Holistic Health Center Business Plan

HOLISTIC CHOICES, LLC

1437 Springdale Drive
Rockford, Illinois 61108

The mission of Holistic Choices is to bring preventative and restorative lifelong health solutions to the whole consumer. We believe in providing essentials for a healthy body, both on the inside and the outside, using natural methods that are chemical-free and allow the consumer to take responsibility for their health.

• EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
• PROGRAMS
• MARKETING
• COMPETITION
• BACKGROUND ON PRINCIPAL PARTNERS
• OPERATING PROCEDURES
• PERSONNEL
• BREAK-EVEN ANALYSIS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Description of the Business

Holistic Choices, LLC, is a wellness studio. The partners, Joanne Fuller and Mary Smart, are both professionals in a health/wellness field and they are teaming up to put several health/wellness services under one roof. Holistic Choices will offer holistic skin/personal grooming care services, personal fitness training, nutrition classes and counseling, Yoga/Pilates classes, and therapeutic massage. We feel these are a good combination of services because as a person becomes interested in one aspect of a healthier lifestyle, it naturally leads to interest in other phases, and we feel the components we offer are part of a larger healthy lifestyle continuum.

Mission Statement

The mission of Holistic Choices is to bring preventative and restorative lifelong health solutions to the whole consumer. We believe in providing essentials for a healthy body, both on the inside and the outside, using natural methods that are chemical-free and allow the consumer to take responsibility for their health.

PROGRAMS

Group Personal Training (Mary Smart)

While individual personal training appointments will be offered, we will be encouraging most people to participate in a group setting, as it is more effective both in health/physical results as well as cost. The program we facilitate emphasizes a general high quality-of-life fitness level for the total body approach. While some programs encourage different body part work on different days, we are trying to reach a larger audience by inciting a workout that targets the whole body and is therefore less intimidating to many levels of consumers. In addition to being less intimidating, it also is more effective because participants tend to adhere to their fitness program longer, bringing about lasting results.

Yoga and Pilates (Mary Smart)

Holistic Choices will be offering Yoga and mat Pilates classes (Pilates done without a piece of equipment called a Reformer). These types of classes are quickly gaining in popularity as more is being understood about deep muscle tissue work and its benefits.

Nutrition Counseling (Mary Smart)

Holistic Choices will be offering nutrition consultations and guidance. We will work with the general public to improve their health through their diet. We will help them sort through the diet information portrayed through all modes of media and give solid scientific information as well as make individual allowances to bring about weight management success. As for special populations (such as diabetics, etc.), Mary Smart is qualified to work within a dietician/doctor's recommended diet. This would mean finding ways to make the diet restrictions more palatable to the tastes of the individual. Holistic Choices also will offer nutrition classes where groups of people can come to our studio for cooking demonstrations, to taste food, and get useful information to use for making better nutritional choices.

Skin Care (Joanne Fuller)

Holistic Choices will be offering several skin-care services directed by Joanne Fuller. Our licensed estheticians will specialize in treating various skin disorders with a holistic approach. In addition to our facials, we also will offer waxing, makeup, and full-body treatments. Holistic Choices will offer the consumer an alternative to conventional skin-care methods. Chronic skin-care disorders, such as rosacea, are generally treated by masking the symptoms with harmful chemicals and prescription drugs. Holistic Choices believes in treating the core of the problem for long-lasting results. Our state-of-the-art equipment, superior skin-care products, and innovative anti-aging facials will put Holistic Choices in a class all by itself.

Manicures/Pedicures (Sherry Forman)

Sherry Forman has been a licensed nail technician for over ten years. During that time, she has been actively working at various salons in the Rockford area. She has continued her education through regularly-scheduled classes and classes she created herself with other professional nail technicians. Anyone who knows her knows she has a passion for doing nails. Holistic Choices will offer natural nail services, such as manicures, pedicures, and natural wraps as opposed to nail tips and acrylics. Manicure and pedicure services are all about the "work" that has to be done. People seek these services so they don't have to do the work themselves. In the past ten years, she has learned how to do this work in a professional and timely manner and has built up a loyal clientele. She looks forward to being a part of and participating in the success of Holistic Choices.

