Press

BC Business - July 2006

When Business Gets Personal

If you're a guy who's never dared to get a facial, Spruce Body Lab is a safe place to join the ranks of meterosexuals. Opened in June 2005, the Yaletown spa has a welcoming, gender-neutral atmosphere and its sleek reception area feels more like the entrance of a hip new-media company than your typical oasis of relaxation.

Spruce's unique, spa-for-everyone environment is the product of a close-knit partnership that's both business and personal. Its owners, Ryan Seitz and Mark Cooperstone, have been in a romantic relationship for 10 years. Like other couples who work together, they've found that their arrangement gives them a closer bond while they pursue common goals. But they've also had to deal with the challenges that come when the line between work and private life is blurred. For couples who work together, the challenge isn't as simple as setting strict boundaries between work and private life; it can also mean finding a comfortable degree of overlap that allows their businesses and relationships to flourish.

"Starting a business is like making any fundamental change in a relationship," says Cooperstone, 42. "We felt extremely confident that it wouldn't wear hard on us. You really have to have a solid foundation."

Before launching Spruce, Cooperstone spent 10 years negotiating leases on behalf of cell-phone carriers in Canada and the U.S., including Clearnet, Bell Mobility and Cingular Wireless. "It meant traveling," says Cooperstone. "Basically living in Washington State and Oregon and commuting back and forth. At one point, I thought it would be great to open up a massage therapy clinic where I could work with Ryan."

"I had the idea of doing Spruce back in college," explains Ryan Seitz, 33, a massage therapist at Spruce and co-owner of the business. "I thought it would be cool to blend the best of a massage-therapy clinic with the best of a spa."

For Cooperstone, the joint venture not only means spending more time with his partner; his commute has also improved. He and Seitz live in a townhouse around the corner from their business. In face, they can see their business from their patio.

"When we do have our down time, trying to relax, Spruce comes up," admits Seitz. "It's hard for us to leave it alone."

"It gets a little repetitive," Cooperstone adds. "But we both want to stop talking about it at the same time. We try to get away on the weekends and get out of it and we really turn it off when we're with friends."

A business relationship. Like a personal relationship, will succeed only if it is built on a foundation of mutual respect, according to Karl Aquino, a professor who studies interpersonal work relationships at UBC's Sauder School of Business. "I think in a business relations it's important to maintain some kind of objectivity, so you're able to give each other feedback," he says.

Cooperstone and Seitz can attest to the importance of respecting the opinions of others. They make their business decisions by consensus and include Spruce manager, Kathryn Hurwitz, in the process.

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