Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Warren and Kari Shulman. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Warren and Kari 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?
We opened a similar Salt Cave business with Warren’s sister in New York, in March 2017. After traveling back and forth between New York and Los Angeles, we looked around Los Angeles and could not find anything like our Salt Cave business in New York. We decided to open one in LA, and with the help of a good friend who is a tenant rep broker, we quickly found a great space near our home, in the Valley Country Market in Woodland Hills. We engaged a real estate attorney and signed a long-term lease in September 2019, well before anyone had even heard of Covid.
We then found a great architect and a contractor to help design and build out our space. It took about 6 months for us to obtain all the necessary licenses and permits from the City of LA and we began construction in April 2020, just as everything shut down due to the Covid Pandemic. We opened our business in October 2020 in the middle of the Covid Pandemic and were subject to the all of the City of LA Indoor Mask Mandate and Vaccine Verification Rules, which were only lifted in March 2022.
Nobody could have predicted the Covid Pandemic and how long it would last. Had we known then what we know now, we would probably have terminated our lease and not started construction until everything had settled down. The biggest advice that we can give to anyone starting a new business is to be flexible and expect the unexpected. We had to pivot and change our business plan to only offer private salt sessions and we could not do group events like Yoga or Sound Baths, or provide one on one services like Massages or Reiki, until all the Covid restrictions had been lifted.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Warren and Kari are originally from South Africa. They met in Cape Town where Warren was qualifying as a Chartered Accountant and Kari was working as a Corporate Librarian. They moved to Los Angeles in January 1994, the day before the Northridge Earthquake. Warren was a CPA Audit Partner at a middle market CPA firm in LA for 17 years, until he took early retirement in December 2017. In March 2018, they opened a similar Salt Cave business with Warren’s sister in New York. Kari and Warren were traveling back and forth between NY and LA, and started looking for a similar business in LA, but there was nothing like their NY location. They decided to open one near where they live in Woodland Hills.
Valley Salt Cave is a Holistic Health and Wellness Center with a large Himalayan Salt Cave that can fit up to 14 people. The salt cave also has a lovely waterfall feature. They also have a Small Himalayan Salt Cave that can fit up to 6 people and a smaller Himalayan Salt Room that can fit up to 4 people or 2 massage tables. The primary service that we offer is called Dry Salt Therapy or Halotherapy. Halotherapy is where you aerolize a small amount of pharamceutical grade salt into the salt cave or room using a machine called a Halogenerator. The main benefits are for your Upper Respiratory, like Asthma, Allergies, Sinus Infections, Coughs, Colds and Flu. It also helps with Sleeping and Snoring, Covid Lung Repair and Skin Issues like Acne, Eczema and Psoriasis.
We have Salt Sessions on the hour every hour between 11am and 6pm, every day except we are closed on Mondays. We have Salty Yoga classes a few days a week and host Events like Sound Baths, Guided Meditation and EFT Tapping and Energy Healing mainly on Saturday and Sunday evenings in our Large Himalayan Salt Cave. We also offer Individual or Couples Massages or Reiki by appointment only. We also have a retail area with a carefully curated selection of Himalayan Salt Products, Crystals and Jewelry.
We are most proud of the community that we have created in the short period of time since we opened for business, and many of our clients and healers have become friends of ours and with each other.
We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.
Kari and Warren are originally from South Africa. Kari was born in Cape Town and Warren was born in Johannesburg. These cities are about 900 miles from each other. Warren finished high school in Johannesburg and went to Cape Town on holiday. He had such a great time that he stayed there and studied Accounting and Finance at the University of Cape Town. Kari studied to be a Corporate Librarian at Cape Technikon. In order to qualify as a Chartered Accountant Warren did his three years of training at Arthur Andersen. Kari was working for Andersen Consulting as their Corporate Librarian. The two firms shared a library and that is where Warren and Kari met and fell in love.
Warren moved to Los Angeles in January 1994, the day before the Northridge Earthquake. They got married in Cape Town in June 1995 and Kari moved to LA to join Warren shortly thereafter. Warren worked at a middle market CPA firm in LA for 24 years and was a CPA Audit Partner for 17 years. Kari worked as a Corporate Librarian for large Law Firms and Corporations and then as a School Librarian. We opened Valley Salt Cave in October 2020.
Even though we met at work, we had never worked together until we decided to open Valley Salt Cave, and now we are partners in life and business.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
The majority of our clients have come from word of mouth and we provide a very relaxing, holistic, healthy experience. We are very hands on and one of us is always here. We do a live introduction for anyone who has never been here before and answer all of their questions.
We send an email to all of the clients in our database at the beginning of each month, with our schedule of events for that month. We also email out a flyer of our events the week before we hold the event. We also are very active on social media, especially Facebook and Instagram.
We have been featured on a few local tv shows including WEtv Growing Up Hip Hop, CBS Destination LA, NBC California Live and KTLA LA Unscripted. We have also been profiled on spaandbeautytoday.com, LA Girl, Hidden Hills Community Register & Resource Guide, Voyage LA, ShoutOutLA and Calabasas Style Magazine.
We were also selected for the 2022 and 2023 Best of Woodland Hills in the Spa and Health Club category.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.valleysaltcave.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/valleysaltcave
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063518020647
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/72344080
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/valley-salt-cave-woodland-hills-3?osq=valley+salt+cave
- Other: info@valleysaltcave.com 20929 Ventura Blvd., Suite 12, Woodland Hills, CA 91364