APA entrepreneurs prove their savvy with new spa
By Neela Banerjee | AsianWeek
Long-gone are the days of valet parking at bars in San Francisco’s Mission District. Start-up parties featuring endless champagne and caviar are completely extinct. To top it off, the state of California is facing a $35 billion budget deficit. If the late-1990s were characterized by the swelling bubble, the symbol of the times nowadays is making that extra hole in your belt to pull it a little tighter.
But who says we all have to suffer? A few savvy Asian Pacific Americans are finding that this is the best landscape to flex your muscles as an entrepreneur, especially when you are selling services that do the body good. Business partners Ken Go and Galen Yuen have spent the past few years building up spabar, a high-end spa in the South of Market area of San Francisco that features the best of the best, and then some. With just a few more bureaucratic hoops to jump through for final certification, spabar hopes to officially open its doors within one month.
“Our concept was to build a world-class salon and spa. We look at every service as a primary service, that means that we looked at each area and did a lot of research on what makes a great massage great or what makes a great facial great,” co-owner Go explains.
Not only does spabar have some 20 masseuses, a team of hair designers and stylists who are ex-Vidal Sassoon educators and an esthetician who had her own school overseas on its staff, but its space is also available for others to throw parties. Thumbing their noses at the naysayers, Go and Yuen believe that theirs is the spa of the future.
Spa Junkies
Located on 2nd Street, between Howard and Folsom, spabar sits at the lobby level of a 94-unit condo complex. Go gives a loving tour of the space, pointing out the ecologically sound bamboo floors and fixtures, the six treatment rooms — which include a hydrotherapy room — and the limestone showers. The spa offers everything from quick chair massage to hot stone therapy and seaweed wraps. After Go and Yuen — who have known each other for the past six years — secured the space last year, they had everything completely gutted and redone.
Blue-grey lounge-style couches, lit from underneath, sit next to large windows which flood the modern space with light. The salon section of the spa features top of the line products like Bumble and bumble and Sothys. There is even an oxygen bar sitting off to one side.
Go, a native San Franciscan, says that neither he nor Yuen had any salon or spa experience. Go, who attended Cal State Long Beach, started in consumer finance out of college. He opened up a few of his own businesses in mortgages and contract underwriting. He went on to spend a number of years at Wells Fargo, where he was vice-president of risk-assessment. Then he jumped on the bandwagon and worked as a dot-com executive for six months. After that, Go decided to take a well-earned break and went on an extended vacation with Yuen.
“Galen is a real spa junkie,” Go says. “So we went to different spas in different parts of the world. Asia, Europe, all over.”
Go talks about a spa in Macau, attached to the best casino on the island, where one can pay $100 for 24 hours of luxury.
“When you get there from the airport and you are all jet-lagged, you go and there are these amazing marble showers with jets that attack you from all angles and then there are these three temperature pools and servants everywhere. There is a lounge area with private TVs where you can order food and drink and get mini-services like foot massages and manicures, and you can schedule your massages and treatments. And if you are tired, you can go into the sleeping room where they tuck you in with warm blankets,” Go remembers.
Returning from this world tour of spas, Go and Yuen found that they could not continue their experiences here at home.
“In some Asian and European cultures, spas are prevalent in everyday society,” Go says. “Spas are part of the daily health routine, you go there to treat yourself and rejuvenate your body. It keeps you healthy.”
Yet, even here in health-conscious San Francisco, the spa options for men were limited.
“When we got back to San Francisco, there really wasn’t places guys could go to get a really good massage,” Go says. “They are either too female oriented or they have one-way mirrors and gates and you have to get buzzed in, if you know what I mean. You can’t even get a real massage, even if you wanted one.”
A Positive Place
With a careful business plan and lots and lots of research, Yuen and Go launched the idea for spabar in 2000. But, Go explains, their idea has to do with much more than profit or beauty products.
“Since Galen and I are not experts — we are businesspeople — we needed masters in each of the areas,” Go says. “We went out and hired the best: massage professors, an esthetician who owns a school overseas. Eventually we are even going to have a little shoeshine stand right there [by the door] and we are going to have a master there as well. The person we are going to hire used to repair shoes for many years and she comes from a whole family of shoe shiners — she shines shoes, her kids shine shoes, they actually own the shoeshine stand at the Marriot.”
Go says that along with looking for the best in the field, he and Yuen want the place to have a positive feel, and true customer and employee service.
“Anyone who we come in contact with in the business, whoever walks through the door, no matter if it is a customer or the UPS guy — we want to offer them the utmost care and respect and that goes for all our employees as well,” Go says. “We offer them all the support that they need and then we think that education is really key. Which is why we have masters and mentors to teach the novices.”
Yuen, who admits being an avid spa-goer for the past 15 years, says the core customer service philosophy of the spa must stem from him and Go.
“That’s the breakdown in the spa industry. In a lot of high-end places, you actually get attitude from the people who are supposed to serve you,” Yuen says, incredulous. “Our customer service motto is that you should be welcomed like an old friend and treated like royalty.”
Go emphasizes over and over the importance of spabar’s philosophy, as one that both helps its founders sleep well at night because they know their employees are happy and is a good business model.
