Once upon a time… baby products were full of harmful ingredients,
and unfortunately, many still are… not a fairy tale for bath time.

For decades, the formulating industry quite simply didn’t conduct
the research necessary to find and remove harmful ingredients
from baby care products - the technology wasn’t there.

Not only has the industry now mastered the capability of formulating
natural, healthy products, but can now do so observing
environmentally conscious practices as well. Hooray 2009!

You can now provide better skin care for your child,
while ensuring a better world for their future.
Parents know best… Tiny Pores!

Tiny Pores Baby Body Products are made with the total health of your child in mind.  Our products are pure, simple, and most importantly – healthy!

 We are proud to be a “green” company, creating safe and nourishing products for your baby while remaining environmentally responsible for a better earth in the future.   

Our products are certified vegan, paraben free, phthalate free, never tested on animals, free of synthetic fragrances, and are 100% in compliance with Proposition 65.  And best of all, they are created in America in a solar/wind powered facility. 

Better Products - Better Business Practices - Better World!

When Avonelle Edwards, of Southwest Florida, was a young girl, she used baby oil as a suntan oil. She was always health conscious, so when she first became aware of the need for sunscreens, she would always read the label. She didn’t like what she saw. It felt like choosing the “lessor evil”. Did she want damage from the sun or from the chemicals? Now she was on a mission to come up with a sunscreen that didn’t contain any potentially dangerous chemicals.
In 1976 Avonelle came upon a homemade suntan oil on the beach of Acapulco, Mexico. She loved how she tanned darker than ever before, but never sunburned. Within a few days her skin was moist and dewy with the most beautiful golden tan she had ever had. Avonelle took the suntan oil home to Florida in an old mason jar. With the oil almost gone and no way to get more, she began analyzing it. After six months of testing, she came up with a suntan oil that was chemical free. She made it in her kitchen for her own use and to give to friends and family members.

When she became a widow in 1996, Avonelle found herself with nothing to do and asked her son for advice. He said, “Mom, why don’t you put your suntan oil on the market? Everything out there is full of chemicals. It’s time for an all natural suntan oil.” She listened and so Mexitan was born.

Mexitan suntan oil went on the market in 1997 in Naples, Florida to a “sold out” crowd. Everyone loved it and back orders piled up. Mexitan has continued to be a best seller in Southwest Florida. Eventually the product line has expanded, including the first all natural sunscreens without any harsh chemicals (now available in SPF 8, 15, 30, and 50). Avonelle, in addition to developing the Mexitan suncare formulas, used her artistic talents to paint the watercolor artwork used on Mexitan product labels, such as the above lady on the beach.

Realizing that consumers everywhere are in need of Mexitan’s products, but not desiring to grow the business further herself, Avonelle sold the product line to Ron and Sandra Kleier, owners of Mexitan Products, Inc., in August of 2004. She continues to be an enthusiastic supporter and valuable advisor for the growing Mexitan business. Ron and Sandra are excited to bring their years of retail, marketing, and healthcare experience to Mexitan Products, Inc., and are now accepting additional retailers for Mexitan’s unique and demanded products, including Skedattle deet-free mosquito repellent and Tropical Sands branded products.

Variations in the spa business make it an interesting possible venture for a person looking to go into business for themselves. A spa can be a day spa, a resort type spa, a hot tub distributor and a spa attached to a hotel. The spa can include hair care, massage, nail care and body care. Your interest and the money you have available will be factors in choosing which business you should pursue. The Internet is an excellent source for finding what kind of businesses are for sale and where they are located. A potential buyer can also check out this same question with solid business brokers. By doing this, the buyer can quickly get a feel for what is available and the capital needed to complete the sale.

The other way to get into the business is to start a brand new business. This will cost somewhere near what you would pay for a similar type of spa business, except for the value of their existing clientele. The advantage to the existing business purchase versus the brand new start-up is the existing customer base and the immediate cash flow. There are many types of spa businesses and the cost of the one you would like to own will depend on the type you choose. A resort type spa for example will probably cost far more than a day spa or a distributor of spas. The services that you offer will also show up in the cost of the spa. Service usually means the need for employees to provide the service. Employees have an on going monthly cost that does not go away whether you are busy or not. Other services may be equipment dependent and therefore you have the equipment cost and the maintenance expense.

A distributorship will have its own unique costs and expenses. A show room is almost mandatory to run the business correctly. You cannot sell spas without demonstrating them. This will entail a building set up to do just this and a different set of employees to pull off this type of business. Salesmen and people persons are going to be important factors in all of these businesses. Solid sales people are a necessity in selling spas to the public. This is a luxury item, not a necessity of life.

One way or another you will need to come up with the total price. If the current owner is involved, be prepared to pay a premium for the business. Most owners have a cash price and a higher terms price. The problem with this is can you afford the business and still have enough capital to run the business. If the answer is yes, then all is okay. If this is not the case, maybe the potential buyer may need to pass for the time being. Knowing when to pass by an opportunity may be just as important as making the decision to buy.

