Tired Travelers Find Relief Has Arrived

wow! great business idea!

Gina Stern isn't hoping the throngs of Thanksgiving travelers get stuck at the airport this week.
But if they do, she and her staff are prepared to offer a little pampering in a pinch.

"My customer is the time-poor and the world-weary,' says Stern, owner of the d_parture spas at Newark Liberty International Airport's Terminals C and B. "They don't say, 'How much?' when they walk in; they say, 'How long?' It's all about making their boarding time.'

Stern, a Bronx native who calls Upper Saddle River home these days, offers folks passing through the airport everything from a fast haircut and color job, to a manicure, pedicure or massage. Customers can spend as little as $10 for a quick lip waxing or as much as $170 for a two-hour "total energy boost,' which includes hair, nails, a facial and massage.

It's a business that she says thrived shortly after its takeoff six years ago.

"We were profitable at both Newark locations the first year,' says Stern, who also owns a spa at Orlando International Airport that she says is profitable.

Stern hopes to expand her business to more than a million in sales now that she has joined a handful of other women in winning a contest sponsored by OPEN, the American Express unit geared toward small businesses, and the non-profit group, Count Me In for Women's Economic Independence.

After pitching her business plan for growth, Stern won a year's worth of mentoring and consulting services, and access to loans aimed at helping her top $1 million in sales.

"It's amazing,' says Stern, whose Puerto Rican and Dominican roots helped her get the spas certified as minority-owned.

"As a small-business owner, you can never show weakness or you're pronounced dead. But with Amex, now if I run into trouble, I can go to them. I feel like they reached in and grabbed me and said, 'You're worth something.' '

Susan Sobbott, president of OPEN from American Express, says Stern's thorough business planning helped her win the competition.

"Her business is something she could replicate on a bigger scale and she has solid financials,' says Sobbott, of Glen Rock. "What's compelling about Gina is that she took the time to step back and say, 'Hey, I could do this and here is what I think I need.' It's an indicator of what we call a million-dollar mind-set.'

Stern says she's never been shy about her ambitions. She is, after all, a former fashion designer who only slowed down long enough to write a business plan for the spas after a back injury left her sidelined.

"I wrote my business plan for the spas while I was rehabilitating,' says Stern, noting that her husband came up with the idea for her spa-at-the-airport business. "My branding experience from my background in fashion helped a lot. The whole spa concept just became my baby.'

But Stern says getting airport space wasn't so easy.
"I lobbied the airports for two years because they told me they didn't see the spa concept as viable there,' Stern recalls. "They said they didn't see how travelers would pass up on a bar concept in favor of a spa.'

Luckily for her, a nationwide "air mall' trend began to take hold.

"The idea is basically to offer shopping and other services that let you forget you're at an airport,' Stern says, noting that the concept arrived at Newark just in time for her to open her first spa there in 2000.

She borrowed $750,000 from family members as start-up capital.

"That store opened-up gang busters,' she says. "But then we had 9/11 and it hit a dip.'

The business eventually recovered and Stern opened the Terminal B spa in 2003. "We did hit some problems with traffic there initially,' recalls Stern, who has 20 employees in Newark.

"There's an international demographic, and culturally, I'm not a big draw for customers of Air Israel or Air India.'

But Stern, who expects revenue from Newark to top $750,000 in 2007, says she overcame those "challenges' by offering incentive coupons to customers of various nearby airlines.
"You jump in with no experience and then you learn along the way,' she says. "You have to address issues head-on as they arise.'

Stern says she's eager to see the business grow in coming years.
"I see a d_partures spa at every airport throughout the U.S. and in Europe,' she says. "Why not think big?'