“Both Galen and myself, we wanted to create a place that we could both be really proud of and a place where the dollar would not be the bottom line,” Go says. “We wanted to create an environment that our workers would also be proud of and feel privileged to work at. It is also good business, because the positive-ness transcends to the customer. And I think it is really good business sense to be pro-employee, that is if an employee feels really good and privileged about working here — the industry is a small industry — so they hang out with the same people at different spas and salons and when other people are complaining about their jobs our employees will tell them about the great gig at spabar and how they are supported and how they have the autonomy to make decisions and please the customer — if that’s the case then other people in the industry are excited about us and then we attract a better pool of workers and we know people are happy.”
Party Central
Not only on the cutting edge in terms of spa philosophy, Go and Yuen wanted to offer everything they had.
“We thought we would take social gathering to the next level,” Go says. “From a business standpoint, if we are open extended hours, we can have an amazing place for people to share — just another service we can offer.”
Spabar’s unique design allows the front salon area to be turned into a dazzling event space at night, for private parties of all kinds. The reception area and styling stations are all modular and on wheels so they can be moved to open up the space.
“We found with event planners, they are excited about us since we have pampering services we can provide for the event,” Go says. “We have a private party that wants to come here for their sales team and we are going to incorporate services as well.”
Another APA entrepreneur, Catherine Chow, was one of the first to take advantage of spabar’s space for a recent trunk show for her forthcoming Hayes Valley store Azalea, which she describes as a low-cost boutique for people “looking to express themselves.”
“The show was amazing at spabar because the space was this new, raw space with high ceilings,” Chow gushed. “We had over 150 people and it was really successful.”
Chow went on to say that Go and Yuen were exceptionally supportive and accommodating, helping with lighting and any needs that she had.
“One of the reasons why I chose spabar was because it was great to see two Asian American men opening a spa,” Chow said.
Chow, who works in the hospitality business at the high-end Nob Hill Spa, finds herself in very much the same boat as Go and Yuen as she struggles to launch her own unique business in this economy. Chow’s boutique will also feature a nail salon, along with original clothes from local and Asian designers.
“The tough economy is the best time to open a business,” she said. “It’s the best time for negotiating, best time to look for good prices. And people are out there looking for value, too. People really want to buy unique things — or feel good — and people are going to pay, but you have to give them value.”
Magic Mirrors and Closets
Value is certainly what Go and Yuen seem to be aiming for. Top-shelf value. Yuen, who worked for The Sharper Image for 16 years, has brought some of his old tricks with him. In fact, Yuen opened 120 Sharper Image stores worldwide, and was responsible for overseeing construction and design, which helped him to design spabar.
But not only did he bring design skills, he brought technology as well.
One gadget that Go and Yuen hope to introduce soon is the video mirror. This mirror will be utilized at the styling stations for several reasons. One, these video mirrors will allow the clients to be entertained, giving them the ability to watch soap operas, check stock quotes or watch the latest DVDs.
“But the best part is that it will hopefully improve customer service,” Go says. “It also allows us to take a picture and archive their cuts and colors. We think it enables communication between the stylist and customer. For example, imagine you are sitting in amazing designer Rene’s chair and are willing to pay upwards of $100 for a haircut or color, and Rene is finished and asks “How do you like my haircut?” The first thing they do is spin you around and hold up the mirror and you try and see the back and you can’t really see it, so the video mirror allows you to see all angles of your head, looking into the mirror. The second part is that it archives. You might be thinking that Rene cuts your bangs too short but feel bad saying so — so next time you go back and you can look at the last haircut, and you can tell her to keep your bangs longer. No one’s feelings are hurt.”
Go says the mirror can also archive current events like the Oscars, so when people come in and want to look exactly the way some movie star looks, the mirror can just pull that image up.
“We want to keep introducing new technology with usefulness,” Go says. “Not just novelty stuff.”
Another idea is the magic closet in the massage rooms. This technology allows an executive to place his or her suit and shoes in a closet while getting treatment and have the shoes shined and the suit pressed, well, magically.
“I don’t know how it happens but it works,” Go smiles.
Now More Than Ever
As an APA entrepreneur, Go feels as though he is just part of a long tradition.
“There are a lot of Asians in businesses, families coming over from overseas and starting small businesses, little Mom-and-Pop stores,” he says. “But you know any time you strike out and try and do something new, there are always a lot of naysayers involved.”
His advice to up-and-comers who have a brilliant idea is to really do their homework and understand what they are getting into.
“Seek out a lot of advice from a good support network in the industry you are interested in getting into, professionals, realtors, business savvy people. Find mentors to help you out,” Go says. “We are fortunate in the Asian community because we look up so much to the elders. So use some of those elders and talk to those people who have opened up businesses before.
“Also, plan on it costing twice as much and it taking twice as long, so be well capitalized to be able to see the project through.”
Go is confident that spabar will be successful. Regardless of what the dark economic times seem to spell, he believes that this is the best time for people to pamper themselves.
“I think that because of everything that is happening now, in the world, people need us more than ever,” he says. “What we found out is after Sept. 11, that a sense of mortality has been brought about to people, and so there is a sense of “you are not going to live forever” and funny enough, the spa business is booming. People want to look good and feel good now. I think this is a perfect time for us.”
Spabar is located at 246 2nd St. (between Howard and Folsom). Check out www.spa-bar.com for more information. The salon is now open for appointments.
Check out www.azaleasf.com for more info on the opening of Azalea.
Reach Neela Banerjee at nbanerjee@asianweek.com.
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