Connect with Oakwell Beer Spa
- Website: https://oakwell.com/
- Franchise: https://oakwellfranchise.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/oakwell-beer-spa
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OakwellBeerSpa
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oakwellbeerspa/
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@OakwellBeerSpa
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@oakwellbeerspa
Contact me. Ask Questions!
- Send me an email here: feedback@doug.show
- Leave a voicemail: (406) 813-0613
- Join My Email list
Meet Oakwell Beer Spa Founders
Hey, what’s going on? Welcome to The Doug Show. I’m Doug Cunnington, and I have a great interview today. I recently went to a cool place called Oakwell Beer Spa, and Jessica and Damien are the founders. They left their corporate jobs and sold everything, then traveled for 14 months, which we’ll come around to soon. When they finished traveling, they created Oakwell Beer Spa. They had an interest in financial independence and entrepreneurship, Oakwell Beer Spa is kind of like a day spa with a tap room, so beer and wine and non-alcoholic drinks are available. I checked it out recently with my friend Rusty, and it was really awesome.
So welcome to the show today.
We’re excited to be here
And, uh, you know, I wasn’t quite sure what this was, and I, I get a lot of pitches, and I really, I delete like 499 out of 500. But I was like, “This seems interesting.” And I like to jump into a story right away.
Beer Spa Idea Abroad
So do know from my research that you guys were in Poland when you got an idea during your travels, so just tell me about that day
It was the middle of June. We found ourselves in a little town called Zakopane, Poland, which is in the Polish Alps. Uh, it was a rainy day, and we were looking for an indoor activity to do. So I pulled up TripAdvisor, um, you know, looking at museums, different things to do in the town, and a beer spa popped up, naturally.
Beer plus spa sounds really cool. Um, so we walked over. It was just a few blocks away from where we were, and 30 minutes later, we found ourselves soaking in a tub filled with hops and malt with a free-flowing keg next to us, um, that had cold Polish beer. There was a sauna. Um, the environment was, was quite rustic.
It felt like you were in a log cabin. Very appropriate for, for the Polish Alps. Um, there was a bed of hay in the room that you lay in after your beer bath. Um, and although it sounds kind of strange, it was really one of the most relaxing experiences we have ever had. And to back up, you know, the whole purpose of why we found ourselves in Poland and why, why we were traveling, um, is because Damian and I had just quit our corporate jobs, uh, as you said, and we sold everything we owned, and we headed off on a round-the-world trip, looking for interesting business ideas that we could bring back and scale in the United States.
Uh, so while we were in this tub in Poland, Damian fell asleep pretty quickly. He didn’t have a lot to drink. I promise, just a few sips. Uh, but he fell asleep, and in my head, I’m like, “Okay, we’re onto something here. Maybe not with the bed of hay, um, but this is a really cool combination, beers and spas.” So I ended up splashing Damian in the face with some beer water, and I said, “Hey, we’re gonna open a beer spa.”
So cool. And now is that in Poland or Europe and otherwise, like, are beer spas a thing, like more common or just like a standard thing?
Yeah, yeah. You know, beer spas are very popular in Eastern Europe. There’s a few in Poland, in, uh, Czech Republic, in, in, uh, Germany, in Hungary. Um, but it’s sometime it can feels like more rustic, more party oriented. Um, I think the wellness might not be the priority sometime. Um, on the other side, you’ve got as well wine spas in Spain, in France.
Uh, you’ve got as well those other day spas where there is still some sort of a social component or even, uh, a cantina in the middle of that, and people are drinking, eating, and then they go back to their hydrotherapy circuits or their wellness expert. So overall, uh, social day spas are a big thing. Beer spas are very popular, uh, and they have a very different approach than what we’re trying to accomplish here in the US.
But when we say very popular, I mean, there’s probably about 10 to 15 beer spas around the world. So popular, but at a small scale
It’s a thing, but not… Okay,
Another big thing. Yeah. Yes.
so yeah, not yet. So we’ll go over starting Oakwell. We’ll get into some of the, know, the challenges and mistakes and all the, I don’t know, the things that you run into when you’re starting a business, the, the growth from there, ’cause obviously we’re talking, so things, things worked out okay. But I know… I, I didn’t exactly know what to expect checking out Oakwell, so I went a few weeks ago to the location in Highlands Ranch, and there’s two. There’s one in like Downtown Denver, right?
Yes, correct
So the Highlands Ranch, uh, I showed up and I wasn’t sure, um… I mean, by that, I knew I wasn’t gonna be soaking in beer.
It was a little bit different. I was, like, a little bit unsure, and it was awesome. So I told you guys earlier, I was like, it exceeded my expectations. It looked like it was gonna be a nice time anyway, I’m a big beer drinker. I’m a beer judge and home brew beer, and as soon as we finish, I’m gonna ride my bike over to Left Hand Brewery, which is down the street, and have some beer with friends.
So I d- I actually do like beer, and the staff was super knowledgeable. The selection was good. Um, o- one thing is, like, I mean, I, I was gonna sit in a sauna in, in a warm tub, so I’m like, “Okay, I’m not gonna drink a lot.” It was also in the morning, so I was like, “Okay, I don’t need like a million choices. I need like one or two,” which you guys had plenty. And I was, yeah, just overall impressed with the execution, especially on the beer portion, ’cause it could be an easy thing to just have, um, a lesser selection, but there’s so many good beers around here. So I’m getting around to a question, which is you experienced this in Europe, but then you had to translate it to, you know, w- what your vision was and then the market that would be interested in it here in the US. So talk about, like, that, I guess, kind of portion where you were like, ” Okay,
Sure.
of an idea. Where do we take it?
Sure
turn it into what you have, um, here in the Denver area?”
Yeah.
Building the US Concept
So we were six months into our travels when we discovered our first beer spa in Zakopane. Um, and you know, as I described it, you have this bed of hay, you’re in kind of a log cabin type of scenery. So we knew that this, if just copied and pasted from what we had experienced, it would not work very well, or maybe just in a few touristy cities in the United States.
Um, but we wanted to build something that we could scale through franchising and that would work in, you know, a- across the US and all sorts of different markets. So, um, we really had to adapt and Americanize it. Um, but before we did that, once we settled on the idea of doing a beer spa, we decided to continue traveling and experiencing different spa cultures around the world, so we could really pick and choose the best of what the world had to offer and make it into what is now Oakwell.
Um, so we went to wine spas in Spain. We went to those, uh, giant spa facilities in Germany where everyone’s naked, it’s coed, you have saunas, you have pools, you have a restaurant. Um, we went to, uh, jjimjilbangs in South Korea, which are these multi-level spa facilities that whole families go and spend the day at.
