We recently connected with Jody Gonzalez and have shared our conversation below.

Jody, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. The first dollar your business earns is always special and we’d love to hear how your brand made its first dollar of revenue.

The first client I had that wasn’t a referral from a friend or family member was through Groupon. I know people have mixed feelings about Groupon, but it worked for me. Some of my best clients came to me through Groupon almost 10 years ago. What people need to understand about Groupon is that you don’t do it to make money. You do it to bring clients in and build your clientele. I worked hard, did my best work on clients, and made sure they had a great experience. These great experiences led my clients to leave me positive reviews on Yelp, which then led to the growth of my business. I only ran my Groupon for a few months before I was able to build my clientele through word of mouth and Yelp alone.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I decided to dive into the lash industry after a few years of getting lash extensions. I saw how flexible my lash artist’s schedule was, and I wanted the same thing for myself, especially since I had just had my first child. I wanted to get back to work, but also be able to have a flexible schedule to raise my son as well. I had always wanted to be my own boss, so this seemed like the perfect option. I took a lash extension class, and to my surprise, I loved it and was pretty good at it. I dove in head first and started my business right off the bat. I learned the ins and outs of starting a Lash business on my own through a lot of research and trial and error.

My business has thrived because I focus on providing my clients the best services and experience. What sets us apart from other lash businesses is that we actually really care about our client’s natural lash health. We won’t put a set of lashes on a client if we think the length or weight of the lashes will damage their natural lashes, even if that’s what the client wants. We do our best to educate our client’s on lash extensions so that they understand what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. If a client insists on getting what they want even after we advise against it, we have no problem turning the business away. Our integrity matters more than making a buck. Our relationships with our client’s really matter to us, and we believe that’s what makes us stand out among the many lash artists in our area.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Social media is still a work in progress for us. I tried to manage social media myself for a long time, and found that I couldn’t be as consistent in posting content as it required. Running a small business requires a lot of time, and with social media algorithms changing constantly, it’s hard to keep up. I recently hired a social media manager to help us out, since it isn’t going away anytime soon. It’s been super helpful, as I don’t have to think too much about when and what to post. Getting help to create content has allowed us to be consistent in posting and gain the traction that we’re looking for. It took a little while to figure out what kind of posts are the most popular, but I think we’ve found our groove and our social media presence is growing. Consistency is key.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Respecting your staff and treating them as equals goes a long way. I don’t like being called the boss or calling my staff employees. I like to refer to my staff as co-workers. Although I own the shop, we all work together to achieve the same goal…being a busy and successful lash salon. I like to take my team out for dinner, drinks, or a fun activity like an escape room when I can. I feel like getting along and bonding outside of the workplace is important and plays a big role in how smoothly things run inside the workplace. Finding a good team isn’t easy, so when you do find a great team, it only makes sense to do what you can to keep them happy and feel valued.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.winkzlashbar.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/winkzlashbar
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/winkzlashbar
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/winkz-lash-bar-brea