Today we’d like to introduce you to Bo Lorentzen.
Bo, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
We started with the belief that there is a need for a massage business focusing on quality massages at a reasonable price. The main concept is “all the massage, none of the fluff”, so we have removed most of the “spa” amenities, that customers are accustomed paying for, but really rarely use much.
We developed the concept by talking to friends and massage customers, one of the big time many brought up was the need for truly private rooms, not shared spaces with curtains, so we made individual rooms with doors, we also added ADA bathrooms with full shower option, as many customers like a shower after the massage. We also simplified the menu to keep things simple and avoid “nickel dime-ing” the customers.
Since opening, we tried Yelp, Local magazines, online magazines, Facebook & Google.
The sales pitch for online marketing is always something like “you determine how much business you want and buy marketing accordingly” turns out, one can sink thousands into Yelp and get only a few sales, Google resulted in people calling to create appointments, just to realize we were not the business they had googled. What a frustrating way to spend marketing funds. In the end, we are finding success with very carefully targeted online marketing.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
To be perfectly honest, we thought we had a great idea but were not prepared for how hard it is to market to the actual customers in this business. We opened August 2017 and had DAYS without a single customer. now about a year later, we are finally starting to have a group of regular customers, and more importantly, payroll is covered and so are business expenses… I would be lying if I said there was no room for improvements, there definitely are, but we are feeling great about where we are in the timeframe, and really looking forward to the next year.
One of the hard things about growing a massage business is that the “product” is people, our fantastic massage technicians, and you have to try to match the staffing to each day’s needs, If you buy too much product you end up paying wages for hours you don’t need.. and if you buy too little, you are turning customers away.
Please tell us about EuroMassage.
Putting it simply, we provide quality massages at a very reasonable price point, our main pitch is $60 for 60 minutes.
I’m very proud of how many repeat customers we have, and of the amazing staff, which we have managed to gather around the business since opening. truly the massage technicians are top people. Being Danish, I’m also quite proud of maintaining a unique pay structure for the massage-techs, where most massage businesses pay per massage, we pay hourly to attract higher quality employees.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
I don’t think I have a singular favorite memory from childhood. I was incredibly lucky, why parents really focused on the environment, they purchased a farm in the Danish countryside, and we grew up with space and animals around us. Later on, my parents purchased a sailboat and took a year off from work, they spend the year sailing down through Europe with the kids.
We all learned to operate the sailboat, and came away with tons of confidence that anything can be accomplished if you work hard at it. But the sailing also taught us, that one needs to plan carefully before executing a plan, otherwise boats have a tendency to get stuck on underwater troubles that are not clearly visible above water. Businesses work a lot the same way, and they are very much a case of “you don’t know what you don’t know… until you find out the hard way”.
Pricing:
- Swedish & Deep Tissue $60 for 60 minutes
- Add 30 minutes $25
- Buy 10 massages, $500
Contact Info:
- Address: 4619 Beverly Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90004
- Website: www.EuroMassage.com
- Phone: (323) 426-5730
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/euromassage/
- Facebook: http://facebook.com/euromassagela/notifications/
- Yelp: www.yelp.com/biz/euro-massage-los-angeles
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