There’s, you know, nap rooms, there’s cold rooms, there’s all sorts of different things. Um, we went to onsens in Japan. Uh, and really, uh, we’ve experienced so many different spa cultures. Um, but one of the biggest things that we knew wouldn’t work in the US, uh, is having a communal environment. So in a lot of places around the world, you are naked in front of strangers enjoying these spa facilities.
Damian and I are all for it, but most Americans are not comfortable with that. Um, so we decided to create private spa suites, which is something that you really don’t find in a lot of other spas. So we have completely private rooms, um, that are just for you and whoever you came with. You get access to your room for 90 minutes.
Um, they’re deep cleaned in between- 100% … each session. You know, cleanliness is a huge thing for Americans. Um, so making sure that it was a private and, and clean environment. Um, you know, there was a lot of other things as well from the decor. So all over the world you find different types of decor. Um, most every other, actually every other beer spa that exists out in the world has the log cabin type of vibe, and they all also have the bed of hay, which, you know, Damian and I tried the bed of hay.
We didn’t really understand the point of it, nor did we feel like it was super hygienic. I mean, I don’t know how much they’re, often they’re changing out this hay. It didn’t really add much to the experience for us. So we are the only beer spa that does not have a bed of hay, so I’m sorry for whoever was looking forward to that.
Um, and then we… One thing that we did want to keep though is having a communal tap room. So a lot of the spas, like the onsens and the jimjilbangs, you’ll have a restaurant or a canteen out where everyone can gather and socialize, have a beer, have something to eat, um, and can hang out there before and after the spa treatments.
And so that is something that we incorporated. Um, but we really spent another eight months traveling, um, trying these different spa concepts, and then during that time we were writing our business plan and creating financial models. So, uh, I remember, uh, like Australia in specific, it was, uh, my first time in Australia.
You would think I’d be enjoying the beaches and the kangaroos, um, but we were actually just inside an Airbnb writing business plans. We bought huge pieces of white paper, had them taped all over the walls. We’re mocking up, uh, floor plans, writing out our marketing plan. Um, so once we really settled on the idea of a beer spa, it, it really consumed us and took up a lot of our, our time while traveling.
So yeah, that’s a great story. I wanna jump off to so many parts of this, but I’ll go directly to, like, in the private suite. So I’ve been to a couple of, I guess it’s like contrast therapy, spa kind of thing. So they’ll have an infrared sauna and then a cold plunge, and there’s– they’re all over.
I went to one in Atlanta with, um, brother-in-law. There’s one around here. So tell us what is inside the suite at Oakwell.
Yeah, yeah. And so it’s a private spa suite. Um, I’d say lu- I mean, luxurious might be subjective, but it’s extremely premium. Uh, you get access to, uh, your own… How, how many square feet is that? Uh- Oh, it’s almost– Yeah, it’s like 200 square feet. They’re pretty big. Yeah, it’s pretty big. There’s a lot of space for you.
Uh, so there’s an infrared sauna, really to detox, let go everything, sweat as much as you can. It’s a pretty large sauna, actually, where you can lay, lay down, uh, be up to three people. Uh, of course, we encourage you to have responsibly your beer with you, and that’s fine. Uh, you know, I used to live in Finland and in Denmark.
And in Denmark and in Finland, they do drink vodka in the sauna, and the sauna is not, is not as low temperature as it is here in America. So, uh, you know, you can drink your beer or your cider. There’s plenty of water for you to replenish and refresh yourself. Then when you are done, we suggest you can take a cold shower to really shake up that system and keep your blood flowing.
Um, and this shower, you– I think you compared that to a beautiful Italian shower. Again, it’s, it’s very premium. Uh, and, uh, then, uh, the main event is this giant, I mean, you’ve seen it yourself, almost like a t- a tiny swimming pool, but it’s a giant tub, um, we call it an hydrotherapy tub, uh, that can fit up to three people.
It’s in, uh, stainless steel. You can lay down. You can actually sink yourself, uh, uh, into it. And in that, uh, no, you’re not bathing into real beer. It’s not Coors Light for Colorado friends. Uh, it is a botanical/herbal bath infusion, uh, made with, uh, beer ingredients. Hops, barley, uh, your kale juice, lemongrass.
We have different infusion that you have tried, uh, and those have a crazy impact on you. Hops and barley are full of nutrients, antioxidants, vitamins. Hops is a sedative. It really helps you to ease your mind, relax your body and your mind. We can, we can certainly help you to add some CBD as well. We can, uh, we have some sorts of a cosmetic minibar that helps you to elevate your experience.
Um, and you soak into this bath for about an hour. You have access to this room for 90 minutes. So 20 minutes in sauna, a few seconds in the shower, the rest of your time in your bath. Of course, you can keep having a bit of, uh, fun and easing yourself into relaxation with your favorite drink. Uh, we have room service.
Uh, there’s robes, towels, slippers. So we were a full day spa operation with a fun twist. We- with, you know, when you come in, it’s, it’s not your, it’s not your proper day spa with a well sound, an ocean sound. You’ve heard it. Not sure what time you went. In the morning, we have a, we have a… It must have been a bit of more like pop, high energy, bossa nova.
Then you switch into early afternoon with a bit of salsa and Cuban, uh, Latino music, and then night is more like jazzy. So it’s always high energy to, you know, to, to just show that a day spa was meant to be for everyone, not just a specific target audience, which often in America are targeted toward women
Mm-hmm. Very good. Okay, I wanna get into the business portion of this. So you guys quit your corporate jobs. Uh, what were you guys doing before? Give me a little educational background too
Yeah. Yeah. Do you want to start? Yeah. So, um, I actually studied neuroscience in school. I thought I was gonna be a research professor, so I did not grow up dreaming of owning a beer spa. Uh, but I ended up not getting into the PhD program that I wanted to, so I decided to quickly take some time off, join the corporate world.
My plan was to go back, um, and get my PhD. Uh, so I ended up, uh, getting a job with an IT staffing agency, a national company. Uh, started there very low as a, a recruiter, then worked my way into sales, eventually got into management. Um, and one day I, I was… This is in Florida, which is where I grew up. Uh, but one day I got a call from our corporate office, and they said, “Hey, do you have any interest in moving to New York City?
We have an office that is not doing well there. Uh, we want to offer you a year-long contract to move there, see if you can, um, you know, get the office back into shape, and then after that year, you can either, we’ll move you back to Florida, or you can stay in New York, whatever you want to do.” Um, I had never been to New York City before, but hey, I was in my mid-20s, early 20s at the time.
Thought it sounded like a neat opportunity. Um, so, you know, two months after I got this proposition, I found myself signing a lease for a 110 square foot apartment just two blocks from Times Square. Tiniest thing, s- smaller than even our private spa suites are. Um, and so yeah, so I ended up working for this company.
