Couple brings infrared sauna studio to Chattanooga's Southside [video, photos]

Husband-and-wife owners eye novel way to franchise their startup business

Ashlan Brown, left, and Alex Davis are the husband-and-wife team who created Sisu Sauna Studio at 26 E. Main St. in the new four-story Mission at Main building.
Ashlan Brown, left, and Alex Davis are the husband-and-wife team who created Sisu Sauna Studio at 26 E. Main St. in the new four-story Mission at Main building.

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Learn more online at www.sisusaunastudio.com.

Husband-and-wife Alex Davis and Ashlan Brown want to offer Chattanoogans the benefits of infrared sauna - while the couple develops a novel way to franchise their startup business.

Those are goals for Sisu Sauna Studio, which the couple opened in late September in John Wise's new four-story Mission at Main building at the corner of Market and Main streets in Chattanooga's trendy Southside neighborhood.

"There's been a huge response," Davis said. The sauna already has days when its been near or at capacity, he said.

Sisu Sauna Studio is divided up into a half dozen little rooms in which customers lie down inside infrared sauna "pods" for a half hour or 45 minutes. A seventh room has a sauna "cabin" that can be shared. The price varies, but an introductory "first sweat" 45-minute sauna costs $30.

Customers sweat and their heartbeat increases as their bodies work to cool down beneath the invisible infrared light that's used to create heat. Then customers cool off in a refrigerated, tile-lined roundish room about the size of a large office cubicle.

"It stops the sweating process; closes your pores," Brown said.

The treatment is a modern take on the age-old practice of the Finnish people (and other sauna-loving cultures) who heat up inside a sauna and then roll in snow afterward.

"The Finns created the sauna," she said. "That's actually where the cold room came into play."

Saunas are purported to offer a myriad of health benefits, everything from relaxation, detoxification and pain relief to wound healing, cellulite reduction and weight loss.

Weight loss was one of the things that sold Davis on daily saunas. He says he went from weighing 210 pounds to 170 and saw his waistline shrink from 38 to 32 inches.

"I've been watching my sugar intake - and a lot of sauna," Davis said.

From college dropout to business success

He blames being overweight partly on disenchantment with his former career as the owner of two dozen Liberty Tax Service tax-preparation franchises with some 300 employees.

Davis, 32, grew up in the Ringgold, Ga., area. He graduated from Northwest Whitfield High School and attended Dalton State College for half a semester before he decided that college was not for him.

When he was 22 years old, and working as a locksmith, fate led him to a Liberty Tax Service on Brainerd Road.

Davis got to talking to the woman who owned it. She explained that if the office completed 1,000 tax returns at $250, each, that meant $250,000 in gross revenue.

"Where do I sign up?" Davis remembers asking her.

That led to a meeting with John Hewitt, the president, chief executive officer, and co-founder of Liberty Tax Service, which is known for attracting customers by hiring people to stand outside dressed like the Statue of Liberty.

Liberty Tax Service gave the 22-year-old Davis a five-year, $130,000 loan to open his first office in Ringgold near the Ingles Markets supermarket.

Davis worked hard and lived in the office for a couple of years, since he couldn't afford an apartment. Soon, though, his tax preparation business grew to three stores, then five, then seven and eventually reached 24, mainly in Georgia but also in Nashville and in Ooltewah.

Davis appreciates Liberty Tax Service's help in getting him started and for the experience he got running a business.

However, he said that after about five years he didn't need the franchise's help anymore - but still paid a percentage of his revenue as a royalty.

He sold half his Liberty Tax Service franchises in 2015 and the rest this year.

Davis would like to expand Sisu Sauna Studio - just not as a franchise.

25 saunas the goal

Davis and Brown have invested about $250,000 of their own money into Sisu Sauna Studio.

They want to build one sauna after another and sell them to hard-working employees outright, with no ongoing franchise royalties or fees.

That way, Sisu would give people a leg up like Davis got with Liberty Tax Service. The couple would make money by selling each store for a profit.

"The goal is to hit 25 locations," Davis said.

The couple plan to open another studio here, possibly in North Chattanooga or near Hamilton Place mall. It may have more cabin-style saunas instead of pods, Davis said, and an ice bath instead of a cold room.

Ultimately, they'd like to find an investment group that would buy the Sisu Sauna Studio concept and expand it further. The couple have already pitched the idea to investors in Chattanooga's startup community.

Brown, 25, is from Ringgold. The couple have a daughter, Madeline, 3, and a son, Sylas, who's almost 2.

Davis designed Sisu Sauna Studio with the bottom line in mind. Thanks to energy-efficient equipment, the monthly electric bill is only about $270, he said. And it only takes one person at a time to run the business, he said. In its first nine weeks, the sauna already has brought in about $30,000 revenue, he said.

"I feel like we're killing it," Davis said.

Contact staff writer Tim Omarzu at tomarzu@timesfreepress.com or www.facebook.com/MeetsForBusiness or twitter.com/meetforbusiness or 423-757-6651.

Staff Photo By Tim Omarzu

The sign outside Sisu Sauna Studio at the Mission at Main Building on the corner of Market and Main streets.

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