Maybe in this business, you can select a less costly avenue to get into the spa business. You have several ways to go and if one road is closed then there may be another way to go. The point of this is do not strap yourself financially to buy a business and make success more difficult or impossible to obtain. A buyer must make realistic judgments. Viewing these decisions through rose-colored glasses can be a serious error.
Conclusions
The multi-faceted spa world offers several types of businesses to consider owning and running. Some take a large capital commitment and some are far more reasonable in their money requirement. The choice is yours based on your interest and the money you can bring to the table.
An area not previously mentioned is the franchise spa company. This area should be looked at as a possibility. There are some advantages to being connected to a spa company with a nationwide reputation and advertising campaign.
Financing in this business category is not much different than what is needed in other business purchases or start-up cost. Some versions are capital intensive and some do not take anywhere the same money commitment. Finding the right business for you in the correct segment of the industry will take study and comparing the chances of a successful ownership.

The suggestion is to talk with business brokers to see what they have for sale and the money needed to make the purchase. They are a great source of good information and current trends or developments. The experience they have and the sources they can call upon will be of help in getting answers to your questions. Knowing answers will help you make far better decisions and thoughtful changes in your plans.

Estheticians, nail technicians, cosmetologists and other beauty specialists are always in demand in various spas around the country. Whether it is for the launching of a new spa or staffing a spa, that has been in business for sometime but is enlarging, spa professionals are highly sought after, even in locations teeming with people such as enticing warm islands or ski resorts.

The U.S. Department of Labor has projected more job opportunities in this rapidly growing field for aspiring or current beauty professionals. The U.S. Department of Labor predicts that career opportunities for those who work in the field of personal appearance should increase by 14 percent by the year 2016. Full-service day spas will drive much of this growth.

Visits to spas are not normally determined by the shape of the economy. One spa expert states “People may not splurge on fancy vacations or a new car, but they faithfully knead, scrub, and exfoliate their stress away at beauty salons and day spas.” More and more Americans are realizing the necessity and affordability of a luxurious spa.

Facials, massage, waxing, body treatments and skin exfoliation are some of the luxurious services offered at spas. These services increase the demand for estheticians in spas, in locations from malls and department stores to cruise ships. Health clubs, hotels, sports organizations and medical clinics are also in need of estheticians. The demand for health-related treatments is also driving up the business for more traditional beauty services such as expert cosmetic application before a special event. The following jobs are all in high demand: hair stylists, colorists, massage therapists, make-up artists, nail technicians, and other cosmetologists due to the expanding spa world.

A spa industry labor shortage does not mean potential employees can be unskilled. Skilled spa specialists with hands-on experience are always needed in the top hotels and resorts. Whether working in a boutique or five-star resort, spa professionals are highly skilled specialists with expertise in their field and specialized training from an accredited beauty school. Spa professionals are also expected to be able to build and maintain a top-notch clientele and must have the people skills spa employers have come to expect of spa and beauty professionals.

Contemporary spas have advanced tremendously since the primitive spas that were known as healing sanctuaries and social centers. With more and more consumers embracing the spa experience, it has become the fourth largest leisure industry in the United States. Going to a spa is now a way of life for many, a mini-vacation, a stress releasing experience, and a health-and-wellness journey. Are you a spa enthusiast? If you enjoy going to a spa, why not become a spa professional?

Courtesy of: Effective Student Marketing, Inc.

Home Spa Parties: Beauty spa concepts are becoming very popular among home parties, be it a bridal shower, a baby shower or just a tea party. Each guest is pampered with a massage or reflexology session while drinks and snacks are floated around.

Corporate Meetings: Businesses are beginning to offer spa treatments to their professionals at special business meets during their stay at a hotel or resort. Beauty spa concepts are extended by corporate organizations to the area of performance incentives and perks.

Spa on The Move: Most places where people are in transit, such as airports and train stations are being equipped with latest spas for travelers in transit to relax and refresh, before they carry on with their journeys. Beauty spa concepts are also getting onboard trains, planes and cruise liners. It is not surprising to find luxury trains with fully equipped spas that provide various body treatments and massages for a relaxing and memorable journey.

Gifting: Spa gift vouchers or certificates are becoming very popular. Spa gift certificates can be easily and quickly purchased online. They may have no time limit and can be transferred to anyone. Beauty spa concepts in the form of spa gift certificates can range from a particular treatment such as a pedicure, a whole day at the spa or an overnight stay, depending on the amount you can spend.

Eco-friendly Spas: Beauty spa concepts also include spas with an environmentally friendly approach, right from the very materials that their building structures are constructed, to the interior furnishings. There is also a special emphasis on conserving resources like electricity by installing auto shut-off equipment.

Contributing author: www.hbconnection.com

So how do fish treatments work and how do they aid in enhancing both wellness and beauty? Spas store small tropical fish called Garra Rufa, also known as doctor fish, nibble fish, Chinchin Yu, Kangal Fish and Turkey Fish, in warm pools of water or hot springs. These fish thrive in hot water from 15 degrees to 43 degree water and are used for various reasons such as for foot, facial and body treatments as well as for the natural treatment of skin disease.