Um, you know, when I got the office, actually, we were the worst performing office. By the end of the 12 months, we were the top performing office, so I felt very accomplished. Uh, but two years into that contract is, or two months into that contract is when I met Damien, uh, who was also working in New York City at the time.
Yeah. Uh, I mean, we’ve always been very entrepreneurial. I come from an entrepreneurial family. My grandfather is a musician and had the, uh, luxury to live out of his passion, so he was very talented. My brother is, has his own, uh, law firm. My parents had their own clothing store. So I’ve always wanted to be my own boss, but I knew that I had to learn, uh, and make mistakes through, uh, as you would call it, corporate America.
Um, the company I used to work with were not big, and I had the opportunity to always act as a subject matter expert from day one, even when I was very young. I graduated from corporate finance. Uh, so, but never dreamed of spending my time in front of Excel spreadsheets. Uh, so mainly doing sales, marketing, and business development, uh, in the travel industry between the US, Mexico, and the Caribbean.
Uh, and then I made my way to New York City and, uh, uh, took over a position as a director of business development and, uh, sales and marketing for a tiny, little boutique, uh, travel company that was focusing on creating, uh, premium and luxury ex- experiences that you might think were impossible to put together, uh, with that budget at that point, which was, uh, a fun part for me as a wannabe entrepreneur.
So always wanted to be on bus, always wanted to be an entrepreneur. Uh, actually, I’ve always– we’ve always thought we were, but at what point do you quit? You know, it’s like, okay, I think I’m done. I- I’ve learned everything I could. There is not much. Right now it’s time to jump. It’s like buggy, buggy jumping, mate.
It’s there is nothing else to do, and that’s where y- you need, uh, guts. You need, uh, you need courage. Uh, uh, but, you know, when you’re young, when you’re mid-20s, it’s actually good to be clueless, uh, and, uh, and fearless. Uh, this helps you to really tackle the world and, uh, help, uh, to show to people that they, they can believe in you and, and, uh, that’s what we’ve done.
And, and, uh, and I will never, I think, uh, turn back and regret any of that.
Yeah. It’s like you have to be, like, foolish enough to try it, but, like, smart enough to pull it off, so
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah
Did you… Did either of you reach sort of like a burnout point at work, and you were like, “All right. It’s time to do our own thing”? suspect you guys were pitching business ideas all the time before you headed out on
Yeah
trip.
But just curious, like, like, “It’s time to go ’cause we wanna do our own thing,” or were you… It was a high pressure, too many hours, high stress, and you’re like, “I may as well work for myself” at that point? So
It definitely wasn’t a burnout. I mean, we had good work-life balance. We had great salaries. We were really enjoying our lives in New York City. You know, every night going to a different museum or cocktail bar, going to see a play. Um, I think it was just a matter of not feeling professionally fulfilled.
Um, we would always be trying to take on new projects, new responsibilities. We were always just trying to force ourselves into the next role and onto bigger and better things. And when you’re within a company, y- you’re constrained, right? Like, um, yeah, you have these cool ideas, but maybe it doesn’t align with what the plans are for the company, or maybe they don’t have the budget to support it.
Um, and at that time, we felt like, hey, we’re, we’re still young. We don’t have a mortgage yet. We don’t have kids yet, so if we’re going to take risks, now is the time to do it. But we also had enough experience that, you know, at least for me, what made it easier to take the jump is just thinking like, “What’s the worst that can happen?”
So yes, we leave… If we leave our corporate jobs, we travel the world, let’s say we don’t find a concept or we run out of money, at the end of the day, we have enough experience, corporate experience, that we could always find another job. We’re not going to end up homeless on the streets or something. I mean, the worst case is just g- going back to where we were before.
But the upside is, hey, we could find something really cool and, and, you know, make a company together, create a company together, and turn it into something big as we had always dreamed. So, um, the, the upside way, uh, outsized the risks. Um, and to Damian’s point, we were young and foolish enough that we’re like, “Hey, why not?”
Great
Well, we were thirsty. You know, the thirstiness is like, uh, you know, and this is the decade where the starification of entrepreneurs, you know, the rise of social media, the, the cha– the entrepreneurs magazine. I mean, it’s, you know, the, um– before the boss was… It’s funny. It’s like the boss was the bad guy, then he became starification again.
Then you have those cool tech bros or cool tech people or, you know, and now you have again the entrepreneur era again is back into being starified and glorified. And so, you know, when you’re young, it fuel you, and it kind of like, “I want to do this too. I want to be the cool guy in a, in a room,” you know?
And, uh, I, I, you know, and, and you don’t think about all of the no’s you’re gonna get, right? It’s, it’s again, being clueless and foolish about everything is possible. And actually, more importantly, in America, let’s, let’s be clear that, uh, has, has a French, uh, I came as a French citizen here. Uh, you know, and, and Europe is, has always had that reputation of being slow, extremely, uh, bureaucratic, and, and, and lot of roadblocks just for simple ideas.
While America has always been on the fast lane on, on entrepreneurship and, and, and being that risk, uh, that thirst of risk. And it’s like, “Okay, if we go, we go full in or we don’t do it, but it will be foolish to not do it.” And, and, uh, and that whole culture and that whole mindset when we were younger decades ago has always been something we, we cherished.
Uh, and I think it was more– If there were frustration, Doug, it was a frustration of not doing it now, you know? Or even why are we– Are we– We’re traveling. This is a plan is to find an ideas, but I feel like we shouldn’t be on the beach now. We should, we should, we should be, we should be somewhere just writing ideas and just trying to figure out something.
That’s where the frustrating could come sometimes.
I get it. That’s cool. So I think we could probably spend, um, a whole podcast talking about the travel stuff. However, I wanna get
Yeah.
some of the other stuff. I, I will give you a chance. Any other highlights on the travel? Obviously, you got the good idea.
Yes
highlights, but any one thing you wanna bring up before we move on?
I mean, just, you know, traveling is, was incredible, eye-opening. I think when you look for ideas or you try to stay open-minded, uh, during your travels, always try to translate a concept into a new market. That means that it won’t, it will never be a copy and paste. Mm-hmm. This is very important. Always think about the longevity of your business and scalability.
And finally, always think that if you want to bring something from abroad into the US, the incredible thing with the US is California is very different than Texas. Texas is very different than the Midwest. Well, uh, Minneapolis and all of that. So there is a lot of, uh, research and, and, and you need to understand the habits, the cultural habits within the state in America, which is, uh, helpful.
Uh, you cannot just copy and paste something, uh, from abroad to, to the US in a specific state. And I think the, the other important thing is it was really crucial for our relationship as well, like preparing us to be business owners together, um, to backpack for 14 months. Uh, and another fun fact is, so I, I proposed to Damien, uh, after we had only been together for four months.
