Coolest Companies: Massage Envy
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With all the stress of our wired world, Massage Envy's product - reasonably priced and easily accessible massage therapy to help bodies relax and recover - is in great demand, but even co-founder and CEO John Leonesio didn't realize just how big the demand would be. "We had been doing $3 million a year in massages," Leonesio says of his previous business, the Q Health Clubs, a chain he co-founded in 1990 and sold in 1999. Even though massage was a very successful segment of his business, Leonesio didn’t look at the possibility of starting a massage clinic until Shawn Haycock, the Q’s director of massage and co-founder of Massage Envy, encouraged Leonesio to look at the industry’s hot national growth trends. In 2002, 114,000 massages were given nationwide, and in 2004 that went up to 140,000, he says. When Leonesio and Haycock opened their first clinic at Loop 101 and Shea Boulevard, "we thought we’d do 400 massages our first month," Leonesio says. Instead, Scottsdale-based Massage Envy got 1,400 calls in its first month. "Within three months, we actually opened another clinic four miles away to help offload the demand." That was in March 2002. Now, there are 30 Massage Envy clinics open in 12 different states; 23 franchises in the Valley sold out almost as soon as they were offered to the market in early 2003, and about 50 more franchises have been sold around the country. The concept is driven by the desires of both the customers and the employees. "Massage therapists don’t like the business end, they want to do what they’re trained to do, which is to give massages," he says. Although the therapists may be able to charge more as independent contractors, many of them are willing to trade higher fees for the steady work and benefits that come with being a Massage Envy employee, he says. Meanwhile, Leonesio’s market research showed that most consumers thought massage therapy was worthwhile but that—at prices ranging from $60 to $80 an hour and about $110 to $130 an hour at resorts and spas—they couldn’t fit it into their budgets. Massage Envy, on the other hand, charges its 14,000 members $49 a month for membership, which includes one massage. Membership also entitles them each month to additional massages at rates that range from $42.50 for 90 minutes to $17.50 for a half-hour session. Says Leonesio, "The coolest concept is that we’re providing exactly what they asked for. |
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