Connecticut’s entrepreneurs go through fads as quickly as last season’s shoes get tossed to the back of the closet.
Robert Polito, senior vice president with Waterbury-based Webster Bank, has seen plenty of small business trends. In the mid-1990s there was a rush of small businessmen hoping to cash in by opening their own brewpubs. Before that, lots of entrepreneurs dreamed of successful frozen yogurt stands. Before that, it was bagel shops.
The big thing now? Spas.
“Everyone thinks they can open a spa,” he said. “But I’ve not had a very open mind.”
New spas have popped up frequently – and often successfully – around Greater Hartford in the past couple years or so, Polito said. But bankers like him have swatted down lots more less-promising loan proposals, too.
Leonardo Gugliotti, who opened up a Rocky Hill spa with his brother and father in October, said the market for spas has been strong for awhile and has a bright future.
More people are prioritizing indulgences such as manicures and massages, he said, and he expects the customer base to grow stronger.
“I’m looking forward to Generation Y to get a little older, have more money,” he said; today’s 18-19 year olds prize leisure time, and they’ll only spend more in the future. Men, also, are increasingly coming in.
“I have construction guys come in to get facials done,” he said.
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Franchise Fashionista
Trends like this get hot for a while and inevitably cool down, said Gene Fairbrother, lead small business consultant of the National Association for the Self-Employed.
Bagel and frozen yogurt fads were driven largely by a growing health craze, he said; they were seen as better alternatives to the standard donut shops and ice cream parlors.
Once people realize there’s money to be made, it becomes a herd mentality. The fastest-growing franchise of all time was also driven by health madness, Fairbrother said: Curves, a franchise of mini-gyms for women, was growing faster than the famously booming Subway sandwich shops in the early part of the 2000s.
“That was that hype, and that was that newness, and everybody wanted to jump on board — kind of like frozen yogurt ten years ago.”
Fairbrother said he hasn’t observed a big jump in spas specifically, but leisure-related services, like bed-and-breakfasts, are today’s big attention-getters.
Hannelore Leavy, executive director of the national Spa Association, said the spa industry in general has exploded over just the past decade.
“There is a lot of competition out there now. You see a day spa on almost every corner in the metropolitan areas,” she said.
The association only counted about 450 such businesses in the mid-1990s, but today’s market has anywhere from 12,000 to 16,000.
Medical spas, or places that do treatments such as chemical peels and botox injections, have also grown to 2,000 since they first showed up around 2002.
Nationally growth has leveled off, Leavy said, because the field isn’t as wide open as it was a few years ago.
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Business Styling
“It’s a very young business, but it’s starting to mature and starting to attract more sophisticated investors,” she said. The bulk of early entrepreneurs were manicurists or hair stylists who just wanted to run their own operations, but they didn’t necessarily have any business skills. Newer spa owners are now coming over from the corporate world — they have business experience and are more careful in setting up their companies.
Leavy definitely prefers the more level-headed approach to opening up new spa outlets. The Spa Association has compiled a handbook for starting one’s own business, the purpose of which is to educate aspiring spa owners on all the detailed planning and start-up capital required — and hopefully discourage a few people from getting in over their heads.
Some people think they can waltz in with $200,000 and open up shop, Leavy said, but in reality it’s a lot more complicated.
Most people see the serene exterior of the spa and think of it as a peaceful operation, but looks are deceptive.
“People need to realize what is involved,” she said. “They have no clue what goes on behind the scenes.”
