From 1 to 20, Big Feet Became an Industry Leader in GVA
After 18 years of hard work, Big Feet had become well known brand throughout the
Greater Vancouver Area. Now that the brand had been established, the next thing for Shirley to consider is how to further grow the business. The earlier stage of Big Feet with only two shops in Richmond and east Vancouver was indeed full of challenges.
In January 2008, she purchased a commercial space in Richmond that was more than 3,000 square feet, ordered a full container of furniture from China, and rolled up her sleeves to get everything ready for business. However, because wrong people were used for the job, a few wooden parts were not fumigated and as a result the whole container full of furniture was rejected by Canadian customs. This had not only incurred a major loss of money but also derailed Shirley’s entire business plan. In order to prevent any further delays, she bought two temporary massage tables and started business in haste. What a waste of space due to practitioner shortage. In a hope to address that issue, Shirley offered free training to the interested. Unfortunately, some of the trainees simply walked away (even with some of Shirley’s clients) and became Shirley’s competitors, reflecting an old saying that “the master might starve after they transfer all knowledge and skills to their apprentices”. But this did not deter Shirley. She continued to provide free training to new masseurs, ignoring old traditions and potential risks. Despite the common concerns, her care about her fellow Chinese prevailed. She has since formulated the operating mottos of ”Promoting National Quintessence”, “Perfecting Skills and Techniques”, “Creating An Elite Team of Multicultural Professionals”, and “Being an Ongoing Contributor to Society”. In her view, learning massage techniques does not only benefit clients, but also the masseur’s families, as their incomes will increase with the development of their skills. It’s a viable way to get rid of poverty.
Only one student, a single mom, from the 1st class in Richmond stayed with Big Feet! Unfortunately, the loyal student was diagnosed of deadly breast cancer. The day when the medical examination results were delivered, the single mother, her daughter, and all the co-workers at site burst into tears. Shirley refrained from succumbing to sadness and stayed calm. She said to the single mother, “Does your child have any relatives? If not, and the worst occurs, I will be her family. I will take care of your child so that you can just focus on your fight with cancer.” She continued, giving this metaphor: “You are now just like a person struggling to survive at the edge of a cliff. For your daughter, you have to recover and live a better life!”
The single mother did not let Shirley down. After a tenacious struggle with
the disease, just at the end of her chemotherapy, Shirley opened a branch in East Vancouver and made the single mother the manager. The single mother became very successful with the business and more and more healthy in the meantime.
Shirley classified the massage therapy market as four segments:
(a) traditional Chinese medicine treatment
(b) low cost massage delivering health benefits
(c) fancy and expensive spas like commonly seen in China
(d) special services
Shirley put Big Feet under category (b), offering low cost services of qualities people would normally expect from licensed traditional Chinese medicine practitioners. Shirley regards Big Feet as a food stand offering highly affordable delicious to ordinary people. Big Feet employees sweat and earn their respect from the clients. For them, every day is a good sunny day!
In 2009, Shirley made another big decision. As the scope of services expanded to fire cupping, acupuncture, etc, she encountered some difficulties with managing Chinese medicine contractors/consultants. She decided to become a Chinese medicine practitioner herself. We all know that medicine is one of the most difficult to learn. Nevertheless, Shirley managed to pass the extremely stringent examinations, obtain the diploma and become a registered Chinese medicine practitioner in BC (acupuncture + herbs).
In 2018, Shirley became the only bilingual (Chinese/English) examiner for Canadian Reflexology Association.
At the same time, she abandoned the industry norm in GVA by hiring male masseurs. From its early stage, Big Feet invested a significant amount of resources training male masseurs, and now the ratio of female to male masseurs has reached 6-4.
During this period, Big Feet rapidly built momentum. By 2013, the company employed more than 70 people. As Big Feet expanded, it became necessary to manage the business as a whole rather than letting the branches individually managed. Managing a bigger business is not easy and Shirley learned it the hard way in the past. She hesitated and almost gave up the plan to grow the business further. She was concerned about possible dilution of the brand equity when the company expands.
However, Shirley cared about her employees so much and she does want to see them fail. After much consideration, she designed a unique franchising mechanism allowing selected Big Feet employees to become franchisees. That concept was so well received by the work force. In just slightly more than a year, seven franchise shops were opened across GVA. Yet, Shirley realized at that point that she was moving too fast. She put the expansion on pause and focused on enhancing the foundations by developing SOPs, employee manuals, training materials, in-depth understanding of industry related rules and regulations, plus market management, employment management, talent reserve, etc.
“2015 is an important year of restructuring for Big Feet, a year of intended slow down aimed to fuel further growth”, said Shirley. In 2016, Big Feet geared up again opening 5 more branches! As Big Feet continues to grow, Shirley is determined to focus more on the development of corporate culture, utilizing various channels especially social media to promote traditional Chinese medicine and health care culture to all from different cultural backgrounds. As of now, percentage of non-Chinese clients exceeds 90%!
By 2017-2018, Big Feet expended to 20 shops enabling a number of senior Big Feet employees to become business owners. All shops are enjoying good business and the franchisees being grateful and full of hope.
As the most livable city, Vancouver on the other hand is not an easy place to find employment and run business. So many outstanding immigrants from different countries choose to return to where they came from due to unemployment and failure to start businesses in Vancouver. They complained and gave up. Shirley is different. She didn’t complain, didn’t give up because she believes no pain no gain, all hard work will get paid off in the end!