Mesa salon & spa owner moves into ninth year

By RAY ESTRADA

Moving into her ninth year in the spa business, Laura Avalos is happy with the

past and optimistic about the future.

As she remembers the turning point in her life – when she had to decide either to

go to college or train to start her hairstylist career – Avalos smiles as she recalls how she came to that decision.

“I felt good about it,” she said as she sat in her bustling Mira Bella Salon & Spa on Santa Barbara’s Mesa. “I used my savings and did it without loans.

Avalos said she chose a run-down Mesa shop location in 2000 because it had the parking space her business needed and was surrounded by a close-knit neighborhood that was a short distance from downtown.

“It chose me,” Avalos said of her location. “I gave it a little love.”

“I had to buy an existing salon and gutted it,” Avalos said. “I can remember my opening-day jitters and how my family, friends and staff pitched in to help.”

A Vidal Sassoon-trained hair stylist, Avalos studied and lived in Santa Monica for a time, but returned to Santa Barbara where she was born and raised with her brother and four sisters and attended San Marcos High School.

Avalos was offered a position with Vidal Sassoon, but turned it down, she said.

Along with hair styling, Mira Bella Salon & Spa offers manicures, pedicures, facials, body waxing, massages and other services.

But the behind-the-scenes tasks were the chores that took Avalos away from the work she was trained to do. Avalos said her sister, who was a schoolteacher, helped her with the accounting and bookkeeping tasks for a while until she learned the ropes.

Now, Avalos said she relishes the administrative work. “It really lets you see your business as a whole,” she said. “It’s a balance.”

Avalos said the keys to her business are “customers first, quality services” and a certain energy in the room. Her all-woman staff of 16 is very serious about their careers and work, in which they take great pride. About half are contract employees, she said.

“I also believe in giving back to the community,” the spa owner said. For several years, Mira Bella spa has hosted the Christmas holiday party put on by the Santa Barbara Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, which is usually attended by hundreds of revelers.

Avalos said the spa also sponsors fundraisers for school children and provides gift certificates for charities.

As for advertising and marketing, Avalos she engages some of that, but word-of-mouth and referrals seem to be the most common ways clients find their way to Mira Bella.

“I just invite them to come in an take a look around,” she said as she looked at the new paint on the salon’s interior.

For more information, see www.mirabellasalononline.com

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Slon owner : 2/8/2010

Thank you for sharing the succsess of a local owner. It is inspiring and refreshning!

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