We got married six months later. So we ended up actually traveling, backpacking for longer than we had been together, uh, as a whole prior to that in New York City. Um, so we learned a lot about each other. I mean, when you’re in China, and you’re, you know, getting on a bus, and you don’t know if you’re going to the right location- You want the change
and someone’s yelling at you in Mandarin because you don’t have the correct change. I mean, it- Not yelling, they’re just talking Mandarin. They’re talk, talking aggressively. Um, so, you know, it, it puts the pressure on the relationship, and it helps you figure out, uh, how you can work together, how to communicate properly with each other, which, uh, really prepared us for the stress of opening a, a business, you know, that we were very underfunded and had, had a lot of challenges doing so.
Yeah. Yeah, I couldn’t imagine tr- you know, 14 months traveling with my wife. We’ve been together for 17 years, but yeah, we could not… E- even if we had, um, a lot of space and, yeah. Anyway, I commend you. That sounds amazing. you got the idea, and you were itching to get back. I mean, you were traveling, but you were still working on the business plans.
You were looking at projections, probably doing some other research. I’ll ask a series of questions and let, uh, each of you, you know, tell stories if you wanna throw it back and forth. But did you know anything about the spa business? did you think certain things were gonna be, like, super important, and then it turned out it wasn’t very important? Things that were important and you… came out of nowhere. And of course, you know, you mentioned the different geographies that you have to consider. think a lot of people know, like, Colorado is a big beer state, where, you know, if you go over to Utah, not so much. You know, they don’t like illicit things as much over there.
But series of questions, and I’ll let you– I’ll just let you guys tell some stories
Yeah. Uh, I, I mean, we, we’ve never run a day spa in our lives. Uh, now from I think our experiences in the past, mostly in the travel industry or even traveling through those hotels, we realized that often a day spa shares a lot of common, um, common things with, uh, hotels because there’s, uh, metrics such as occupancy and, uh, reservation systems and booking and, and if you’re a membership, there’s membership, there’s churn rates and all of that.
So, uh, I think, I think we, we didn’t know how to run a day spa per se, but we understood very quickly how a business model works behind the day spa. Um, another thing I think that we, we, we didn’t know was construction, uh, and the pr- the cost of building something from scratch and the fa- and the speed of building something, uh, that has never been done before, uh, in the US.
Uh, and, and, and again, the being back and being foolish and you’ve got this head full of ideas, but you do not have the capital for it. So how do you get the capital? But most importantly, how do you get the right space? And when you go and pitch landlords about your ideas, it’s– they’re like banks. They, they, they, they…
When they see two kids with backpack just freshly landed from– to Denver, they say, “But, but w-what, what is this?” It’s– They roll their eyes. They, they even wonder what did you smoke or what did you drink. It must have been so good, you know, when you pitch them a day spa. So, you know, often it’s, it’s– that’s what I think we underestimated.
But again, being foolish by clueless by it’s possible. If we get 10 no, give me more nos. I’m sure I get closer to a yes. And that’s where I think we built resilience with it. But, um, yeah, I think capital, building, uh, what else? Uh- Well, so one interesting thing was, uh, you know, so I’m– I’ve always been a big spa person, I think more than Damian.
I had always grown up going to spas with my mom, um, with my sister, you know, with my friends. And so I knew from a consumer perspective, and there was a lot of things that I didn’t particularly enjoy about spas in the US. Um, they’re very transactional. So, you know, you go in, you get your massage, you get harassed for a membership, and then you leave.
Um, there’s not a ton of spas that have common spaces where you can really hang out and mingle. They’re just not well adapted to socializing, even though you go for a couples massage or you go for, you know, with some girlfriends to have a spa day. Um, but it’s like so quiet in there. You feel weird talking or like you’re interrupting other people’s, uh, peace and quiet if you’re talking with the person that you came with.
Um, most of the spas, even the high-end ones, you pay all this money to go to the Four Seasons or the Ritz Carlton to get a couples massage, all the amenities are gender separated. So the hot tubs, the saunas and everything, you don’t really get to hang out with your spouse or with your partner. Um, and then the in- the interior design feels really stuffy, like it’s stuck in the nineties.
You have this thick pile carpeting and these dark oak furniture, um, and it’s just not… I, I love interior design. I love modern design. Um, and there’s just never really a spa where you have a great service and then you also just really enjoy the environment that you’re in. Um, so these are all things that we wanted to address and make sure that this is a place where we would enjoy going to, um, if we were the guest or the customer there.
Um, and then labor was the last portion. We talked to a lot of spa owners and the biggest thing they told us was do not hire massage therapists or aestheticians. Um, they’re notoriously difficult to find, to retain, and then as soon as they call out, then you’re having to cancel their entire appointment book for the day.
Um, so one of the beautiful things about our business model is we are a day spa, but we do not hire any licensed providers. So we hire people from the hospitality industry, servers, bartenders, as well as housekeepers that clean the private spa suites. Um, all of our services are automated, technology enabled.
Um, so being able to, you know, uh, adapt our business plan, which we really like, we were making this up from scratch. Like the beer spas, yes, they exist in some format, but not how we had done it. Um, so we were really able to come up with, you know, exactly how we thought it should be ran, taking feedback from these other spa owners, um, and most notably, as I said, that, that labor component.
To your point, like, of stuffiness of maybe other spas. I haven’t been to any spas, I think, now that I’m thinking about it. one. I got a– My wife got me a facial a couple years ago. But anyway, go… I’ll, I’ll give you two quick stories. So one, we’re national park people, so we went to Hot Springs National Park just a few weeks ago.
And that… Have you guys been, by the way?
No, we haven’t, but we’d love to go Let’s go. We don’t have a ton of free time
Yeah, that’s fair. That’s fair. don’t put it too high up on your list. it’s, it’s fine, but I was gonna say it’s, um, in Arkansas, which is also fine, but the bath houses are– There’s two that are still operating. One is more like a spa, and the other one is, like, the traditional, like, 1920s or ’30s bathhouse experience, which was just weird. And instead of being stuck in the 1990s, it’s literal… I mean, it’s like white tile, super clinical, very weird and open, and like you said, it’s divided into, different gender on each side. yeah, yeah. W- uh, we went through it, and it was a cool experience, but overall, just creepy. So, so that was a little weird and interesting. Just interesting to experience.
Taproom Vibes and Membership Perks
Um, the other is it’s such a cool environment, and from what I understand, like, the, the taproom’s there, you can walk in and just be like, “I’m going to enjoy the taproom.” There’s a little lounge area and then a little outdoor patio, which looks awesome, and I would love to have one, uh, close by.
There’s, like, a perfect location around here. So someone should franchise it near my house because I would go there with my dog basically every day and invite friends ’cause it was nice and chill, like you said, not like a library where people are, like, too quiet, but it’s also not, like, super loud or anything.
