Our Story

Jason

Jason had been considering starting a business of some kind since the early 90s and had, in fact, run an in-home day care with his, then, wife from the mid to late 90s. He felt there were a multitude of problems with the way the overwhelming majority of businesses, both large and small, were being run:

• Profits being put ahead of people.
• Employees treated like "resources" instead of human beings.
• Customers treated like commodities instead of partners.

He wanted to create a business with core values centered around people, relationships, and creating value. However, he couldn't find a market niche he was passionate about.

Alaina

Alaina Ruh completed her education and got her message license in 2003. She sporadically saw private clients between then and 2012 when she began working at two well known massage chain. Over the next several years, she discussed her experiences in those environments with Jason. Those discussions, while mostly positive, also exposed some problems within the industry:

• Massage is treated as a commodity versus an artful craft with enormous health and general life balance benefits when practiced by highly skilled and educated practitioners. Therefore,
  • Most people's massage experiences are with new and/or otherwise low skilled and educated therapists.
  • Consumers have been led to believe that their poor experiences in these establishments are par level or better.
  • The perceived health & life benefits have been tarnished.
  • Market value (price) has been driven far below actual value.
• Clients are treated like "resources" versus human beings.
  • They're first given a hard-sell to commit to a year or longer contract.
  • Once roped in, they're duped into believing it's easier and cheaper to stay than seek better alternatives.
• Employees are treated like "resources" versus craftsmen.

Together

Alaina & Jason began toying with the idea of opening their own massage studio sometime in 2015. In May 2016, they got serious and established their simple one-word mantra: Balance. Out of that grew the name Balance Massage Boutique, the mission statement seen below, even the selection of a physical space and color scheme. After a lot of hard work and long nights, they opened their doors for first time later that same year on September 26^th.

The End

Over the next two years a whole lot of life happened. Desprite great vision, the planning and excution of that vision were poor. We simply couldn't overcome all obsticles our crazy, wonderful lives through at us and we're left with only one final option -- close the doors.

Thank you to all of our amazing loyal customers who supported us!