Over the course of the current COVID-19 crisis, I have covered a variety of shutdown-related trainings —whether it be about marketing opportunities to turn to (or avoid!), necessary leadership pivots during times of crisis, contingency planning, or spa business continuity, all of my recent teachings have orbited around continuing your spa business during times of struggle… but this week is different. This week, what we’ll be talking about is reevaluation.

During a time of financial paralysis, it’s understandable to feel like you have to be on a hamster wheel in terms of having to pour all of your time into marketing, learning new skills, client retention, and e-commerce in order to maintain your spa business— but what many spa owners are missing is that this is the perfect (and perhaps only!) time in your life in which you will be able to reevaluate not only how you have been running your spa business, but also if you want to continue at all.

How Spa Business Owners Measure Success

This week, I’ve realized that spa owners are currently split into two camps: the first is spa owners— some of whom including social media marketing clients of mine— who are succeeding in keeping their spa business running via a combination of e-commerce and innovative digital marketing. This camp is chugging on full-speed ahead and has no doubts about wanting their business to continue on through and after this pandemic.

The second camp consists of a combination of previous clients, friends, and acquaintances in the esthetics industry who have messaged me both personally and via my spa owners-only Facebook group to say, “You know, Kirsten, this shutdown almost couldn’t have come at a better time for me.”

Why? Because, over the years, their spa businesses had become this entity that had almost, in their words, “spiralled out of control”; the forced physical shutdown of non-essential businesses has given them the chance to step away from their processes and goals and go, “Wow; maybe it’s time to reevaluate how and why I’m doing things.”

From my experience of working with spa business owners as both a business coach and a digital marketing strategist, I have seen that the majority of spa owners’ goals are altruistic: the majority of people in the esthetics industry go into it to connect with people in a way that helps with their self-worth. That being said, money as both a motivator and as a measure of success can’t be ignored; money grants us autonomy, diversified options, and a sense of status. As people, we often hinge our feelings of success and fulfillment on wealth and the accompanying status symbols that wealth brings to the table (such as our house, car, vacations, or size and/or location of our spa business).

Why Periodic Reevaluation is Essential for Personal and Professional Growth

Why periodic reevaluation as an entrepreneur is so vital is because, when you are first starting out in the esthetics industry, choosing money as a success marker quickly changes to, “How much money do you choose to be your success marker?” Without taking the time to reflect on how your personal and professional goals may have changed since you started in the esthetics industry (whether that be a year, ten years, or even thirty!) you can be left feeling aimless, burnt out, or as if you’ve “lost your mojo” because you no longer have a firm handle on what will make you feel motivated and fulfilled. 

Another topic that occasionally gets brought up during talks with my coaching clients is the fact that, in today’s society, we often consider what we can flaunt on social media a marker of success— even though that’s an (oftentimes) inaccurate display of our everyday lives. Australian artist and entrepreneur Leonie Dawson, for example, flips this flimsy success marker on its head by being unabashedly modest and imperfect on her social media while still being wildly successful.

So what does this all boil down to? The fact that, like every other aspect of our lives, our professional (and, in turn, personal) goals will in all likelihood evolve over time— and that evolution needs to be acknowledged in order to successfully move forward as a spa business owner.

Why Acknowledgement and Reevaluation Can Be the Shake-Up Your Spa Business Needs

During a time of standstill, like now, one question ranks high above the rest: “If I could restart my spa business, what would it look like? What would I do the same? What would I do differently?”

This can come in the form of:

• Would I still operate as a spa team? (Or, if operating solo, if you would choose to start out solo again.)

• What do I expect my earning potential to be? What earning threshold makes me feel fulfilled?

• Would I do it all again if I had the choice? If so, what is my main motivator?

• Would I still operate within the same niche or would I change and/or diversify my services?

• Would I change anything about my current processes? If so, what?

Why are these important to ponder? Because, as an entrepreneur, there are inevitably times when business will slow; there will be times when things get hard, and when things get hard motivators like money or status symbols won’t be there to motivate you. Instead, lead from:

• What can I do to provide solutions to myself, team, and/or clients? (4-day work weeks, niching, team-building connections or dream courses/designations, 

• What intangible, personal motivators can I draw from to keep myself motivated? (Such as time for loved ones, exercise, prayer, healthy cooking, regular long weekends and vacations.)

• What opportunities does entrepreneurship grant me that I’m grateful for and that makes these hard times worthwhile in the long-run? (Freedom, flexibility, or impact)

All of this is food for thought and to make you consider that, even if you feel rooted in your ways, that you can alter your spa business for the better on the other side of this— and that this standstill is your golden opportunity to do just that. How you determine success is, of course, up to you; but, if you do choose to measure success monetarily, I strongly recommend that you watch your financial metrics with renewed closeness following this pandemic. After all, now that we’ve experienced the worst-case scenario we now know the importance of keeping a pulse on our finances!

If you want help to further clarify your spa business’s direction, feel free to reach out today to schedule a coaching call— and, as always, be sure to let me know your takeaways from this week’s Spa Business Break!