So it was a… I was like, “I would just come here to hang out like a coffee shop or something like that.” Um, which, just curious, do any people do that? Like, the neighborhood folks just come in, have a drink, and hang out?
Yeah, absolutely. Especially on the weekends or when it’s a nice day, we have that patio. We have a fire pit on the patio as well. Um, and we have a membership program, and so our members get a 30-minute zero-gravity massage each day, um, part, as part of their membership perks. And so a lot of times the members will swing by, they’ll do their 30-minute zero-gravity massage, uh, and then have a beer before or after, either in the tap room or on the patio
They get one every day?
One every day.
That’s
Yes
What, what is the zero gravity massage? Because I didn’t know and then I was like, this was really amazing
Yeah. So we discovered these in South Korea and Japan. We realized a lot of people aren’t comfortable being naked in front of strangers, and actually, part of our whole thing is we’re opening up the spa experience to people that don’t normally go to spas. Um, nearly half of our guests have never been to a spa before, much like yourself.
So, um, these aren’t people that have… You know, our guests aren’t people that have Massage Envy memberships or that are going to the Ritz Carlton. Um, and then another thing is we are making spas attractive to men. Most spas in the United States are really tailored towards the female demographic. Um, and one thing that we heard from men is that they often are uncomfortable with normal massages.
There’s, you know, spa etiquette. They don’t know how to, you know, interact with the massage therapist. They just don’t wanna be naked in front of a stranger. Um, so we decided to use these high-tech robotics-enabled massage chairs. Um, so these are built, they were based on NASA research, um, about the form that your body takes when you are completely relaxed in zero gravity.
So there’s a certain bend that, like, your elbows, your knees, like, your body has a shape that it takes to just if you completely relax and you’re floating in zero gravity. It mimics that in this massage chair. It tilts you back so your spine is parallel to the floor. Legs are elevated above the heart, which helps with circulation.
Um, and then it has an L-track roller that goes all the way from the base of your, um, skull. It goes all the way down to your glutes, um, so you get that nice, you know, kneading and, and different functions. But then the air compression is what I really like. So there’s essentially airbags that envelop your arms, your legs, your feet, um, and it has different programs that it runs through.
So we typically do the full body program. There’s a stretching program that I find really neat. Um, so it actually grabs onto your shoulders, and with the airbags will, like, twist, like, core rotation your body, um, will stretch you in different ways. So it really gives you a, a lifelike head-to-toe massage without the human interaction.
Um, so we’ve had great feedback from our guests. Um, and the other thing, uh, to the point I made earlier is that our massage chairs don’t call in sick, so no matter the time or the day, um, they’re there and ready for our guests to come enjoy them.
Uh, yeah, I can go on and on, but I, I realize looking at time we have to– I have to continue to push along, but I could… It was really cool overall, so I enjoyed it.
Funding the Beer Spa Build
So big thing is funding, and I guess, uh, maybe obviously to everyone, like doing something that really hasn’t been done. You h- kind of have no idea how much it’s gonna cost. So how did you approach this from a projection standpoint? Neither of you mentioned an accounting background or CFO kind of thing. So you’re, you’re doing the best you can with some spreadsheets, looking at cost, and then you have to figure it out from there. So talk about those projections and how you were planning it, because e-eventually you have to probably get a loan and talk to some people about actually paying for some of this stuff, right?
Absolutely. Absolutely. Uh, yeah, we’re, we, we’re not CFOs. I mean, like really in corporate finance, you are scientific, but, uh, we just put spreadsheet together, rubbish spreadsheet. We still knew how to use Excel very well with formulas and, and being able to really focus on key metrics that really talk to banks or lend- len- lenders and landlords.
Uh, but overall, you know, um, we had to, we had to be extremely smart and, uh By being smart with that money, it’s actually a great thing. Uh, we– First of all, to find money, we choose Denver especially because, uh, Denver had a lot, still has as of today, has a lot of support for small businesses or startups or entrepreneurs who have ideas, uh, ideas that are already proven or ideas that are, are about to be proven.
Um, and, uh, the City of Denver has helped us with the funding. They… We’re about to borrow money from them in partnership with a, a nonprofit lender in Denver as well, backed up by SBA loans, uh, and a bit of money from, uh, our side, uh, which was a tiny little money of savings from our corporate jobs in New York City.
Uh, and the, the, the City of Denver had to– They, they, there were specific rules. You need to be in a specific areas to help the area to kind of like being back up and running. Uh, we had to prove that, I think it was 15 banks. They had this rule, like 15 banks they need to tell you no. Fifteen banks. So that’s pretty much all of the banks you have.
So we had lined up so many meetings with banks, and then so, “Well, no.” Say, “Yes, you tell me no. Perfect. But please write me this letter. I need you to write me this letter with a no.” Can you believe it? It’s like people would look at us like, “Well, I just told you no. Go away, go away. I’ll buy you a gift card in two years when you open.”
But for now, I, I need a letter. Write me a letter now, an email telling me no. “No, Damien, so sorry. We’re not gonna fund your project because you need two years of P&L.” And so pretty much after 15, after 15 banks, we kind of like said, “Yes, we, we get noes.” Denver is gonna, Denver is gonna help. And it’s– And that’s what’s happening.
It’s like we came back with a stack of letters and that whole file, right? It’s like a whole file. It’s like P&L, marketing plan, all of the whole pitch was 15 noes from the banks. And, uh, and then the, and the City of Denver said yes. And, uh, then you have the nonprofit lender in partnership with Denver was like, “Okay, if Denver say yes, we say yes.
But if Denver doesn’t say yes, we are not gonna say yes.” But Denver was also acting like this. Denver was like, “I’m gonna say yes if they say yes.” I say, “All right, guys-” Three, two, one, say yes. Yes. Okay. And I will never forget when they call us, the City of Denver call us one afternoon in May 2019, say, “Guys, you’re approved.”
Said, ” What do you mean we’re approved?” “You’re approved. Your pitch went well. We’ve pitched the whole team. The team wants to back you up.” Say, we– I think we’ve never been… We screamed. I mean, we jumped up in the air. I remember it was, it was quite magical. And then the nonprofit lender said yes. Uh, but actually the, the hardest part was to find the landlord, finding the right people who understand that it will take time and it won’t be easy, and saying yes.
Uh, you know, most of the landlord wants a 7-Eleven, the s- the, the McDonald’s, I mean, the dream, uh, len- uh, the dream, uh, uh- Tenant … tenants that will pay, uh, rent on time, right? Or, uh, pay rent and give you back the TI you might- must have gotten from, from them. Uh, it wasn’t the case. First, we had only one sh- two s- we saw two places.
One places said yes, but then we realized it wasn’t the right place. And then we went to that other, uh, location, um, one in downtown, uh, at the border of Five Points Rhino Uh, it was the landlord said yes, and we had no choice but to, to make this happening. But that place was no electricity, no HVAC, nothing.
