NJ Spa Owner Gives New Meaning to Entrepreneur
At 60 years old, Valentina Chistova, owner of Aquamedica Salon & Day Spa, wears all the hats, from renowned esthetician to web designer, Valentina is the thriving force behind her successful business and top rated website. (LONG BRANCH, NJ) The baby-boomer generation as we know it is changing as quickly as stock prices are dropping. The unexpected transformation in the economic climate has forced many boomers to head back to work, or in the case of Valentina Chistova, work harder to help her business thrive. Valentina is the driving force behind Aquamedica Salon and Day Spa, a business Valentina created from the ground up, literally. Valentina was one of the first tenants to sign a lease at the new Pier Village boardwalk attraction in Long Branch, NJ and has been there ever since. As a celebrated esthetician and skin care specialist, Valentina had to expand her repertoire of business skills in order to meet a conservative budget while helping to grow the business. Using ‘how to’ books and surfing the Internet, with English as her second language, Valentina was able to teach herself a wide variety of topics like Email marketing, Web design, HTML code, Internet Marketing and SEO, where to advertise, how to understand Google’s page rank system and how to get at the top of it. All of this and more is why Aquamedica Salon and Day Spa has developed into the prosperous business it is today, even in a recession. While her devoted spa clients swear by Valentina’s ‘Total Rebirth” facial, it’s her website and savvy Internet marketing that generates and converts thousands of web-based leads each month. With no formal graphic or HTML training, Valentina ranks on Google page one for many Monmouth County NJ Day Spa search terms and receives about 17,000 page loads per month on her site and her email marketing database has grown into the thousands. All this for a business just barely 3 years old. The menu, hiring, training, marketing, website design, internet marketing, and advertising are all functions of Valentina, the clever, sharp-witted woman who thrives on learning, changing and exceeding the demands of an ever volatile economy. She even has her own skin care line, which she sells in her spa. At 60 years old, Valentina shows no signs of slowing down any time soon. Although Valentina does wear most of the hats around the business, her son, Anatoliy, manages the finances. The Creative Resource, a local marketing company with whom Valentina has close ties to, also provides extra help. Stacey Berlin of The Creative Resource said of working with Valentina, “The ideas are Valentina’s, and she has millions of great ones. She works 24/7, this is a woman who genuinely loves not only her business, but people as well. That is where this all stems from. Her love and compassion to touch people’s hearts through her work.” The two have had such great success generating business during the economy, that they are considering partnering together to offer other Day Spas their same proven marketing strategies. Aquamedica was declared “The Most Romantic Spa” by NJ Monthly Magazine, “Best Day Spa in the US in 2008” by Spavelous.com and received the “Readers Choice” award from Asbury Park Press in 2007 and 2008. Visit Aquamedica for more information and a complete menu of services. 