Massage Therapy (Beatrice Whitman)

Massage Therapy, as a non-invasive, holistic approach to maintain the body's natural functions, is an essential component of the wellness continuum. Direct and indirect manipulation of the body supports general physical and emotional well-being. Massage Therapy promotes and extensive range of benefits, which include:

• Increasing circulation
• Decreasing pain
• Restoring balance in musculature
• Decreasing muscle fatigue and soreness
• Boosting immune function
• Aiding the body's natural healing process
• Decreasing stress

Performing massage therapy without completing comprehensive training can potentially do more harm than good. Beatrice Whitman is a graduate of the Health Enrichment Center, an accredited massage therapy program located in Freeport, Illinois. In addition, Beatrice is a member of the American Massage Therapy Association, a national organization that is limited to certified massage therapists. She has held a private practice in Rockford and has nearly tripled her clientele base since she first began two and a half years ago. With a high client retention rate, her business shows promising signs of continued exponential growth.

Beatrice's services include full-body massage, aromatherapy and essential oil treatments, and hot stone therapy. As Beatrice furthers her continuing education in other modalities of body work, more services will be available for the Holistic Choices clientele.

MARKETING

The principal partners, Joanne Fuller and Mary Smart, are both established in their health/wellness fields as are the rest of the contracted professionals. We have comprehensive clientele that we are confident will be following us into our new venture. Most of our business thus far has grown by word-of-mouth. However, to inform our clients as to our new location and additional services, we plan to advertise in the local papers such as the Observer, the Journal and the Community Crier with a photo of us and a description of the services we offer. We also will have brochures describing Holistic Choices as a whole, as well as each individual service that we provide. They will give an overview of the professional providing the service and a description of the amenities their service entails as well as the cost. We also plan to speak in front of and run clinics for various groups, such as PTA/O groups, the Rotary club, MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) groups, Scouts, and other similar groups.

COMPETITION

Our major competitors would be local health clubs, such as Curves. We believe we are set apart from the "health club" scene by several factors, such as: an inviting, relaxed, warm atmosphere–our location is a commercially zoned house as opposed to an industrial "building," our desire to educate and treat the consumer as a whole to provide lifelong healthy habits as opposed to "diet plans," makeup, and "spa" packages. We believe that our wellness studio does and will attract the large percentage of people who are intimidated by a big health club because of the smaller scale and more personal approach. We also believe that our (the principal partners as well as the contracted professionals) individual education and professional experience(s) help to set us apart from any of our competitors. We are all dedicated to our own education in an attempt to bring excellence and health to ourselves and our clientele.

BACKGROUND ON PRINCIPAL PARTNERS

Mary Smart

I was certified as a group fitness instructor through the American Council on Exercise (ACE) in February 1991. I taught group fitness classes, a.k.a. "aerobic" classes, in the Schaumburg area at several health clubs and facilities as well as for a few corporate and community education programs. When we moved to Elmhurst in early 1996, I obtained jobs teaching group fitness at a couple local fitness facilities, including Fitness Strategies. In all of these facilities, I taught classes such as High/Low and Step Aerobics, Kickboxing, Cycling, Pregnancy and Postpartum fitness, Circuit Training, children's and family fitness classes, Yoga, Pilates, and many more. In 1997, I was certified as a personal trainer through ACE and began taking on individual and groups as clients. Some clients that started with me then are still my clients today. In March of 1998, I was promoted to the Land Fitness Coordinator (in charge of all fitness instructors and programs not taking place in water).

The program grew to a point where the Fitness Coordinator position went from a part-time job to a fulltime Health and Wellness Specialist assignment in 2001. With a comprehensive group of personal training clients at the time and the mother of four children, I didn't feel the position suited me. The new Health and Wellness Specialist for the Summit contracted me to teach a course in Women's Weight Training, a two-night course discussing and demonstrating many weight-training techniques for women. The class was so successful, it has been repeated several times. It has attracted many women that are intimidated to go into a fitness center and who aren't knowledgeable about weight lifting and weight lifting machines.

In July of 2003, I was contracted by the American Heart Association to be a coach/trainer for the "Train to End Stroke" program. I am currently training the largest of the four central Rockford teams going to either Walt Disney World, Florida, or Phoenix, Arizona, for a half or full marathon in January 2004. I also have been re-contracted for the next marathon season. I train participants to either walk or run a half or full marathon and oversee their progress for five months. As a coach I have run clinics for the participants on proper form, shoe wear, clothing, nutrition, breathing techniques, hydration, and cross training.

In July 2003, I was certified as a Lifestyle and Weight Management Consultant through ACE, which requires a previous certification of either group fitness instructor or personal trainer. With this certification, I am able to offer nutrition counseling for my clientele. Fitness Strategies has contracted me to teach a Lifestyle and Weight Management class where participants learn proper nutrition techniques, including recipes, as well as exercise instruction and guidance. As part of the recertification process, instructors (trainers and consultants) are required to attend 15 hours of continuing education classes every 2 years. Since my first certification in 1991, I have consistently attended 12-15 hours of continuing education classes/workshops every single year in an effort to strive for excellence in my chosen field of health and fitness. I am a current member of the non-profit health and fitness organization, PULSE, and have been since 1998. I receive several different publications that offer articles on scientific breakthroughs, programming, and implementation as well as consumer information on fitness equipment.

