We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Talia Rozen. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Talia below.

Alright, Talia thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about how you went about setting up your own practice and if you have any advice for professionals who might be considering starting their own?

Having a Kinesiology degree, being an athlete and after years in the fitness industry, I felt stuck. I loved helping people but I needed something more stable and honestly, always wanted to have something of my own. In 2018, after seeing Joan, a physical therapist(my now business partner) for an injury, we developed a friendship. A couple of months later, she called me with this amazing idea. She had been working on the concept of a one-on-one assisted stretching studio. She realized that her clients needed stretching in order to prevent and heal from injuries and my clients had the same issues. My clients which were mostly athletes also needed stretching in order to prevent injuries and to perform better. After talking to each other we decided to open Jo Stretch. Within weeks we found a location and 3 months later we opened our doors in La Jolla.

The main challenges at the beginning were that neither of us had business experience so everything was new to us. With time, guidance and experience, we started to get the hang of things. The first year, we were in the studio 24/7. Then, Covid hit and we had to close down. That was probably the biggest challenge, the uncertainty of not knowing when and if we would be able to open our doors again.

I think the thing we would do differently if we could was not worry so much about the small stuff. Try to focus on the big picture and focus on the fact that everything can be solved. We’re still working on that!

The advice I would give to a young professional is to not give up. It’s not easy owning a business but its worth it. You have to love it and put time and effort into it.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

We provide one-on-one assisted stretching to all kinds of clients. Some of the benefits of stretching are :decrease pain, faster recovery after workout, increase circulation, improve posture, increase flexibility, and decrease the risk of injury. These are a few of the many benefits we offer our clients. We cater our services to all types of clients; we have kids, athletes, elderly clients, and everything in between.

Our goal at Jo Stretch is to increase our clients quality of life and help them in any way we can. Whether our clients goal is to have a faster marathon time, increase flexibility or improve their quality of life, we can help .

Some of the typical problems clients come with are back pain, sports injuries, help with basic things like tying shoes and bending over. After a couple of sessions, most clients can expect results and feel the difference. In order to get the best results, we recommend our clients to come in on a regular basis 2-3 times per week. Like anything, consistency is key.

To book an appointment, clients can call, text or make appointments online!

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

We’ve been able to grow our clientele through the old fashion way: word of mouth. Honestly, we haven’t invested too much on marketing, most of our clients either walk in, since we’re in such a walkable area, or have heard of us through friends or family.

We also do a lot of pop ups, where we go to different locations such as gyms, sporting events or parks and stretch people out. This helps us get our name out there also.

How’d you meet your business partner?

I met my business parter, Joan a few years before opening Jo Stretch. At the time, I was training for an Ironman triathlon. I suffered from an injury and multiple friends recommended going to Joan, a physical therapist so she can help me. Since then, every time I had any injury, I started going to Joan. Her experience and passion makes her the best physical therapist I’ve ever seen. A couple of years later, when Joan was working on her dream project, Jo Stretch, she reached out to me and the rest is history.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jostretch.com
• Instagram: @jostretchlajolla @jostretchcoronado
• Facebook: facebook.com/jostretchlajolla
• Youtube: youtube.com/jostretchlajolla
• Yelp: Jo Stretch La Jolla and Jo Stretch Coronado

Image Credits
Anna Buster Photography