Like many entrepreneurs, Jay MacLean and Jenna Weeks have strong ideas of what life – and specifically business – should be like. Both are originally from New Brunswick and both have traveled extensively across Canada and the world. Life brought them both back to Saint John in the past few years, and brought them together.
At the time they met, Jay had just opened a yoga studio – the Yoga Outlet – in Uptown Saint John. He had been teaching at local gyms and loved his classes, but wanted “to create a sacred space” and an urban loft space suited his plans perfectly.
Jenna had just returned from BC where she learned about entrepreneurship by working for a company called 1-800-GOT-JUNK and was herself a yoga enthusiast. She had her own ideas about business and how a company should be run, how it should be part of the larger community and how it should support the growth of its employees and clients alike.
In their first year the Yoga Outlet partners learned a lot about their business, their community and their clients. After a period of tweaking class offerings and adjusting marketing initiatives they found they were growing very quickly. “Once you get a couple of people excited about something, the word-of-mouth is very powerful here.” says Jay. “We could rest assured that if we offered a good product, people were going to come and it was going to grow.”
And the customers did come, as did other instructors and spin-off business opportunities like lunch and learns for corporations and classes at the Saint John Learning Exchange. “Now what I’m starting to see in the Uptown, because of us and because of other businesses is a cluster – a cultural cluster.” says Jay. “On a Saturday morning people will come into town, do some Yoga, feel great, and then go to the City Market and then it becomes a kind of routine.”
It’s only been three years since their Uptown opening and they have already opened a second location in Rothesay, a near-by bedroom community. According to Jenna, “Right now Saint John is so hungry for diverse businesses that there’s just such an incredible opportunity for anyone who wants to have a business.”
When asked about the business climate in Saint John Jenna pipes up before the question is even complete; “I’m drop-dead impressed with the level of exuberance with helping people get business going here. Unparalleled to anything I’ve ever seen!”
“Here, you walk into these places (Enterprise Saint John, etc.) and they scoop you up, welcome you in, and it doesn’t matter if you’re trying to make a new plastic garbage bag or have $500K to invest in a business, they’re going to take you on and help you all the way through and make it happen for you.”
With both locations going strong Jay and Jenna have even more plans for their future. Last year they did a lot of work with local youth and now have a taste for it – they are developing ideas for classes in the school system that will help kids understand how their emotions, actions and decisions affect their health and wellness. “We think Saint John being the happiest place in Canada is a pretty neat place to act as a prototype for our theories.”
Originally published September 2008