I mean, we did construction without electricity for, for eight months. I mean, just working with generators and, and all of that. So yeah, overall, uh, capital I think is extremely accessible in the US. Uh, you just need to be extremely ready, be– understand your numbers, know very well by heart your business model, uh, understanding that you need to project yourself in five years with, with some sort of an evolution of your business model.
Uh, being realistic, but as well extremely optimistic, this is important. Uh, and, uh, finally being a bit foolish too. Uh, foolish in a way that when we did all of those projections, we are projecting that we’ll be in charge for the first three years with maybe two or three employees. But in reality, we actually had to hire, uh, a team of 15 people.
Uh, as soon as we opened the, the website, uh, we– the website crashed because we had about one thousand people going to the website trying to make a reservation. Uh, we had a reservation every, uh, thirty seconds for, uh, twenty-four hours, which has made our books fully booked for the first four months in business, right, right during COVID.
People wanted to get out and had enough of COVID and staying home. Uh, so overall it was, it was, uh, uh, like access, accessing capital is very easy, but you need to manage it well too. We maxed out credit card. We got a loan from the city and that nonprofit lender, but we were– the goal is to make sure that you spend the least possible while building your prototype to be able to, to prove it, uh, out- outside this world and show to the world, “This is working.
This is a prototype. It’s not perfect, but I’m gonna perfect it.” Over the years when you bring revenue and you make a bit of money, you keep reinvesting to fix or make things better for the experience.
I have a few follow-up questions. One, you returned from your trip and did you move to like Colorado, the Denver area then knowing, hey, I– this is probably the right place to, to do this?
Yes. Yeah. Yes. We did, uh, a lot of market research about where we thought would be the best city to launch this concept. Although we love New York City, it’s very expensive, and it’s a bit oversaturated when it comes to tourist activities or unique things to do. Um, so we wanted to find a more mid-sized market, um, a market that was very, uh…
had a big craft beer scene. Um, so Denver, you know, at the time had 400 breweries in the state. Um, we were looking for a wellness-oriented city, which, you know, Denver ticked that box as well. And then to Damian’s point, we were looking for a city that, um, from our online research seemed like they had some programs and support for small businesses and entrepreneurs.
Um, so we flew right here, like, we finished traveling and flew right here with still our backpacks on, and now our business plan and financial projections in hand. Um, and we started knocking on the doors of both banks and landlords, trying to get the money, trying to find the commercial space. Um, and at that time, you know, we were quite broke when we got back from traveling.
We’d just been traveling for 14 months. Um, and we did house-sitting, and so we were staying in people’s homes for free, watching their pets or watching their house while they were traveling. We used this website called TrustedHouseSitters. Um, we also didn’t know anything about Denver. Neither of us had been to Denver before, so we just were kind of coming here blind.
Um, so we had to get a feel for the different neighborhoods and the different areas, um, so we ended up just staying in different people’s homes while we were out, uh, pitching banks and, and trying to find a commercial space.
Wow. Yeah, that’s quite,
with?
a lot of uncertainty, like just showing
Yeah.
Go on, Damien
And you need to embrace uncertainty. You, you, you need to be okay with that. You know? As soon as you, you decide to jump, make the big jump, you need to be okay with not knowing what’s gonna happen in the future. You need to be okay with being borderline with your finances. You need to be okay with leveraging as much as possible what you have because you, you’ve got big dreams and, and, and, and, and when you say something, you want to commit and you’re dedicated to it.
And, and, and it can hurt yourself, uh, but if you manage this responsibly, uh, by reviewing your contract agreements, negotiating price, uh, asking for help, you know, telling people, “Hey, I’m, I’m, I’m, I’m a creator. I, I want to do this, but I need your assistance. Can you help me? Can you, can you advise me? Can I– can you answer those questions?”
Um, this is, this is important. Uh, often you can mention that, uh, you won’t forget them in the future when you’re on the other side where there’s a bit of, um… I’m not sure you can call it a stability, but, uh, a routine, right? Predictability, let’s put it that way. Um, and, and finally, I think, uh, again, being a country like in America where you have access to credit cards, you have access to capital, often the mindset of, uh, yeah, take the risk.
What, what’s the worst-case scenario? You know? Uh, it’s, it’s an incredible– It’s, uh, this mindset’s not gonna go anywhere. And I think if you have dreams or if you believe that you can accomplish something, uh, try it. Try, try, try it. And if you feel like it’s too much, you’re too leveraged, uh, try it at a very small scale, you know?
Which leads me to another question minimum viable product. So my entrepreneurship activities were online, easy to test ideas on a small scale. Beer spa, much tougher to test that idea.
Yes
I mean, you have to build out the space and make it look nice. You have a certain vision. Were you able to test it at all, or did you just have to, like, build it and that’s part of the minimum viable product?
Yeah. There was no minimum viable product for us. It was you have to build out a full spa or that’s it. Um, one way that we did get to test though was, uh, as we mentioned, we were really broke when we moved here. So in addition to not having enough funds from the loan to cover the construction, we also needed a little bit to live off of as well, because we ended up, you know, uh, getting a lease for an apartment, um, and things like that.
So, you know, we would be doing construction all day, and Damien would drive Lyft at night. Um, and during those Lyft rides, he would use that as kind of a market research time where he would talk to his passengers- Yeah … um, and get their thoughts on the concept. He’d say, “Hey, we’re opening a beer spa. Here’s what it is.
Is that something that you would try?” He asked them about pricing, like, ” How much would you pay for this experience? How long would you want it to be? Who would you come with?” Um, and could also assess based on the riders and who was responding with, “Yes, I would wanna come. I’m interested,” get an idea for the type of people that are going to come.
Um, so although we couldn’t actually build a minimum viable product, it was all, you know, all or nothing, um, we were able to get a, a good sampling of the general population in Denver, uh, through Damien driving for Lyft and just, you know, quizzing his passengers, um, who funny enough, a, a number of them actually came to the spa after we opened, and we received, uh, text messages from them, or they would even tell our employees like, “Hey, Damien was my Lyft driver a few years back.”
Yeah. Um- So … so that was, uh, kind of a funny experience. But if the city of Denver said yes, we actually– That MVP in your mind is like, okay, I think it’s real. Uh, now, um, by MVP, you’re right. I think we’ve created the prototype, like, you know, the original Chipotle on University Boulevard, or maybe the first Crocs, uh, or the first Smashburger or Qdoba, uh, somewhere here in Denver.
All of these companies were born in Colorado, in Denver or Boulder. It is, uh, we had to create this prototype, uh, the, the, the most, uh, with the, with a lot of efficiency, and we did. And we did. Have we sh- selected the, the best commercial graded tubs? Maybe not. Have we selected the best, uh, paints for commercial graded?
