Hanging your hat somewhere
Hanging your hat somewhere is a daunting task. Starting an establishment in the state of Florida can be a very trying experience. All of the rules and regulations are pretty lengthy, starting at the local city level, moving up to the county level, and state level. As I have found you will need to insure that the zoning will support a massage establishment as I found out the hard way. Daytona Beach is going through some re-development issues and the zoning is all changing and personal services as they classify a therapeutic massage establishment has a very limited area of the city that you can setup shop. So I actually had to go outside the city limits to South Daytona where they have the zoning well in place.
In Florida, The Board of massage in conjunction with the Department of Health is who will do the initial inspection and everything has to be in place and ready to inspect prior to them coming to the office location. All the rules which are available on the myflorida.com website must be adhered to including bathrooms within 300 feet of the treatment room. Which must have running water, soap and towels in each restroom. The treatment room must have at a minimum hand sanitizer and be careful not just any hand sanitizer will pass inspection.
Insurance is also something that the health inspector is going to want to see when the inspection takes place. Not only are you going to have to post malpractice insurance which if the principal owner is an LMT can be purchased through the FSMTA, you will also have to provide proof of general liability insurance on the building and its contents of your office. Reason that the state provides on their website is in case someone places clothing in a closet or a jacket on a hanger and a fire breaks out you must be covered for the replacement of such items to the patient.
I am sure I will have more on this issue as time grows closer to in initial inspection.
