SUCCESSSTORIES
INSPIRING TALES OF STARTUPS, GROWTH AND OVERCOMING HARDSHIPS
Sue Harmsworth: The Ultimate Entrepreneur
one holistic spa location. Today, that
may seem straightforward, but in
CEO ESPA International
1970s Toronto, it was a radical
idea.
o be a successful entrepreneur, you
“That era in the 70s
have to have more than just a
molded my thinking going
“can-do” attitude. You have to
forward,”
Harmsworth
be brave, you have to have passion
BY
remembers.
“My
mother
coming out of your eyeballs, and
KELLY
was a pediatric nurse and
you have to be willing to put every-
HEITZ
my grandmother was an
thing you have on the line for your
dream.
herbalist, so I had that mixture
“Entrepreneurs tend to see the world and its
of science and nature from an
opportunities differently,” says Sue Harmsworth,
early age. When I began learning
steadfast entrepreneur, CEO of ESPA
from the Eastern European therapists in
ISPA
International and this year’s ISPA Visionary
Toronto, I knew that the skills and training they
VISIONARY
Award recipient.
had was what people were looking for out of their
AWARD
Harmsworth credits her success with
spa experience.”
RECIPIENT
ESPA to a lifetime of influence in all the right
After selling her Toronto day spa to move back
areas. As a child, she watched her father build
to Europe, she ran a thalassotherapy center in
a construction business from scratch after World
France, then a health farm in the U.K. and branched out
War II. His drive and tenacity showed her what it took to
into designing spas for a major cruise line. Each step in her
survive in business, and she still carries those lessons with her
career allowed her the opportunity to gain the right kind of
today.
knowledge she needed to eventually open her own consultancy
“I was born right after the war. We all had to start from
business.
nothing, but my father definitely passed that entrepreneurial
In the early 80s, it was difficult to find natural, high-end
spirit down to me. From him I learned that we are totally
products that worked with the holistic treatments Harmsworth
accountable for ourselves and our actions. I learned how to
was creating. So, what does an entrepreneur do when she can’t
own my responsibilities, which is what it takes to be a leader.”
find what she needs? She creates it herself.
Harmsworth’s first entrepreneurial endeavor was opening a
“I had a lot of product experience from each step in my
day spa in Toronto. At the time, spas dealt mostly in beauty,
career path, so the goal was to bring it all together under one
but after meeting and learning from the concentrated
brand,” says Harmsworth. “Essentially, what I wanted wasn’t
population of Eastern European therapists in Toronto who all
available or only came in industrial quantities. You could get
studied medicine before learning their craft, she had a vision to
clinical aromatherapy in little brown bottles, or mud in great big
combine health with beauty and natural with scientific into
buckets, but nothing usable for everyday skincare. It wasn’t
Sue Harmsworth
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PULSE
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August 2017