"Body Works by April Massie" was opened in December 2002 in the spare bedroom of April's Westerville home. Before long, April grew her business enough to make a move to a one-room office in the Huber Village Professional Center.
Mainly through word-of-mouth, Body Works continued to grow. While the seemingly novel concept of offering an "introductory rate" of $30 for an hour-long massage helped draw new customers in, it was April's skills that kept her customers returning.
Within a year, it was obvious Body Works was getting more business than April could handle herself. That required another move to a space twice as large. Yes, now Body Works not only had two rooms, but also a small lobby complete with a desk and a couch! In July 2004 Body Works brought on another therapist, soon followed by two more.
The customers kept coming. With a small advertising budget -- and a sign on busy State Street in Westerville -- Body Works continued to grow. April had originally offered fitness and other health related services (thus the name "Body" Works), but the growth in the company was all for massage and reflexology. The company's name was changed to reflect the emphasis on its core competencies: Massage Works.
In 2005 Massage Works once again found itself in the position that the space it was occupying was too small to serve its growing customer base properly. Once again, it made the decision to move to a much larger space. Using her life's savings of $16,000, April renovated an office space to create a new office of five massage rooms, plus a huge lobby, store-room, and therapist break room. Massage Works moved in March 2005 to its present location.
Massage Works then hired many new therapists to work in the new rooms. Hours were expanded to operate six days a week with schedules that would accommodate almost all customers' -- and therapists' -- busy lives.
We continued to grow. Late in 2005 the company projected that within two years its Westerville location wouldn't be able to handle all of the new business it was taking on. This lead us to open our second store in Dublin, Ohio on February 15, 2007.
Thoughts of expansion led to thinking about having a name safe from trademark litigation. A trademark search showed "Massage Works" was not going to be a viable name. So, once again, the company changed its name. Now we're "Brown Bag Massage." We've filed for our own registered trademark, thus laying the groundwork to continue to grow for the future.
Throughout all of the address and name modifications, one thing has never changed: our desire to provide quality, professional massages to everyone at affordable prices.
