Hand and Stone Massage Mission Viejo Tripled Staff in 7 Months

"OK, we're going to move 3,000 miles—it sounds crazy now that I'm saying it—and we're going to put our spa in Mission Viejo."

That's Shahira Raineri, owner of Hand and Stone, describing her decision to move out West from New Jersey and start her first business.

Hand and Stone opened last December. Back then, the business had 12 employees. In seven months, the staff has tripled, and a new location has been opened in Tustin.

That second location has always been part of the plan, said Raineri. She always planned to capitalize on the economies of scale and uses her 30 to 35 employees in both locations.

Even with a good plan in place, success didn't come by itself.

"If I'm awake, I'm working," the owner said. "You can't turn it off."

Raineri has no shortage of experience in business, but this is her first time running her own.

"I've run businesses inside the safety net of the corporate world," she said. "At one point I ran a billion-dollar business with a staff of 100. I got to the point where I thought, 'Well, I've done a lot for the world. Why am I not doing this for myself?"

Hand and Stone is a full-service massage spa that offers hot stone massage, microdermabrasion, and an assortment of facials, peels and waxes.

Opening a business in Mission Viejo has been mostly smooth, Raineri said. She was disappointed to find no chamber of commerce in town (the city's first independent chamber just ). But the city has been helpful, she said, and Deputy City Manager Karen Wylie has brought both the past mayor and current mayor by.

The location of Hand and Stone—near inside Plaza del Lago—has also helped Hand and Stone succeed. As for advertising, Raineri has placed signs around the shopping center to attract customers.

"We're really trying to cash in on the joggers and the walkers," Raineri said.

Other than signs, Raineri says, the Internet has brought in many of her customers. Part of that is thanks to reviews on websites such as Yelp.

When she's not at work, she says, she's often at home Googling search terms people might use to find her location.

While it was a big life change moving from New Jersey, Raineri says, she's glad she packed up and moved West.

"I could have been in San Francisco or Sonoma or Concord, where I grew up, but I chose Mission Viejo," Raineri said. "I did a lot of reading and a lot of research, and I really decided this was the place to be. And I haven't been disappointed. I just love it here."