Saving Graces

Alison Bell was a high flyer in a Forbes Top 500 company when the urge to set up a business for herself became too hard to hold back. 

She had worked hard and achieved great things with Travelport, the multinational travel services and technology company, but all the while the idea of doing something for herself was gaining momentum.

“It’s almost like a run-away train in you,” she says.  “There’s something that just forces you to do it.  Your head argues against it all the time – the security of an income against all that personal risk.  But readiness has a lot to do with it - you reach a point in your life when you just have to try it.”

“For me, success was going to be actually doing it, getting out of the corporate environment and standing on my own two feet.  Nobody can really prepare you for the sleepless nights you’ll have worrying about finances and so on - you’ll always spend more than you thought you would.  There are enormous highs and lows, but you ride that out - you get used to the ups and downs and you begin to react better.  The fact that you’re on your own can be daunting, but you gain confidence in yourself.  Unless you get out there you won’t really know what you can and cannot do. “It’s definitely changed me.  Even if for some reason it didn’t work out, I’d still feel it’s been a success for me.”
 
The idea for her business came from a well-earned break she’d taken in Enniscorthy. “I was looking around for a nice spa break and realised that getting details on what was available around the country was tricky.”

She set up spa-ireland.com entirely with her own finances.  The concept was to bring together all the top quality spas in the country on a website, to provide an independent, clear description of what they offer, and to provide the facility to book packages and treatments online.

“I had a fair idea what I wanted from the site, but what I really knew was what I did not want. I didn’t want a pink girly site, and I didn’t want ads – I needed to appeal to as many people as possible.”  The hard work has paid off, and the site is a joy to use, with clear, clean and fast presentation of information and a simple yet comprehensive range of the best that’s on offer in spa treatments and breaks.

“You can see a pattern with our enquiries, you know, three or four girls looking for a weekend package, or a mother and daughter mid-week deal, a husband who wants to send his wife and a friend away for a treat.  We can match what they’re looking for,” says Alison.

Around 90% of her bookings and enquiries require some sort of input from the Spa-Ireland team.   “It’s great because we have a wonderful online resource but we’re also really reaching out to the customer. We email them with our confirmation or suggestion, and then after a few hours we call and ask if they’ve any questions or anything they need, and they’re usually a bit taken aback that we actually follow through on the enquiry!”. 

“Being able to talk to them means you understand what they need.  It means you can then drive your business based on customer expectations, not on anonymous transactions.  Part of the value that we bring is that we are a neutral voice, we don’t own any of the properties, we chose them, and we can stand over every service offered on our site.

“There’s huge diversity in demand.  We just added the Falls Hotel in Ennistymon where they do a ‘Spa and Surf’ package, and we know from the enquiries we’ve had that there’s a market for that.  It’s amazing value and their spa is run by an excellent Malaysian guy who’s won Conde Naste awards.  You really have to keep an open mind as to what your market is.”

Going forward, Alison is keeping an eye on trends in America, where spa-type treatments are increasingly used as part of medical treatments, offering alternative routes back to wellness.  She’s also built up an excellent package of information on spas in Ireland and she has been approached by potential partners in the tourism sector keen to pass on her unbiased view of the market.  On top of that, she’s also secured a number of international spa domains, including spa-newzealand and spa-southafrica, which should prove fruitful when it comes to expanding beyond Ireland.

“Revenue is straightforward,” Alison explains.  “There are three streams, one is a participation fee for the partners which is a very small monthly fee for handling and promoting their packages.  Then we get commission on transactions.  Obviously the commission has huge potential for growth as traffic increases on the site.  And then we sell gift vouchers. 

“So far we haven’t felt the pinch.  October was incredible.  But then November was slower.  Vouchers flew out in December, and January has been exceptional, surpassing our wildest expectations.

“Dublin City Enterprise Board has been great. I did a start your own business course, which really helped me decide what exactly I wanted to do. I also did a finance course with them, which was heavy going, but again, really well worth it.  But the big thing is the people that you meet.  There’s a great support network should you chose to tap into it, and meeting like-minded people at networking events such as those organized by the Enterprise Network for women has been a great benefit to me. It’s a friendly environment, very focused and I’d recommend it to anyone looking to start a business or in the early days of start-up. ”
Footnote: Spa Ireland won the Rising Star award at the Dublin City Enterprise Board annual awards for 2008

© 2009 Dublin City Enterprise Board. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or part without the permission from the D.C.E.B.

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