Balance Massage Therapy owners focus on affordability, adaptability
Published: Sunday, March 22, 2009, 5:20 AM Updated: Sunday, March 22, 2009, 5:25 Am
Christin Draybuck and Josie Ann Lee were working as baristas at a coffee shop when they started chatting about business.
Draybuck, 28, was an assembly line worker who took a buyout from General Motors.
Lee, 34, was a former information technology manager who had worked in Chicago.
Together, they came up with Balance Massage Therapy, which opened in October. It’s a seven-day-a-week, five-room massage studio on Plymouth Road in Ann Arbor.
They decided to start their own business rather than work for an established operation.
“I’d rather be working for myself, depending on me, than waiting for someone else to let me go,” Lee said.
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Lee said the business model is based on being affordable, accessible and adaptable.
The cost of a massage ranges from $20 to $60. The company has a $45 happy-hour special and a 25-minute chair massage for $20.
And the two say they will travel to find new customers, working off site when necessary.
ABOUT THE OWNERS
• Josie Ann Lee
Age: 34.
Residence: Ann Arbor.
Occupation: Co-owner, Balance Message Therapy.
Background/previous career: IT management.
• Christin Draybuck
Age: 28.
Residence: Ann Arbor.
Occupation: Co-owner, Balance Message Therapy.
Background/previous career: Assembly line worker, General Motors.
They have worked with nurses and other health care workers at some local business offices and the University of Michigan Hospital.
“We are out there. We are trying to market smart,” Lee said.
Draybuck said getting out of the office and being pro-active in generating clientele was one reason she wanted to start her own business. She said another place she worked at didn’t reward that kind of effort.
Despite a horrid economy, Draybuck and Lee say their new business is doing well.
Tom Gantert can be reached at tgantert@annarbornews.com or 734-994-6701.
