New Year, New Opportunities

Last year was a time of economic uncertainty for most of us in the spa industry—the majority of spas saw revenue and spa visits drop, resulting in staff, and even facility, reductions.

The industry has experienced a shakedown after its explosive growth in 2007–2008, and, according to a May 2010 report on the U.S. spa market by Diagonal Reports, “Spas must now move into a more mature phase of their market development.” The data goes on to say that spa businesses must now control costs and offer the services that clients want, which are leaner and more maintenance-driven. “Convenience is the key word. Compact services are now in demand, and spas that offer the smaller price and smaller time packages to their clients are now expanding.”

Expanding coverage

The Skin Inc. magazine team is making several adjustments throughout its pages to help your spa meet its changing needs. Debuting is Spa Business Solutions, a unique business section that will be featured in every issue this year. This business section gives you the solutions you need to achieve your business goals and add to your bottom line. Every month will cover a range of highly focused topics that relate directly to marketing, retail, finance, personnel and business—the key elements of every successful spa.

We also are increasing our coverage of medical esthetics. According to the recent International SPA Association’s (ISPA) 2010 U.S. Spa Industry Study, medical spas continue to be the fastest-growing segment of this industry:

  • They reported a 29% increase in client visits between September 2009–March 2010;
  • 47% reported an increase in client spending during this same period; and
  • 60% reported a revenue increase.

Even if your spa doesn’t currently offer medical esthetic services, it’s crucial that you keep abreast of what is happening within this growing segment of the industry. So, in addition to medical spa coverage in each issue, we are introducing two new Medical Esthetics supplements that will be included with your March and August issues. A medical esthetics edition of the Skin Inc. magazine e-newsletter also is available starting this month.

A promising outlook

We hope our enhanced coverage helps with your spa’s business solutions, and would love to hear from you—drop me a note at [email protected]. What issues are affecting the way you do business? What information do you need to help your business flourish and rebound in 2011? By concentrating on the opportunities that are presented to us, this new year is sure to be a promising one.

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