HOME SPA Bath and Body Essentials (Entrepreneur magazine)

Having a hard time working with a small capital to start a business? Add a huge amount of enthusiasm and get that dream business of yours running. It worked for truly determined entrepreneurs like 26 year-old Marge Gabat.

Marge, a philosophy graduate from UP Diliman and a former Quality Monitoring Officer in an American call center, shelved her stable corporate career when she decided to concentrate on her spa, bath and body business last December 2003. I'd keep on dividing my time and energy between work and my hobby-turned-business, I knew the quality of one would suffer, so one would have to give. With orders pouring in specially nearing the holidays, I couldn't squeeze everything within the time I had when I got home from work. There were nights when I didn't sleep at all and went straight to work the next day.

Finding creative expression and fulfillment in her line of spa, bath and body products, Marge filed her resignation towards the end of November 2003. I had always been very fond of (strictly) all-natural personal care products but there was a limited selection in most beauty shops and most of these were carried in scents I wasn't too fond of. I decided to take a hand in making my own stuff. My first set of lip balms was a disaster but eventually I made a good batch in cherry and peppermint. My friends and officemates loved it and prompted me to make other stuff for them, she explains her business idea. Her first attempts failed but after a lot more research, experiments and testing, her line of products called Home Spa Bath and Body Essentials now include a wide selection of treatment products for the hair, face, body, hands and feet: honey and vitamin E shampoos, olive and honey hair therapy, herbal face masks, honey body polish, mint body butter, milk hand baths, eye pillows, olive leg/foot masks, lip balms, milk and oats body bars and a lot more.

What makes it more fun to use is that all products may be personalized in your desired scent. Home Spa offers more than 19 delicious flavor or fragrances Marge has divided into 3 categories: tea/herb-based, fruit-based and bean/nut-based. She has named these flavors in her favorite drinks and desserts like Strawberry Milkshake, Mango Jubilee, Mocha Frap, Hot Fudge, Iced Lemon, Banana Split, Pina Colada, Coco-Pandan and the list goes on!

It only cost Marge P2,500 to get her venture underway. That was in February last year when I bought my first batch of materials for making lip balms. The first batch was even a disaster but I had materials left to make another one. From that amount, I just continued to use whatever I earned to make more stuff. Pinapaikot ko lang yung pera. It was purely a hobby, an interest that time. It didn't even cross my mind to make a business out of it. Not in my wildest dreams that a year later I'd be making all the products I have right now, supplying spas and salons and even featured in magazines and TV shows I just read and watched that time.

I don't have any equipment, she explains. I only use a casserole I bought for cooking, mixing and molding my products. Her operation has indeed risen a few notches above her make-do beginnings. Spas and salons in Libis, Ortigas, Makati and even Olongapo have been ordering various products by the liter and using them with very satisfied customers. Wedding coordinators have also been getting in touch with her since giving bath and body products is a growing trend in wedding favors.

Today, Marge is seeing potential in marketing her products in the U.S. The owner of one spa I'm supplying visited her family in the States and bought lip balms, various scents of the body butter and the foot spa kits as pasalubong, she reveals. She told me all her relatives and their friends who tried it were hooked on them and wanted to try out all the scents so she bought more when she got home and sent it back.

For orders and inquiries:

Home Spa Bath and Body Essentials, Manila
Telefax: (632) 434.1126
Mobile: (0928) 347.9343
Email:
General Inquiries - info@homespa.tk / my_homespa@yahoo.com
Home Spa Product Orders - spaorders@homespa.tk
Home Spa Service & Spa Parties - spaservice@homespa.tk
Spa Training - spatraining@homespa.tk
Feedback - marge@homespa.tk
YM: my_homespa
Yahoo E-group: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/home_spa