Massage related question

[percival]

I'm about to wind up my massage business. My existing insurance and registration, which cost me 100 pounds per year (about 70 dollars), are up for renewal in late August. I intend to keep giving people massages, but as barter for e.g. childcare. My question is: if you were getting a massage as an exchange for another good, would you prefer the person who gives you the massage to be insured, or would it be enough to know that the person is trained?

I'm asking because in order to "recoup" the outlay, I would need to give 4-5 massages in exchange for 10-15 hours of out of hours child care.

Comments

[in-the-blue.livejournal.com]

In five years as a professional massage therapist, I've never had a single person other than the licensing board ask for proof of insurance.

Of course, regulations over here vary state to state and I don't know what the deal is in the UK, but I've had massages from licensed and unlicensed people (students, mostly, in that last category). All I can tell you is that personally, I don't care at all. In my state, if someone finds out there's barter-for-service going on, they construe that as massage for payment and if you're not licensed they'll be aggressive about it.

However, if it's not advertised, the chances of anyone discovering it are slim.