3 minute read
Boutique spa thrives in the new normal
FIRST-TIME entrepreneur Celine
“To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much. The most optimistic I can get is just to break even. I even took out a loan in case my business does not do well in the first few months. But I was really amazed at how the beauty and wellness industry has gone back from zero during the pandemic to a thriving business these days,” she said.
Just over a month in operations, her very own hotel spa brand, Soothe Wellness Spa, has become a buzzword among hotel goers and visitors. The boutique spa opened March 4, 2023. It is located inside the Holiday Inn Hotel adjacent to Robinson’s Galleria Mall and the Crowne Hotel.
Gonzalez is no stranger to working in hotels. She previously worked at the Heritage Hotel after obtaining her degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management from the University of Santo Tomas.
Like any other beauty and wellness business, Soothe Wellness Spa offers beauty services from head to toe—from therapeutic massage to nail services to minor aesthetics services like facial and eyebrow microblading, except for hair services. The boutique spa is open 7 days a week from 12 noon to 12 midnight.
Most hotel guests are foreigners who are generous and cordial to the staff, especially to massage therapists. Mall access makes it even strategic for mall goers to cross over to the hotel to destress after hours of strolling and shopping.
Gonzalez said her masseuses are all TESDA-trained with skill certificates. She plans to hire more therapists as high demand for the service heaves her current staff drained.
“But before setting off, I always remind them to be mindful of their surroundings. Safety first. You’ll never know when there will be a time when a guest can get a bit rowdy or maybe a bit rough. So I tell them to look for the nearest exit, in case situations like these happen. So far, none of these worries have happened yet. And we have a guarantee from the hotel operator that we will always be protected,” she said.
The spa is on a hiring mode, particularly for nail experts who can also do lashes and simple facial procedures. Gonzalez realized how hard it is to keep skilled people, nowadays. They get pirated and sometimes move on to better jobs, which is actually a good thing for them.
That’s why for specific aesthetic procedures, Gonzalez personally handles the clients. She enrolled into a microblading training herself and does the procedure to clients on scheduled sessions.
“It’s difficult to invest on skills. You pay for the training and then they leave, bringing with them the skill set you have provided for them,” she said.
Blessed with three equally pretty daughters, her fourth baby, she said, is her spa business.
Like raising an infant
“It’s like raising an infant and see it growing into a mature person. You experience the same birthing pains, similar growing pains. To nurture your business is also akin to taking care of your kids, you have to be patient and caring,” Gonzalez said.
The most challenging for her in setting up her brand was not the financial worries. As she already made peace with herself that she is ready to spend and face the consequences, success or otherwise, she contracted a neurological affliction that limited her movements inside the home and to special visits to the hospital.
During the thick of preparations for her hotel spa, Gonzalez became afflicted with Bell’s Palsy—a neurological disorder that causes paralysis and weakness on one side of the face.
While the affliction was not severe, she refused to go out as the disorder left her with slightly uneven facial structure and uncoordinated eye movement. It took weeks for her to recover, all the while, errands for the business were piling up and she missed the spa’s target opening supposedly set for February 2023.
The layers of stress she was dealing with could have made her condition even worse. Good thing, her eldest daughter is a physical therapist working at the Veteran’s
Hospital. Gonzalez underwent therapy at the hospital for several weeks simultaneous to having more therapies at home, supervised by her daughter.
She admitted it was a dark time for her. Just when she was able to manage her emotions and start out a refreshed life after her husband died of Leukemia three years ago, another crisis was barely bearable.
Picking the fragments of her broken confidence, Gonzalez rebounded with renewed optimism for her family and her business. She made up for the time spent sulking and crying while recuperating.
She learned to manage her time in a manner her physical body could best allow, so as not to overwork herself as she also owns a nail spa franchise in Fairview.
“This is when I realized that relaxation is as important as working hard. We need to pause and breathe. What happened to me is an eye opener. Never take our health for granted however noble our goals are. The doctor said my condition was purely a result of a stressful life and I needed to slow down,” she said.
She runs a nail spa franchise a few blocks from her house in a subdivision in Fairview. She closed the first branch during the pan-
