West Spa

Nathalie wasn’t always interested in the beauty industry – she actually started her entrepreneurial career as a restaurant owner. Wanting something that was uniquely hers, but not wanting to start from the ground up, Nathalie had the genius idea of convincing her favorite breakfast place, “Chez Cora” to start franchising. Her franchise location became so successful that she decided her work was done there and she sold her restaurant so she could move on to the next challenge – a spa.

Anyone who has opened a brand new business can understand the challenges in nurturing a business from nothing to a successful, thriving business. Developing a reputation, a strong brand and clientele must come before the word ‘profit’ can even be whispered. It can be several long and unsure weeks, months or years before your business can blossom into a booming establishment, especially if you’re not an expert in all areas of the goods or service you offer.

How did Nathalie and her sister Anik skip a few steps in this process? Just as Nathalie did in her first entrepreneurial experience, she leveraged off of an already existing, and already successful business to create a business that just made sense.

Nathalie’s sister and co-owner of West Spa, Anik, is a licensed therapist, which made opening a spa a natural choice. “We had been talking for a couple of years of partnering and opening a spa, which we decided to do in November 2005,” said Nathalie.

With experience in the spa business for 13 years, Anik had the art of spa therapy down pat. When they started talking strategy, they decided to stick with the spa side but to partner with a successful hair operation. Again, Nathalie cleverly leveraged off of another company who were experts in what they do so she could build another, elevated aspect to the existing business – each adding their own specialty.

Even for a pro like Nathalie, things don’t always happen easily. There are obvious risks involved in partnering with someone else. Namely, the risk that they could pull out at any time and you are left with half a plan.

Because of these risks, their second location didn’t happen as easily as their first:

“The opening days of our first spa were flawless; everything went as planned, however our second spa was chaos and [near] disaster! Anything that could have gone wrong did go wrong. We were supposed to partner with a well known hair salon but could not come to an agreement; therefore the rented space was too big for the spa. The construction got delayed, computers got lost, etc. We opened six months late and on opening day had technical issues – the Shortcuts trainers saved the day... and our butts! Our second location, with the help of all [our] partners has become a very strong operation.”

Nathalie and Anik have truly experienced the good and the bad of partnering with other businesses, reaping both rewards and headaches.

By focusing on the expertise they bring to the table, both industry specific and business specific, they have built a successful operation in record time rewarding everyone involved. Although, rare in the world of business, this is truly a win-win!