Calvert Thompson started her spa just nine months ago and is getting a lot of business referrals from her positive reviews on Google Maps. Here we talk about other forms of word-of-mouth marketing, her desire to own a business that provides a life and not just a job, and her plans for the future.
Small Business Podcast: Hello everybody. Welcome back to Small Business Podcast.com. Thanks very much for joining us for another show this week. Well the last couple of shows we've been talking to small business owners who are using some online tools to generate marketing and business for their small business and one of the ways they're doing that is to work with some of these review sites like Yelp or Google maps or some of the other local sites where customers can review your business and we're going to be talking with Calvert Thompson. She is the owner of Calvert Rejuvenations in Virginia and she uses Google maps it draw business into her spa. We're going to talk to her today about that. So Calvert thanks very much for talking with us on the phone.
Calvert Thompson: Thank you for having me.
Small Business Podcast: Well, so let's talk about you as a business owner. First, when did you start this spa business?
Calvert Thompson: Actually about nine months ago. We've been open at this location since March of 08.
Small Business Podcast: Okay. And is this first small business you've owned?
Calvert Thompson: First small business. I actually started off as a one room operation in a doctor's office, all by myself. I was there for about a year and a half and it was just time to finally take the next step and to move on to step two of my plan and this was it. So we're now a three room boutique spa here nestled actually in the woods in Herndon, Virginia.
Small Business Podcast: Nice. So did you start this with personal funds or did you get investors or a loan or how did that work?
Calvert Thompson: Personal funds or lack therefore. I started off very, very, small. Whenever I would find something you know that I knew that I would need in the future on sale I would spend you know $30 or $40 here and there and by the time I actually ended up in the doctor's office I had a full aesthetician room suite purchased but I needed a little bit of time and I did the same thing for the year and the half I was there so that when I actually moved in to my three room space I didn't have a whole lot left to purchase and it wasn't as much of a big scary financial step as it could have been if I have waited to do it all at one.
Small Business Podcast: Are you in your own building or in a strip mall area. What is it like?
Calvert Thompson: Well, for lack of a better description. It's an office park of townhouses basically. We're in a two level townhouse. We have the ground floor, [2:18] trail. There's a stream out back. We have our own little balcony just like everybody else does on the ground floor. So it looks as if it's a town home neighborhood that's been converted for office but it was in fact built as an office space. It's called Sugar Oak Office Retreat and it really is what it sounds like. We have our own private wooded drive and everything.
Small Business Podcast: So now were you nervous when you started this business or were you comfortable enough of what you were doing in the doctor's office? Does this felt like it was pretty comfortable next step?
Calvert Thompson: Doing it initially before I actually moved again I would say that yeah, I was very comfortable. I had my client based. I kinda gotten my feet wet again. Slowly I just took small step by step so in that sense I feel very fortunate that I was able to do that. Once I got started and now an employer of four people, there's more at stake. There's more pressure. Of course, keep my staff busy in sharing my philosophy and my message if you will those things that helps me foster a good loyal client based. Sharing that message with my staff is, I wouldn't say difficult but I know how important it is both for the success of the spa at large and for my individual employee. So I find that to be something that I not struggle with but think about a whole lot, put a lot of effort into.
Small Business Podcast: Yeah, basically making sure that they portray the same attitude and I guess the customer attitude toward those people that you would.
Calvert Thompson: Yeah, that absolutely and bringing it down a little bit from bringing the level of talk down to more of a ground level of you. Well I know you go into a lot of spas or even doctor's offices and there's pretense there. It doesn't' sound like you're really talking to a live a person. They have their spiel. They have their [4:22 sale pitch] and certainly my vision and the vision that I'm helping pass on to my employees is that of really a community. You know I welcome people to the Calvert Rejuvenations community and its that almost family environment that I think has led me to be very successful and certainly extremely comfortable in my work environment, in the spa here and that's one what sets us apart but two, it makes other people comfortable as well and when they're comfortable they come back.
Small Business Podcast: Did you always have the idea of being a business owner or is it always something you've wanted to do?
Calvert Thompson: No. Actually I was a music major in college. I was a vocal performance major and I wanna be a famous actor and a singer and upon entering my senior year of college, gosh, that's not really something that I want to do. I love to sing. I love to act. But it's not something that I want to put career type pressure on because I don't think I would love it and searching and searching for ideas of what I could do to give me the flexibility to pursue that but freely it dawned on me one day. You know I've always had a knack for massage. I always tell people how I learned to drive. I used to bribe my dad to let me steer the car when I was 10 by giving him neck massages and so senior year the light bulb went off and I said you know people do actually have careers as massage therapists. So that began my journey and as soon as I enter massage school and started learning just a little bit about how to run a practice or even just how to approach clients I thought, oh, yes, this is what I need to do and it was then that I started my acquiring of goods and other things that that would lead me to where I am now.
