Bed of Bliss

March 7, 2007

bed of bliss
Ancient art of massage
meets the power of
technology at Migun



Stretch out on one of the thermal massage beds at Migun of Northern Michigan and you’ll find yourself immersed in an oohs! and ahhs! sensation, like a warm jade roller coaster trickling up and down your spine.
A series of five jade massage heads move up and down a belt, traveling your back from head to toe as you lie in the twilight of a quiet room. Infrared heat radiates through the bulbs, penetrating as much as five inches into your body, stimulating your muscles, nerves and bloodstream. After 35 minutes of deep tissue ecstasy, you arise, as limp and relaxed as a wet rice noodle.
The only shocking aspect of your first encounter with Migun is the news that it’s free. That’s right, the first 30 days are on the house.

ANATOMY OF A BUSINESS
Steve and Rhonda Voorheis of Bellaire are the entrepreneurs behind Migun in downtown Traverse City, joined by manager Madalyn Tangora. They first heard of the deep-heating massage beds from Korea about two years ago and dove boots-first into the business with a distributorship.
“Steve and I were on vacation in Florida and our daughter-in-law told us about this place that had massage beds,” Rhonda recalls. “And I absolutely loved it. We visited two centers and I bought a bed and brought it home. Then we got to talking on a lark: Wouldn’t it be nice to start a center in Traverse City?”
Within three weeks of buying their first bed, the couple were in Los Angeles, nailing down the details of starting their own business. Married for 14 years, Rhonda is a certified massage therapist who still works as an office manager with the State Department of Human Services, while Steve is a retired social services case worker.
Migun means “beautiful health” in Korea where the beds were developed and marketed in 1988. The combination of the jade bulbs and their far-infrared heat offers the benefits of five holistic health principles, including chiropracty, acupressure, heat therapy, acupuncture and massage, according to company literature.

BUSINESS PLAN
By massage therapy standards, rates are rock-bottom low at Migun. After the free 30-day trial period, a 35-minute massage costs just $5. Or, you can buy a package of 15 sessions for $70, or 30 sessions for $120.
The rates are low to get potential bed customers in the door.
“Our main thing is selling the beds,”
Steve says. “We sell an average of six or seven beds a month. The goal of the company is to offer massages free forever with the idea that if you get a lot of people coming in, about 10 percent will buy a bed.”
Although the Voorheis’s have one of
the smallest distribution territories in
the nation by population, they’ve man-aged to sell more massage beds than some downstate distributors, including those in Lansing and Grand Rapids.
Still, they’d like to see more sales. About 4,800 customers have tried the Migun service in the nearly two years since they’ve been open, and they’ve sold somewhat more than 70 beds.
Nationwide, there are as many as 150 Migun distributors, with more than 300 worldwide. The beds sell for $3,095 for the original model, and $3,695 for a newer hospital-grade model. Advantage? A daily massage in the comfort of your own home.

BENEFITS
Is the infrared heat dangerous? Turns out it’s not, and Migun has the very picky FDA approval of their product to prove it. (By contrast, the FDA refuses its approval for hot tubs and tanning beds as medical appliances.)
“People think that far-infrared is like a microwave, but it’s not,” Rhonda says. She notes that the heat is organic in the same sense as the heat of snuggling with someone, or the heat of the sun.
On the other hand, she notes that you don’t want to overdo a good thing, since the heat tends to linger in your body for four hours. She uses her own bed once or twice a day.
What about other massage therapists? Are they threatened by the competition of a mechanical massage?
“No. In fact, a lot of massage therapists have bought the beds themselves,” Steve says. Some use the beds to warm up their customers for more intense or specific massage sessions. And, since massage therapy is hard, physical work, practitioners like the beds as a way of relieving their own muscles and joints. The couple notes that their daughter, Jenn Evans, is a massage therapist in Charlevoix who enjoys the use of a thermal bed.

You’ll find other innovative holistic therapies at Migun. For instance, a thermal bed matt that’s all the rage in Asia. Heated tiles in the matt exude infrared heat and provide negative ion therapy while you sleep. The matts are believed to be therapeutic for a number of medical conditions and retail for $1,195 full, and $1,495 queen-size.
The business also offers a line of alkaline water machines, vitamin therapy programs and antioxidant scanning -- any one of which would make a full article on its own. Better that you just make an appointment or stop in to discover for yourself. Lie down, relax, feel the jade bulbs rippling up and down your back... Zzzzzz...

Migun of Northern Michigan is located at 333 E. State Street, TC, across from the Park Place Hotel. Phone: 231-929-8140.