Massage Santa Barbara

It's about a bodywork business named, "Relax."  The owner of Relax, Rick Sharpell, calls his space a "massage office", not a spa or worse yet, a massage parlor.  The article points out how Sharpell steers away from the spa atmosphere, instead opting for an atmosphere that attracts high-powered businessmen.

"In the reception area of Relax, there are no mini-Zen gardens or terry cloth spa slippers, just some Ansel Adams-inspired photography and a water cooler."

The encouraging news that I took away from the article is that even with the current challenging economic situation, Sharpell is still busy.

"So far, the financial turmoil has been a zero-sum game for Mr. Sharpell’s bottom line."

But the current financial situation has affected him in one way.  He reports that before he had his appointments scheduled further out.  Now he has more last-minute requests.

"The schedule is still filling up, but at the last minute. 'I get a lot of people calling and saying, ‘Can you fit me in in an hour?’ ' he said. Normally, if the answer were no, clients would say they’d call ahead next time. Now people are pleading for special dispensations, to be squeezed in whatever the cost. 'When they call, there’s an urgency,' he said. 'But they don’t want to plan ahead — it’s like they’re waiting for some piece of information that’s going to tell them something.'

Seems to me that the moral of the story is that if we can offer clients something more than nice smells and new age music, we may be able to ride out the economic storm.  (Whew!)

Read the original article here:  At Massage Office, Business Is a Chart of Wall Street Nerves