Elements’ clients go where they’re kneaded

BOULDER — “Boulder is the epicenter of massage in the country,” according to Mark Mills. If he can make it there, he’d make it anywhere — but he’s making it there.

Mark Mills and wife, Kate, opened Elements Therapeutic Massage LLC. in 2009.

Its revenue grew 125 percent from $200,000 that year to $450,000 in 2011, ranking it No. 5 on the Boulder County Business Report’s Mercury 100 list of fastest-growing private companies in Boulder and Broomfield counties reporting annual revenue of less than $2 million.

From four therapists and two front-desk staffers at the start, it has 12 therapists and four receptionists today — and Mills wants to hire more.

Because Boulder massage customers’ expectations are so high, “We’re very fussy about who we hire,” Mills said, describing his “very rigorous” four-step interview process.

Mills’ hiring process might appear easy compared with what he described as the job’s “physically and emotionally draining” demands. A licensed massage therapist’s average career is six or seven years, he said. However, driven by his tenacity and passion as a competitive endurance runner, Mills, 58, has been giving massages for nearly 22 years.

Hit by a car in 1991, Mills suffered a broken back. “The doctors were all doom and gloom,” he recalled. “I looked to alternative therapies. I was back on my feet and running in six months, and it changed my life completely.”

Lured by the benefits of massage and trading high stress for working in “a dark, warm room with soft music,” Mills opened a practice in New Hampshire where he gave 1- to 2-hour treatments to 20 to 25 clients a week.

He and Kate decided to develop a co-op studio with many therapists — and Kate’s skill as an interior decorator. She had attended the University of Colorado-Boulder and wanted to return. Boulder’s reputation made it the perfect choice, and the Millses found a perfect location to be visible to a health-conscious, literate clientele: near Whole Foods, Vitamin Cottage and Barnes & Noble.

“I can go a little lighter on marketing, because of my visibility,” Mills said, adding that 90 percent of his advertising is done on social media and nearly 40 percent of his new-client base comes from referrals.

His “grand vision” is for two or three more studios, including one in Portland, Maine. But to Mills, “Boulder is the big leagues.”

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