We were lucky to catch up with Aimee Le Grigalonis recently and have shared our conversation below.
Aimee , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Almost all entrepreneurs have had to decide whether to start now or later? There are always pros and cons for waiting and so we’d love to hear what you think about your decision in retrospect. If you could go back in time, would you have started your business sooner, later or at the exact time you started?
This is honestly a great question, but I would not have started my business of Aloha Beauty Boutique any sooner or later, because I truly believe in divine timing and the cliché notion that everything happens/unfolds the way it is supposed to, even if the path seems rocky along the way. My family, consisting of my husband, son and mom-in-law, moved to Austin from Chicago (we lived on Maui and in Southern California prior) in May of 2019. My very first client at Aloha Beauty Boutique just so happened to be one of my previous clients in Chicago, who had also recently moved to Austin, so it felt comforting, yet like a fresh start.
However, with most businesses, it was a rough and slow start to building clientele (I only had 8 clients my first full month of work), but I was super optimistic about being in an amazing new city and out of cold Chicago! Aloha Beauty Boutique was actually my second time starting my own Esthetician business. In 2012, I fast tracked my way through the Esthetics program at Academy of Beauty in Culver City in 4.5 months, since I was driving 3 hours roundtrip from Orange County everyday and wanted to finish as quickly as possible. After graduating, I rented a treatment room in a hair salon in Costa Mesa doing facials and waxing, but I had no idea what I was doing business-wise and quickly closed shop after a couple of months. My failure was not a failure, because I picked myself back up and went on to do the next thing, which was becoming a waxing expert at the chain European Wax Center.
Going back to the original question, there would have been no way I could have started Aloha Beauty Boutique 11 years ago, because I did not have the wisdom, experience, or vision that I would have 7 years later in 2019. It is my belief that making mistakes help me grow, learn and molds me into the person who I am today. Additionally, my family and I were somewhat gypsy like, moving from state to state (our kiddo lived in 4 states by the time he turned 5!), so starting my own business would have been difficult as it takes a couple of years to build a solid client base in the beauty industry. Since we love Austin, and our son is in a great school district, we decided to live the suburban life (for now), establish ourselves in the community, and grow our businesses.
I would not change the timeline of my Esthetics career at all. I have worked with such an amazing variety of people from all different cultures and backgrounds and cities and learned so much from different employers, coworkers and clients. I cherish so many of the connections I have made with people along the journey of my career as an Esthetician the past 11 years. One of the people that pushed me to have the desire and courage to open my own business (besides my supportive hubby), was the owner of my previous salon, Marta at Painless Waxing Boutique, in Chicago. Marta was an amazing mentor and saw the best in me and pushed me beyond what I thought I was capable of, which is what a great mentor is supposed to do! I loved and appreciated working for her and am so grateful she guided me in reaching my goals. If I would have tried to open up my own business beforehand, I would not have met Marta nor received the knowledge, wisdom and skills that were imparted on me from her.
Aimee , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My Esthetician origin story began when I was 23 and my long-term boyfriend had broken up with me, which prompted me to move to a different city and pursue a career in Esthetics. At first, I did not know what to do career wise, as I realized I did not want to pursue Psychology past my Bachelor’s degree. Statistically, the burnout rate was high as a therapist, I was young, unmarried with no kids and felt like I needed more life experience and a more satisfying line of work.
My mom had always suggested that I become either a Nurse or an Esthetician, but I leaned towards a career in beauty over the medical field. My Vietnamese heritage of growing up in the nail salon (it was my after school program), where my mom and aunt worked, made a career in the beauty industry feel like the right decision. The nail salon was a fun space where women could come, get a beauty treatment, relieve their stress, talk about their lives, build relationships, and leave feeling empowered. Those nostalgic feelings encompassed in the form of beauty therapy directed and fast tracked me on my path to obtaining my Esthetician license in under 5 months at The Academy of Beauty in Culver City, California.
