We won a National Award for our Energy Efficiency

We entered a contest sponsored by Energy Star this past June. We heard from them recently and learned we were selected as one of ten small business across the country to be recognized for their energy efficiency. We were the only small business in the spa industry to have won this award. It will be announced nationally throughout the media on September 16th. We are very excited to receive this award. Just last night my husband and I listened to Barack Obama and I felt very proud to have completed this task especially after hearing him and Mr. Gore speak about Global Warming. Going Green has been a huge undertaking for my small business. Even working with NYSERDA and the US Green Building counsil, they are not set up to help the small business. If I didn’t have two family members who graciously worked on this project with me, this would not have been possible. My father has a long history, more than 40 years in commercial construction management and my brother is a structural engineer. Together with them we formed our own design team and researched almost every item ourselves. It was not easy and there were definitely times when we almost gave up. Going forward, with my experience I would like to help other small businesses to ” Go Green” . As I said to NYSERDA, there are many,many small business and together if we all made an effort, that would equate to a very big business with a major impact.

I was 20 when I opened Complexions Spa

My teen age son is going to be 16 years old soon and it’s hard to believe that I was only 4 years older than he is when I opened my business. The kids today have such a different kind of work ethic. It’s funny for me to see the 20 year olds of today and imagine if I were born later if I would have still opened my spa.

I remember it as if it were yesterday. We did not have the technology we have today to do research. I had to depend on trade journals, publications, trade shows, and traveling to do my research. When I recently built the new “Green” Complexions Spa for Beauty & Wellness, I not only used the previously mentioned resources but I also used the internet a great deal.

My research led to the development of my business plan. I had to figure out how big of a space I needed to design enough treatment rooms that would generate enough income. All of this was done with pencil and paper and a good calculator. From there I went to the bank and solidified my first business loan for $50,000. Because of my age and the fact that I had no collateral, my father had to co-sign my loan. He had a lot of faith in me and has always been my biggest fan. He taught me a great deal about working hard and doing what it takes to make things happen.

From there, construction started and we opened for business on November 27, 1987. Since then we have expanded 4 times and are finally in a beautiful new “GREEN” facility. It only took me more than 21years to get here but we made it and I love it!

A Day for Gentleman at Saratoga Race Course

This past weekend, we set up our Barber Spa just inside the front entrance into the Saratoga Race Track. I was there with Greg, our third generation master barber offering men’s haircuts, and traditional hot shaves. It was really well recieved and we had a line both days of men waiting to get an old world, traditional hot shave. The men loved it. We featured the Art of Shaving products which you can purchase from our website.

We were joined by Scott from Habana’s Cigar Shop on Central Avenue, Mark Thomas Men’s Clothier, Tri-City Luggage had a display of beautiful pen’s, Northeast Fine jewelry had an incredible selection of fine men’s watches, and there was even a sampling of distinctive scotches. It was really a nice assortment of fine things for men to preview.

It was great to be a part of this event. It was wonderful exposure for our Barber Spa and I was thrilled with the positive feedback and interest there was for old world fine men’s grooming.

We plan to do it again next year at the meet and this fall again down at Belmont Race Track.