The fish, as many spa goers say “kiss the skin”, ridding it of all affected and dead skin areas, leaving the healthy skin untouched to continue to grow and repair. The process is both painless and strangely wonderful, leaving behind a unique pleasant tingling sensation. Skin is left smooth, glowing and looking healthier. Although, also used for individuals suffering from Psoriasis, fish treatments are not a cure for the disease but a temporary treatment cure which can aid in preventing symptoms if repeated on a monthly basis. Nonetheless, there have been some individuals who claim to have been completely cured of Psoriasis after undergoing fish treatments. The fish treatments are also recognized as treatments utilized to release fatigue, increase blood circulation and aid in relaxation.

So why not immerse yourself into a hot spring or fish pool, or enjoy a foot, facial or body fish treatment before a massage, and experience a treatment like no other. This strangely unique and wonderful feeling cannot be described in words and will make you return every few months to take advantage of the fish treatments principal purpose and function, to protect and beautify your skin.

Courtesy of Spas at Health Spa Guru

image by kanko*

I love drinking tea and have been drinking more of it than ever over the last few months, ever since I learned that it can do wonderful things for my skin. I’ve learned that most teas are a great source of antioxidants and are a tasty way to stay hydrated and flush out toxins from the body. I also discovered two lines of tea, Teavana and Sipping Beauty, that are so much more delicious than teas I had been drinking, because they make more interesting blends and the quality is better. They might even have more beauty benefits (although I can’t say for sure).

In light of what I’ve learned, I’ve got a beauty guide to tea for you with info about the beauty benefits, ways to use it directly on the skin, tips for making an excellent cup of tea, why loose leaf tea is so much better than tea in bags, and recommended teas. Even though the weather is getting warmer, take time for tea. Whether you drink it hot or ice cold, your skin will thank you.

Beauty Benefits

What we put into our body is reflected in how we look and feel.

Antioxidants

Teas generally contain lots of antioxidants, which are very good for the skin, says Dr. Christine Gonzalez, who is a health coach and integrative pharmacist. Antioxidants help prevent the aged appearance of skin that’s caused by environmental stress from things like the sun’s rays, cigarette smoke, and pollution. Studies have also shown that antioxidants may protect us from cancer, infections, toxins, and cardiovascular damage. (Teavana Kuki Matcha Green Tea shown at left.)

Green, white, black, and rooibos teas, and herbal infusions are all rich in antioxidants. Christine says that green and black teas have about eight to ten times the amount of antioxidants found in fruits and veggies. Green tea has more antioxidants than black. Rooibos has more than green. White tea has the most, because it’s the least processed, youngest tea. Personally, I don’t like caffeine so I prefer green and white teas, which both have much less caffeine than black tea, and rooibos (also known as red or red bush tea), which is naturally caffeine-free and still has lots of flavor.

Hydration

Drink up! Staying hydrated can ward off under eye circles, reduce puffiness and bloating, make eyes look brighter, and help keep skin smooth, elastic, and less prone to blemishes. Teas with no caffeine, like herbal infusions and rooibos, are hydrating and count toward those recommended eight eight-ounce glasses of water to drink each day. Like water, they flush out toxins, and improve circulation and blood flow.

However, teas with lots of caffeine, like black teas, are diuretic. That means they actually dehydrate the body so you need to drink even more water or caffeine-free tea to compensate. Black tea can have as much or more caffeine than coffee or a cola. There’s some debate about whether green and white teas are hydrating, because they contain caffeine but much less caffeine than black teas. White tea has about one percent of the caffeine in a cup of coffee. Green has about five to ten percent. (Teavana Frutto Bianco Pearls White Tea shown at left.)

Tea on the Skin

Teas can also beautify when applied directly on the skin.

• Rooibos can be used as an all-over toner, and especially around the eyes, to reduce puffiness and redness. Green tea can also be used as a refreshing toner. These are best made in small batches and refrigerated.
• Cool bags of teas with caffeine make good eye compresses. The caffeine in them reduce puffiness and under eye circles.
• You can also slather yourself with tea by using some of the many great skin care products that are made with tea. Eco-friendly JUARA incorporates tea into many of their products. Some of my favorites include the Tiare Jasmine Tea Body Milk (a light-yet-rich lotion that’s made with white, black, and green tea extracts, and smells amaaaazing) and Sweet Black Tea Lip Treatment (a lightly moisturizing treatment that doubles as a lip primer).

An Excellent Cup of Tea

The way tea tastes can vary a lot due to the quality of the tea and how it’s made. Here’s how to avoid making a bitter tasting cup of tea…

• The Tea. Start with a high-quality tea. While tea bags are convenient, loose leaf tea has the best taste. The tea in tea bags are essentially the dregs that fall to the bottom when sorting higher quality, loose leaf tea. See below for more about loose leaf tea vs. tea bags.
• The Water. Resident tea expert at Teavana Cassandra Kimbler says it’s important to start with good water. She says freshly drawn, filtered cold water or spring water are best.
• Temperature. Don’t overboil your water. She says that strips water of oxygen and thus produces a flat tasting tea. She recommends removing your kettle from the heat once it comes to a boil or slightly before.
• Brew Time. She says a common mistake in brewing tea is that most people don’t pay enough attention to how long they brew their tea or realize how much it affects the flavor. Green and white teas, which only need to be steeped for a minute or two, can taste “off” when steeped too long. If you want a stronger tea, use more tea instead of brewing it longer. Definitely keep a timer on hand to avoid overbrewing. I really like that Teavana provides brew times with their teas.
• Don’t Stir the Pot. Stirring tea while it steeps tends to produce bitter tasting tea.
• The Right Tools. I highly recommend the Teavana Perfect Tea Maker, which makes it very easy to make a very good cup of tea. Just drop in the tea leaves, steep, set it on top of a mug, and then the tea drains down without a single leaf falling through. Check out this to see how it works. It’s quite cool.

