The Flipside of a Standard Printed Business Card: Hands Down, The Most Under Utilized Marketing Tool

Are you using your spa’s business card to the best of its abilities? If you are only putting information on one side of it, then the answer is no. When you think about it, your business card can be one of the most distributed and visible pieces of marketing that your spa has.

So, why are you only taking advantage of fifty percent of this valuable promotional piece’s available advertising space? Is it just because that is how it has always been done? Is it because you never thought about it? Well, now that you have thought about it, it’s time to make a change and effectively use that unused space.

While the front of your business card should include your spa’s logo, name, address, contact information, and the staff person’s name, you should also consider adding some other useful information to the back. Consider listing your spa’s hours of operation, a map with directions, a list of your most popular services, prices, or even some interesting facts about your spa or healthy living. You can also print out an invitation on the back inviting people to special events, use it for appointment making, or print special one-time coupons.

Getting Back to Management Basics is the Best Way to Get Your Spa Business Back on Track (K.I.S.S)

When running your spa you can easily find yourself forgetting about the basics when it comes to managing your business and your people.  Therapies change, complications arrive, theories evolve, but you need to make sure that you don’t get so carried away that you forget the basics that probably served you well before things got complicated.
What this means is not losing sight of the basic goal of business management, getting things done through skilled leadership, organization, communication, and planning.  When carried out properly, using your basic management skills will effectively run or help any business.

This means applying the KISS principle to any business model or situation.  An acronym for Keep It Simple, Stupid, it is meant to remind you that no matter how complicated things get, you can always address or solve problems by using simple methods.  In other words, the best solution is usually the easiest or least complicated one.

Even if your spa business seems to be spiraling out of control, you can probably get it back on track again by keeping it basic and keeping it simple.  Overcomplicating things in business, as in life, usually just leads to more complications and fewer resolutions.

Progressive Management through Quality Education (Without Leaving Home): Think ISM

In business, particularly the spa business, things are always changing, evolving, and moving forward on a day to day basis. What used to be popular or the norm yesterday may no longer be the norm today. So, it is essential that you keep abreast of the latest news, ideas, and methods that are being used in the spa industry today. The best way to do this is to continuously educate yourself as to what is happening in the spa industry, but who has the time?

At the Institute of Spa Management (ISM), you always have the time to learn the latest about spa management and improve your leadership skills through their online learning courses. Whether you are looking to get into the spa industry or are a seasoned professional, ISM has a variety of different management courses that can get you up to speed or help you improve upon your current skill set. The best thing is, you don’t even need to leave home or the office to get this quality education because it is available 24-hours a day, 7-days a week, so you can study at your own pace and on your own terms.

Spa Management: How to Determine Spa Hours of Business

As you know, your spa’s business can ebb and flow from one week to the next. This is especially noticeable after the busy holiday rush. This rollercoaster of high business times and low business times can also fluctuate throughout the week and even hour by hour, so determining the best hours of operation for your spa business can be a tricky task.

Depending on where your spa is located and what the lifestyles of your surrounding client base are can dictate what your spa hours should be. Perhaps you are located in a middleclass neighborhood where most people work during the day. You will probably find that most of your spa business takes place in the evenings or on the weekends. Or you might be in an upper-class area where your business spikes in the morning and during the week due to more flexible client schedules.

You need to keep track of these trends in order to understand who your clients are and what their lifestyles are as related to your spa business. Once you determine your high times and your low times, you can set your spa hours based on these trends in order to increase your profitability.

Spa Industry News: Prominent Spas Work Hard to Go Green

The spa industry is becoming an important leader in the fight against global warming by making changes to the way spas are run in order to help save the environment.  The idea of going green is one that fits perfectly with the vision that spas around the world have had for centuries.In order to spread the word of green spa living, several prominent spas around the country have formed the Green Spa Network.  This grassroots, not-for-profit trade organization has started out by creating seed spas, ones that are committed to developing and sustaining environmentally friendly business practices.  To date there are nine spas in the seed program and their main focus is to find the greenest ways to run their spas while also remaining profitable and providing their clients with the best services available.

In addition the Green Spa Network is gathering as much information as they can for their Green Spa Toolkit, which will provide other spa owners the tools and information they need to turn their spas green too.  They are also putting together an annual green spa conference that will serve as a networking and information exchange opportunity for those interested in going green.

Institute of Spa Management Meets the Need via Distance Education

The ISM Spa Management Program is offered via self-paced, distance education, allowing students the ability to keep a full-time job and still study towards a rewarding spa industry career. Payment plans and scholarship opportunities are available for all students.

Brooklyn, NY (PRWEB) December 27, 2007 — The ISM Spa Management Program is offered via self-paced, distance education, allowing students the ability to keep a full-time job and still study towards a rewarding spa industry career. Payment plans and scholarship opportunities are available for all students.

Across the spa industry, in North America and around the globe, one of the greatest hurdles is figuring out how to manage clients, revenues and business growth in a competitive industry that is continually shifting, changing and evolving. There simply are not enough qualified spa managers to meet the need, and this very subject was a major topic of discussion at the Global Spa Summit in May, 2007. Offering training via distance education to students worldwide, The Institute of Spa Management is committed to educating the spa industry, one professional at a time.

