Welcome 2024! It’s a new year, so it’s time to focus and plan the ways you can help to make it your best year yet. This year, please remember to “work on the business, not in the business.” You can’t grow until you do the latter.
Here are some thoughts for 2024 in two parts: first trends and macro thinking, then some steps to take today to make sure you are prepared and set up for success in 2024.
Trends and Macro Thinking
• Biophilic Design: Increasingly, spas are doing what they can to blur the line between indoors and outdoors by incorporating more natural light, living walls, and indoor water features. Some other possible examples: open-air treatment areas, rooftop gardens, and immersivesensory experiences.
• Adventure Wellness: Eco-conscious retreats are combining outdoor activities like hiking, kayaking, and yoga with spa treatments for a complete mind-body-spirit renewal.
• Virtual Reality Immersions: Escape to tranquil beaches, climb virtual mountains, or even explore the human body on an anatomical adventure, all within the spa environment.
• Biohacking Treatments: Cryotherapy chambers, hyperbaric oxygen chambers, and light therapy are becoming more popular and accessible. Treatments and offerings like these can provide targeted solutions for pain management, sleep optimization, and cellular rejuvenation.
• Gut-Brain Connection: Here, the gut microbiome takes center stage with fermented probiotic drinks, microbiome-balancing meals, and spa treatments like gut massages and prebiotic facials to promote internal and external wellbeing.
• Emotional Detox: Spas will focus on emotional wellness with meditation workshops, sound baths, and expressive arts therapy, offering tools to manage stress, anxiety, and trauma.
• Hyper-Personalized Experiences: From bespoke treatment rituals designed by clients to curated playlists and personalized aromatherapy blends, spas will prioritize customization to make every experience unique.
• Carbon-Neutral Retreats: Eco-lodges and off-grid spa experiences will prioritize renewable energy sources and sustainable building practices, offering guilt-free indulgence for the environmentally conscious traveler.
• Supporting Local Communities: Spas are partnering with local farms, artisans, and wellness practitioners to promote cultural exchange and support sustainable livelihoods.
• Pet-Friendly Spas: Recognizing the human-animal bond, spas will welcome furry companions with specialized treatments and dedicated spaces for canine cuddles and pampering.
Things to Do Now
- Have your accountant or financial advisor take a hard look at all expenses and cut costs wherever possible.
- Ask yourself, “Is my marketing working?” Make sure you’re getting a positive return on your investment. Review all team members. Are they team players? Do they produce for the company? If you work for yourself, are you really doing the best you can to be profitable? Review all position descriptions. Make sure they speak to what is expected each and every day.
- Is education a priority? It should be. Educated team players will always produce happy returning clients and drive sales of retail products.
- Form relationships with complementary businesses in your neighborhood. Referrals are the best form of marketing and typically produce the highest rates of return on investment.
2024 promises to be an exciting year. Step into it with an open mind and a curious spirit.