Building a Spa Business in California: How I Keep Foot Traffic Flowing in an Unpredictable Economy
- Dec 22, 2025
- 4 min read
By Victoria Kseniya Simon
When I opened Contourology four years ago, I knew I wasn’t just opening a spa — I was building a sanctuary for women like me. As a mom, I had felt firsthand how invisible postnatal and hormone-related body changes could make you feel, and how few spaces actually understood how to help without pushing surgery or shame. So, I decided to create the kind of place I couldn’t find: one rooted in holistic body sculpting, real results, and respect for women’s cycles and seasons.
But then came 2020 — and everything changed. Like every small business owner in California, I quickly learned that surviving wasn’t just about offering a good service; it was about adapting overnight. Four years later, the challenges haven’t stopped — if anything, they’ve evolved. Inflation, rising costs, and constant uncertainty have made people more careful about how they spend. But here’s the reality: when money feels tight, many women put themselves last. That’s why I knew Contourology had to stay visible and valuable — not a luxury, but an investment in feeling strong and whole.
So, how do we keep foot traffic coming through our doors, even when everyone’s watching their wallets? We get creative — constantly.
First, we embrace the power of digital connection. Social media is non-negotiable for us: we post quality content daily and share real transformations and educational tips. But we don’t just hope followers turn into clients — we reach out directly. Every single person who follows us on Instagram gets a personal DM from our team, along with a gift certificate they can use toward their first treatment. It feels personal because it is — we want women to know they’re seen and welcomed before they ever step through our door.
We also work with influencers whose audiences trust them. Authentic partnerships help us stay in front of new clients who value what we do. And when people do come in, they almost always share their own stories — word-of-mouth might be quiet in this business (most women don’t want their friends to know they have help staying sculpted!), but they do talk to their circles, and that brings in referrals in unexpected ways.
Location matters, but even being in a prime spot in LA doesn’t guarantee people will find you. We learned that the hard way. So, we make our storefront impossible to miss — sometimes that’s a beautiful flower frame around our door, sometimes it’s balloons, and we use sidewalk signs to catch the eye of anyone walking by.
Even my own car is an advertisement: I have QR codes for our website on my Cybertruck, which is honestly one of the best conversation starters I could ask for.
Collaborations are huge for us, too. We partner with yoga and Pilates studios, hair salons, and nail techs — any business that serves the same women who care about feeling good in their bodies. We also co-host wellness events and pop-ups, where we offer mini-treatments and connect with women who might never have heard of us otherwise.
Offline, we experiment. Some things stick, some don’t. We’ve handed out brochures and even put them in mailboxes — that one didn’t really move the needle. We advertise in local magazines, run Google ads, and keep our SEO fresh through an agency so women searching “holistic body sculpting near me” find us first. We tried Groupon — once — but learned quickly that not every deal brings the right clients. We used to spend heavily on Facebook ads, but the cost climbed without clear results, so we scaled back and focused on organic outreach instead.
One thing I’m proud of is how we show up for our local community. We donate gift certificates to charity events, local schools, and organizations that support women and families. It’s a way of giving back, but it’s also word-of-mouth in its purest form — a parent or teacher who might not have considered a body treatment before suddenly gets to experience what we do, and they tell someone else.
The truth is, no single tactic is enough on its own. Keeping foot traffic flowing takes layers of effort, constant creativity, and the courage to pivot when something stops working. I’ve learned to listen to my clients — their lives, their stress, and what they need right now — and adapt our services and messaging accordingly. We stay relevant by staying real: trends change, but the need for women to feel good in their own skin doesn’t.
My dream is to open Contourology locations all over Los Angeles — so that no matter where a woman lives, she can access holistic body sculpting that works with her body, not against it. Every treatment, every collaboration, every post and partnership is building toward that vision. In an unpredictable economy, the best way I know to stay visible is to stay valuable — and to never stop showing up.
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