A Special Event

At our recent experiential event at Red Mountain spa, 34 spa owners gathered to learn the latest trends, share their experiences and find a way to grow their business. As busy spa professionals, we often forget to relax and treat ourselves and when we were planning the itinerary it was a very important part of our agenda - relaxing. The educational part was fun to greatly thanks to Comfort Zone that started the seminar talking about the importance of product education and what they found makes their spa partners most successful. It is also not hard to present this state of the art line and generously shared their knowledge of high end skin care market. We learned how to successfully select position and sell retail. We discussed the importance of training, educating, incentivizing staff, as well as, measuring results to maximize profits. Susie Ellis, who is the President of SpaFinder, talked about the spa industry and trends she sees for the industry and shared the results of the Day Spa Industry Surveys. The survey gave us a lot of insight in the state of business of many spa owners today.

This is an excerpt from her Susie's blog about the event:

We reviewed the results of our recent Day Spa Survey 2007 and I even gave them a "sneak peek" of the Top Spa Trends we are considering for 2008. (top secret!) What I like about these retreats is that the day spa owners are willing to share information very openly because they come from all over the country and for the most part do not compete with each other.

All of the participants loved the workshops where they could interact and exchange ideas. Owners were discussing marketing strategies, website designs, gift certificate business, new treatments and new business ventures, among other things.

And we relaxed......
That, I am sure, was the most fun for everybody. Tired spa professionals were finally taken care of and shed their daily burdens. They enjoyed exquisite Comfort Zone facials and massagers, joined morning and moonlight hikes, took advantage of many classes and activities and to top it all participated in a magical fire ceremony performed by Nancy Furst. She made us open up our hearts under the full harvest moon, talk about challenges in our lives and had us express our deepest wishes. It was, in many ways, magical.

I also want to thank all the participants of the seminar for making the event what it was and contributing to it, each and every one of them in their own unique way. Thank you, I hope to see you again.

For those who missed it this time, I plan to organize another retreat on the East Coast in March or April and another one at Red Mountain in September. Stay tuned.

Yours,

Milana Knowles
VP, Day Spa Sales and Marketing