In 2007, the Institute of Spa Management received more than 9,500 requests for the Spa Management Program curriculum outline; reported full enrollment for August through December, and awarded more than $40,000 in full and partial scholarships.

Abby Cavanaugh, Director of Admissions and Student Services, “It takes a trained business professional to juggle spa operations, marketing, demanding clients and a diverse team of spa professionals. We don’t teach massage therapy; nor will we teach students to be an aesthetician or a skin care therapist. We challenge each management student to be a world class leader, via current management teaching models, theories and processes that are used by MBA graduates and CEO’s all over the globe, but which ISM has customized to meet the unique management needs of the spa industry worldwide. We only teach Spa Management and our expertise becomes our students.”

At the Institute of Spa Management, the organization’s primary goal is to further the spa industry through quality management education and professional training for adults. Information about programs, courses and scholarships is available by visiting http://www.spacollege.org

About Institute of Spa Management

Institute of Spa Management (ISM) offers high quality distance education programs and courses at reasonable prices in a dynamic format that enables learning and knowledge retention. ISM believes that the future of the spa industry belongs to those who treat clients with the highest level of integrity and provide cutting edge services in well run facilities.

Going Green: A Few Easy, Low Budget Ways to Make Your Spa More Environmentally Friendly

Going green is one of those things that started out as a fad, but has grown into a movement that has everyone buzzing about how to protect our mother earth.  While the spa environment is typically one that focuses on the health and well being of the human race, it’s also one that uses a lot of the world’s resources.  So, it’s essential that the spa industry becomes a leader in the fight to reduce environmental waste and to raise awareness, while also being able to remain profitable.There are a lot of easy and affordable ways that your spa can start going green one step at a time.

You might want to start out by scheduling an energy audit by a certified expert who will go through your spa and point out areas that could be easily converted into greener methods.

You can also do a few things on your own, such as replacing light bulbs with energy efficient ones, installing low-flow faucet aerators and showerheads to reduce water usage, purchasing unbleached paper towels and toilet papers, using environmentally friendly cleaning products and laundry detergents, and providing receptacles for clients and employees to place their recycling materials.

Snow and Ice – An Insurance Nightmare Waiting to Happen in Your Spa’s Parking Lot

When you own a business where customers are continuously coming and going, you need to always be aware of the many dangers that can present themselves to your customers throughout the year. Not only do you need to keep your customers safe, but you also need to protect yourself from unnecessary lawsuits. The National Safety Council estimates that slips and falls cause over 300,000 injuries and 1,500 deaths every year.Winter weather can pose some of the most dangerous situations for your spa, particularly due to snow and ice accumulation in the parking lot, on pathways, or steps. In order to make your spa as safe as possible, there are several things you can do to protect your customers and your staff from falls.

If possible, when ice is present, have the parking lot salted regularly to melt slippery ice. Consider installing handrails and non-slip surfaces for steps and ramps. You might also want to install additional external lighting, especially if your spa is open after sundown.

Inside the spa’s entrance, you should have water absorbing mats on the floor to keep snow or ice from pooling on the floor and creating additional hazards inside your spa.

Want to Get to Know Your Competitors? Spend the Day in their Spa As a Paying Guest

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer is a saying you should keep in mind when considering your spa’s competition.  You should always be keeping informed of what your competition is doing in order to keep your existing clients from jumping ship and learning new ways to attract new clients.

The best way to stay educated about what your competition is doing is to regularly visit them as a paying customer.  Seeing how they treat their clients and what products or services they are providing firsthand is a great way to gather important information about your competition.

Most successful businesses use secret shoppers to keep informed of what their competition is doing, so your spa should do the same.  You might want to allot money in your monthly budget for these spa site visits and send different employees each month to remain as anonymous as possible.  You can also turn it into a competition for your own employees by rewarding them with the opportunity to getting free spa treatments while at the same time reporting back to you valuable information about what the other spas in your area are up to.

Walking the Tightrope of Beauty for Spa Employees

Bottom Line? Spa Staff Should Leave Jewelry, Makeup, Hairspray and Perfumes at Home… Au Natural is the Way to Go!

Most people want to look their best when they’re at work, particularly in a spa environment that it promotes beauty, health, and well-being.  This is often expressed in the form of jewelry, makeup, hairspray, perfumes, and other accessories.  This can be particularly true for spas that have uniforms because employees still want to express themselves.

However, this is not always the best choice for spa employees. The number one concern of any spa manager should be their clients and many times these seemingly innocuous expressions of individuality can actually be distractions to your clients.

For instance, jewelry has a tendency to jingle or can inadvertently brush up against clients during treatments.  This can be distracting or even annoying for clients in certain situation.  Makeup too can be a distraction because different people have different taste levels and this can often be interpreted negatively by clients.  Since the spa lifestyle is meant to promote natural beauty, employees wearing too much makeup can provide a conflicting message.  Hairspray and perfumes can also cause reactions in people with allergies or asthma.

So, avoid any unnecessary distractions or problems by insisting that your employees rely on their natural beauty while at work.