Loose Leaf Tea vs. Tea Bags

As I mentioned above, tea bags are convenient. But the quality of the tea is inferior to loose leaf teas for many reasons. Cassandra informed me that the tea in tea bags are what’s called “dust.” It’s the waste that falls from mesh screens when sorting loose leaf tea. Sometimes the dust is from lower quality tea to begin with. The paper used for the bag can also interfere with the flavor of a tea.

Most bag teas contain leaves that are broken into small pieces, which exposes them to more air and causes them to go stale faster and lose flavor. She says that the small size of a bag doesn’t allow the leaves to diffuse and steep properly. If you really want the convenience of a bag, she recommends popping some of your favorite loose leaf tea into empty teabags, which you can buy from places like TeaVana and health food stores.

Recommended Teas

Some of the best tasting teas I’ve had are those from Teavana and Sipping Beauty.

Teavana

Teavana makes a seemingly endless array of flavorful teas. They blend wonderful ingredients that have many health and beauty benefits. I like that many of the teas contain fruit, like the Imperial Acai Blueberry White Tea, which contains blueberries, acai, and black currant, and Fruta Bomba, which is a blend of green and rooibos teas with rope papaya and pieces of peach. I also adore the spicy blends like Haute Chocolate, which is red Rooibos tea with cinnamon, cardamon, ginger, and cocoa. They’re some of the most unique blends I’ve ever tried. The company also donates one percent of their profits each year to CARE, a group that provides funds to projects that benefit the people of the countries where the teas are grown.

Sipping Beauty

Sipping Beauty only has six teas; but they’re all beauty oriented. Their antioxidant-rich Forever Young is a yummy blend of organic red bush (rooibos) tea, cocoa, vanilla, peppermint leaves and flowers. I also love Multi Beautimin, which is supposed to boost your daily vitamin C with ingredients like strawberries, kiwis, apple pulp, rose hip fruit, and hibiscus flowers. They also have teas designed to detox, help you lose weight, and sleep better (though not all at the same time).

Courtesy of : THE COVETED

The first thing you need to do is evaluate your current marketing program. Evaluate what is working and what is not. Figure out the actual cost versus the benefit of each type of marketing you are doing. Did the postcards work better than the radio ads? Did the free media attention from the grand opening get you lots of new customers? It’s easy to get sold on a particular advertising option, and one often forgets to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. If you signed a long contract for an advertising option that did not work, cancel it, if you can.

Don’t Underestimate Email Power

When you take your customers information, you should be taking not only their mailing address, but their email address as well. You may want to start a monthly email newsletter about your spa. Highlight a new procedure. Remind everyone that summer is coming, and that they need to get in for those hair removal treatments quickly. An occasional “Daily Specials” e-mail will allow you to respond to a lull in bookings by sending out a treatment special for the time slots you have available that same day.

Cross Marketing

Visit the health food store, jeweler, or the organic store and create a marketing program with them, offer discounts at each others stores. Remember, no one has too many customers, they will be happy you stopped by.

In the past many spas had a lot of success by cross marketing with hair salons. Just as long as your spa dose not offer any hair styling services, and the hair salon dose not offer any spa services, this can me a real great relationship that the two parties can really benefit from. Also make sure to give all the hair stylists in the hair salon that you are cross marketing with really good discounts on your services. This will get the hair stylists at the salon really excited and enthusiastic and your spa. Most hair stylists have a long list of clients that have been loyally coming to the hair stylist for years. These clients usually have developed a good level of trust with the hair stylist, so if the stylist makes a positive comment about your spa services to the client, you can be almost positive that this client will check out your spa the next time they are in the market for spa services.

Technology Power

When you opened your spa you most likely purchased a bookings management system. Are you using it to its full potential? These systems often allow you to run custom reports where you can see which treatment rooms are being under-utilized, and which clients haven’t been in the spa in a while. It may be time to check out the software vendors website to remind yourself of other productivity features which can help with your marketing efforts.

Network Locally

You need to be known in the community where you do business. It is important to contribute to local charities and events. If your customers are Generation X, then sponsor a little league team. If your customers are primarily baby boomers, you may want to be involved with local charities. Remember, most people do business with people they like. So networking gives you an opportunity to connect with many different people in a short period of time.

