How to Use GRATITUDE to Power Through even the Most Difficult Aspects of Running Your Spa Business

If I can guarantee one thing about your spa business, it’s this: it WILL get tough, and you WILL want to quit (probably a few times!) So how do you get through those difficult times in your spa business? I’ll tell you, and it’s the one word that shifted my entire perspective as a spa business owner: gratitude.

AS A SPA BUSINESS OWNER, WHY ARE COPING TECHNIQUES SO IMPORTANT? 

The holidays are, typically, a time of high-stress, which is why now is prime time to talk about techniques that will shift your attitude for the better. There are lots of times that we, as entrepreneurs, need to give our heads a shake-- but we don’t have a boss around to let us know that. We need the self-awareness to know when the situation calls for us to have a hard conversation with ourselves about how we can rewire our thinking to be more positive, which will in turn (thankfully) reduce stress-related negativity and decision fatigue.

Any kind of entrepreneurship comes with as many valleys as it does peaks. Right now, there is a lot of conversation and encouragement— especially if you’re an employee— about striking it out on your own as either a team or solo. However, we often forget to take off the rose-coloured glasses when considering starting our own spa business.It’s SO much fun to entertain creative ideas of rolling out our game-changing marketing plans, making announcements that we’re ready to hire because we’re turning away bookings, imagining the events that we’d hold or the facility expansion pics of our spa that’s taking on a huge growth initiative. What DON’T we love thinking about? Not meeting our money goals (even the absolute minimums), struggling to find staff, not measuring up to our competition, or being seen as a failure because our spa business didn’t work out. 

We may be spa business owners, but that doesn’t mean we’re superhuman; these negative thoughts are unavoidable whether you’ve been in the business for one year or fifteen. We often only see other spa business owners’ peaks; it’s not as common to hear about (but thankfully we do see a few brave souls) the struggle to get out of bed due to depression, or the huge loss of momentum because of their anxiety, or the lost motivation from the exhaustion that comes with scaling your business. 

What matters about our struggles is how we choose to tackle these difficulties and why we choose to continue with our business— and Simon Sinek’s “Start With Why” is a must-read for those who want to know how asking ourselves, “WHY am I in this business? WHY am I choosing to do what I do?” makes us shine brighter as leaders. 

HOW CAN GRATITUDE HELP ME REWIRE MY THINKING?

My best analogy for being a spa business owner is that it’s like being a parent: I wouldn’t give it up for the world, but eesh… there have been major struggles that I wasn’t sure I knew how to resolve, many frustrating days, and numerous sleepless nights. We all go through difficult times as parents, but we still love our family and persevere to find solutions-- which is exactly how we feel about our spa business as well. 

During valleys of business struggle when I think about throwing in the towel, I keep my faith by giving myself permission to play a little game. What I do is mentally disconnect fro my business and let my imagination wander to what my life would be like as an employee. “Wouldn’t it be nice to not have to hustle for my paycheck?” I let myself think. “Wouldn’t it be nice to go back to giving esthetics as an employee, or being a spa manager?” 

There are times when I would entertain these thoughts for either a few minutes or even a few weeks, but almost every time I knew my answer: NOPE. I knew, even during the hardest of times, that I was still committed to spa entrepreneurship. When I use this “what if” technique, it forces me to connect with my “why” (as detailed in Simon Sinek’s “Start With Why”), which is to lift up the spa business owners around me through the multiple services and freebies I offer. 

The one time this game produced a YES? I immediately took action to get my spa business in financial shape and sold it within the year. My heart had shifted to being a new mom and I realized it wasn’t the right time for me to be a spa owner. Not once have I regretted this decision. By then I had the entrepreneurial confidence to know I could repeat my spa success systems in any capacity I wanted.

Back to the game…

Once I feel clear that, if I want to stay in my business, I need to brighten my perspective, I then play a second game: the gratitude list. This list contains everything from both my business and personal life that I’m grateful for; I even make a list of things I’m grateful for even if they haven’t happened yet in order to tamp down on self-sabotaging behaviours. 

HOW HAS GRATITUDE HELPED ME AS AN ENTREPRENEUR?

Alongside reaffirming my “why” for why I know helping spa business owners thrive, outlining what I’m grateful for in both my personal and professional lives helps me deeply empathize that much more with the spa business owners I work with, whether that be with private coaching or social media marketing. 

I totally get how the ups & downs of spa ownership can wear you down. And I also understand how confusing these waves of emotions can have you questioning your decisions. All I can say is this is just part of the entrepreneurial journey and we simply need to learn how to manage the flow better - with tools like my mental games as well as setting up systems in our businesses to mitigate common issues and support more efficient business results!