Today we’d like to introduce you to Beth Lancaster.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Beth. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I attended college at the University of Wisconsin. Upon graduation, I worked for a marketing company for two years. I wanted to understand more about the corporate side of marketing so I enrolled in grad school at Wisconsin and got my MBA in marketing. I took a position as a corporate Brand Manager and learned the inner workings of running a brand/product. I was especially intrigued by the strategy behind product placement, pricing and promotion at the retail level. I moved over to the Channel Marketing group as a Senior Channel Marketing Manager and worked with retail chains in the Consumer Electronics, Home Improvement and Mass Market Discount areas. Then…I became a mom…as someone who likes to give 110%, I struggled with the idea of balancing work and home life. So, I decided to stay home for a few years. I did A LOT of school volunteering and kept busy with my kiddos. When they were five and three, we made a big move down to Houston for my husband’s job. I was thankful for the flexibility to help my family smoothly transition to our new hometown.
Fast forward several years, my kids were situated and my husband wanted out of the corporate world. We had always toyed with the idea of going into business together…our skill sets compliment each other well. I was ready to work outside of the home again so we decided to research some ideas. We had three criteria: 1) whatever we did, we needed to be passionate about it 2) we wanted to find an important niche that hadn’t been met 3) it had to be something that could not be sold on Amazon. As avid runners, we started looking into the wellness/self-care industry. We saw lots of overly-worked people…workers, students, athletes, patients, you name it…but not tons of solutions for these people. One day I was poking around on Google and saw something about “floating”…all runners know the power of epsom salt for physical recovery, but I soon found out the benefits of floating go way deeper than that. I was officially interested. We did more research, tried floating, talked with people in the industry and decided this had some legs to it. Urban Float Houston was then born. We opened our first spa in the Heights and have recently opened a second in the West University/Medical Center area.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
No, we have hit some bumps along the way. The opening of our first spa was delayed due to hurricane Harvey (supplies were limited) and unforeseen inspection requirements for our float pods. These British-made pods were new to many people and there was no road map to follow. But, we worked our way through that and opened successfully. With one spa complete, we thought the second build-out would go more smoothly…wrong! The shopping center we choose for our new location was about to go through a major cosmetic update…we loved the new plans are were excited to be part of the updated look. The estimated completion date for the center re-do was September 2018 which was going to work perfectly with our build-out plans. As with a lot of construction projects, this date kept moving.
Our open date moved along with it…we are a spa that requires quiet conditions which does not happen when hammering and banging is happening all around you. Finally, in April 2019, we felt it was safe to open despite the on-going work on the shopping center. After our first week of being open, a big rainstorm came through Houston. That’s when we discovered the center construction crew had taken the roof off to prepare for the new roof; however, they did not properly tarp it…it was now raining inside our spa. We had leaks and damage all over our beautiful new spa. Here we are in September of 2019, and the center is just finishing up its construction. We are excited to have everything patched up and move forward with serving our guests!
Please tell us about Urban Float Houston.
We are a float center. We provide self-care and wellness through floating. Floating allows you to rest in a private, sensory-managed float pod for a 60-minute session; in purified water and 1200lbs of epsom salt to deliver proven physical, mental and emotional benefits. The body is relieved of the effects of gravity, the senses are restored and physical & mental stress are alleviated.
Urban Float Houston is committed to providing a clean, calm, and welcoming environment so guests can get the most out of floatation therapy. Whether guests seek pain management, sports recovery, stress relief, improved focus, or simply disconnect from a hyper-connected world, we create a sanctuary to help everyone, everywhere improve their quality of life.
My favorite part of this job is seeing people coming out of their floats looking so refreshed and revived… I’m proud to be able to help make a difference in people’s lives. I hear many stories about how floating has helped our guests and it makes my heart happy to know we can provide that for them.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
We have learned that human capital can make or break a business. For this reason, I would start with the employee and management structure we have in place now. We experimented with different structures and after some failed attempts, we have found one that works for us…we could have saved resources and time had we started with this structure, but like the saying goes “mistakes are lessons learned”. We’re in a good place now.
Pricing:
- Float Club Memberships ranging from $60-$150
- Packages from $90 up
- Intro float for $45
Contact Info:
- Address: Heights: 250 West 19th St, Suite D, Houston 77008
West U/Med Center: 3839 Bellaire Blvd, Houston 77025 - Website: www.urbanfloat.com/houston
- Phone: Heights: 281-929-0190; West U/Med Center: 281-929-0053
- Email: houstonheights@urbanfloat.com westuniversity@urbanfloat.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/urbanfloatheights/ https://www.instagram.com/urbanfloatwestu/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/urbanfloathoustonheights/ https://www.facebook.com/urbanfloatwestuniversityplace/
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