As health care shifts to preventing illness, more entrepreneurs seize opportunities
PHOTO/Emily Micucci
Students participate in a yoga class at Peter Rucinski's studio, Medway Yoga. The studio opened in a retail plaza on Route 109 last summer.
PHOTO/Emily Micucci
Peter Rucinski , owner of Medway Yoga, plans to sell healthy food to round out his studio’s offerings.
A little over five years ago, Peter Rucinski couldn't have told you the first thing about yoga.
The software engineer from Bolton, now also the owner of a Medway yoga studio and retail store, was introduced to the particular discipline known as “hot yoga” by his brother, and became instantly hooked.
“I fell as deep and as hard as you possibly could,” Rucinski said.
He was so amazed at the benefits of the stretching and breathing exercises that he decided to open his own business to bring those same benefits to others. His business, Medway Yoga, opened in September in a retail plaza on Route 109.
Though yoga and other wellness-oriented businesses — such as acupuncture practices and restaurants featuring healthy options — have become increasingly popular as Americans become more health-conscious, such businesses are still breaking into communities west of Boston.
Medway Yoga, for example, is a pioneer, according to Rucinski.
“When you look at a map of Massachusetts … this is pretty much one of the areas left that (didn't) have a studio but has the demographics to support it,” Rucinski said.
Rucinski recognized that his yogic epiphany coincides with a wellness wave, and he's catching it in a big way. He offers classes seven days a week, and just five months into his new venture, he already teaches a dedicated group of students.
In addition to selling yoga apparel and equipment on site, Rucinski plans to sell healthy food to give another reason to bring clients his way.
But how much money do businesses like Rucinski's generate? And what is their true impact on the local economy?
Since they're typically owned by one or two people, like Rucinski, who owns Medway Yoga with his wife, Suzanne, wellness businesses aren't big job creators. And owners often have to find creative ways to meet overhead costs, according to Barbara Clifford, president of the Corridor Nine Area Chamber of Commerce in Westborough.
“The operating costs for them are serious money because the space required … is a pretty good size,” said Clifford, who has seen a rising number of wellness businesses open in the chamber's membership area in recent years.
Clifford said that frequently, wellness practitioners are linking up and sharing space to reduce the burden of making the rent.
Mary An Moyer, owner of LifeCare Physical Therapy in Northborough, has spearheaded the kind of one-stop wellness center Clifford referred to. Since Moyer opened her physical therapy practice four years ago, she has joined forces with two massage therapists, two yoga instructors, a registered dietitian, meditation instructor and personal trainer. Her colleagues lease space, which helps Moyer manage overhead expenses. It's also created a wellness hub for clients, who often end up using services of other practitioners when they complete physical therapy, Moyer said.
“It helps give me the ability to do my job the way I want to do it,” Moyer said, explaining that lower rent pressure means she can spend more time with her family.
Although they're not huge revenue generators, Clifford believes wellness businesses benefit the local economy in two important ways. First, she said there is a ripple effect when a client visits a yoga studio or acupuncture clinic, then shops at a neighboring business.
They also make the quality of life in towns in MetroWest and Central Massachusetts more attractive to young homebuyers who are used to city living by offering the wellness amenities that are available in urban areas.
Younger homebuyers “come (to the suburbs) for quality of life and good school systems, but they leave behind some of the things they like,” Clifford said.
Rucinski plans to keep his job as a software engineer for the foreseeable future, as does Ajay Kapur, who owns SOHUM Yoga in Westborough with his wife, Ritu. The Kapurs both maintain other jobs while they work to build their yoga business, which opened last summer. Ajay Kapur said they're now earning enough money to make the rent for their space at 30 Lyman St. and may be able to replace one income with the business eventually.
Not in it for cash killing
But he said owners of wellness businesses usually aren't in it to make a lot of cash, and are instead motivated by improving the quality of life within their communities.
Still, the Kapurs do have their eyes on the bottom line. That's one reason they've made corporate wellness services a part of their business model. SOHUM is already providing wellness services to one company with operations in Westborough and will eventually take on more corporate clients.
Ajay Kapur, who works in the information technology industry, knows firsthand the emphasis companies are placing on wellness as a way to improve the health and productivity of employees. And a report published by the Rand Corp. in 2012, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor, suggests that businesses in the Northeast are ahead of the pack when it comes to offering wellness programs, including screening, intervention and activity programs. While 51 percent of all companies surveyed offered some type of workplace wellness program, 66 percent of employers located in the Northeast reported offering a program, the highest of any U.S. region.
And the larger the company, the more likely it offered some type of wellness program, the survey revealed. While just 39 percent of companies employing between 50 and 100 offered wellness programs, 85 percent of those with more than 1,001 offered them.
Adding to the data is anecdotal evidence offered by Brandan Hardie, executive director of the National Wellness Institute in Wisconsin. Though the institute is 40 years old, Hardie said wellness really started to enter the nation's consciousness about five years ago. When the institute was founded, there were no professional degree programs designed for wellness occupations. Today, Hardie said, there are about 350. Many graduates end up working as consultants for businesses interested in promoting wellness in the workplace, Hardie said.
“It shows that, not only is the general public taking it seriously, but businesses are, too,” Hardie said.
If the Kapurs can capitalize on demand from the corporate world, they will.
“They're the ones who have all the money,” Ajay Kapur said.
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