Since 1996, I have been accumulating fitness equipment for use with clients including a treadmill, stair machine, stationary bikes, weight benches, hex weights, exercise therapy balls, medicine balls, and a balance trainer, among other things. I plan to use this equipment as well as a couple additional things for clients at Health-E-essentials. I also have believed in our duty to use our talents to give back to the community. I was on the committee of the Winnebago County "Fulfill a Dream"—a workout to raise funds for AIDS and related cancers research for the years 1993, 1994, and1995. I helped facilitate FIT (Fitness in Time), a workout to benefit a local charitable endowment fund in Winnebago County that started after "Fulfill a Dream" was discontinued. I have been a "Friend of the Cure" fundraiser for several years raising money for the Barbara Karmanos Cancer Institute as well as taking clients to the Race for the Cure in Rockford. I have hosted "Cooking for the Cure," "Training for the Cure," and (aerobic) "Workout for the Cure" as health and fitness fundraisers. My job at the American Heart Association does not require me to fundraise. However, I fundraised for my team as they are required to raise $3,500 /person as part of their program participation. Since the health of the community is very important to me, I plan to continue health-related fundraising through Holistic Choices for worthy causes.

Joanne Fuller

I have been in the skin-care profession for six years. In this time I have learned a great deal about the personal needs of my clients. My extensive knowledge of the service industry I attribute to the experience I gained at the places I have worked. I started my career at a busy full-service salon called Beautiful You, in old town Rockford. I worked as a receptionist, while I was in school to become an esthetician. Scheduling clients, taking inventory, ordering products, and answering the phones were my daily tasks. When I finished school I had already become familiar with the clients in the salon and many of them became my skin-care clients. After working there for three years, I had outgrown my small facial room. I was recommended to the owner of a skin-care studio called Skin Care Professionals. She approached me with a job offer, which I readily accepted. I worked directly with the owner who had been an esthetician for about fourteen years. It was an excellent learning experience. With the use of quality products and state-of-the-art equipment, I was able to triple my clientele. With Skin Care Professionals being a smaller scale operation, I was able to learn a lot about the business and the operating procedures. I scheduled my own clients, developed marketing techniques, placed product orders, and researched new equipment. I also am an advocate of continuing education and attend seminars and conventions often. My mission is to educate my clients on how to live a healthier lifestyle.

OPERATING PROCEDURES

Hours of operation: Monday through Friday we will open at 5:30A.M. for either personal training group sessions or Yoga/Pilates classes. There will be appointments all day for all departments and the last class/appointment will be at 7:30P.M. We will have a daytime receptionist/office manager working Tuesday through Thursday 10:00A.M. to 6:00P.M. She will answer phones, greet clients, do inventory, order retail, and run the cash register. Joanne and Mary will alternate covering the receptionist position on Friday, Saturday, and Monday until we hire an additional part-time receptionist. All other personnel (massage therapist, nail tech, and esthetician) will be independent contractors and will be responsible for their own accounting and taxes. They will contribute an additional fee in addition to their monthly rent to gain services from the receptionist and process any credit card fees. All independent contractors have had previous experience managing their own business/clientele.

PERSONNEL

The personnel for Holistic Choices will consist of two working partners and three independent contractors. Additional staff will consist of a receptionist/office manager. One partner, Joanne Fuller, is an Esthetician and the other partner, Mary Smart, is a Personal Trainer and Nutrition Counselor. The independent contractors will be a massage therapist, nail technician, and an additional esthetician. Each will be responsible for their equipment and supplies. They each will have a suitable space available to them for which they will pay monthly rent and additional fees for use of the receptionist services and credit card processing fees. Joanne and Mary will be paid commission on their individual sales/appointments and the rest will go toward the operation of Holistic Choices and the profit to be split by the partners. The ability to work for yourself and build your own clientele is very motivational. Holistic Choices is very interested in building lasting relationships both with the professionals contracted to work there and the clientele it services. This format will allow that relationship to grow and flourish under the common goal of providing exceptional services for a healthy lifestyle. We are confident that the natural referral process will activate itself under this type of operation and permit all professionals to benefit from growth that comes from recommending clients to one another. All of the professionals working at Holistic Choices specialize in different yet related fields and are committed to the health and well-being of all clientele, whether theirs or their colleagues'.

BREAK-EVEN ANALYSIS