BY EDDY GOLDBERG
Female Founders
FROM PAIN TO GAIN
Shane Evans’ back problem led to a successful brand
H
ow do you cure years of debilitating, recurring back pain? For
Shane Evans, it was therapeutic
massage. She liked the results so much that
she started a franchise to offer that same
experience to others. “I haven’t had a back
problem since I started Massage Heights,”
says Evans who co-founded the company
with her husband Wayne in 2004.
When they opened their first unit in
San Antonio and found customers clamoring for more—as well as asking about
how they could open one themselves—they
knew they were on to something. After 3
years of perfecting the model, they began
expanding nationally through franchising.
Today they have 140 open and are looking
to hit the 300 mark by the end of 2018.
Their success—and appeal—has not
gone unnoticed. In 2013, she appeared on
“Undercover Boss,” wearing glasses and
a red, big-hair wig straight out of 1962.
Viewers responded positively: in the first
week it aired, 3,500 people submitted job
applications. “In our industry, our prodNAME: Shane Evans
TITLE: Co-founder, president
COMPANY: Massage Heights
SYSTEM-WIDE REVENUE: $86 million
NO. OF UNITS: 140
INTERNATIONAL UNITS: 12
GROWTH PLANS: 2016, 175 units open
and operating; 2017, 235; 2018, 300
PUBLIC OR PRIVATE? Private
YEAR COMPANY FOUNDED: 2004
YEAR STARTED FRANCHISING: 2007
YOUR YEARS IN FRANCHISING: 9
uct is our people. We can’t supply those
services without them,” she says.
The experience gave her a newfound
respect for the massage therapists. “It seems
like every boss that goes undercover says
‘I gained a new perspective,’ but I really
did! They are skilled professionals, and
until you’ve tried performing a massage
on someone, you really don’t get it.”
After meeting and learning about the
backstories of the therapists she met, she
was genuinely awed by how they are able
to put aside their often serious problems
and provide a comfortable, healing experience for customers. “You never know what
people are dealing with, yet they have to let
go and serve the customer,” she says. “Our
therapists do so much for our guests and
members. I began thinking, ‘What would
it be like to help them?’”
Her answer was to create the Heights
Family Fund, a non-profit that helps employees in crisis situations by providing
emergency relief.
GETTING STARTED
What inspired you to start your business? Because of my own experiences, I
recognized the need for affordable, convenient, and professional massage services.
When I was 18 and nearly every year after,
my back would “go out” and I would end
up lying flat on the floor with my feet up
on a chair for a solid week, barely able to
move. When I first had this issue, I would
see a chiropractor and it would just make
it worse. After several years of this, I finally went to a massage therapist instead
and gained mobility almost immediately.
I knew that if I were able to get regular
massage therapy it would help prevent
these instances in the future, but regular
massage therapy did not seem attainable
because of cost, time, and inconsistencies
in the therapists’ environments.
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