History
How does a University of Texas grad, with a BA in English and a background in marketing, advertising and public relations become the founder of a corporate chair massage company? To Rebecca Kahn it was a logical choice.
After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin, Rebecca was hired by one of Houston’s top marketing and advertising agencies in 1997. Shortly thereafter, the company owner hired a massage therapist to provide weekly chair massages to the office.
After a few months of this, Rebecca noticed that on chair massage days, everyone:
- Showed up to work
- Worked better, faster and more creatively
- Acted generally nicer
Rebecca was convinced that the 15-minutes of weekly stress relief was the cause of this behavior. Soon, she became intrigued by the possibility of providing this stress-busting service to other companies.
Rebecca learned that most corporate chair massage was being performed by independent massage therapists with little or no experience in the corporate environment.
Companies frequently complained that independent therapists would arrive late, had an unorganized approach to client scheduling, and did not wear appropriate attire.
Rebecca saw this as a liability. Chair massage should enhance a company’s business process—not detract from it. If companies were expending energy to manage the massage therapists—then the massages were not achieving their intended goal.
The market appeared to exist for a professional, client-focused corporate chair massage company.
In March, 2000 Rebecca left the marketing and advertising world and founded Knot Anymore LLC in Houston, Texas. The company was created to provide the best, most professional, customer-focused, stress-reducing, performance-enhancing, morale-boosting chair massages. One month later the company was hired by Methodist Health Care System to provide chair massage at a large corporate health fair.
The event was a resounding success – and the buzz about Knot Anymore began.
Soon, Knot Anymore was providing chair massage at corporations, health fairs, trade shows, and company meetings, in and around Houston. As the company’s experience and client list grew, so did the company’s roster of superb therapists.
In September, 2001 Knot Anymore expanded into Austin, Texas and was certified as a Minority/Woman-Owned Business (M/WBE) and a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE).
In 2002 the company participated in a pilot project to determine the feasibility of chair massage at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. Knot Anymore was awarded the exclusive contract to provide chair massage at ABIA in 2003.
The company currently maintains client accounts and a roster of excellent therapists in Central Texas and throughout the United States.