By using these tips, you should be able to grow your spa to that next level. You can’t just hang out a sign and expect people to run in, you are going to need to actively market your spa and be constantly aware of which options are working and which are not. Your marketing plan should be well documented and should always be analyzed and constantly evolving to keep you a step ahead of the competition.

by: This article is courtesy of Omlas. Omlas is committed to providing superior lasers, light-therapy medical devices and spa equipment at very competitive prices, for a wide variety of applications. The company is a global leader in the development of lasers and light-therapy medical devices.

Before you begin your dental spa journey you need to sit down with your staff and make sure that everyone is on board. Without the support of your staff, this new and exciting adventure just will never happen. When talking with your staff you need to ask yourself the following question, “How can my staff benefit from this new practice environment?”  Just to help out a bit, dentist to dentist, here are some of the answers:

·         The dental spa environment is just a better place to work. Patients that are more comfortable and less anxious are easier to treat. The person in the office that tends to bear much of the brunt of this patient anxiety is the staff. Removing even a small amount of patient stress will make your staff’s day better and more productive.

·         The more your staff knows and learns, the more productive they become. The more productive they become, the more important they are to your practice. The more important they are to your practice, the more they can and probably should earn. Just a suggestion…..

·         Dental Spa Cosmetics has a very generous Affiliate’s Program that can be shared with staff. By distributing some of the commissions to staff you can obtain their support for this new program almost instantly.

·         Applying makeup is just fun.

·         Doing something different is just fun.
Let’s Start the Sourire Experience!
Step 1.  An Attitude Change
Whenever you start something new there will be naysayers who will look at you as if you are bit nuts. Why does a dentist need to have a spa? Things have been going pretty good so far, why do we need to change? (So says your staff). Well, the answer is pretty simple. If things have been going so great that you don’t need to change, you won’t. But I’m guessing, with over thirty years of experience, that things can always be better. More pleasant days, more appreciative patients, more relaxed treatment visits, more engaged staff and maybe even more money and increased referrals. So, if you are looking to make a change you need to have an attitude adjustment.

Start thinking that this is the start of a new and exciting adventure. That today is the start of a new practice; a new Dr. (put your name in here). Start being a leader and get your staff involved in the planning. Ask for their help but make them understand that there is gold at the end of the dental spa rainbow and that they will participate in that financially and emotionally every single day.

Step 2: An Environment Change
Now this may be a bit tougher. You and your staff need to sit down and take a look at your office. Every nook and cranny; every chair, wall, floor and ceiling. You are what you look like! You do tell a book by its cover!

A whole bunch of clichés but they are clichés for a reason, they’re true! You never see a spa that looks run down, depressing and, well, like a typical dental office. They are always places to come to in order to relax and get rid of the day’s stresses. Your office needs to represent your new philosophy and appeal to your patient’s senses. It needs to look beautiful, smell good, sound relaxing, feel smooth and silky (this is a tough one) and taste, yes that’s right, taste great. We’ll get to that later on but suffice it to say that if you have a place to put out coffee and teas, you can also provide some nice tasting cookies, cakes and muffins or even better, fruit.

The first place to start making a change in your patient’s dental experience is in your reception area. First impressions do count. Spend a couple of bucks to make your office a pleasant and inviting place to visit. Normally this only involves minor changes but whatever changes are necessary will pay you back multiple times over the coming years.

Start with your reception area.

Does it look and smell like a typical dental office or is it more like a spa reception area or your very own living room at home?

Do your patients have to sit and wait in a depressing “waiting room” or are they welcomed into your home with only a minimal time waiting for their appointment?

Dental Spa Cosmetics can help make a change almost immediately, with very little cost, with our Aromatherapy products, Air Fresheners and Essential Oils.

Wonderful DVDs of the Great Barrier Reef (Coral Sea Dreaming) are also a cost effective way to spice up a boring treatment room. If you have a TV in your reception room why show depressing scenes from CNN when you can run a beautiful, calming video. You can also add baked goods from The Sourire Bakery as well. They smell and taste great and will be a wonderful addition to your new spa practice.

Treatment Room Decor

Once they leave your reception room do you have a comfortable place for the patient to sit prior to the start of treatment? Is the room private? Can you recreate a spa type feel while maintaining the true treatment requirements? This can even be a treatment room but some minor changes may be required to make it look more like a spa room that an “operatory”.

Start using Spa Music throughout your office space to appeal to your patient’s sense of hearing. We’ll talk later about introducing Souriretm Stress Management but for now replace the elevator music with simple spa music. Of course, you can get the kind of CDs were talking about online at our website, http://www.dentalspacosmetics.com.

Step 3: Introduction of Spa Services
Ok, you’ve had an attitude change, your office is looking and feeling like a spa and you’ve started to appeal to your patient’s five senses. That’s right. It’s now time to think about the actual treatment process. The Spa Concept will only work if you can work as you normally would….sounds simple but introducing this kind of practice change needs to fit into the daily functioning of your office. You need to continue to practice in an efficient manner while at the same time making your patient’s feel like they are in a totally different world…the spa world.

Souriretm Cosmetics and Stress Management was designed to be used efficiently during a typical patient’s visit. I would, therefore, like to break this introduction of Souriretm Spa Services into three separate steps. You can start by introducing Spa Services into just one of these aspects of dental treatment and then, when you and your staff are comfortable and patients are begging for more, introduce the remainder.