Not. Which is where I think we’ve done the MVP, like the prototype V1. It’s like, okay, we’re gonna create this. I hope this is gonna last three, four, five years before we remodel, uh, which is currently what we’re doing. We’re, we’re doing, uh, we’re bringing Heinz Ranch level of comfort, what you experience in the Heinz Ranch, into the Denver’s, uh, day spa.
And, uh, that’s what we’ve done, and I think that was the definition of our MVP. We didn’t need– Yeah, we didn’t have iPad, right? We had, uh, Android tablets, right? We didn’t have a velvet couch. We had maybe, uh, a fake type of velvet, right? But everything looked good. Everything looked safe. Everything looked secure.
Everything looked clean. And then how do you, uh, learn from that? Go and create a second store, your German car store, right? And then you go back to your Japanese Toyota and say, “Okay, now I’m gonna tune up the Toyota, and I’m gonna make my Toyota maybe a V2 or even switch that into a German car.” Um, the goal here is to not, uh, be more luxurious.
It’s, it’s like, how do you, uh, make sure that the prototype is now becoming a standard, uh, from what we’ve built with the second store? Uh, that was very important to us. Uh, and, and I think, uh, I think we’ve always had that in mind. And still as of today, us being entrepreneurs, we’re actually testing new stuff in Denver that we do not have in Hinds Ranch.
Because even with the second store, we realized that we’ve made those mistakes on– You see that, that bl- the beautiful white, uh, uh, marble you had around your tub. Well, you know, it might not be as safe, or it might be slippery. So how do you constantly work on improving your original prototype into then your German car, and now you want to go into a, a different level
Scaling Up and Franchising Nationwide
you mentioned soon as you opened, things were booked. Things have gone well. You opened a, a second location, as you’ve mentioned here. So about, guess, the growth and you were like, “All right, we’re gonna, you know, we’re gonna have a couple employees,” and then things were going really well, so you had to grow a little bit faster.
How did you manage that?
When we were traveling looking for business ideas, we knew we wanted to find something that we could scale. We never wanted to be mom-and-pop business owners. We wanted to build a national brand in the US. Mm-hmm. Um, so it was always in our mind that we wanted to grow and expand. It was just a matter of how quickly we could do it.
Um, fortunately, it was perfect timing for us when we opened the original location, was in February of 2021. So COVID restrictions were just lifting. Um, I think at that time when we had our grand opening, we could be at 50% occupancy, but, um, for us, it didn’t impact our business because our occupancy limit for the space was 60 people.
So at 50%, we could have 30 people, which is a, a fully booked day for us. Um, you know, people had money, and they wanted to get out. They wanted to do things, and our environment was really well-adapted to, um, the COVID restrictions, right? You have a private spa suite that’s deep cleaned and sanitized in between each session.
You don’t have a massage therapist or an esthetician that you’re interacting with. You’re really just there with, you know, yourself or whoever you came to the spa with. So people were, were much more willing to come to Oakwell Beer Spa, um, than they were going back to a massage and beer, another type of, of spa concept.
Um, so the timing worked out really well for us, and as Damian said, we, as soon as we opened our booking system, we got slammed with bookings to the point where our, our website server crashed. Um, we had a booking every 30 seconds for the first 24 hours, and that booked out our appointment book, um, for the first three months solid.
We’re open- Wow … four months solid, 8:00 AM to 10:30 PM, seven days a week. You know, we were like, “Are people really gonna come and drink beer and sit in a hot tub at 8:00 AM on a Wednesday?” Yes, actually,
Colorado, super common, yeah.
Exactly. Um, so we were booked out solid, and it was so funny. You know, you have these projections that, of course, you’re just, you’re really, you’re making them up using the best information that you have at the time.
Um, so Damian and I thought that we were gonna run the spa ourselves for at least the first two years in business. Like, it was just gonna be Damian and I, no employees. But as soon as we saw the appointments get booked the way that they did, we’re like, “Oh, no, we need to hire some people.” Um, so it was quite a fire drill of, of hiring a team.
At this point, there was this, this stimulus, uh, checks coming out, so, um, half of the interviews that we scheduled, people weren’t even showing up because they were getting money from the government. Um, so basically anyone that showed up to the interview and could hold a conversation, we’re like, “We’re hired, and can you be here tomorrow for your 24-hour crash course of training, for which I have no training materials yet- Exactly
but I’ve had to come up with it overnight.” We had no job descriptions, no training plan, no anything. Um, so that was, you know, very, a very interesting experience, I’m sure, for our first round of employees. Um, but we, you know, we continued being booked out solid. For the first three and a half years in business, we were at, no joke, 100% occupancy.
We would have a wait list of anywhere between 50 and 100 people long Guests were waiting six to eight weeks to be able to book an appointment. Um, we had people asking for memberships, but we didn’t want to sell a membership because we didn’t have enough availability for them to be able to get their monthly booking.
Um, so we didn’t wanna be like a timeshare company that sells them this dream, and then they’re not able to actually use it. Um, so, you know, just the timing worked out really well, and we were very, very focused on the guest experience and the level of hospitality. Yeah. Anytime anything went wrong, we were…
You know, whether it was their tub draining early or they just didn’t like the massage chairs, we were very quick to, um, comp their experience, offer them a gift card to come back for another time so they could, um, you know, experience it as it was meant to be. So we were able to maintain a five-star rating on Google, um, for the first three and a half years in business.
Um, we’re at a four point nine now, which we were very, very sad about, but we have o- over three thousand Google reviews, and we’re still at a four point nine. So, um, you know, through that excellent hospitality experience, that led to a lot of word of mouth, you know, people referring their friends to come once they try it.
Um, so we were lucky that, you know, the first location was a big success. But we knew we needed to open a second one, um, where we had enough money to hire a professional general contractor, an interior designer, an architect. Um, so we weren’t the ones painting the walls and installing cabinetry. We needed to, you know, see how much it really costs to build out a full, uh, spa, um, as well as how long construction takes, not in COVID times, so then we could use that as our prototype for franchising.
Um, so that’s what we ended up doing. We opened our Highlands Ranch location in April of twenty twenty-five, so it’s been a little over a year now. Um, that location’s ramped up really quickly as well, so we are now matching our revenue of the Denver location, so they’re both performing at the same level.
Um, and now we are in the process of franchising nationwide. Um, so we’re really passionate about, um, coaching and strategy and, um, helping others to, you know, create their own Oquaw Beer Spa in their market. So we’ve decided to go the route of franchising and, and that’s how we’ll expand versus doing more company corporate-owned locations.
