Home Sauna founder Luke Mexted is tapping into New Zealand's growing wellness trend.
Home Sauna founder Luke Mexted talks to Tom Raynel about the growing wellness industry and the challenges of operating a bespoke business.
Every Monday, we interview a small-business owner. This is now a regular feature of NZME’s editorial campaign On The Up, showcasing uplifting stories of success, inspiration and possibilities.
What is Home Sauna?
Home Sauna specialises in bespoke handcrafted saunas. We go on a custom journey with a client to create their unique sauna, because with us, no two saunas are built the same.
Everyone’s different, and that’s not just improvements different, it’s aesthetics, it’s shape, everything. With Home Sauna, this is an opportunity for people to have a bespoke sauna, a one-of-a-kind, and for it to be of high quality.
What inspired you to start the business?
I was building saunas for The Sauna Project (another business of mine), and a lot of my regular guests were linking the fact that I built them. They came to me and asked whether I could build them a sauna? I’m a builder by trade, so I, of course, said yes.
The people who were going to those locations were really getting a taste for it, and while they get hooked with the public sessions, they then look for something more. At some point they go, “I could probably invest and get my own one”.
From there it grew into that custom journey of building whatever they wanted, and I actually got a lot of enjoyment out of that.
What is your process for making the saunas?
Each sauna is handcrafted by our talented building team right here in Waihī. From initial concept and material selection through to installation, we manage the full build.
It generally starts with what is their heating source, do they want to go with an electric sauna or do they want to go with a traditional wood-fired sauna? From there it’s working out how many people they want it to be able to accommodate, before we then get creative as to what aesthetic they’d like it to fit.
There’s the question of is it separate from their house, and if so then we can go a bit more off the beaten path in terms of cladding choices and colouring etc. I think it’s more of an investment into their property as a leisure activity, like adding a pool to your backyard.
What’s been the biggest challenge in running the business?
The biggest challenge for me I think is that the business is young. I’m now growing a business where I was 100% on the tools, but now I’m 60% on the tools or even less. I’m hiring people, I’m building systems and processes, I’m pricing and trying to improve that. It’s a lot of work in each.
I’m only 34, and I talk to a lot of different people in business who are at different stages and it’s the same things, it’s just at what point you jumped on to them. I’m trying to be proactive about some of the stuff I might be hearing from people who have been in business for 10 years for example.
Wellness businesses are on the rise at the moment, including saunas, what’s behind it?
I think it might be something around social wellness, where maybe the momentum behind the local RSA or the pub is changing. People are choosing instead to catch up with friends or socialise in an environment where you’re going to come out of it feeling really good.
Since Covid we’ve become more aware of what we’re putting into our bodies and how we look after ourselves. I only really got into sauna-ing seven years ago, and in New Zealand the culture for sauna-ing hasn’t really been there for that long.
In the last five years there’s been a huge uplift of awareness for it. I think that’s where the Sauna Project’s done really well to create the culture and awareness for it, and almost put a bit of a Kiwi taste to what sauna-ing can be.
What would be your advice to a budding entrepreneur wanting to start a business?
Find a problem and solve it. If you were to put it in the context of Home Sauna, there wasn’t a custom sauna builder out there, and I’ve filled that niche. Don’t invent something for the need of inventing something.
Also sometimes you need to be forced into a position to make the decision. If you don’t make it, the universe might make it happen for you.
Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.