1.    Avant Traitment (Before Treatment)

a.      The spa feeling started in your reception room with fresh coffee and tea, homemade cookies and cakes from the Sourire Bakery, comfortable seating, wonderful sounds from Sourire Music Selections and beautiful visions from Coral Sea Dreaming each appealing to one of the five senses. Or something like that to start. Remember to start slow and don’t burden yourself or your staff with too much at one time. All good things will come in time so be patient and start slow. It’s real easy to make small changes such as adding fresh coffee and tea and then progressing to fresh flowers, homemade (don’t really have to be homemade, just look homemade) cookies and cakes, fresh fruit and the like.

b.      Think like a patient. They are sitting drinking their coffee or trying to read a magazine and they hear their name. The adrenalin starts to flow and the hair on the back of their neck rises. They envision some bizarre kind of dental torture akin to the vivid scenes in Marathon Man or The Dentist. Let’s change their minds once and for all! Start thinking like a patient and they will respond by treating you as a person and not just another dentist or dental office. Be concerned about their fears and concerns and make every effort to divert their attention away from the things they fear and towards things they want and need. Remember, to your patient the actual dentistry is probably the least important part of the visit…..

c.       Instead of seating your patient on time, take them in 15 minutes early and seat them in a treatment room (or another Spa room if available) and begin the Souriretm Experience. This unique process involves as much or as little as you feel comfortable delivering. Let’s give you an idea of what we mean:

                                                              i.      As your patient is seated make sure that the room doesn’t smell like a dental office. Use Sourire Aromatherapy or Essential Oils to mask the odor and set the stage for a more spa like experience.

                                                            ii.      Give your patient the option of either a Stress Reducing Biofeedback Experience with our Stress Eraser or Sourire Meditation.

1.      Biofeedback has been used for years to assist people in learning how to relax, fall asleep more easily or just provide a moment of reduced anxiety. It is a learned experience and a technique that can be taught and learned by almost anyone. The benefits are enormous and go way beyond the dental visit. At this time, if your patient has chosen biofeedback, instruct them on the use of the Stress Eraser provided by Dental Spa Cosmetics. (Another shameless plug I know) and watch relaxation occur before your eyes. You can even provide a take home device (either on loan or as a sale item) to your patient to extend the treatment at home.

2.      If your patient prefers a meditation experience you can instruct them that you will be providing a calming meditation experience that will relax them and remove any anxiety that may be present. Place a headset on their ears (hopefully acoustic in nature to block out all extraneous noise) and insert the Sourire Serena’s Garden CD provided by Dental Spa Cosmetics. This CD starts with 10 minutes of meditation instruction and then provides an additional 50 minutes of pleasing and relaxing music.

3.      Last but not all least is the application of soothing, good smelling and skin appealing cosmetics to both women and even men. There is nothing more calming that the application of moisturizers and masks such as Sourire’s Spearmint Energizing Mask or our Mandarin Balancing Toner while sitting and listening to soothing, calming music. Is this a dental visit or am I sitting at a spa? Get the idea….

                                                          iii.      All of the above should be applied by staff and definitely not take away from treatment time. This is a Before Treatment experience designed to de-program your patient from the events that transpired prior to their arrival at your office (traffic, kids screaming, boss ranting and raving) and their preconceived notions of what they believe to be a normal dental experience and instead create a new paradigm, one of comfort and relaxation. The patient should enter the treatment part of the visit with a different attitude and a different level of expectation. It’s now time for you and your staff to meet those expectations by providing the next Step in the Sourire Experience.

2.    Traitment - During Treatment

a.      During treatment the Sourire Experience continues. Your patient can still listen to the music they were enjoying during their Before Treatment Experience and additionally have other types of Sourire Cosmetics applied to make this part of the visit more appealing sensually. Possibly Sourire’s Shiitake Green Tea Eye Gel or Gotu Kola Calming Gel, both designed to enhance the dental experience. You can also place our Gourmet Lip Balm instead of that yucky Vaseline used so often in most offices. After all, you’re not just one of those offices anymore!

3.    Après Traitment - Post Treatment

a.      OK. The visit is about over. You’ve drilled and filled and the patient has been listening to soothing music, smelling the wonderful fragrances of Sourire Cosmetics and they are ready to leave. It’s time now to let them leave with a Smile.

b.      Take a moment to apply either a moisturizer such as Grape Leaf Liposome Moisturizer or our Licorice Root Moisturizer. Take a moment to apply Mandarin Balancing Toner to provide a soothing and rewarding end to a great dental visit.

c.       As your patient is leaving, offer them a sample of our Lip Plumper. Every woman today wants fuller lips and what better place to find that then their dentist’s office?

d.      Now for both patient and staff, and even yourself, treat your hands to Nourishing Hand Crème to reduce the abuse caused by the drying of gloves and multiple hand washing.

e.      Provide your patients with a beautiful Sourire Gift bag with samples of the cosmetics used during their visit and possibly other products you feel they would enjoy instead of a typical calendar, pen with your name or a bobble head doll with your face on it. Ask yourself, which would you prefer and how would you react to such a gift. Would you talk about it at home with your family? Would you mention it to you business associates or friends at lunch or at a meeting?

f.        As they leave allow they to “spritz” themselves with one of our Sourire Fragrances for both Men and Women or apply one of our Smile Enhancing Lipsticks which were designed to enhance the tooth whitening process.

