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Hampton Bays-Based Namaste Soul Wellness Preparing for New Summer Season

Posted on: Friday, 22 April 2005, 21:00 CDT

No East End business wants to miss the summer crowds. But it takes a special kind of entrepreneur to hold a grand opening on Memorial Day, the unofficial start of the season.

That was the case at Namaste Soul Wellness, a holistic wellness center at Hampton Bays. Owners Shannon Smith and Vicki Cooper, two massage therapists, opened Namaste's doors last Memorial Day weekend. And even though there was no soft opening for these partners, the way they tell it, their business launch was smooth sailing.

It was really fun, Cooper said, describing the company's first summer in operation as incredible because the partners already had clients and knew how to schedule appointments.

We both worked at establishments, Smith said. We saw where they made their mistakes and took that into consideration. We know after how many massages we needed downtime.

And because the owners - friends since 1993 - had covered each other in the past and knew one another's routines, the partnership works well, they say.

Namaste is named after a greeting used in Yoga circles, where the word is defined as I bow to you. In addition to traditional massage, the company offers Reiki, reflexology, couples-massage classes and pain-management workshops.

The center has three treatment rooms and a larger room for Reiki circles and meditation groups.

It's more than just the fluff end, Smith said. Some come to see us to relax. Others come with [more serious] problems - cancer patients, anxiety issues.

For the new summer season, Namaste is introducing an aesthetician who specializes in skincare, enabling the center to treat clients internally and externally, the partners said.

Smith and Cooper had kicked around the idea of opening a business together for seven years. But it wasn't until last year, with the business plan finalized, that they felt ready to go forward.

It took them two months to find their current site, a former beauty salon that was in bad shape. The walls were cracked in places once occupied by sinks and mirrors. The color scheme consisted of steel gray and bubble gum pink. The remaining light fixtures were globes from the 1950s. The partners walked in and said, This is it. Their husbands, and even their broker, thought they were crazy.

Smith, who had remodeled her house a number of times, said she took the lead as the partners built and painted walls. Today the interior is a warm butter yellow and the exterior is sage green.

The partners did the decorating themselves, adorning the facility with hanging plants, burgundy and gold curtains, ceiling fans and soft lighting. The center also features a lending library and an herb garden from which clients can snip and take home basil, sage, lemon balm, rosemary and thyme.

Namaste saw a steady client base through Christmas, although the snowy months that followed were slow, Cooper said. I traveled into the city to see clients and keep up relationships, she noted.

The partners have a 10-year plan in which they'd run a destination wellness center where people could stay two days or two weeks.

Meanwhile, they're gearing up for their one-year anniversary open house, where folks can stop by for 10-minute massages, skin treatments and a raffle prize.

Source: Long Island Business News

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