RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

Spa & Hospitality Newsletter

Volume 4 - Issue 11,  April 2008

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"Your Complete Resource for Spa and Hotel Development"

MESSAGE FROM OUR EDITOR

“If we all did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves.” Thomas Edison

April is here and with its arrival I wonder; where did the first few months of the year go? My most sincere apologies for our absence in March, I thought I could do a million things and still find time to put together our monthly newsletter but I was wrong, the days just don’t have enough hours in them. It just goes to show that when you are in operations sometimes something has to give, unfortunately what gave last month was being able to write for my Blogs, Newsletters and articles in general. I am back on track, organized myself a little better but most importantly delegated some tasks to the talented people on our team so that I can find more hours in the day.

R&D is very pleased to announce its new Spa Management Division. We will continue to assist our clients with start-ups, operations, training, and education in addition to managing their locations. As the Managing Director for these properties I find myself back to the day to day operations of running a spa. Exciting, challenging, interesting and intense, I look forward to every minute of it. For more information on our Managing Services please go to Spa Management and if you are interested in a career as a Spa Manager please do check our Ad in the Sponsors corner.

In this issue we bring to you an article written by Yazira, “Personalize your Backbar”; in her search to bring us new ideas for our backbar she discovered a great alternative for those that want to create their own products and that have been searching for a place to create and manufacture; CoValence is that place. Tidbits continues to bring you news on products, trends and items found at the Day Spa Expo and during our recent travels.

A big thank you to Rachel Zawila, Editorial Assistant for Pulse Magazine, for the great information she provided in her article “Sign of the Times, The Spa Industry Becomes High-touch and High-Tech” for which I was interviewed. The magazine is always full of great advice and articles. To read the full article please visit www.experienceispa.com or contact us and we can Fax you a copy. Happy reading! 

Wishing you success, happiness, health and balance.  As always, I enjoy your e-mails and ideas, write to: zcoll@ResourcesAndDevelopment.com

Spa wishes………Zahira J. Coll

This Month's Sponsors

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R&D is searching for Talent

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Managing a Spa can be

Overwhelming!

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Solid Business Advice and Financial Projections in ONE Package!

Comprehensive feasibility analysis package

We invite you to call our offices today to speak with us about your dream. 

Call 702-436-0371 or

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Do You Know How Much Your Spa Business Is Worth?

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RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

explores developments, trends and news in the spa and hospitality industry to assist you with your Spa/Hotel operation.  Material for the newsletter is gathered through research and extensive literature reviews.

Editor: Zahira J. Coll

zcoll@resourcesanddevelopment.com

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Personalize Your Backbar

by Yazira D. Helsley

I’ve encountered plenty of Spa Industry Professionals who know exactly what products they’d like to use and offer their clients, but haven’t yet found a product line that matches their vision. Although I do believe there is an abundance of great product lines, if you have something very specific in mind one option to explore is having the products created. There are many product manufacturers and private labels to choose from. One company I recently learned about is CoValence, let me share with you what I found out: They are Custom Formulators; they develop, manufacture and fill custom products, and they’ve been around for nearly 20 years.

CoValence’s motto and specialty is BoldSkinventions™, formulas that are not just skin care products but skin care inventions. They choose ingredients of different varieties based on the fact that, “A product’s safety, efficacy and compatibility with the skin are a direct result of the ingredients chosen and how those ingredients interact with each other.” They use earth-natural ingredients that can be sourced in a dependable and ethical manner. They will occasionally use animal by-products, which are by-products of the food industry and ingredients in which animals are not killed. And being of the belief that preservatives help lengthen a product’s stability, they do use alternative preservatives to parabens. The most noteworthy fact about their ingredient selection is that they use Chirality to construct identical molecular replicas of earth-natural ingredients. In fact, “CoValence was the first to identify and promote the significance of Chirally-Correct™ skin care.” Their ingredient selection is directly responsible for ensuring their products cause far fewer allergic reactions than most manufacturers. And of course, they do not test on animals; their products are tested only by staff and focus groups. Because they are a FDA registered laboratory, all products are guaranteed to be manufactured at the highest level of cleanliness and consistency.

For anyone who is interested in creating a product, CoValence is most certainly worth considering. They specialize in small batches (as small as 1 gallon per formulation) and low minimums. They assign a Development Strategist to work with you from conception to reality, and they offer loads of support, including a Training Center.

When it comes to choosing the perfect product line for your Spa Business, the possibilities are endless. There are already a variety of products to choose from, or you can get creative and dream up your own.

(This information and much more, can be found on their website at www.covalence.com, however one thing you will not be able to find, is a list of their clients, they follow a strict confidentiality policy.)

Tidbits

“a small piece of interesting information”

Tidbits brings you news on products and vendors that we find either while attending industry events or through customer referrals. We picked those companies that have a reputation for excellent customer service, that offer something different or unique, and those we feel will add value to your business. If you contact any of these vendors please let them know you read about it in “Recent Developments”.

Stay tuned and enjoy………

At the fabulous Day Spa Expo this last February in Las Vegas, we met Mark Leonard from ChimeStone™. We share with you a press release with information on his unique invention:

“Corte Madera, CA March 2008 – Massage and other spa treatments relax, restore, and revitalize our clients, and when done well, keep clients extremely loyal.  A new product, previewed for only a few select industry leaders at the Day Spa Expo in Las Vegas on February 6, 2008, will give savvy spa owners and massage therapists an edge in earning that customer loyalty. ChimeStone(TM), created by meditation student Mark Leonard for his meditation practice, plays a choice of Tibetan bowl sounds at the beginning and end of a user-defined time period.  The ChimeStone itself is shaped like a river rock or massage stone, fits easily in the palm of the hand, and plays wonderfully rich-sounding tones recorded on ancient Tibetan bowls played by renowned bell-ringer Karma Moffett.

“Although I invented ChimeStone to enhance and encourage meditation practice, one of my friends who is a massage therapist here in Marin County became extremely excited when she saw and heard ChimeStone, and wanted it in all her treatment rooms as a very pleasant way to signal the end of the massage session,” reported inventor Mark Leonard. In fact, Mark reported that at the DSE, the Spa Services Director for one of the most well-known spas in the country placed a sizable initial order, and immediately initiated discussions to brand the ChimeStone with the spa logo for their retail store. “We are committed to helping spa owners throughout the world enhance their client loyalty through branding ChimeStone,” Mark explained.”

ChimeStone will be available in the early June timeframe. For more information, please email Mark at mark@chimestones.com or call him at 415-354-2388.

During a recent visit to Southwest Institute of the Healing Arts, located in Tempe AZ, for the unveiling of their Associate Degree in Spa Management & Leadership and their 300 hour Spa Director Certificate of Excellence we lectured on “Managing & Motivation Techniques” and “How Compensation Affects Everything”. We toured their facilities and I felt such great energy, this is the BEST campus I have visited, they have a very extensive program, from Yoga Teacher training program, Holistic Health Care Associate to a brand new building housing their Southwest Institute of Natural Aesthetics. The vision of KC Miller and her team is outstanding and I wish I could take a two year sabatical to immerse myself in all the classes they offer. Thank you KC, Linda and Dave for inviting us to lecture and be part of this exciting program. For more information on all their programs do visit www.swiha.com.

The newest trend and one that was started by KC Miller is “Toe Reading”. I had it done during my visit to Southwest Institute of the Healing Arts. I have to admit I was a little skeptical at first, but it was such an experience that I decided to write a story about it in my Spa Business Wisdom Blog, do visit it at http://resourcesanddevelopment.typepad.com/spa_business_wisdom

Featured Spa Property for Sale

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