Pioneering in a new field has advantages and risks

“Being an entrepreneur primarily means employing staff who depend on you, working more than any employee and having the largest possible amount of freedom to make decisions. Of course, the decisions must be made alone, so there are also risks related to the decisions,” explains Liliana Paraipan, general manager of Eden Spa centre, which opened at the end of 2005
At 31, Paraipan runs her company alone, but was just 24 when she opened her first business together with her husband. The faculty she graduated from gave her the opportunity to choose the business she subsequently became involved in.
She targeted an untapped market niche – the spa segment, and outlined a business strategy.
“In 2005, very few people were aware of the concept, and even fewer thought of investing in it. On the one hand, being a pioneer in a field provides the advantage of being the first to arrive, but also throws up the risk of an uneducated market,” says Paraipan.
She opened her first day spa in Romania to fulfil a personal ambition. After a lack of market competition, Paraipan says that in the first year she focused heavily on the training of professional therapists and educating customers with regard to spa services. When the spa opened, the team consisted of 10 people, whilst at present the number of staff stands at 14. Initial investments topped 200,000 euros.
As the boss, she believes her position involves a higher degree of responsibility compared with an employee. At the same time, she also has to be ready for possible failures and have solutions to cope with these situations. In her opinion, the main concerns are those linked to failure, which are dependent on the market, other circumstances, or a misplaced expectation of the business.
Paraipan believes in order to invest in the spa business one needs to know the market extremely well and identify the core target, so that when it comes to arranging the space, buying equipment, or promoting and providing services to customers the strategies are well adjusted.
In addition, Paraipan says finding skilled personnel is a real problem in this industry.
In terms of clients, 62% of Eden SPA customers are young people aged between 25 and 35, 82% are university graduates who work in a stressful environment, and usually hold important positions in major companies. On average, the income of an Eden SPA customer exceeds 1,500 euros per month. According to the Finance Ministry’s website, Eden SPA generated turnover worth around 114,000 euros in its first year in 2006.