One business is proving that makeovers come in all shapes and sizes.
Runaway Bay Beauty Bar, formerly the Runaway Bay Day Spa, has transformed from a business near closure to a functioning beauty shop.
"I didn't want to see it go away, it was such an institution in North Vancouver's Edgemont Village neighbourhood, it had such an amazing group of women that worked here, such a phenomenal history and it just absolutely broke my heart that there was no one that was wanting to continue that on," says Kirsten Engel, the new owner of Runaway Bay.
The North Vancouver mompreneur took over ownership of the business and immediately set about turning it around.
"We needed an update, we needed a fresh location, we needed to get rid of some of the unused space," she says. "We also just needed to modernize and update, create a beautiful new location that reflected the quality of the staff that we had and the caliber of services that we do."
The company moved into neighbouring business, Beach Tanning, subleasing the space from the owner to cut down on cost.
"We've made quite a few changes although, we've kept a lot of things the same," she says. "There were a lot of things that were really important to keep the integrity of the business and that kind of stuff but make the changes so that it was viable and that it would continue on."
Engel says one of the services cut is full body massage. Prices have remained the same and the company has even brought in a nail polish line by Deborah Lippmann.
"It's a higher end line, just beautiful colours. She does amazing nudes and neutrals but her sparkles are what she's known for," says Engel.
A new feature to Runaway Bay is the online store runawaybay.ca, a venture that Engel says became an instant hit.
"It was very much a learn-as-we-went type thing and we've had great, great customer feedback from the website," says Engel.
