Business Spotlight: Success Naturally Yoga and Image Center Inc.

Success Naturally Yoga and Image Center Inc. has spruced up its own image. The 10-year-old business owned by Loa Freeman moved to a new location at 1317 E. Republic Road two months ago. But Success Naturally is much more than a yoga center. Eight businesses work together within the same location.

"It's kind of like a health mall," said Kirk Bouse, owner of Crosstraining Inc. "It's a concept that's hard to grasp because it's not what (people have) been taught or tried to do themselves, but it has worked great for us. We're not officially partners, but we're like partners."

Crosstraining and Success Naturally share space with Shape Shifters Pilates Studio owned by Shelley Hampton, Willow Rose Aesthetics owned by Phyliss Travis and Ann Leonardt, the Doula Foundation of Mid-America directed by Ginny Ross, and massage therapists Sue Parker, Jennifer Simpson and Fred Engel.

Owners of the eight businesses are working together to name the site itself, while retaining the names of their individual entities. "We've not come up with anything yet. We offer a family of services to meet peoples' needs in their mind and their body and their spirits and so we're challenged by coming up with a name," Freeman said.

The concept was something Bouse envisioned in college an atmosphere bringing separate businesses together, offering different but related services to their clients, and meeting clients' needs under one roof. He opened Crosstraining seven years ago, concentrating on personal training, stress management and strength training.

Business grew quickly and Bouse met his 10-year projections within the first year. He estimates at least a 30 percent increase in business compared to this time last year.

As Crosstraining's client base grew, Bouse realized many clients were driving around Springfield to receive other services massage therapy, facials, manicures, electrolysis, aromatherapy and many were studying yoga with Freeman. About five years ago, Bouse learned Freeman was looking for a new location, and soon she set up shop in Crosstraining's former facility at 1440 E. Lark, less than a mile from the new facility. Additional entrepreneurs were added "and it snowballed from there," Bouse said.

"I've been fortunate over the years to find people like Loa and finding the top people in a lot of these areas that my clients were seeing already," Bouse said.

The businesses now share about 9,500 square feet, compared to 6,500 square feet at the previous location.

"We physically outgrew our space," Freeman said. "We needed more parking and we needed more expansion space." She estimates a 30 percent increase in business for Success Naturally alone in the last year, and said about 650 clients take advantage of the various services at the center on a weekly basis.

The new facility features lots of windows and a small gallery of artwork created by artists who happen to be students at the center. "We wanted to create a visual experience as well as a physical and emotional experience too," Freeman said.

Local artists George Milne, Jeanne Waters-Hill, Sharon Cates and Barbara Johnson created murals on the walls in the yoga room, hallways and restrooms, and painted faux finishes on the center's floors. Bouse and Freeman oversaw about $90,000 worth of renovations to the former warehouse, encouraging the center's individual business owners to personalize their own work areas. Rooms reflect the owners' personalities and style including shabby chic, English cottage garden, and the use of both invigorating and soothing colors.

In addition to teaching yoga, Freeman conducts seminars on communication, wellness and how to present a professional image. Clients have included Cox Hospitals, St. John's Health System, First Card, Ollis & Company, and the justice departments of Missouri, Colorado and Alaska.

Freeman's seminars and yoga instruction can help employers reduce stress in the office and increase productivity, she said.

"Not just output of work but how people communicate," Freeman said. "According to Forbes magazine, the No. 1 cause for all mistakes in any business is based on poor communication skills. That's a lot. We think we communicate simply because we talk to somebody, but a lot of the communication does not occur."

Freeman said that the majority of businesses in the United States are not investing in their work force. "They think that they are, but they're really not giving them what they need to make the next step in terms of productivity. And it's not necessarily another computer, although that's helpful. If you're not communicating with yourself and others it doesn't matter how much technology we have."

Teri Pearman, office administrator for Blackwell Sanders Peper and Martin, said Freeman began speaking to the firm's employees on a quarterly basis last year, discussing goal-setting, professional image and leadership. "Our in-house trainers work with the specific technical skills (employees) need for the job and Loa's training helps them with the people skills they need for the job."

Pearman has known Freeman for 13 years, first meeting her through yoga.

"I don't know how people live without (yoga)," Pearman said, adding that it has taught her patience in her professional and personal lives. "Not only does it stretch your hamstrings, it stretches your mind as well. Yoga is really about your mind, body and spirit connecting."

In addition to their unique relationships with each other, the businesses have unique relationships with their clients. Freeman said the relationships require two commitments. "It's not just the staff being committed to customer service. It's also the clientele (being) committed to their well being and their openness to come and receive instruction."

Clients range in age from four weeks to 86 years. "I can't say that we have a typical or across-the-board client," Freeman said, adding that the list of clients includes various careers, economic backgrounds and fitness levels. What the clients have in common is their desire for wellness.

"People come and they want a different way of connecting to their bodies," Freeman said. "They don't want to beat their bodies up with a different form of what is expected in terms of what you're supposed to look like in fitness."