That’s pretty awesome. And I could think of… I mean, before I moved to Denver, I would travel here often for like, you know, the outdoors, but like part of it was a beer vacation for the Great American Beer Festival. And I know to like Austin or other places in Texas for like barbecue and food.
So like there are plenty of people that are taking specific trips for like hospitality industry, like leisure 100%. What other, um, sort of s- is it open to all cities? Obviously, you guys have some insight on like what cities work best based on whatever cost and interest and who’s traveling there. So how d- how does that work?
How are you managing that from a franchising,
We targeted about 100 target markets in the United States. Um, really the big things are they can’t be too small. Um, at least at the beginning, you know, it needs to be a mid-size market or a larger market, so really nothing smaller than Denver, um, at least to get started. We have identified some specific cities that we’re really putting our marketing, you know, franchise development marketing money towards that we think it would do extremely well, which, um, Austin is a really big one.
Dallas, um, Texas in general is a very business-friendly state, so it’s great to start, um, in a state like this, at least for the first few. Scottsdale, I think, is our number one market that we’re targeting. Um, it is a huge wellness and spa city, um, as well as it’s the bachelorette capital of the United States, so a ton of people go there for bachelorette parties, which Oakwell Beer Spa is a great time for that.
Um, so Arizona, Texas. We’re looking at Kansas City, um, is great as well. They have a- Yes … a, a big craft beer scene. Minneapolis. Um, so those are really our first targets, um, but we think that this would do extremely well in Tampa, Florida, in- Yeah … Asheville, Charleston, Charlotte. Um, really any sort of either a larger metropolitan area or even a smaller city, but that has a lot of tourism traffic, like a Breckenridge
Gotcha. it’s like, I’m thinking of the size of the metro area, but roughly like two or three million or something like that?
Yeah, absolutely
Okay. Very cool. And then who would be like the right kind of, um, you know, franchisee
We think it’s important that they have experience either owning or working in a brick-and-mortar hospitality business, and it doesn’t have to be recent, even, you know, when they were younger. But one thing that we learned coming from the corporate world, um, to then owning a spa where you are employing bartenders and servers and housekeepers, um, it’s just that employee management component is, is really important, like having happy employees.
If you d- if your employees aren’t happy, they’re not gonna look happy in front of the guests, and the guests are gonna be able to feel that, right? So you need to first focus on, um, the happiness of your employees. But, um, you know, they’re, they’re a different, I don’t wanna say breed, but a different type of person than, you know, someone that works in the corporate world.
They have their own, um, personal lives. That’s a big priority. Work-life balance is really important. You know, they’re not a, a corporate professional that’s trying to climb the corporate ladder and put as many hours in and, and work as hard. You know, they want to come to work, do a good job, make great tips, and then still have time to go hiking or camping and enjoy their personal life.
Um, and so just managing hourly employees can be, um, challenging for people that don’t have experience with that. Um, so, you know, one thing that we do offer though is our franchisees can either be owner/operators, so they can be the ones actually in the store, um, or because it is a larger investment, um, you know, our ideal franchisee might have other businesses that they own.
Um, they can have what’s called an operating principle, so that’s could be a manager, but just someone that they appoint that is in charge of the day-to-day operations. Um, so just because they’re the ones financially investing in the concept, um, they don’t necessarily need to be the one operating the store.
Um, they can hire a manager to do that.
Yeah. No, I totally understand what you’re saying, and I’m, I’m sure the listeners and viewers do too. I mean, there’s a lot of turnover in the hospitality industry, like, that’s just the way it is.
And if you haven’t worked as a server or whatever, as a bartender, then you may miss it and you’re like, “Why? Why did that person just like no-show and never show up again, and we never heard from that person ever again?” Which happens occasionally, you know? It’s just a thing that happens. So, do you have a GM for, like each of the stores so you guys are not in there when someone calls in, for example?
Yeah. It took us a while to get to this place. Um, it’s been about two years now that we are not really involved in the day-to-day operations of either of our locations. Um, we invested in putting a lot of, um, time, you know, time and financial, you know, salary and such, um, into ensuring that there’s layers between us and the day-to-day operations.
So we have an assistant manager and a general manager assigned to each store. Um, and then we also have an area manager that is in charge of both stores. Um, so basically if anything happens to one of the managers, if, you know, they have something happens to a family member and they need to leave for a month or, um, which hopefully this never happens, but if they leave and go to work somewhere else, um, then we always have a backup that can fill in and we’re not getting pulled back to the floor.
Um, that’s even what we learned when we were running the day-to-day operations. When we were more serving as the managers, we would overstaff because things happen. People leave or they call out or personal lives happen, um, and we were constantly getting pulled back on the floor. Instead of being able to be the manager of the store, we were cleaning tubs, we were checking people in, we were introducing guests to the beer wall.
Um, so we sp- knew it’d cost a little bit more money, but it would save us our sanity of just having a few extra people around that if anyone called out at any point in time, the show could still go on, um, without us having to jump back in. And now we’ve kind of replicated that at a management level. Um, you know, it’s probably not necessary to have an area manager when you only have two stores.
Um, but that just ensures that if anything happens to our store managers, that the area manager can fill in, um, so that we can continue to focus on franchising, strategy, product development. Um, you know, Damian’s our, our head of marketing and so he’s making sure that our appointment books are full at all time.
Um, and so, you know, we’ve been fortunate that we’ve been successful enough to be able to afford, um, these managers underneath us, uh, that can allow us to focus on big picture.
That’s great. Yeah, it takes a lot of discipline to put all the layers in place, and like you said, overstaff so you wouldn’t get pulled in, like knowing that, well, you can, like you said, turn over the room, like clean it up or whatever. uh, not the most fun thing. It’s good to have the right team in place.
So we can go on and on forever. Um, this has been really fun and amazing to connect with you guys. So we’ll link
Thank you
and we’ll put everything in the show notes. But where should people connect with you guys if they wanna learn more from, you know, even the franchising stuff, but if they’re, if they happen to be in the Denver area and they’re like, “Oh, I kind of wanna check it out.”
So where are all the places people can, uh, connect with you?
Yeah. Uh, oh, so we’re on all social media channels, Eau Quelle Beer Spa, TikTok Eau Quelle Spa. If they want to inquire about franchising and think this can fit their market and they want to, uh, live the dream of being their own boss, uh, eauquellefranchise.com, um, is the website. Uh, they can as well easily find it on eauquelle.com, and they can connect with us on LinkedIn.
Uh, we’re on LinkedIn as well.
All right
not, uh, on LinkedIn every single minute of our day, but, uh, we do, uh, loo- take a look at, uh, LinkedIn and keep an eye on our, uh, DMs
All right. Cool. Well, I’ll link up all of that stuff, so if people wanna learn more, they can connect. And yeah, really appreciate it, Damian and Jessica. It’s been really fun. Thank you
Thank you so much. Cheers