With clients out of offices, wellness business owner shifts approach

Jan. 25, 2021

In pre-pandemic times, the team at Sioux Falls-based Well 365 would bring services such as health coaching, lunch-and-learn events, health screenings and well-being challenges to businesses across the region.

That’s not so easy with few or any people left in many offices, as COVID-19 forced a quick, big shift to virtual work.

So owner Trisha Dohn shifted too.

“It’s an idea I’ve had for quite some time,” said Dohn, who started her business in 2016.

“I always felt there is such a niche and need for small companies, the 10 and under or 15 and under – those companies that want to do something to promote health and well-being but maybe financially couldn’t justify bringing in a big third party to do so. I thought we had a gap there.”

Her existing clientele included more midsize to large businesses. And in addition to the physical limitations brought by closed offices, budgets also tightened.

“I had a couple companies say: ‘Our budget is cut. We still want to do wellness; what can we do,’ ” Dohn said.

The answer took the form of Well 365 Thrive, a new product offering designed as a subscription service for $97 per month or $1,000 per year that allows a company to offer “an entire yearlong wellness program,” she said.

“So essentially, I was thinking of small businesses, but I also realized what I created could completely be for any business no matter what the size.”

The online program offers monthly content so businesses can run their own wellness challenges and have access to a library of education, a webinar and a monthly mastermind meeting, “so there’s still that human connection,” Dohn said.

“It’s not like you sign up and there’s no one there to help. So during those monthly talks, it’s everything about how do we get employees engaged and move this forward, or offer incentives, so those meetings are pretty powerful, and there’s still that human touch.”

Each month has a different focus, and the delivery is designed to ease the burden on human resources staff, she said.

“They’re receiving notifications when content is released and getting multiple emails throughout the month to make this as easy as possible,” Dohn said. “These HR people are so bombarded with COVID they can’t handle one more thing, so I knew I had to make it very convenient and easy.”

She just launched the service with an initial group of clients and sees the potential for it to grow her business beyond the immediate area.

“One of the positive things out of COVID was it made me take a step back and realize I needed to adjust my business model so I’m not narrowing who my audience was,” she said. “It was a blessing in disguise because I had the time to commit to it.”

To learn more, visit corewell365.com.

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With clients out of offices, wellness business owner shifts approach

When COVID closed offices, this wellness services provider had to think differently — and did.

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