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Small Business Podcast: It's probably a different party. I mean I know a lot of people go through whatever industry they're going to get into. Some people love that industry but other folks say I wanna do this for myself. Did you see that from your classmates in your training? Did you see that you know some people are designed to work for somebody else? They have no interest in the hassles and the headaches and everything of a business but you must have seen something in yourself and said you know I wanna take that a little bit further and actually own my own livelihood.
Calvert Thompson: Yes. I definitely have a good background for both of my parents are entrepreneurs. My mother has her own business
working from home actually for I don't know 20 years. She's a consultant. So I had examples both of good business practices and things that will make you successful and then also examples of what not to do and I think seeing that from the time I was I was young it just engrained that in me, as you were saying when I got into school, yes. Pretty much every massage therapist as they exit massage school they all think they're going to have their own business and you find very quickly who. You have to be wired for it. It's extraordinarily demanding but you still have to be a fantastic therapist and have great customer service but you also have to have brain space. I like to say [7:30 laugh] for you know the hiring, firing the not like you fire people but you know the business side of things and I think you have to be extraordinarily organized. So if that's not something a way that you describe yourself then likely owning your own business is going to be probably more stressful than its worth.
Small Business Podcast: Well, let's talk about how you're marketing and we'll talk about the Google maps reviews and such but what's the main source of your new business these days?
Calvert Thompson: The main source in new business hands down is going to be word of mouth. It's not too hard to get if you're going to [watch] you do and it's free. So of course I'm sure you'll ask any business owner and that's probably going to be their number one most appreciated to most valued and valuable marketing source. Secondly, its Google maps hands down.
Small Business Podcast: Are you asking people that do come in how they found you and they're saying Google maps?
Calvert Thompson: Yes.
Small Business Podcast: How about the reviews? I think in our email conversation before we did the interview you said you have 12 reviews that bring in a lot of business for you, are they all positive reviews?
Calvert Thompson: They are. I have 12 and I think actually maybe by this time 13 five star reviews on Google maps. Some of them solicited from me. You know somebody coming out and saying, oh, that was the best you know whatever. You know I would really appreciate it if you could share you experience with google.com and I welcome them through it. I show them you know you'll go to google.com. If you don't have a log in I'll show them how to create a log in and you know its labor intensive for them but you ask clients who you know really want to share their stories and they're more often perfectly willing.
Small Business Podcast: I think it's a good idea that you actually walked them through because that's probably you know likely before you say, would you mind giving us a review but then never really follow up on that. I think it's great that you actually show them how to do it.
Calvert Thompson: You have to or its not going to happen.
Small Business Podcast: Yeah. Have you considered at some point anybody who's in the business long enough is going to get a negative review of some sort, have you thought about how you'll kind of react to that or what you might do about that?
Calvert Thompson: Yeah. I've thought about it briefly. I know there's not a whole lot you can do about it as far as putting a lot of energy and thought into it. I don't know what worth there is but yeah, I have thought about it probably first and foremost I will contact the client to have that discussion with them. It would really depend on the content of review. With some saying if you know say we had a bad day, we booked somebody and then they went home because they waited for 20 minutes you know let's say, worse case scenario that were to happen. There's nothing I can really do about that. So in that case I would probably just call the client, apologize you know find a way to kind of make amends and see if over time they would either remove the review or what have you. But the neat thing about Google maps if that if it's inappropriate or it's false you can flag it as inappropriate. I believe Google will actually go and remove it for you or it will show up that it was flagged as inappropriate. So I think there are a number of ways around that.
Small Business Podcast: You know there was some news a few weeks ago. A lot of people were talking about the fact that florists were getting a lot of negative reviews from competitors and things like that. Do you monitor your competitors in the area for their reviews as well?
Calvert Thompson: Yes. I do. I take a look probably once a week at my Google maps. I also go through my web hosts. There's a web statistics feature and you can go and you can see which website or even actually the whole URL path that visitors to your websites have taken. So I go and I review those websites and it's funny. Not a lot of people I see anyway in my perception are really taking full advantage of Google maps and Yelp and Yahoo local or things like that. Things that are free. Though its free it still is going to take some effort from you, the business owner to really make that work for you.
Small Business Podcast: And did you come about this just because you're an internet user and you saw this or did somebody actually come in and say or you realize one day that somebody was finding you that way.
