutes and I would say the most common is 60 mins massages, usually when people get their 1st massage, they do 30-minutes because they don’t know what it is like, after they typically always do 60-minutes and they are like, I need more time. I don’t do 2 hour massages just because I feel like it is too much for the body to handle doing two hours, you can be really sore and I don’t want anyone leaving here like that,” said Reinhart.
Most of the clients of Reinhart are regular and she does accommodate a fair amount of people daily.
“Yes, most of my clients are regular. It depends on different days, I try to do 6 or 7 but it also depends on how long the massages are,” she said.
She said the best part about the job is the lack of stress.
“It’s all money I make massaging people and I don’t know, it’s just a very stress free job and I am making other people stress go away at the same time, I love it,” Reinhart said.