Step 4: Practice Benefits
 I would imagine that by now you can see the amazing benefits that will accrue to you, your staff and your practice by introducing the Sourire Spa Experience to your practice. Changing the way patients think about their dentist, their dental visit and their dental treatment will:

·         Increase referrals of patients looking for something better than what they have had in the past.

·         Reduce stress in your practice and your life making each day a bit better than the last and allowing for a more effective and efficient treatment visit

·         Reduce cancellations and disappointments dues to fear and anxiety

·         Create a more pleasant environment for staff which will increase productivity

·         Incentivize staff to promote spa products which can then provide passive income to the practice.

·         Send your patient home with a Sourire Gift bag so that they can become your Missionary, telling their friends, family and business associates about their amazing Sourire Spa Experience.

by: Dr. Ganz graduated from N.Y.U. College of Dentistry in 1970 and received his Prosthodontic credentials from Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center in 1973. Until recently he was Co-Chief of Implant Dentistry and the Implant Fellowship Program at North Shore University Hospital – Long Island Jewish Medical Cente

Well, now you really think I am crazy. I don’t think so. Some salon owners are crazy smart when it comes to making money and being successful. Some have figured out the right mix of booth rental and commission arrangements to make the shop run like a well oiled machine!

So, who are these owners?

I would like to profile one I am particularly impressed with. He is smart, talented professionally and financially savvy while having a heart and working hard to improve the lives and careers of his professional team. This is an amazing combination. I have listened, in the last 4 years, to many, many salon and spa owners. I have listened to those who work for both the commission shop owner and the booth rental owner and none have had the work and life ethic of this particular gentleman.

Mark Cottle, who owns Kaya Beauty in Henderson, Nevada, has no idea I am writing about him but that’s ok because he would just blush if I told him before I was done! Mark is a very talented Beauty Professional. He is a teacher, mentor and businessman. “I want my team to be successful” he says if you ask him why he is so comfortable when one of his professionals says they want to go rental, “any salon owner who doesn’t want to have their team “own” their own customers and do great things is scared of loss”. His confidence in his ability to groom great talent shines through in everyone in the shop.

You must remember, although I am a financial professional who created a solo beauty professional contact management software, I am also a very vain newly 50 year old women who hates any gray hair showing through and needs to be “blonde” although God gave me the good old Italian dark brown to work with! I am very loyal to some very talented professionals who credit Mark & Kaya for their success.

I am also finally getting my nails done and for a treat had a facial and massage on my birthday as a gift from my staff. What an amazing event, all at Kaya, the top treatment with great people, all loving what they do and making their work into an enjoyable career.

All of them, when asked what is important to the salon& spa owner say “ Mark cares only about the happiness of the client”, “If the client isn’t being taken care of by one professional in the salon, we all must understand and help them to find the right professional in the salon to work with”. Wow, what a concept.

Mark bought each member of his team a copy of the Redken sponsored Michael Cole book “A Little More off the Top” to read and study and discuss at future meetings for the group. I was lucky enough to read a copy and what a great book for all beauty professionals as well as any business person who lives with customer service as a crucial part of their career. Mark gave them the book with the goal of building success for each team member which in turn builds success for the shop.

Now I can’t tell you the financial formula of booth rental to commission and what the splits are and what the monthly fees are. I can tell you that all work to sell product, not “force sell” product to the clients, the front desk calls all clients of commissioned staff the day before the appointment (I believe this is too late, but that’s another client management story), and are super friendly helping out however they can.

When Mark said to me, as I commented on how wonderful his management style was and how unique he is in the marketplace, “If a client likes a professional’s work, they will follow them anywhere. Why shouldn’t I make the professional happy to be here so the client will be happy to be here? I don’t own the client, nobody does, but client loyalty to their professional is expected”. I knew then that Mark understood the fundamentals that most salon owners ignore or suppress for the sake of “owning’ the client.

Your professionals are you best and most valuable asset. As a Salon & Spa owner treat them right and you will have the beauty professional and their clients for life.

by: Diane Dutton, CEO of CK Systemz, home of Client Keeper Client Management Software and the Cosmo Success Kit for financial success of the beauty professional. Dutton is a CPA, MBA and author of ‘A Woman’s Ladder to Success

by: Zoltan Vargyai is the Owner of blondesoft.com that’s a provider of best spa management systems, salon management systems and salon systems.

Therapeutic massages and face / body treatments are some of the basic services that the spas offer. Modern day spas have developed different types of massages – Aromatherapy, Ayurvedic massage, deep tissue massage, lymphatic drainage massage, Neuromuscular therapy, Shiatsu and many more. These ancient techniques of rejuvenating the entire system by caressing the skin and kneading the muscles is performed by licensed therapists with extreme care. Remember! Each massage has its typical utility.

