The Mahogany Story - theHumm November 2016

By Kris Riendeau

How do you come to own a very successful spa, with two locations and over a hundred staff? If you’re Catherine Wood, you start out milking cows on your family farm outside of Carleton Place, raise a family in rural Pakenham, and spend three decades working as a public administrator with an organization that assists developmentally disabled individuals. Once you’ve made CEO and decided that you have accomplished all you wanted in your chosen field, you begin to contemplate retiring and spending a bit more time at home…

That Entrepreneurial Spirit

As Catherine was nearing the end of her very fulfilling career, her eldest daughter Amy happened to be taking a year’s sabbatical from teaching and was working in a spa/salon in the west end of Ottawa. Amy felt that Catherine’s combination of business and organizational skills, combined with her background of taking care of people, would make her particularly well suited to running a spa. Intrigued, Catherine began exploring the possibility, and that’s where her younger daughter Krystin came into the picture.

At 25, Krystin had studied photography at Humber and was trying to make her way as a freelancer in Toronto in an industry that was changing rapidly, as digital technologies progressed. When her mom called and asked her to consider coming home for six months to help get a new business started, Krystin agreed. As she told me during our interview, “we have that entrepreneurial spirit in our family”. Krystin describes her father Jim, himself an entrepreneur, as “the man behind the successful women”. Catherine adds that: “Jim is always constant in his involvement behind the scenes, as both Krystin and I use him as a sounding board and the idea person. He is great at projecting what’s coming next in business — he plays a vital role in this regard.”

With support from the rest of the family, the mother-daughter team found a property in Stittsville to lease and renovate, and also threw themselves into the task of learning all about an industry that was entirely new to them. As neophytes, they soon found that they were anomalies in the salon world, but their fresh perspective also left them free to imagine a spa experience that was “outside the box” — without a preconceived notion of where the limits of the box even were. The result was the flagship Mahogany Salon & Spa, which opened in downtown Stittsville in 2004.

From Flagship to Mothership

That entrepreneurial spirit served them so well that within a few years Catherine and Krystin began to feel that their business was growing beyond the bounds of its location. Much of the administration and training was taking place at Catherine and Jim’s home, which was even being used for storage. And although they had no plans for a second venue when they opened in Stittsville, they had certainly begun to dream of what they could build and offer if they owned their own larger space as opposed to leasing in a finite downtown location.

Initially they looked at land in Kemptville and Barrhaven, but being from this area they were also aware of the growth in Carleton Place and the expansion of Highway 7 to four lanes. It was actually on a family trip to Krystin’s cottage on Mississippi Lake when her dad looked down from the overpass on Highway 7 and said: “I think that’s where your next spa should be.”Remarkably, the family even has roots that extend back to the quarry that once operated where Mahogany is now located in Carleton Place. When Catherine’s grandfather was a young man, he worked in the quarry that, in the early 1900s, provided rock used to build the first gravel highway to Smiths Falls, as well as some of the grand buildings in town. Catherine’s father, who attended public school nearby, used to swim in the quarry (which was eventually abandoned because water couldn’t be kept out of it), and he even courted Catherine’s mother while skating there in wintertime.

So when it came time for Catherine and Krystin to create their new dream location in Carleton Place, they dreamed big. They asked themselves what they would want a spa to look and feel like, and settled on something reminiscent of an old southern mansion. The spacious — and gracious — building, with its stunning gardens and pond complete with fountain, reflects a destination that the owners feel “the women and men of Carleton Place deserve to go to”. With its larger rooms and spacious indoor and outdoor sitting areas, Mahogany’s new location can accommodate large groups and encourage guests to linger — to take time to relax and be nurtured by both the staff and the peaceful surroundings. Although the Stittsville location is still their flagship, Carleton Place is definitely the mothership.

The Mahogany Experience

No matter how comfortable the surroundings, a spa experience ultimately comes down to an interaction between guests and staff. For Catherine and Krystin, the most important factor is that their guests feel cared for and nurtured by the staff, and the key to that is their own personal involvement in the business. They hire locally, ensuring that staff “have the right heart for the job”, and then provide both training and lots of personal interaction to communicate their values. With over one hundred employees at their two locations, it’s not surprising that the two women organically transitioned into separate but complimentary roles. And although there were a few growing pains as they transitioned from mother and daughter to business partners, their shared family values have provided a solid foundation from which to negotiate their new roles. Twelve years and two locations later, their mutual respect is still a cornerstone of their success.

Mahogany Salon & Spa is located at 369 Napoleon Street in Carleton Place. Catherine, Krystin and their staff invite you to come for some alone time, or with a friend or whole group, and indulge in one service, a half-day or a full-day package. You can find a full list of services at mahoganysalonandspa.com or give them a call at 492–3334.

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