On the first Tuesday of every month, we’ll announce a new Female Founder, including a video interview of them sharing their business story. Want to be featured as a Female Founder? Contact Memberships for more details. The Female Founders Program would not be possible without our Title Sponsor, Scotiabank.
To learn a little more about the Scotiabank Women Initiative, and why they’ve chosen to sponsor this program, see the video below.
The next Female Founder we’re featuring is Frances Van Dieren, Owner of KW Chair Massage
Frances van Dieren, owner and founder of KW Chair Massage has worked as an independent Certified Chair Massage Practitioner for organizations in various industries across North America.
At KW Chair Massage, Frances leads a team of independent contractors with collaborative experiences from all over the world, including some with over 25 years experience!
Frances has been passionate about massage her entire life. Her extensive background in management within the customer service and sales sectors spans across various industries. She is committed to delivering an exceptional customer service experience for your event from start to finish. As a resident of the Kitchener-Waterloo Region since 2016, Frances understands the importance of building trust and confidence in delivering therapeutic chair massage services within the local community and among the businesses she serves in the area.
To learn more about Frances’ journey as a Female Founder, watch the interview below (or read the written format).
Female Founder (January)
So, my name is Frances Van Dieren. I’m founder and owner and CEO, I guess, of KW Chair Massage. I am a professionally certified chair massage practitioner.
Tell us about your business
What I’ve been doing for the last two years is basically finding a direction with chair massage industry out of Toronto, and driving to Toronto quite a bit for the industry of chair massage, providing 10 to 15 to 30 minute massages for relaxation in a customized chair that I do provide, that is provided for group events, corporate events, and we just provide relaxation to the staff or employees.
We do vendor events, we’ve done golf tournaments, we’ve done basically any kind of massage. Anywhere you can have a chair massage and relaxation with a group of people, that’s basically what we do, and it’s a relaxing experience.
Where did your business idea come from?
I was driving to Toronto for a year and a half, I didn’t get a lot of opportunity for work in KW, and because I live locally, the drive to Toronto was getting a little bit tedious after working eight hours and sitting in traffic and coming back. It was up to me to really kind of develop this in KW region, and I started this in March of this year, started basically planning it out for January and February, and then March my website was launched, and I just started talking to people and meeting people and getting my name out there for KW Chair Massage.
What were you doing before you started your business?
I’ve done a lot of different things in business as well as supervisor roles, management roles. I’ve never done anything entrepreneurial, but I’ve got a lot of experience in customer service as well as escalations.
I haven’t really been in the massage world, however I’ve been passionate about massage since I was five years old, so this is something I’ve finally pursued the last couple of years.
What have been some of the highlights of your entrepreneurial journey so far?
I think one of the highlights is being able to get the name out there as quickly as I have in the last nine, ten months since March, and that’s basically just meeting people and talking to people and getting out there to do big events like I was at the Home and Garden Show this year at the Auditorium in Kitchener, I’ve been at the Cambridge Celebrates Canada Day, I’ve been at the KW Rib Fest, and I’ve just kind of popped up at events and provided chair massage to the public in the open, and a lot of times I get asked where I’m located, so yeah, I’ve basically been mobile for the past year and a half, two years, and I’m always getting asked where I’m located.
So, I’m actually opening up a studio starting in January, and it’ll be available for three days a week, we’ll get more of that up to come on my website, and yeah, so I’m just basically getting the name out there to provide that locally in KW.
What have been some of the challenges that your business has faced?
One of my biggest challenges is having the passion that I do have for chair massage. When I started working in Toronto, I just wanted to massage and that’s all I wanted to do, but the need is really there for us in KW and to be able to provide this to corporate events, and it was really up to me to basically, if I want to go to Toronto, I can continue doing that, or I can develop myself and get the name out there in the KW region.
One of the challenges that I faced is the back end of everything. It’s a lot of work. I’m very passionate about my massaging, providing 10, 15, 20-minute massages, but it is a lot of work on the back-end stuff, creating awareness of this industry.
Knowing what you know now, is there anything you would do differently?
I don’t have any regrets. I don’t have any regrets in my life. I’ve been passionate about massage my entire life, and it was up to me to basically pursue this the last few years.
I did do some schooling as well to understand physiology, anatomy, and pathology, and get an awareness of what I’m doing with the body when I’m massaging somebody, but ideally, I’ve always wanted to provide relaxation and wellness for the general public.
Is massaging something you always wanted to do?
I’ve been putting it on the back burner, and I had the opportunity to go to school with some extra money that I had set aside, and I started school in the beginning of January 2020 during COVID, but I did do some of the schooling with the massage therapy program.
What methods have you used to grow your business?
