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Local woman falls in love with day spa business Mar 10, 2008 12:00 AM A A Editor's note: This is one in a weekly series of profiles on locally owned and operated businesses in Southern Oregon. What do you do and how long have you been doing it? We provide massages, facials, body treatments, airbrush tanning, manicures, pedicures and waxing. We also have a full-service Aveda hair salon. The Phoenix was founded by Suzanne Mathis-McQueen in 1996. How long have you lived in the Rogue Valley? I've lived here for 14 years and moved here from Newport Beach, Calif. What inspired you to go into this line of work? I started beauty school when I was 16 and a sophomore in high school at my mother's behest. I had a very successful career in hairstyling for 28 years. I earned my degree in chemistry at Southern Oregon University when I was 44 and was working at the Phoenix as a hairstylist. While I was in graduate school for analytical chemistry in Corvallis, I started missing the Rogue Valley. I was coming down here every four or five weeks to get my Ashland fix when Suzanne put the business up for sale and I decided graduate school wasn't for me. What decision or action would you change if you could do it again? I would have taken some accounting classes earlier on, reached out for mentoring more and utilized some of the resources we have in the Rogue Valley such as SCORE (Senior Corps of Retired Executives). I had run a business before, but it was much bigger operation because it was an existing business. What's the toughest business decision you've made? Letting go a longtime employee that I really liked because of performance issues. I really liked the person and she was very well-liked by everyone. At the same time I have to uphold standards that everyone is accountable to. Who are your competitors? Waterstone Spa in Ashland. Really, everyone in this particular industry in this particular town has really different markets. I do have a good relationship with the other spa owners. Although they do overlap, we draw different people and have different price points. What are your goals? As a mature business it's really hit a lot of its goals and we function really well. I want to see us continue to prosper. I'm not looking to expand the staff, but I have room for one more hairstylist and strive for 90 percent capacity utilization. What training or education did you need? I went to beauty school in San Jose and owned Scruples Hair Studio in Newport Beach for six years. I have a bachelor's degree in analytical chemistry from SOU. The math skills I developed in chemistry certainly helped me analyze and assess my systems; I can read and pronounce all those words on the back of the shampoo bottles, too. What's your advice for budding entrepreneurs? Go into something you love and know your market. Take every class offered at low cost by organizations like SCORE that you can, go to industry seminars and keep expanding your education. Don't be afraid of numbers, that's the downfall of a lot of new entrepreneurs. To suggest an idea for this column, contact reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4463 or e-mail [email protected] Master Stylist Susan Zastoupil dyes Kimberly Smith’s hair Friday at The Phoenix Day Spa and Salon in Ashland. Mail Tribune Photo / Jamie Lusch - Jamie Lusch