Things can get catty in beauty school, so I was super grateful to have been in an amazing cohort of Estheticians (there was a lot of fighting and drama in the class right before and right after my cohort), in which we supported each other, took classes together and traded services ideas. After my venture of starting my own business right after beauty school failed, I went on to work for a few different European Wax Center franchise locations and hone my hard waxing skills but felt like the environment was too corporate and akin to a waxing factory, and the individuated Aquarius in me hated wearing the thick, unbreathable red scrubs uniform.
My boyfriend at the time (now hubby) and I grew tired of the fast paced lifestyle of living in Southern California and were watching a lot of House Hunters: Hawaii Edition, when we got the itch and urge to move to Hawaii. We ended up picking Maui and convinced one of my gay besties to move with us! I was super fortunate to land an amazing Esthetician job in a full service salon on the west side of Maui in a town called Lahaina. It was a super fun and welcoming environment where I got to work with hair stylists, nail artists and another Esthetician. Although facials are not my forte, I loved working with the Organic line Eminence while providing facials there.
Fast forward a year and a half later, and I was moving back to LA with our newborn son to be closer to family. We relocated to Redondo Beach, and I found a job waxing at Sassy Ladies Beauty Bar. Clients in LA were definitely an interesting bunch. Truly, I have to say one of the things I have loved the most about my Esthetician career has been getting to know people from a variety of different backgrounds, places and cultures; it is very enlightening, broadens my knowledge base and keeps me on my toes. We only lasted 11 months back in California. The smog pollution, hustle and bustle, traffic and competition for jobs was too much for my family and I, since we had grown accustomed to the relaxed lifestyle that we had on Maui.
Since I always love learning and expanding on my Esthetician skills, I decided to take a Sugaring course before moving back to Maui. Sugaring is an Egyptian form of hair removal that consists of only sugar, water and lemon, which is boiled down into a paste and molded against the direction of hair growth and flicked off in the direction of hair growth. Sugaring only adheres to dead skin cells not live skin the way waxing can, and the correct directional pull of sugaring results in longer lasting smooth skin and finer regrowth than waxing. Sugaring is a very niche skill and difficult to master, and I don’t think any of my sugaring clients came back to me the first 6 months of me trying to hone my sugaring skills, because I didn’t really know what I was doing. However, that didn’t stop me from sugaring my heart out!
Fast forward a couple years into living back on Maui, I was very content living my happy, peaceful beachy, island life, although my partner was not. He always had the desire to pursue stand up comedy and was getting “island fever”, which meant you were water locked onto the island and could not just up and decide to jump in your car and take a road trip to another state. Although I hated admitting it, there were times I definitely got “island fever” as well, as it was expensive living on Maui and we could not afford to travel off island much. When we made the decision to move to Chicago, I was distraught and cried. A lot. But then I picked myself back up, decided to expand my Esthetician skills yet again and took a YUMI Keratin Lash Lift course (which was one of my best career decisions besides learning to sugar) in 2017 before making the move to the Windy City.
Although the architecture was beautiful and the walkability and public parks in Chicago were so amazing and convenient, my family and I were depressed after leaving beautiful, sunny Maui. The best thing about moving to Chicago, however, was the job I landed at Painless Waxing Boutique, where I met my mentor, Marta, who was an Esthetician and badass owner of PWB. I had never worked anywhere where I was given the opportunity to provide new services I brought into the salon (sugaring and YUMI lash lifts) and where I was challenged with meeting service and sales goals in a competitive, yet friendly environment.
Marta really helped develop me as a seasoned Esthetician and gave me the chance to pursue my new YUMI Keratin Lash Lift services as well as gave me the confidence to become a Sugaring Educator for Tamara’s Professional Body Sugaring. As my mentor, Marta helped me see things in myself that I didn’t see and empowered me as a woman and Esthetician. A quote that always stuck with me that was written on a wall at PWB was this: “When Someone Feels Empowered And Beautiful, They Can Achieve So Many Things That They Felt They Could Not Before.” This quote perfectly sums up a major reason I decided to pursue a career in the beauty industry in the first place and relates back to my memories of women leaving my mom and aunt’s nail salon with confidence.
