Women in Business: Gabbi Miller

By Taylor Jones

Meet another fellow female business owner: Gabbi Miller. Gabbi is the owner and Esthetician of Bella Spa and Beauty near the Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) campus in Indiana. She grew up right down the road in Homer-Center and decided to return to Indiana after working at a medical spa in Pittsburgh to bring a city spa atmosphere to her hometown. Bella Spa and Beauty offers a wide variety of skin care, beauty, and spa services, including facials and massage therapy – two customer favorites.

We first experienced Bella Spa and Beauty’s services on a ladies day out. Short on time, we opted for the Express Facial, which included a deep cleansing, skin analysis, exfoliation, a shoulder and hand massage, toning, treatment serums, moisturizer, and sunscreen. We left with glowing skin and relaxed shoulders in under 45 minutes. After talking with her during our facials, we knew we wanted to know more about what motivates her as a business owner. Spoiler: her answers made us go excitedly back to the office. Below, check out our enlivening conversation with Gabbi:

Women in Business Feature: Interview with Gabbi Miller

Planful: Tell me about yourself, your background.

Gabbi Miller: I went to Homer-Center, and then I went to IUP for entrepreneurship and small business management in the hopes of opening a spa someday. Once I graduated from IUP, I moved to Pittsburgh to go to esthetician school, where you learn skin care. I was also a personal trainer in Pittsburgh. After I graduated from [the esthetician school], I worked at a medical spa for three years. I learned a lot about the medical esthetic field versus the day spa field; it’s a little bit different.

My husband was in a doctoral program, so we wanted to move back here. There are not many places for someone with an esthetics license to work in Indiana, and I knew I wanted to build it myself. My dad found the building in January, we bought it in the same month, started construction in February, and then [my husband and I] moved back in March. We opened late May, beginning of June last year.

P: What made you get into the spa business/open your own spa?

GM: I always wanted to own a spa, like since seventh grade. My guidance counselor, the day I graduated, gave me a paper that asked me in seventh grade what I wanted to do when I graduated, and that’s what it said: own a spa. When I was [living] here, I never felt like there was a place to receive good skin care with appeal. These places were really good at skincare, but we also wanted a beautiful place.

I have also worked for a few different places in Pittsburgh, and I never felt that the management was what I would have wanted. I wanted to make it my own, and you can’t make something your own if you don’t own it.

P: What were your biggest challenges when starting Bella? Now?

GM: Finding qualified staff members! It’s hard to keep up with our busy clientele. We are at the point where we are so busy we need to add more staff, which is a blessing, but it’s hard to find licensed individuals that can do the services. They have to have the state-board estheticians or massage therapy license. We’re growing, and it’s hard to keep growing without the proper staff. Right now, my staff is like my family, so when I do bring someone new in, I have to think about that. Are they going to fit in with our team?

P: What motivates you?

GM: I stay driven with my clients and my staff. I get so excited when a client leaves and they say, “I’m so relaxed, I feel good! And my skin looks great!” My staff works so hard to accommodate our clients, too, that they keep me going and motivated. We have had such a great first year and people say we have a great reputation. That keeps me motivated to keep improving because there are always ways to change or improve services to accommodate every client.

P: What would you like people to know about your business?

GM: The spa industry is not a luxury; it’s a necessity. A lot of people get massage therapy just once or twice a year, but really, you should be getting it done every three to four weeks, even every two weeks. It’s a therapeutic process. It’s really good for alternative medicine, and it’s not just for relaxation. It can help you sleep well, it can help arthritis, and it can clean out toxins.

Skin care, too. I always tell my clients, what you do at home is 80%, and what we do here is 20%, because you only see me once a month. What products you’re using at home and what you’re doing for your skin internally with your nutrition really plays a role in how your skin is going to look on the outside. So I try to educate my clients on proper nutrition, drinking water, and products, but also getting a regular facial because we use professional products that you can’t get in stores or do at home.

P: What are your best time management tips?

GM: Oh. Well, I don’t have the best time management tips [smiles]. I guess to learn how to multitask. I go from fixing our website to doing a facial. Sometimes we are so busy we have to add another staff member to help us do laundry! So, working as a team really helps, too. We all turn each other’s rooms around and take care of welcoming each other’s clients. We all just work together. I couldn’t picture being here without my staff; it would be hard to do it by myself. So I do owe a lot of my learning time management to my employees helping me juggle a lot of things in one day.

P: You recently got married, too. Congratulations! Is it challenging finding a work/life balance?

GM: It is hard. My days off are Sunday and Monday, but they aren’t truely days off. I don’t mind that though. A lot of people think if you own a business you have a lot more free time – you don’t. But, I chose that. I’m going make sure, as we add more staff members, that I take the time I need to accomplish my things. It has been a challenge, but a good challenge because I didn’t anticipate being this busy this quickly. I thought I would have a little more down time, but [laughs] I’m okay with no down time.

P: Best advice you’ve ever heard?

GM: Work on your business. A lot of business owners step away and don’t know what’s going on [at their business]. I always know what’s going on. My dad owns a business, and that’s the advice he gave me. Yes, there are days that he can walk away now because he is successful and has the right people to run his business while he’s not there. I’m not in the position to do that yet. He’s always told me that I need to be present because things can change day by day, and you need to be prepared to tackle that. I have great role models.

P: What are your best selling services at the spa?

GM: Massages and facials, definitely. Also, when Dr. Cynthia Hoffmeier comes in to perform Botox and filler, she’s booked every time she’s here. Her motto is that she wants women of any age to feel their best. You know, she’s not here to change somebody’s complete appearance; she just wants you to look and feel the best you can at your age. I have taken a lot of that from her, to be able to talk to and educate my clients in a better way.

P: Any advice for other young female business owners or any business for that matter?

GM: Just do it. Don’t be scared. There have been so many days that I was so scared to do this but if you have a good support system, you can do anything. I couldn’t do this by myself completely. You know? Because while it is my business, there are so many people behind me that have helped me get here – my friends, my mom, her friends… I have such a good group of women around me that have encouraged me and won’t let me quit. Even if I have a bad day. Right now, I have an all female staff too, and we’re killin’ it. I really enjoy being a woman in business, especially at 26. When people find out I’m 26, they don’t even believe it, and I don’t even believe that I did this when I was 26. So, I say just do it. You’re going to regret it if you wait 10, 15 years – just jump.

It was wonderful learning more about Gabbi as a woman and business owner. For more information about Bella Spa and Beauty and their services, check out their website here. You can also go to their Instagram account for examples of their services here.