The full treatment: Rashel Pouri's Medi-Spas follow the latest trend in competitive day spa industry--combining health care procedures with traditional pampering services.

RASHEL Pouri worked in the fashion and beauty industry for years, but what she really wanted was to own her own company.

Now she has three.

In the two years since she opened Medi-Spas, an Encino day spa that provides a full range of services from facials and body wraps to dermabrasion and laser therapies, Pouri has opened an adjoining surgical center and last fall she added a second day spa in Calabasas.

Medi-Spas more than doubled in size over the past year, but though still small, the company is at the cutting edge of the day spa industry.

What began as a touchy-feely way to decompress from the daily grind for an hour or two has turned into an elaborate industry that offers services until recently only available in a doctor's office.

"We've gone from spas being a pampering experience to stress relief to results oriented treatments," said Linda Kossoff, managing editor of DAYSPA, a publication of Van Nuys-based Creative Age Publications.

Pouri actually followed her own personal tastes and interests to develop the spa.

A self-professed spa junkie, Pouri was a regular user of such services, but she also believed there was a market for a day spa that combined some of the aspects of health care with the penchant for pampering.

"I believe a spa isn't just taking care of your body," said Pouri, who migrated from Iran as a teenager. "We have a doctor on premises, so (I called it) Medi-Spas."

Traditional spas offer facials, massages, body wraps, manicures, pedicures and hair styling, usually in an environment replete with soothing fountains, aromatic candles and over-stuffed furniture for lounging.

But women were increasingly visiting doctors offices for a range of services that changed more than their attitudes. And as botox, laser resurfacing for wrinkles, skin discolorations, acne or scars became more popular, some began to realize that spas, with their ambiance, would make a more attractive environment for those types of treatments.

The change is most readily apparent in startup costs and the far higher cost of equipment to provide some of these newer services.

"Back in the early '90s, when we started doing this, a $50,000 or $60,000 project was a large investment," said Ken Krebs, a partner at Beneficial Capital Leasing Inc., a St. Louis-based company that provides financing for salons and spas.

"Now we'll do transactions in the $300,000, $400,000 range. The average transaction has tripled in the last three years."

More men as customers

But while the addition of new equipment and services has been costly, it has also expanded the market these spas serve. Whereas women were the primary consumers of feel-good spa services, men are increasingly visiting spas for these newer treatments that actually change their appearance.

"Men are more results oriented," said Kossoff. "I'm hearing more and more reports of men comprising anywhere from 25 percent to 40 percent of spa clientele."

The spa opened on its own, but Pouri had begun several years earlier to work on the idea of combining the facility with a surgical center.

The notion grew out of a personal experience she'd had when she went into the hospital for a surgical procedure that should have required only an overnight stay and ended up spending a month, most of it in an intensive care unit.

A surgical center tied to a day spa, Pouri reasoned, would not only provide a safe alternative to hospitals, it would also provide clients a one-stop shop for increasingly popular extreme makeovers that can include everything from botox and laser facelifts to tummy tucks and breast augmentation.

She put together a group of partners and last year opened Pacific Ambulatory Surgical Center at the same penthouse location. Now the surgical center feeds business to the spa and vice versa.

"They bring a patient for a tummy tuck and then they come back to Medi-Spas for scar therapy," said Pouri.

Helping each other

Experts say the combination of the two businesses is helping both sectors grow.

"There's tremendous cross referral opportunity," said Kossoff.

Besides the opportunities for synergy the tie-in also helps to distinguish the company from the myriad of day spas that line Ventura Boulevard.

And Pouri has developed other points of distinction as well, including the decision to locate on the penthouse floor of an office building instead of a storefront site typical of most spas.

The expense of opening a full-service spa like Medi-Spas, coupled with the need for specially trained personnel to operate the sophisticated equipment, has kept many operators from expanding into these newer businesses.

But Medi-Spas has also found that the investment--it cost $300,000 for instance to open the second location in Calabasas--helps the company to compete against much larger chains with deep pockets.

Burke Williams day spa in Sherman Oaks, for example, is just minutes from Medi-Spa's Encino location.

"There are a lot of clients that come here from Burke Williams, and when they compare it, they say Burke Williams is more commercial," Pouri said. "They like this because it is more personal."

Spotlight

Medi-Spas

Year Founded: 2002

Employees in 2002: 2

Employees in 2003: 13

Revenues in 2002: $70,000

Revenues in 2003: $160,000

Goal: To franchise Medi-Spas. "My goal is to see Medi-Spas on every corner."

Driving Force: The desire for services to improve appearance and relieve stress.