Being in the Kitchener Waterloo region, I’m one of a very few people that do chair massage services, and I’ve met a few people along the way, and they were very interested in my idea and in my plan and growing with me. This is a year and a half ago, I started talking to people, and I kept their contact, and I said, you know, I’m building something big, and I basically have talked to people, I’ve come back to them, and they’ve gone through the certification process that’s trained by a professional chair massage services instructor, and I’ve recruited about four people in the last year just basically working with me and having the opportunity to work in the industry with me here locally.
How do you define success?
Hard work. I have failed so many times, and my success did not come easy. It’s not, you know, I’m still growing, I’m still learning, I’m still building, I’m still learning, you know, the actual business side of things, but it is an opportunity that I’ve gotten with a unique niche in this industry, and it’s up to me to basically grow this in the KW region.
What are some of the core values that you’ve integrated into your business?
The feedback that I get is relaxation, ultimate relaxation, and I value the relief that people get once they get a massage from me, a chair massage from me, and my core value is the integrity that I have with the industry and be able to grow this opportunity here in the city.
What is your strategy for building a team?
I started off by myself with the opportunity of getting my name out there, KW Chair Massage. I have recruited a couple of people. They’re not employees, however, they’re subcontractors, so when events do come along, I’m able to subcontract them into an event with me, whether that’s once a week or once a month, I’m able to have subcontractors with me.
I’ve been at events where I can host up to 10 chair massage practitioners, certified chair massage practitioners, and do a group of 400 people in a day, but it is up to me to basically just grow that in the industry here in KW.
When people look for jobs, they look for a job. These are people that have come to me and said that they want to do this, so this is what I’m looking for, is that they are showing the passion that they already have before they come to the job.
I tell them about the job, I tell them about the industry and how much fun it is, and just to be able to provide relaxation for chair massage services, and how it’s mobile anywhere, and how light it is for the chair massage instead of table massage, or versus table massage. They go through qualifications, and they go through a certified training process, which is about 30 days, to provide a routine massage, and they build their skills from there afterwards.
What have been some of the benefits of this niche?
It’s a unique niche. After talking to many people, they don’t even know what chair massage is. I had a guy call me a couple of months ago and he asked me if I would fix his electric massage chair, electronic massage that he plugs into the wall, and that’s not exactly what I do. It’s a really unique niche and it’s a matter of time before people see what I do, and I hope to have some video promotional stuff on my website in the next couple of weeks or months.
What inspires you?
I guess this journey really started when I was five years old. I was walking on my dad’s back when he was a farmer and he was coming home from work on the farm, and I would walk on his back to massage. So, I’ve been really, really motivated my entire life to do massage, but the motivation that I get from the result of massaging employees and staff and people in the public is that they get the lightness, the relief, after a 15-minute massage.
And it gives me the honor, the pleasure to give them that stress relief.
What advice would you give to other aspiring business owners?
Don’t give up. If you’re truly passionate about what you do, you’re going to be able to do what you do, and it might be challenging some days, but keep the light in the end of the tunnel because you’re going to get there and it’s a matter of time, but if you’re truly, truly passionate about what you’re doing as far as your job, the rest will come together.
What are some of your goals in the future?
My goal is right now that for the past two and a half years, like I said, I’ve been mobile. I’ve really been anticipating looking at locations, and I’m very fortunate to have fallen upon a great opportunity to open a store, a studio location, three days a week. And my opportunities for the future is to basically grow this into something bigger and have a bigger location at some point.
But I plan to continue growing in the KW region, providing massages for corporate events, exhibitions, trade shows, fundraisers. I’m big on helping and support charities as well, so if there’s an opportunity for me to be able to have an option to do fundraisers or events, that would be something I would enjoy doing as well.
Where can we find out more about your business and connect with you?
Yep, kwchairmassage.com is my website.
My email address is info@kwchairmassage.com, and my phone number 226-507-0221.
I’m on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn. I’m still trying to figure that out. But on the social media side of things, I’m online, and I’m responsive to that the best way.
But the other way is to get a hold of me by email, and I’ll get back to you within 24 hours.
Some additional information
I do want to add that we are certified chair massage practitioners, and at this point we do not have qualifications to go through insurance benefits, unfortunately. But I do have the option to possibly contract a registered massage therapist who can go through insurance benefits, and that may be something we hold in the future.
But at this time, we just provide relaxation routine, although I have a little bit of extra knowledge and might be able to help you out or direct you into the right place to get you to a massage therapist, chiropractor, physiotherapist, in the right direction. But I’d be happy to come and see you at my studio, come in for a 10-to-15-minute massage, and I’ll be happy to take care of you. Thanks.
