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Finally, Cruea approached the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle. "To my great surprise, delight, and eternal gratitude, they said 'yes,'" she adds. In September 1993, she closed her private practice, "upsetting clients and chiropractors," and in December opened at the center. She negotiated all the contracts and signed the lease, hired six massage therapists (two of whom are still on staff) and worked alongside them. The concession is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and some weekends for major events, such as the annual flower and garden show.
The
Massage Bar opened at Concourse C in October 1994. Three years later, in
November 1998, Cruea obtained a second site, at the North Satellite,
which handles all of United Airline's gates. In between, in April 1997,
she also developed a site at Nashville International Airport. Not
All Are Lucky Although
these sites quickly proved to be successful, another did not pan out. In
September 1995, Cruea went north of Seattle and set up at Bellis Fair
Mall in Bellingham because the demographics looked favorable, especially
with so many Canadians coming across the border to shop. "But it
was a bust," she admits. "We were in and out of there in 6
months." The convention center wasn't a smooth stroke either, at first. "I had to do a lot of tweaking," she says. "It was the biggest learning curve." The first problem was locating at "a bad spot," down a hallway where not many people walked by. "It was killing us," Cruea recalls. But she had it switched to near the escalator, and they've been there ever since. She also had to change her hours of operation and wages. Cruea realized she had more people and paid more per hour than the business warranted. She cut back the schedule and pay structure to match what was coming in. "Some of my tweaking and changes didn't always make me the most popular person," Cruea confesses. "But there was an understanding that I had to consider the big picture. I would have gone under in the first 2 years, had I not made changes." And had she not been a fast learner.
Cruea
knew what changes to make because she was on the job all the time,
working 80 hours a week. "I did everything," she says,
"but I'm not a struggling startup company any more. I don't have to
work weekends or from 7 a.m.-to-7 p.m. unless I'm setting up a new
location. I have it structured now so I'm not killing myself." She does little on-site massage. Instead, she operates out of a home office, with administrative assistant, Lisa Cluse, and an operations manager, David Theobald, who travels to the sites, bringing them supplies, taking care of paperwork, and making evaluations. Cruea's mother, a bookkeeper, balances everything. A CPA does the corporation's taxes. Attorneys from the law firm where she once worked cover corporate, patent, and employment labor law and litigation. A consultant helped her work up a business plan for general growth. "I love crunching numbers," she says with a mischievous smile. But the fact remains that running a corporation is "a big responsibility." She still finds herself up at 3 a.m. worrying about something or brainstorming new ideas. And she doesn't lavish big paychecks on herself. "I don't have that Mercedes yet," she quips. She prefers to put the money back into the corporation to expand at other airports, which is "a very difficult process." Cruea's Massage Bar is not the only business that wants to get in. Copiers
and Competitors Cruea
is keenly aware that other massage therapists are approaching airports
in their areas. In the last 5 years, she has received some five hundred
phone calls from these enterprising therapists, as well as from business
people who have seen the Massage Bar and want to recreate the idea.
"They expect me to give them my blueprints. I can answer some
questions, but I'm not going to give away my business," she says
firmly. |
Within
months, Cruea realized it was a great idea but she needed a place that
was constantly busy, such as an airport. She spoke with SeaTac's
property manager, a woman whose sister was a practicing massage
therapist, and found that it made a difference that she already had an
operating business at the convention center, rather than merely ideas
and projections. "She got to see our whole setup, not just a
portable chair; also, the convention center people said good things
about us," says Cruea. Despite that, it still took 9 months to get
a "yes" from the airport management. 
"I
am happy to report that I don't repeat mistakes," says Cruea.
"Right now I have a very good formula so I can approach an airport
and tell them I can be open in 2 months, once I get the green light. I
have the core ingredients of a recipe, but I'm flexible. Because every
location is different, I know pretty quickly what needs to be
changed." For example, after tracking patterns, she altered the 8
a.m.-to-8 p.m. schedule at Concourse C to 9 a.m.-to-9 p.m. Since North
Satellite is busier in the morning, its hours are 7 a.m.-to-8 p.m. Both
bars are open 7 days a week, whereas at the Nashville site, the hours
are 11 a.m-to-7 p.m., and closed on Saturday.