The spa treatment services for your facial and body skin involve deep cleansing, exfoliating, massaging, toning and moisturizing. These treatments remove the damaged epidermal layers to reveal younger, healthier-looking skin. Both facials and body treatments, cleanse the deep-seated impurities, stimulate blood circulation and hydrate the skin surface.

In general, spas prefer non-chemical and non-invasive procedures like Oxygen therapy, Photo facial, Vitamin peels, homemade oilbaths, skin peels and indigenous body scrubs. However, now that the effectiveness and harmlessness of TCA peels (the most prescribed skin peels by dermatologists and plastic surgeons) have been certified and proven to be the most effective, many spas are using these peels for treating skin problems. Equally effective at home as in spas, the TCA peels work real fast removing your dead skin, enhancing blood circulation and aiding the process of the re-growth of collagen and elastin. Basically, the tca peel is the single most effective and least invasive treatment on the market.

Considering TCA peel your “at-home spa treatment” will be no exaggeration, especially if you consider the lasting results it produces – changing your lusterless, dead hide for a more glamorous, youthful covering. Remember, the TCA treatment promises you emotional indulgence at a cost-effective rate.

TCA peels are on every hollywood stars skin rejuvenation program and they should be on yours also. There’s no luck in the glowing skin of the celebrities at the Oscars – its simple – spa treatments and TCA peels. It is also interesting to note that TCA peels are one of the most effective treatments for acne and wrinkles in current use.

David Maillie is an alumni of Cornell University and specializes in biochemical synthesis and manufactures various skin peels and acne treatments for doctors offices and medispas. He can be reached at M.D. Wholesale: Bestskinpeel.com

 by: Omlas is committed to providing superior lasers, light-therapy medical devices and spa equipment at very competitive prices, for a wide variety of applications. The company is a global leader in the development of lasers and light-therapy medical devices. http://omlas.com

Contributing author: Ann Knapp/ Geologix Inc. manufactures products using a proprietary formula featuring 34 natural minerals contained in the ancient sea water from the famous Michigan Basin — a concentration of minerals higher than that found in any known body of water in the world. Mineral Essentials focuses on spa, skin care, and massage products to moisturize and provide anti-aging protection for great skin. Mineral Essentials

Spa treatments are one of the menu-items that have not even been tapped into as a resource by the majority of individual practitioners as well ashealth spas of all styles and sizes.

While massage and to a good degree esthetics have matured so far that they are being accepted and understood as a solid part of every spa menu and a core service offered by the individual practitioner, spa treatments are still struggling to make their mark.

Spa treatments offer numerous advantages for clients, providers and for the spa business itself. Some of which are for clients that they pose an alternative to massage and a different approach to health and wellness altogether that utilizes a chemical rather than a physical approach. For providers they offer a rest from the physically challenging nature of massage and an opportunity to provide the client with more post treatment products that will extend the effects of the treatment. And finally the spa business itself for example can attract additional clients and renew client relationships more often with attractive treatments as well as expand the business with related products that help clients enjoy theirspa experience at home as well.

So while there are many reasons why spa treatments tend to be less requested, we would like to pick one in particular that is rarely addressed. One of the explanations we find why clients do not opt for a spa treatment and providers and front desk staff have a hard time recommending them is that they cannot relate on an emotional and cultural level to the services offered.

One fundamental reason is that the services were not designed taking local ecological, social and cultural existing and pre-existing conditions into account, but rather have been imposed as a concept from the outside, importing foreign concepts that evolved under different circumstances and foreign ingredients that need to be imported. These concepts will surface in menus as “a traditional treatment from Bali” in a Mexican luxury spa or as product driven treatment featuring “caviar” designed by a vendor and wrapped around their protocol.

Now while at first glance the appealing description and mouthwatering descriptions might seem attractive, upon closer examination there are some major flaws in the design. Ingredients, the verbiage, the philosophy, aromas, and especially the client concerns originated somewhere else and lack the connections to the local facility. The ideas first spark interest and a certain sense of attraction to the mysterious but than fall short of following through with a feeling of being grounded in the here and now and offering benefits that embrace the local environmental and cultural heritage.

There are some very concrete reasons to pursue an eco-centric approach. When taking the time to research local healing traditions, one inherits many years of refining regionally available resources to address locally prevailing ailments and concerns. While looking into nature’s plant systems one finds plants that have thrived on the local geological and climatic environment and retain substances and essences that can heal conditions that are a result of just that environment. In observing weather patterns one can address the seasons and the changes between them. And most important, treatments designed with an eco-centric approach are grounded and feel complete as they are deeply embedded in their environment.

Taking local conditions into consideration while designing spa treatments is not difficult and well worth the effort. Besides the relationships you will develop researching the local resources, the resulting understanding of local culture, flora and climate will give the spa treatments you design a completely different level of integration with clients, providers and staff.

by: Nicolay Kreidler, invests 20 years of business ownership and executive management into his consulting work . His initiation into the service and hospitality industry began with his professional career through the restaurant business as creator and owner of the largest whole food restaurants in Europe.
His transition into the spa world evolved during a personal journey to study healing modalities around the world. An accomplished practitioner of massage, watsu and yoga he teaches regular intensive retreats as well facilitating as spa training with Spa College