Wellness spa catering to working-class women wins small business competition
When Brittney Rodriguez stepped onto the stage of Wednesday's Rev-Up MKE business competition to present her pitch for CeLani Skin & Wellness, she locked eyes with the judges and then let her eyes drift to the front row.
Her daughters, donning matching hairdos and black-and-white dresses, smiled up at her. Mercedes and Lelani are, in both name and spirit, the inspiration for her business, CeLani. The wellness spa, which provides affordable spa services catering to working-class women in Milwaukee, was selected as the 2023 winner for Rev-Up MKE.
Rodriguez, 31, was born and raised in Milwaukee. Before starting her own business, she earned her bachelor's degree in Business Administration and Management from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Shortly after, she secured her cosmetology license.
She found the inspiration for CeLani Skin & Wellness after giving birth to her children. After Rodriguez's first pregnancy, she experienced postpartum depression and was pushed to reevaluate her own self-care process while juggling a return to full-time work.
She wondered if her friends and other women in her community experienced the same struggle.
"I realized all of my friends are taking on this new lifestyle and starting to suffer with some negative symptoms, so I think that was really a transitioning point for me," she said.
It wasn't until Rodriguez revamped her own wellness routine that she realized some of her own skills could be used for a greater community good by providing accessible wellness services to the Near West Side and beyond.
She recalls her nervousness on pitch day, her trembly trial runs of her presentation as she paced through the house that morning, prepping her outfit for the evening and pulling up to The Rave long before she and her other competitors were scheduled to present.
"I continued to prepare myself and it got to a point where I'm like, 'You got this,' you know? Just take in the moment," she said. "I actually thought to myself, my practices are a little shaky, but I know this information is something that I'm really passionate about."
As the competition winner, CeLani Skin and Wellness will receive $10,000 in start-up business funding from Town Bank; over $25,000 in in-kind services like architectural renderings, small business consulting and legal support; and advertising from Near West Side Partners.
With the aid of her competition winnings, Rodriguez said she hopes to expand the spa to include cafe services by serving breakfast and lunch options from locally-sourced brands.
Rev-Up MKE launched in 2016 and has since served as a resource for dozens of Milwaukee small business owners looking for financial support to expand their business.
TrueMan McGee, owner of Funky Fresh Spring Rolls, was a participant in the program's 2016 competition and now serves as a judge. In an interview, he described his participation in the program as "monumental" in his business' trajectory. Since 2016, the brand has graduated from its first brick-and-mortar location at the Sherman Phoenix to selling frozen spring rolls in grocery stores across Wisconsin and Illinois.
"Winning prize money was good, but being able to have all the connections was huge," McGee said. "From our connections with Marquette, getting introduced to one of my mentors and establishing some of the foundations of our business, from our employee handbooks to NDA recipes, and even requiring our trademark came from the help of our donor partners."
Since the program's establishment, organizers have said the overarching goal is to build up the net wealth of the community and bridge gaps between racial equity barriers that exist in the city of Milwaukee. Entrepreneurship, they say, is a critical means for achieving that goal.
"The real value is the support system," said Celia Benton, director of development for Milwaukee County. "The people that help give you the technical systems to make decisions wisely, to understand how to best use your capital, is invaluable in the ecosystem. I do hope that the entrepreneurs take advantage of that because there are so many good partners to this work in Milwaukee."
Though she is still building her web presence, Rodriguez said interested customers can find her information at @CelaniWellness on Instagram or www.celaniskinandwellness.as.me.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee spa catering to working-class women wins business competition
