Transformation
From Garage to Studio
What did you do before Sass?
We both worked for corporate organisations; Gino was Operations Director for an engineering company and I (Kate) worked part time in local government doing various roles but mainly in marketing, events and communications. I’ve also been a Personal Trainer, Fitness Instructor and Yoga Teacher on the side for 20 years and I own a home fragrance business Haddican & Sass with our neighbour. Let’s say I have my fingers in lots of pies!
How long had you wanted to open Sass?
For about 15 years we’ve wanted to work together in some way. We looked at B&Bs initially but then felt more drawn to a coffee house as going out for coffee and brunch is one of our favourite pastimes! When I qualified as a Yoga Teacher, my number one goal was to have my own Studio space. I wanted this for more than just yoga though; being an events manager, a space could be used for all sorts of things within a community! So we created a business plan about 10 years ago to own a coffee house with a yoga studio as part of it – bringing all of our loves under one roof!
Why did you want to be in Marsden?
Honestly? We didn’t even consider Marsden! We spent a few years looking around Saddleworth as that’s where we live, and I already had an established community.
Every space we looked at just didn’t seem to tick all the boxes either. When Marsden was suggested, we thought ‘let’s check it out and just see!’ We’re so glad we did because the community here is amazing and we feel so welcomed, supported and settled already!
How did you find out about SB Homes/the building?
Via a Facebook message! No joke! After searching for a while and not finding anything, we decided to pause the hunt and instead, focus on building on what we were doing; Gino was in a great position in his work and I’d built an even stronger, worldwide yoga community thanks to the pandemic. I decided to leave the corporate world to build my own businesses. The day I left work, within 2 hours of logging off for the last time, I had a message that said ‘have you seen this place in Marsden, it would make a great studio!’
As they say, the rest is pretty much history and 6 months later, Gino also left his job. We’re an ‘all or nothing’ team and thought let’s just take the risk and go all in!
How was it working with SB Homes?
As with all building projects, there are ups and downs but the whole build process, now we look back, was pretty straightforward! We’re thankful to have them as landlords as we’ve heard of lots of rogue stories from people we know regarding other landlords, and we’ve had no issues whatsoever! They’re extremely supportive and we love bouncing ideas around with them for future plans.
It’s clear that Steve and the team want amazing things for Marsden as a village and we’re excited to be a part of all of that. We’d definitely class them as friends and know they’d help us out if we ever needed.
How is it going?
It’s going okay, we think! Whenever we get asked this question, our main consideration is whether we’re enjoying it and the answer to that is a big hell yes!
We love working together, we have an amazing team, fantastic customers and we can pay the bills – what more can we ask for? It’s definitely the most stressful thing we’ve ever done but we also know that comes down to how passionate we are about doing things right. We’re always working (even on holiday) but quite often, it doesn’t feel like work – and best of all, we’re doing it for ourselves – no one else! Not many people have a job that is focused around the things they love; coffee, food, yoga and connecting with others. AND we also get to snuggle kittens and puppies most weeks!
What are your plans for the future?
Where do we start!? Ideas are constantly flowing – from refurbing the studio and adding more events to the diary, to hosting worldwide, wellbeing retreats and even opening a second location! We keep the big dream stuff close to our chest though so for now, we’ll just say ‘watch this space!’.