After enduring the cold in Chicago for 2 years, my family and I made our move to Austin, Texas. Although our stint in Chicago was challenging mentally, physically and emotionally, I am grateful for meeting Marta, working with fantastic Estheticians, and building relationships with some really cool clients. Chicago was also the place where I got over my fear of commitment and eloped with my hubby! Moving to Austin felt like the breath of fresh air we needed. My supportive hubby always reminds me of a conversation with a random woman he had when we first moved to Austin, who basically said she had friends in the beauty industry who found it hard to keep their business afloat and that it would be difficult for me to make it, to which my hubby responded that his wife (me!) was a talented, hard working Esthetician and would definitely succeed as a beauty business owner. It has been almost 4 years and a pandemic later, and I am still here, loving and appreciating my business, Aloha Beauty Boutique, more than ever!
Last year, I decided to add CRYOSKIN treatments to my service menu, which has been an absolute game changer! My CRYOSKIN machine offers Slimming (gets rid of stubborn pockets of body fat), Toning (reduces cellulite and tightens loose skin), and Non-Invasive Face Lifting Facials. Additionally, along with being a Certified Sugaring Educator, I recently became a Lash Lift & Brow Lamination trainer for YUMI, which has been a dream of mine for the past couple of years, because I absolutely love teaching!
My journey as an Esthetician/Beauty Therapist has been a difficult one at times, but I wouldn’t change a thing and am beyond grateful for my business, wonderful clients and salon suite neighbors at Salons By JC in Westlake. If y’all are in need of beauty therapy in the form of sugaring, waxing, lash lifts, brow laminations or Cryoskin treatments, come see me in Suite 11!
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
In the past few years, since the start of the pandemic up until now, with the uncertainty of the economic market, I feel like most everyone has had to pivot, shift and find new ways of doing things in their work and personal lives. I was only 8 months into launching my business, Aloha Beauty Boutique, when the world as we knew it changed overnight with the pandemic and the mandatory lockdowns. I went from working to build up my clientele 6 days a week to being stuck inside a tiny apartment with my husband, mom-in-law, 6 year old son, and 2 cats. Although it was scary not being able to work, at the same time, I was grateful for the break, spending time with family, being out in nature, and going on walks everyday. I learned to appreciate the little things, like taking a drive to Juiceland to get out of the apartment and obsess over my smoothie and yerba mate shot.
Truly, we were blessed in Texas with having to be shut down only less than a couple months in comparison to other states, like New York and California that had seemingly year long shut downs for many businesses. One of my old beauty salon employers had to shut down her business in California and ended up moving to Colorado because the pandemic shut down her business. She ended up being able to move back to California once things settled back down, but her situation was a prime example of how much the pandemic affected small businesses.
Like every other beauty business, I had to change how I cleaned, spaced out clients, wore masks, etc. when it came to coming back to work, not to mention taking on the emotional toll that the pandemic was having on my clients and neighbors. Some days were harder than others, but I was so grateful to have my health, family and a surviving business. My mentor and old employer Marta suggested I offer a 40% referral discount to clients who referred family and/or friends; I took her advice and started booking more and more clients, and slowly but surely, my business went from surviving to thriving.
Another example of a time period when I had to pivot in my business was at the start of 2022 when my mentor, Marta, became my business partner, and we started on our journey of opening up a larger scale beauty salon together. Marta, being the savvy business woman that she is, suggested we complete a business start up workshop with a company she had previously worked with to help her improve her salon business, Painless Waxing Boutique. Our coach at the company posed hard questions to us about the realities of the business partnership; although we had some doubts and uncertainties on both sides about the potential business, we overcame our fears and continued in our quest to find a commercial space to rent.