Calvert Thompson: No, actually from the very beginning. Yeah, I'm a Google person. I always typed in you know flowers, Reston for example. That's just how I search and so I found that spas were coming up that way and I looked at their listings and figuring out you know was it dynamic that it catch my attention. How did I get higher on the list? You know that kind of thing. So from the very beginning I submitted to Google my local listing and the same thing for Yahoo and the same thing for Yelp.
Small Business Podcast: A lot of local businesses still don't even have websites. Spas for whatever reason seemed to be better at that. I get certificates for my wife and they have a pretty good websites. The ones I've seen loves small business owners though plumbers, electricians and that sort of thing still don't even have a website it seems.
Calvert Thompson: That's mind boggling. You asked me in the beginning where are my business located. I am not visible from the street. Most people when they come for their appointment either they had no idea this office park was back here, its acres of wooded land on the border of Reston and Herndon in Virginia. There's no way you would you would guess that there is a stream and woods and benches and like a park back here so I have no street visibility. None. I don't have walk up traffic. Nothing. So without my website I am truly invisible.
Small Business Podcast: Are you doing any other search engine optimization to get listed just in the regular search engines for your website?
Calvert Thompson: To be honest with you I'm learning that what that even means. I'm doing it very slowly. Through my web host there's a way you can go into settings and change what searchable keywords are linked to your website so in that sense I think that's what that means, what's that optimization.
Small Business Podcast: And a lot of people are still getting, like I've said, in their websites they love doing this but just being able to be listed if somebody searches for Reston spas and be it high strength although maybe now Google maps is the first thing that comes up and so you see it that way.
Calvert Thompson: I think it is.
Small Business Podcast: Okay.
Calvert Thompson: I think it is. You don't even have to have a website to be on Google or Google maps or Yahoo local. I don't think you even need a website. You just go and submit your business information and they popped granted if you don't have a website they're not going to be able to click on your name and get more information, they'll just see your address and if you have any reviews.
Small Business Podcast: And I think there's a way to claim your business within Google maps too. Did you have to go through that process?
Calvert Thompson: Yes.
Small Business Podcast: Okay.
Calvert Thompson: Yes. It's easy. You literally claim this, you know click claim this business or you know is this your business and yes, and you create a log and then there you go.
Small Business Podcast: Alright, just a couple of last questions here. What's your end game in terms of do you see yourself opening up additional locations or growing, what is it for you?
Calvert Thompson: You know it changes a little bit everyday. I think right now in terms of, I think we've all seen what super big business goals can do to a business and I think if your goal is to be ever growing its not going to happen. I don't think it's sustainable. I think I may at some point expand beyond the three room spa but really I would like, actually a colleague of mine puts it really well, I like to own a business not just own a job. So if I could get to that point even if it's just my little three room operation that allows me an honest stable but relaxed and healthy life then I would be very, very happy with that.
Small Business Podcast: I think a lot of people and I love that and I've heard that phrase before that people open a small business but basically they have just gotten themselves their own job, they own their own job rather than business. What do you think makes the difference? Does that mean hiring employees and no longer doing the massage yourself or what does that mean for you?
Calvert Thompson: Personally I won't ever give up massage. I won't ever give up skincare or the body reshaping, [16:05 containing stuff] that we have. I love it as a practitioner but I would like to be able to step outside of the practitioner role to my liking. You know I'd like to be able to step in a couple of days. I want to see my regular clients but like I said earlier on the interview it's extremely hard playing both roles to not be able to go in that working meetings, not be able to invest a lot of time in making phone calls and finding the right advertising opportunities, that kind of thing because I'm seeing clients which I loved. It's a battle. It's either taking care of my baby, my business or I'm taking care of my baby as my clients and it's an interesting dance that I'm learning right now.
Small Business Podcast: Have you gone to the point where you've hired people that you can take a day off here and then if you want to?
Calvert Thompson: You bet. Yes, I have. Thankfully. I am so grateful. I have a fantastic team. I have two very talented, very highly educated, just lovely aestheticians and an equally fantastic massage therapist who all of whom really get what I'm trying to do. They really understand what I try to achieve as a practitioner and two of them are actually clients so they definitely know what it is to be a Calvert Rejuvenations client and so it was very easy for them to sort of fall into the step and take ownership of their [17:32 book]. I'm very lucky. So I do get a day off here and there.
Small Business Podcast: Good to hear. Alright. Well listeners you can go to calvert rejuvenations.com and if you're lucky enough to be nearby in Herndon, Virginia then maybe you can stop by there but also take a look at how Calvert is using Google maps and reviews to generate business as well. So Calvert thanks very much for your time today.
Calvert Thompson: Thank you so much. It was fun.
