We were lucky to catch up with Allen + Lizzi Shtelmakher recently and have shared our conversation below.

Allen + Lizzi, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with the decision of whether to donate a percentage of sales to an organization or cause – we’d love to hear the backstory of how you thought through this.

We have thoroughly enjoyed donating to multiple causes throughout our county. While some donations we make are publicized others are private. We support many of our counties youth sports programs. We both were big into athletics growing up, and we actually met in an adults flag football program. We also donate into numerous cancer research programs. Like many families in America, cancer has affected members in our family, and we saw first hand the hardships it causes.

Allen + Lizzi, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Lizzi and I both had our own career paths before embarking on a business together. Lizzi was a Dental Hygienist for over 10 years, and I am a physician. We both excelled in our careers and were respected amoungst our peers and local communities. We both are first generation americans, and saw how our families had to work day and night to provide us a life, they could never had, had back in their home countries. Whenever Lizzi and I would have down time from work, we loved going on vacation to wellness resorts, and spas to help us relax from our hectic careers and everyday life stresses.

Lizzi had a huge passion for skincare, and eventually became an esthetician. She eventually became the skincare director of a well-known spa in ny, and a very well-know esthetician in westchester county. She learned not just how to be the best in her trade, but also everything that is required behind the scenes to keep a spa running smoothly. Over a several year span, She was interviewed numerous times by many magazines about her skincare knowledge, routines and skillset.

One of our goals was to eventually own a business together. Due to our original career paths, we worked long hours and even weekends. We knew having a business together would mean, we could see each other more. With Lizzi’s experience in the Spa industry we knew that could be a venture that we could do jointly.

When Covid shut down many businesses, I still remained extremely busy and was continuing to work long hours and weekends. At that time, we had 1 child, and not being able to see him due to work demands was something neither of us were happy about.

Then an opportunity came about, the summer of 2020 and a local spa was up for sale. The problem was, that industry was hit hard due to covid, staff and clients were still very worried about Covid and catching it. After weeks of laying out the pro’s & con’s, we decided this could be the perfect opportunity to start a business together, and embark on a new journey.

The first several months were a definite struggle! We had to continue with our primary jobs, to make sure our bills could be paid, while a the same time, rebuild the spa’s brand, market our business, renovate it, hire employees etc.

Fast forward 2.5 years, and we couldn’t be more excited about our product. We have completely rebranded the spa into what we believed would give our guests the ultimate experience. We brought in organic skincare lines, added the latest technology in skincare to ensure our spa offered only the best to our guests. Many of our staff are former educators in their respected fields (estheticians and massage therapists), and their knowledge is what sets our business apart from other spas. We educate our guests on their concerns, and we extend our knowledge to them so they can continue taking care of themselves outside of our spa as well.

Our spa, is now known throughout our county as the best place to go for skincare, massage therapy and laser hair removal. We have won numerous awards locally and internationally in just our first 2 years. Our guests/clients have entrusted us to provide them the best quality services to aid in their self-care.

and best of all, we both were able to step away from our original career paths, and build something special together.

How’d you meet your business partner?

Well my business partner is my wife!. Both of us were big athletes growing up, with football being both of our favorite sports. In NYC, there is a popular co-ed adults athletic business. This business rents various fields around nyc, and created leagues in different sports ie. football, basketball, softball, soccer etc!.

Summer of 2013, both of us were signed up for the flag football league. We were not on the same team, but we were in the same division, and our teams happened to play eachother. I’ll never forget, but it was definitely love at first sight! …… i can write another 20 paragraphs but the rest is history, and we are now married with 2 boys!

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Surprisingly Facebook!. We initially would market our spa in all of the local mom groups, as paying for professional marketing was difficult at first. However as time would go on, our clients would post about their experiences in these groups and through word of mouth, our business continued to grow.

Contact Info:

• Website: facelogickisco.com
• Instagram: facelogicpsa_mk
• Other: email: [email protected]