Marta and I spent a lot of time, hard work and energy jumping on phone/video calls with each other and our commercial realtor to look at spaces, negotiate costs and all the other things that go into the process of finding the right location. It was 8 long months into the process, and it seemed like every time we would find a place, there was something that just didn’t feel right or work out the way it was supposed to. Sadly, the way commercial real estate works in Texas, the tenant (which would have been us), is fully financial responsible for most everything in the way that house rental tenants are not (like HVAC and taxes), making it very financially scary to commit to a huge, long-term lease. There were so many uncertainties of opening up a large salon like finding good employees with the job market, Marta being far away in Chicago, and the huge costs of monthly rent, utilities, taxes, etc., that in the end, we both decided that it was for the best that we halted our plans of opening up a large scale beauty salon.
I honestly had so many mixed emotions after canceling our plans of expansion. There were highs and lows ranging from huge relief to having my life back (I went through bouts of anxiety in our quest to expand) to disappointment that I was not going to be able to build upon my dream of opening a larger Aloha Beauty Boutique (I had also put off having a baby to try to expand). Having faith in my belief that everything happens for a reason helped me pivot back to focusing on my salon suite business and expanding on my new Cryoskin services and applying to become a YUMI trainer instead. My goal in 2023 is to teach more sugaring and YUMI lash and brow classes, expand on and build up my Cryoskin business, while saving money for my own maternity leave whenever I do get pregnant in the future, since beauty industry professionals don’t receive paid maternity leave in comparison to what most companies offer their employees.
Working as an Esthetician and business owner has some drawbacks when it comes to not having traditional benefits like health insurance, 401ks, paid time off or sick leave, maternity leave, etc. but the pros vastly outweigh the cons for me, as I get to make my own schedule, wear what I want, take off time if I need it (even if I don’t get paid for it!), decorate my own workspace, hang out with cool clients all day, and the list goes on. Long story short, I have had to pivot every year in my business, Aloha Beauty Boutique, since its inception in 2019, but again, I wouldn’t change a thing and continue to be super grateful for all the wonderful things that come with it!
We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.
When I moved to Chicago in 2017, I had been an Esthetician for 5 years and felt like I had some good working experience under my belt but still wanted to work for an established beauty salon. I found a job listing for a waxing position at Painless Waxing Boutique and sent in my resume. However, I wanted to take it one step further and interview the owner for the job as well, because I truly wanted to enjoy where I worked and wanted my next job to be the right fit. I decided to book an appointment for my underarms and Brazilian wax with Marta, the owner of PWB. I respected the fact that Marta was also a working Esthetician at her own salon. Not that salon owners also have to be a beauty industry professional, but it makes a huge difference in how efficiently the salon is run, in my opinion, as I have known and worked for both types of owners.
My appointment and meeting with Marta was great; she was very fast, professional and proficient, and we instantly built a rapport. My interview also went well, and afterwards, I filled out a very lengthy questionnaire and color personality quiz, which made me think that Marta took the hiring process seriously, because it took me almost two hours with all the questions involved! Additionally, Marta was so great in letting me bring on my new YUMI Keratin Lash Lift services as well as my Sugaring services, encouraging me along the way and helping to promote my new services into the salon.
When the depressing winters became too much for my family and I, I wanted to give Marta as much of a heads up that we were planning on moving to Austin, Texas since she had done so much for me. I am truly so grateful that I was able to meet Marta and work at PWB; my experience there really helped shape and mold me into the person and business owner I am today, because I learned so many invaluable things from Marta. Another blessing was that Marta even encouraged me to work for myself when I moved to Austin and gave me a business loan to open up my Aloha Beauty Boutique suite. I will forever be indebted to Marta for mentoring and believing in me and fostering growth in me as a fellow woman and Esthetician. Although we ultimately decided against opening up a larger salon together, we remain great friends, and I credit Marta in helping Aloha Beauty Boutique blossom into what it is today.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.alohabeautyboutique.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alohabeautyboutiqueatx/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alohabeautyboutiqueatx/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/aloha-beauty-boutique-austin
Image Credits
Sarah Laue Marshall Tidrick