While
children her age played with dolls and engaged
in various games of make believe, Mei Robles,
second
child of Sta. Lucia East Realty’s VP for Construction
and successful entrepreneur Levi Robles, played a
different game. At age 9, she started going to the
office. It may have looked like play but there was
a serious undercurrent to it. Mei was actually in ":training."
Now 24, Mei recalls how it felt like then. “Fun
but ... also difficult.”
With such headstart, it came as no surprise that her father would begin to encourage
her to choose and operate a franchise business when she was still in high school.
She passed on the offer for the simple reason that she didn't find anything that
excited her enough to plunge in.
The opportunity came a few years later. When Mei enrolled
at De La Salle University to major in Management of Financial
Institutions, she began hitting the gym.
It was, she recalls, the only fitness club that had branches all over Metro
Manila. Her Dad, who once drove her to the said gym, was
shocked to see how full it was.
He turned to Mei and asked, “Why don’t we open our own fitness
gym?”
A family affair
Fortunately, Mei took summer classes and was practical enough to squeeze the
rest of her required subjects in two days only per week during regular semesters.
It left her with time to work with her dad on the gym business. Thus began Brickroad
Fitness Gym at The Brickroad, a cluster of restaurants within the compound of
Sta. Lucia East Grand Mall at Felix Avenue, Cainta Rizal.
Mei’s dad took care of the construction; her uncle,
the architecture; and Mei, the non-high tech, homey look
and feel she wanted for the gym. Indeed, upon
entry to Brickroad Gym, visitors are greeted by a cozy coffee shop. The gym
proper feels like it's been repurposed from a large, airy
and sturdy home.
Mei tells us that every member of her gym receives assisatnce
from the gym’s
friendly trainers and staff - a far cry from other fitness clubs where members
avail of the separately paid services of a personal trainer.
In addition, Brickroad Gym takes the homey atmosphere to the level of service,
with quarterly activities like marathons and sports fests to bond clients and
staff.
A boss while still in college
While things seem smooth now, Mei admits that in spite
of her adept time management, “sobrang
stressed ako talaga when we opened the (Brickroad Fitness) Gym." She tells
us that the most difficult part of the business was handling a staff of 60. Understandable,
given her her age and the fact that she was a first-timer in business. In fact,
as COO of the gym, she still makes fun of her title and says it stands for "Child
Of Owner."
Although she was adroit at handling schedules, she was
no ordinary student. At the time The Brickroad opened,
Mei was
in her third year in college, ran and
won a seat in the De La Salle's Student Council, and was about to begin her
thesis. “Overwhelming
nung una,” Mei discloses with a sigh. Being hands on, she recalled a
time she was at the gym till 3 am, then headed to school at 5 am.
Add to that the fact that a month after The Brickroad opened in 2003, she launched
the Aspen Spas which was also within the gym.
The streeses had their rewards. Some 1,500 signed up to become members of The
Brickroad. She also offered a 10 percent discount on all of the Aspen Spas' services
to gym members, in addition to treating them to a free massage at the spa.
Though she says that business dipped a little during their second year, she speaks
of members who strayed and tried out a newly-opened gym in the vicinity, only
to troop back to The Brickroad.
The business of service
The Aspen Spa was actually a bit of an innovativion when they first introduced
it. The so-called spa culture was not yet in bloom in Metro Manila. But the
Robleses' business consultant for the gym said it was practical, lucrative
and logical
to open a spa within a gym. Indeed, Mei tells us that in the seasonal upsurge
of their gym membership, business at Aspen Spas usually followed suit. “Pag
malakas ang gym, malakas din ang spa,” says Mei.
She’s proud of their spas’ effort to keep in tune with the needs
of their clients, especially of their loyal members. “We give them simple
...rewards, like free sessions of massage and other freebies.”
They also have a unique pricing in the sense that at Aspen Spas, you could get
a scrub plus a wrap at a price that ranges from P1,000 to P1,200 (depending on
how much scrub will be applied). Some spas usually bill you for the scrub and
the wrap separately, resulting in a much higher bill.
During a diamond peel treatment, other spas also charge separately for the use
of hot and cold hammer, unlike Aspen Spas.
Mei tells us that in operating a spa, one has to continuously
do research because there are always new trends, updates
in technology and services, that clients
will want to try. She tells us that most of their spa clients would be overwhelmingly
satisfied the first few times they avail of their services and packages. But
over time, once the novelty wears off, they will start to look for something
new. “You have to be ahead of that,” Mei says, so they cannot find
fault with your services. Mei concludes: “That’s how it is, in
fact, in the business of service.”
Which is why she always tries to vary their pricing. They
can’t stick to
only the relatively pricey services and supplies. They have to find ways to
come up with varied services and packages that use a mix
of quality supplues, both
imported and local. This allows them to peg services at more affordable rates
and encourage more people to try their services.
Looking for more
Four years into the business, the 24-year-old Mei can take pride in how smoothly
the Brickroad Fitness Gym and Aspen Spas run. But only becuase she continues
to make the success happen, working as she does from 10 in the morning to 10
in the evening.
As an obedient daughter, Mei admits that if pressed by her father, she would
most likely accept another assignment to open another business, like the new
resort in San Mateo, Rizal that their family will open this month. So far though,
she has other siblings (excluding the youngest who is only 10) whocan do the
job just as well.
Still, despite her already tight working schedule, Mei
may yet open new doors to potential new businesses. Once,
when
her dad was in gift-giving mood, he asked
Mei what she’d like for herself. While a vacation sounded like the likely
choice given the long hard hours she puts in the business, Mei stayed true
to her workaholic nature. She wanted a chance to take culinary lessons at an
international
school.
While that skill may serve the young lady well in the future,
she says restricts herself to cooking for private occasions.
But just this Valentines’ Day,
Mei gave the Aspen Spas’ couple patrons a chance to dine at the Brickroad’s
loft after availing of Aspen’s services. Mei and her staff transformed
the loft into a romantic and private dining room. It was another plus for Mei's
clients, and another occasion to be in "training" for goodness knows
what else the unstoppable, if shy and soft-spoken entrepreneur sets her mind
to. |
