How to Start a Health Spa
When five Austrian nuns started their new business in 2010, they did so out of desperation following a failed chicken breeding business. Undaunted, the clerics put on their marketing habits and launched a state-of-the-art health spa offering therapies that include pummeling clients with chilled mineral water to rejuvenate their skin. Your health spa start-up will require just as much faith and devotion as did the sisters if you're to make a success of it. A couple of prayers while you get your place up and running couldn't hurt either.
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Instructions
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Check out competitors in your area to learn what types of services they're featuring on their health spa menus. Match those services to the fees these facilities charge so you're able to make decisions about start-up cash, services and personnel.
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Conceive a business plan that includes goals and objectives, equipment and supply lists, marketing statistics and strategies, demographics and financial projections. Use the research you conducted on competitors to evaluate the wisdom of opening in the geographic area you've selected.
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Take your business plan to the bank. Apply for a loan to underwrite your health spa. Approach venture capitalists if you prefer another financing route. Scout out properties. Close on the property. Obtain a comprehensive insurance package that covers everything from potential liability issues (someone strokes out in a hot tub) to property and interior damage.
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Hire a contractor to handle infrastructure upgrades---particularly plumbing and electrical improvements sufficient for powering therapeutic spa tubs, steam rooms and bathrooms attached to guest rooms or cottages if you're operating a residential health spa. Remodel the kitchen to accommodate groups.
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Hire a landscape architect to tackle exterior work if you're opening a residential health spa that requires walking trails, green spaces and modifications needed to establish your health spa's aesthetic and functional requirements. Install a swimming pool if year-round weather permits. Prepare a plot of land for the installation of an organic garden if you plan to grow your own healthy food.
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Create a unique menu of health spa services focusing on "the whole person." Offer exercise classes, detox programs, fasts, yoga, massages, hiking, nutrition workshops and other therapeutic activities and programs that keep guests on track from dawn to dusk. Contract with a physician to oversee body composition, blood sugar and metabolism tests as well as monitoring the progress of clients with serious health issues.
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Hire staff with health spa experience and excellent credentials: dietitians, massage therapists, counselors, physical trainers and administrative staff capable of generating new business, running marketing programs, handling public relations and overseeing accounting duties. Train staffers to cross-sell services to maximize revenues. Keep a social director on hand to plan and run outings and events.
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Finish off your health spa's interior space by converting ho-hum guest and common areas into tranquil enclaves filled with soft colors, bubbling water fountains and plants to comfort and soothe clients while you enjoy your own piece of financial paradise.
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References
- Photo Credit health - towels tulips in a spa for relaxing time image by sergio castelli from Fotolia.com
